Do You See What I See?: Teaching Race in the Age of Colorblind America

Abstract

When I walk into my classes these days, I can often predict how the first day will unfold. Our discussion begins with a single question, “Why are we afraid to talk about race?” As my students stare quietly, formulating their answers, I suggest to them that while people are eager to talk about gender, sexuality, the death penalty, and any other number of complex subjects, there continues to be a great deal of hesitation that emerges when the conversation shifts toward race. This, of course, is not completely the case as many people hesitate when talking about anything controversial. However, our conversation is meant to point out that the students will have to consider talking about race, talking about it often, and talking about it frankly. I am, after all, teaching African American literature, a course that, along with other classes cross-listed as African American studies courses, acts as a space where the lives, perspectives, and artistry of African Americans are centralized. The eagerness of my African American students is not surprising. Yet the willingness to talk about race that I share with them is met with a more common theme on the first day: caution that talking about race risks offending “others,” that “they” do not wish to be perceived as racist and choose silence instead of discourse. The expression of the caution, however, is not altogether unexpected because, to the surprise of no one in academia these days, my class is predominantly white.