Abstract
Teaching about race in the U.S today presents unique challenges that faculty are often ill equipped to address. This chapter will examine the contemporary context in which we teach, examining the ideology of color-blindness, as well as recent theorizing about race that examines issues of privilege, as well as intersectionality. I then present a framework for re-conceptualizing how we teach about race, that reflects both the theoretical developments in the field, as well as the pedagogical challenges we encounter, including student resistance. Finally, I argue that we must take seriously the emotional baggage students bring with them, and I provide a number of specific tools and strategies to accompany this framework.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adams, M., Bell, L. A., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1997). Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook and readings for diversity and social justice (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Blackwell, D. M. (2010). Sidelines and separate spaces: Making education anti-racist for students of color. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(4), 473–494.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States (3rd ed.). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Collins, P. H. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Intersectionality: A primer. African American Policy Forum. http://aapf.org/2013/01/intersectionality-primer/
Cunnigen, D., & Bruce, M. (2010). Race in the age of Obama. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.
Doane, A. W. (2003). Rethinking whiteness studies. In A. W. Doane & E. Bonilla-Silva (Eds.), White out: The continuing significance of race (pp. 3–18). New York: Routledge.
Feagin, J. R. (2001). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. New York: Routledge.
Ferber, A. L. (1998). White man falling: Race, gender and white supremacy. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ferber, A. L., & Samuels, D. (2010). Oppression without bigots. Factsheet. Network news. Sociologists for Women in Society. Winter.
Ferber, A. L., & Herrera, A. O. (2013). Teaching privilege through an intersectional lens. In K. Case (Ed.), Deconstructing privilege: Teaching and learning as allies in the classroom. New York: Routledge.
Ferber, A. L., Herrera, A., & Samuels, D. (2003). Introducing the concepts of oppression and privilege into the classroom. Race, Gender, and Class, 10(4), 5–21.
Fox, H. (2009). When race breaks out: Conversations about race and racism in college classrooms. New York: Peter Lang.
Goodman, D. J. (2001). Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hartigan, J., Jr. (2010). Race in the 21 st century: Ethnographic approaches. New York: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, A. G. (2001). Privilege, power and difference. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Keating, A. (2007). Teaching transformation: Transcultural classroom dialogues. New York: Palgrave.
Kendall, F. E. (2006). Understanding white privilege: Creating pathways to authentic relationships across race. New York: Routledge.
Kimmel, M. S., & Ferber, A. L. (Eds.). (2010). Privilege: A reader (2nd ed.). Boulder: Westview.
Picca, L., & Feagin, J. (2007). Two-faced racism, whites in the backstage and frontstage. New York: Routledge.
Plaut, V. C. (2010). Diversity science: Why and how difference makes a difference. Psychological Inquiry, 21, 77–99.
Stewart, T. L., Latu, I. M., Branscombe, N. R., Phillips, N. L., & Ted Denney, H. (2012). White privilege awareness and efficacy to reduce racial inequality improve White Americans’ attitudes toward African Americans. Journal of Social Issues, 68(1), 11–27. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2012.01733.x.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ferber, A. (2014). Bringing Students into the Matrix: A Framework and Tools for Teaching Race and Overcoming Student Resistance. In: Haltinner, K. (eds) Teaching Race and Anti-Racism in Contemporary America. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7101-7_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7101-7_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7100-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7101-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)