Interrupting Racism

Equity and Social Justice in School Counseling

Rebecca Atkins, Alicia Oglesby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351258906
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Psicoterapia

Interrupting Racism provides school counselors with a brief overview of racial equity in schools and practical ideas that a school-level practitioner can put into action. The book walks readers through the current state of achievement gap and racial equity in schools and looks at issues around intention, action, white privilege, and implicit bias. Later chapters include interrupting racism case studies and stories from school counselors about incorporating stakeholders into the work of racial equity. Activities, lessons, and action plans promote self-reflection, staff-reflection, and student-reflection and encourage school counselors to drive systemic change for students through advocacy, collaboration, and leadership.

Part I

Building a Foundation of Understanding

Chapter 1

A Brief History

Integration, The Achievement Gap, and Student Success

What we think we may know about educating black children, educating all children to dismantle racism, may indeed be incorrect, unhelpful, and sometimes even hurtful. There are educators who fully embrace the role of providing equity to marginalized groups. There are also educators who need to identify why this role is crucial to our work. This book is for educators and school counselors who are open to the possibility that they may have not figured it all out just yet. This book is for teachers, counselors, and administrators who plan to cultivate the kind of school where children graduate nourished, fulfilled, critically thinking, and well-educated, in spite of a society that often diminishes their worth.

The history of the achievement gap begins with integration. The pivotal Brown v. Board of Education ruling was a milestone in our nation’s history, with many court cases happening simultaneously from coast to coast. Black students were entering white schools. Local governments responded while the federal government had the last word. Ultimately, schools were forced to integrate despite plenty of disapproval. In the midst of the fury were students, teachers, and administrators, as school counseling was still a developing profession.

The remnants of our American educational past influence policy, classroom management, school counseling curriculum, educator-student relationships, engagement, and so much more. They influence our practice. Daily news stories remind us of the racial tensions that still permeate our school buildings and stifle our progress. Our primary resolve is to break free from the influence of the evils of the past (and present). Through continued work and exploration, new habits can form. When we understand and recognize the biases that influence our thinking and behavior, we can help our communities, regardless of their race, work against the biases that hinder our progress as a nation. We must take the lead from schools and educators who are already succeeding in this work. They have so much to teach us if we are only willing to listen, act, and innovate. Only then can we do the necessary action of dismantling systems that do not benefit all races, creeds, and cultures.

Contemporary Corrections

Let’s be fair. Schools and educators are getting a lot right. With all that is happening in the United States, it is easy to ignore the major strides we have taken as a society towards social justice and equity. It is our intention to start with positive examples before moving into the history of segregation and educational shortcomings, because we firmly believe in the ability of the educational system to overcome its negative past. Let’s review some contemporary examples. Over 300 teachers and principals attended a conference during the summer of 2017 focusing on integration, whiteness, and inclusion within schools. Hosted by Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, hundreds of educators gathered and collaborated for a common interest: reducing the impact of racism on the lives of students. Educators from across the country spent days learning, discussing, and calling into action ways to dismantle racism in their schools. The title of the workshop “Reimagining Education: Teaching and Learning in Racially Diverse Schools” gave educators an opportunity to learn about race and education. The topic “Deconstructing Racial Microaggressions within Educational Settings” identified and sought to teach educators how to prevent the damaging effects of microaggressions against people of color (Buque, 2017). Additional topics such as “Redefining Culturally Relevant Mentoring as Part of Educational Leadership Development” addressed the need for education professionals to increase their race literacy (Smith, 2017). The workshops facilitators offered resources, information, guidance, and outcomes.

During the winter months of 2017, a school district near Rochester, New York offered a free viewing of the film “I’m Not Racist … Am I?” (Lee & Greene, 2014). By showing the film, the district made a clear communication to the community: they want students and families to think about and discuss race. They want their students and families to know that race will be confronted in one way or another: positively through intentional practices or negatively by happenstance. Community members of the New York school districts of Fairport, West Irondequoit, Penfield, and Pittsford were able to view the film as a group and process the effects of racism on their lives. The leaders within this district likely encountered the kind of resistance we will address in Chapter 10. Thankfully, the pushback did not take precedence over the need for showing the film. District leaders in this instance were courageous about confronting racism.

Other examples include “The Race Institute of K-12 Educators,” who maintain an advisory board that consists of educators from Russell Byers Charter School, Episcopal Academy, and Palumbo High School, all within the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region. The advisory board is consistently involved with issues related to diversity and inclusion throughout public, charter, and private institutions. An education writer featured on the site and used as a topic of discussion is Melinda Anderson, who wrote an article titled “When Educators Understand Race and Racism” (2014). She quotes an educational leader who said:

The notion of care is the root of racial proficiency. I want to know who you are. You’re not fully caring for kids if you don’t know them. So race is something that we talk about. Culture is something that we talk about. Understanding that difference is an amazing, powerful plus that, if we nurture it, makes us all smarter than we can be separately.

(Anderson, 2014, final para.)

The Bank Street School for Children (BSSC) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City provides a concrete and thorough approach for schools to cover these themes of race. At BSSC, students are directly involved in learning about privilege, affinity, and inclusion throughout the school day. Despite an area as racially diverse as New York City, the Bank School’s parents and surrounding community initially disapproved of the racially conscious program. The lack of support did not deter school officials who knew the value and importance of teaching children how to navigate issues of race and difference. In Newton Public Schools, located in an affluent area of Massachusetts, school leadership incorporated anti-bias curriculum to further develop ideas of racial inclusion and critical thinking over a decade ago. Adapting multicultural approaches to subjects such as mathematics and science proved to be a way children can view themselves as a part of learning. The Newton website is clear about their value, stating: “GOAL 2: EDUCATIONAL EQUITY: Narrow achievement gaps with respect to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status and increase the achievement of students with special needs” (Newton Public Schools, 2016).

