Sidelines and separate spaces: making education anti‐racist for students of color

Abstract

The way in which anti‐racist education is currently conceptualized and practiced holds very few benefits for students of color. By using whiteness theory and the politics of identity and difference, many educators have developed pedagogical interventions that are concerned with bringing white students into a consciousness about racism and white privilege, and examining the effect of racial‐identity politics on classroom interactions. Their aim to cultivate an anti‐oppressive educational environment for all students is undermined by their preoccupation with identity politics, whiteness and white students. Thus, in both theory and practice, students of color are often rendered invisible on the sidelines or their personal stories are used to benefit white students and white educators. Scholar‐practitioners in this field have not adequately considered what counts as anti‐racist education for students of color. In this paper, I tell stories about my own experiences as a black woman graduate student as a way of ‘talking back’ to the disjunctures between pedagogical intentions and the disappointing realities of anti‐racist classrooms. I identify the pedagogical obstacles that block instructors from positioning students of color as a central educational concern alongside their white classmates, and argue that anti‐racist educators must reexamine their principles and practices from the standpoint of students of color. Finally, I turn to black feminist standpoint theory to discuss the importance of racially separate spaces as a pedagogical intervention that can make education anti‐racist for students of color.

Keywords:

• antiracist education
• students of color
• talking back
• black feminist standpoint theory
• pedagogy of separation

Notes

1. All names used in this article are pseudonyms. All individual references represent composite stories based on a pattern of experiences involving students and professors.

2. Last Chance for Eden is a powerful film in which nine men and women – two African Americans, two Latinos and three European Americans – engage in candid and emotionally charged conversation about how racism and sexism have affected their lives and families.