Title: How Should I Talk about Race in My Mostly White Classroom?
Headings: How Should I Talk about Race in My Mostly White Classroom?
How Should I Talk about Race in My Mostly White Classroom?
1. Set up group guidelines.
2. Help students accept discomfort and uncertainty.
3. Clarify that the goal is not to be “colorblind.”
4. Acknowledge that learning about race and racism is a process.
5. Provide opportunities to learn about others and foster empathy.
6. Address white privilege in non-defensive ways.
7. Connect to ally behavior and engage in social justice.

Content: beyond what is commonly experienced by members of the non-dominant group.” Another angle to discuss privilege is to talk with your students about the ways they feel disempowered or discriminated against as young people, often through ageism directed towards them. These can include things like not being allowed to do certain things they think they should be allowed to do; assumptions adults make about them; or discriminatory acts that target them. Students can reflect on the ways that they, as young people, lack privilege in these situations. This discussion will help them understand the concept of privilege without getting defensive and will help to foster empathy. You can then make the connection to white privilege and since you’ve set the groundwork, hopefully the leap to white privilege isn’t too far a reach for them. It will be important to identify dominant identities (i.e. being white) because students may not accept that they have white privilege by saying they belong to another marginalized group (“but I’m gay, poor, female”). While that may be true, it doesn’t erase their white identity.