I have explored the frustration I described after the book club from Jasmine Warga’s Words for Home. For me, the frustration comes from three places:
1- being misrepresented and feeling unheard in the breakout small group share,
2- feeling alone in my sense of the anti-bias, anti-racism (ABAR) power of these books,
3- feeling weighed down at yet another reminder of all the ABAR work to be done.
I was frustrated when our small group spokesperson didn’t actually share what WE discussed, but just their own POV and embellishment. Was it some form of the “soft censorship” that K. A. Holt described? Perhaps. Is it what many BIPOC feminists call out in white feminism? Perhaps. But it happened twice. So I know it wasn’t necessarily about me and the BIPOC-ness of what I said- not exclusively anyway- it’s likely about her, the type of student she is, or maybe her perception of her role and/or this group.
So what can I learn from that? As a teacher, it makes me wonder how many times students in front of me have felt misrepresented. I’ve seen students get quieter for all kinds of reasons; and as a fellow introvert I’m constantly working to identify and address those reasons, if they are a retreat due to harmful behavior. What if they felt what they shared in a small group wasn’t deemed worthy for the whole group? How do I prevent that? Make it very clear what the role of a small group spokesperson is; practice with students; role play scenarios to avoid students feeling misrepresented or unheard. Teaching authentic listening, not just listening to confirm your own ideas or to argue with them. Teaching students skills of summarizing and synthesizing, without bias. Reinforcing the idea of disagreeing with someone respectfully rather than just ignoring ideas you don’t agree with. These are all things I do to some extent, but in this moment I think I don’t do enough intentional work around this.
TWO- feeling alone in my sense of the power of these books to address the biases + racism plaguing the US.
It sounded like the resounding takeaway from the book (and I’m oversimplifying, but not misinterpreting) was: “this book will show our students that immigrants can be good/nice/not-dangerous!” It felt like a disservice to this book, even though I know everyone responds to books differently.
It’s 2020, but the urgency of the topics plaguing so many BIPOC and immigrant communities doesn’t seem to be there for the majority of the participants in this book club... or at least it wasn’t openly expressed. Why is the urgency not there or not being expressed? Perhaps the teachers in this book club do not live nor teach in these communities. But don’t they see the news? Can’t they make the connection that they in fact have even more reason to address these topics if they do NOT in fact live nor teach in these communities?
During the share, I did hear someone say that some teachers in their small group (immigrants themselves) were glad to see the representation in YA novels. I hear them, and representation matters! **That we are still fighting for something as simple as representation, positive representation, joyful representation, we-are-not-a-monolith-and-contain-multitudes representation is not new to me. The simultaneous power of a story and the danger of a single story is not lost on me; I’m a 35 year old woman of color. It is yet another reminder of the work to be done.**
I guess I should be grateful that the group is willing to take a step forward into teaching their students “immigrants can be good/nice/not-dangerous”?
So, what can I learn from that?
Just like in Other Words from Home, when confronted with people’s prejudice, their ignorance and fear... the answer was to lean on the opposite, those who know who you really are, strive to understand you, and love you. Sooo, it’s about reinforcing the good lessons, not just the negative realizations: there may be so much more work to be done, but there are clearly so many more people willing to do the work. Those people may be in different places, but progress is being made. We are working towards progress, and hope is an important part of the work.
THIRD, feeling the weight of yet another reminder of the ABAR work to be done.
It’s not that I don’t know that THERE IS SO MUCH ANTI-BIAS, ANTI-RACISM WORK TO DO already (see news, literally any news), and that I’m not grateful so many are experiencing an awakening to the problems of racism (re: ongoing protests, book sales, webinars). To fight for equity and justice, we must name where there is racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, or any ignorant prejudicial behavior. I tried my best to name it as portrayed in the book to open a conversation with other readers. I was excited that this book was going to get into the hands of so many educators across the country through this book club... and then I saw the videos posted and heard the conversations, and I was disappointed that the takeaways weren’t ABAR; that they were of the old-fashioned colorblind and teach kindness variety. It drained me of energy.
So what can I learn from that?
To Dr. Donovan’s point about balancing the limited time we have and disrupting the single story... that is the struggle in so many classrooms, I’m sure; and I used to feel so, so much pressure in this balancing act (tbh: still do). I also feel so much pressure in getting the ABAR work right. I am reminding myself that the best way to feel less pressure is to engage in the work with others, finding like-minded people to help share the burdens and share additions to the toolbox to do that work, and continue finding the energy to come back to the work. I don’t have to carry the weight alone. The more of us out there, anti-bias, anti-racist educators working to help students find their voices and selves, the less balancing each of us has to do, right? Right! And the better the world will be tomorrow.
Glad I worked through the frustration and back into the hope!
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