Enjoy This Week’s Post: Black Lives Matter is going to change the way we teach and the way students participate. I am now even more cognizant of explicit and implicit racism which appear in both obvious and subtle ways. As an example I often start each class with a quote. Years ago I realized that most of the ones I used were from white men. So I started to add more quotes from women. Over the past few years I added more from quotes from African Americans and Latinos. Black History and Women’s History Month are all devoted to quotes from them. But is it enough? I may have mentioned it before but despite growing up in a diverse community, from grade school through graduate school I was taught by white teachers with most coming from a higher socioeconomic class. Bias is always present but it was rarely addressed part of the problem being humility often does not come with a degree.
We need to hear more diverse perspective in the classroom and I am looking forward to creating the conditions in classes where people can find their voice and express themselves. I am particularly excited about teaching a history class again this Fall and adding more from the perspectives of minorities.