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Home > Workshops and Classes > Teaching to Diversity > What does being white have to do with diversity? > What Makes You Nervous About Raising Issues of Racism In Your Classroom?

What Makes You Nervous About Raising Issues of Racism In Your Classroom?

Asked of a group of 25 university faculty colleagues.

1. Confronting my own social and cultural identity conflicts:
   • Having to become more aware of my own attitudes regarding my group memberships and identifications.
   • Feeling guilty, ashamed, or embarrassed for behaviors and attitudes of members of my own group.
     
2. Having to confront or being confronted with my own bias:
   • Being labeled racist, sexist, and so on.
   • Finding prejudice within myself.
   • Romanticizing the targeted group.
   • Having to question my own assumptions.
   • Having to be corrected by members of the targeted group.
   • Having to face my own fears of the targeted group.
     
3. Responding to biased comments:
   • Responding to biased comments from the targeted group.
   • Hearing biased comments from dominant members while targeted members are present.
   • Responding to biased remarks from members of my own social group.
     
4. Doubts and ambivalence about my own competency:
   • Having to expose my own struggles with the issue.
   • Not knowing the latest "politically correct" language.
   • Feeling uncertain about what I am saying.
   • Feeling that I will never unravel the complexities of the issue.
   • Being told by a student that I don't know what I'm talking about.
   • Making a mistake.
     
5. Need for learner approval:
   • Making students frustrated, frightened, or angry.
   • Leaving my students shaken and confused and not being able to fix it.
     
6. Handling intense emotions; losing control:
   • Not knowing how to respond to angry comments.
   • Having discussion blow up.
   • Having anger directed at me.
   • Being overwhelmed by strong emotions engendered by the discussion.
   • Feeling strong emotions being stimulated in myself.

Weinstein, G., & Obear, K. (1992).
Bias issues in the classroom: Encounters with the teaching self.
In M. Adams (Ed.), Promoting diversity in college classrooms: Innovative responses for the curriculum, faculty, and institutions
New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 52. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

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