An ambitious elementary school counselor led equity efforts within her small predominantly white elementary school in Ames, Iowa. As the school counselor, Riley Drake of Ames, Iowa created a program where students audit the books in their library based on skin tones and ethnicity. Students tally the representation of race and culture in books to find what is missing. They then order new books to fill in the gaps.

What prompted my inquiry about our library was the nonfiction section, which included limited texts about a few people who were involved in historical movements for civil rights. We had the usuals: Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., and Jackie Robinson, but there were so many incredible people missing who are often overlooked because of the heroistic mentality used that discourages our students from believing that they can in fact enact change. I was concerned about how this narrowed the conceptualization of the movement for our students and began investigating our other sections. This was when I discovered that while our library was packed with … recommendations from book orders and their website[s], we were missing representation of so many of our students. For example, unless the book was about slavery, it was unlikely that a Black student would read about a character who looked like them. The books about slavery were often whitewashed, too. Instead of going through the library and demanding an examination of each text, I used an equity literacy approach and proposed the idea to students, who readily agreed. They analyzed the texts and determined what was missing. They then spoke to what THEY believed our library needed. It was an opportunity to teach critical analysis and how to collectively organize to affect change.

(R. Drake, personal communication, June 6, 2018)

Lastly, Professional School Counselors of Color (PSCOC) is a designated space for school counselors who identify as non-white. Members can gather to discuss issues related to being a person of color in a predominantly white profession. Through social media conversations, emotional support, and networking, the group offers its members a chance to collectively engage. Mekisha Hughes, a school counselor and the founder of PSCOC, sought to provide a welcoming environment where common experiences could be shared. Today, the administration team includes Mekisha, Carletta S. Hurt, Kimberly Brown, and Alicia Oglesby. Collaboratively, the group manages social media outlets, a website, conference events, and school counselor trainings with American University.

Teachers, counselors, principals, and collaborators all over the country have been involved in improving the wellbeing of students since the early stages of school integration. Educators of all races and backgrounds have always found ways in which they can further the notion that all children deserve quality education regardless of race. Educators are on the front line of helping students and families understand the detriment of racism while working to dismantle it. These traditions are upheld throughout the nation in complex, creative, and innovative ways. We hope to expand that work and continue to promote healthier schools through our race-specific suggestions and interventions. Let us now explore ways in which we can improve based on what has not worked very well within education and school counseling.

A Brief History of Race: Education and School Counseling

Education

We have to take a brief but mighty step back into history to reveal how we arrived at the present state of education and school counseling. Since the founding of this nation, education has been separate and unequal. During the enslavement of black and indigenous people, only whites were legally allowed to read and write. In the late 1950s, movements across the nation were devoted to civil rights, including education. Nine black students in Little Rock, Arkansas were chosen to integrate an all white secondary school. Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals were met with anger and hatred by white parents who did not want their students attending school with black children. The Arkansas governor at that time, Orval Faubus, called the Arkansas National Guard to block the entrance of the black students. President Eisenhower, as a courageous response to that call, sent the 101st Airborne Infantry to open the doors of Central High School to the black students. In response to forced integration, Little Rock closed all the city’s high schools for the 1958–59 school year, known as “The Lost Year.” The district chose to deny schooling to 3,665 students rather than to integrate their schools. Teachers worked in empty classrooms. Private schools opened for white students but no private schools were opened for black students. Integration was viewed as negative and dangerous.

On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges walked into her first day of at William Frantz Elementary surrounded by angry, hate-filled adults who were determined to undo the Brown v. Board of Education decision to integrate. Up until this day, despite the federal law, schools remained all-white. Imagine: a small brown-skinned child on her way to her first day of school hearing mobs shout that she is not wanted and she does not belong, even after passing an exam to allow her admission into the school. The sign of these times was clear: black students and white students were not to learn and grow and thrive together even after the law says they should.

Little is known or taught about the three students known as The McDonogh Three (Cave, 2017). Also in New Orleans, around the same time as Ruby Bridges, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne entered McDonogh No. 19, an all-white elementary school. Based on zoning, the three girls were supposed to be attending McDonogh No. 19 anyway, but racial segregation was being upheld. Once again, federal authorities stepped in to escort the girls to school. Similar to the response at Frantz Elementary, white parents removed their children from school while teachers continued to teach and the faculty continued to work. Today, those nine teenagers in Little Rock, the late Ruby Bridges, the McDonough Three among many others are lauded as heroes for their actions. Thankfully, over time, opinions and beliefs changed.

Since the 1954 Brown v. Board ruling, we have learned that legal decisions fail to create a new culture. Laws are meant to fix what may be broken within a society. Laws do not, however, fix what may be broken within an individual’s beliefs and ideas. Schools across the country saw drastic demographic changes but no demographic changes in communities and neighborhoods. Families were not accustomed to racially diverse experiences, especially in neighborhood communities, as redlining, discussed in detail in Chapter 2, was still a very common and systematic practice at the time, keeping black people out of white neighborhoods. In a region as globally diverse as Washington, DC, private education enrollment soared as white families fled from public schools where black and brown children began to enroll. The peak of private school enrollment occurred in 1971. Many attributed the rise to the baby-boomer generation and their growing families, but p...