(Dr. Carlo Rovelli, physicist, On Being interview, March 16, 2017)
“It is a very personal story. It's a horror
movie that is from an African American's perspective…. I think what interested me most about this
movie was dealing with racism, really everything from the subtle racism that
many people may not know exists on a day to day basis, or for a lot of people….”
(Jordan Peele, director of Get Out, Forbes interview, October 5, 2016)
“… I argue in this book that the plunder of black communities is not a bump along the road — it is, in fact, the road itself…. Struggle is important, whether success is
assured or not.”
(Ta-Nehisi Coates, author, The Daily Show interview, July 23, 2015)
(Ta-Nehisi Coates, author, The Daily Show interview, July 23, 2015)
Let’s
resume our virtual Diversity Book Club.
In previous and upcoming posts, I summarize books and provide classroom
applications and resources for teachers interested in building welcoming and
inclusive environments in their classrooms and schools. We continue with Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
(Spiegel and Grau, 2015).
Summary:
At my own son’s suggestion, I read and re-read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Letter to My Son when it appeared in The Atlantic Magazine. When my son later gave me the book, Between the World and Me (from which the article was excerpted), I was able to further delve into the book that searingly illuminates Black experience in the United States. I commend it to teachers and to students from middle and high school onward.
At my own son’s suggestion, I read and re-read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Letter to My Son when it appeared in The Atlantic Magazine. When my son later gave me the book, Between the World and Me (from which the article was excerpted), I was able to further delve into the book that searingly illuminates Black experience in the United States. I commend it to teachers and to students from middle and high school onward.
Physicist
Carlo Rovelli emphasizes the importance of interaction
in the universe, and the importance of understanding the perspective of others
when trying to understand the complex world around us. Ta-Nehisi Coates takes the complexity of his
lived experience in the world as a human being in a Black body and shares his
perspective. It is joyful and painful,
vivid and important. Indeed, Nobel Prize
winning author Toni Morrison advises, “This is required reading.”
Reading
this father’s anguish, owning it as our responsibility, and teaching our
students of all backgrounds how racism’s roots pervade United States history
are moral imperatives for culturally competent and compassionate teachers.
In
the book full of personal reflection and experience, Coates writes about the
connection of White on Black violence in the context of U.S. history, “At the
onset of the Civil War, our stolen bodies were worth $3 billion, more than all
of American industry, all American railroads, workshops, and factories
combined, and the prime product rendered by our stolen bodies—cotton—was
America’s primary export…. Our bodies were held in bondage by the early
presidents….”
Coates
continues, “Here is what I would like for you to know: in America, it is
traditional to destroy the black body—it
is heritage.”
Chapters
include Coates’s recollection of walking to school, fists, head, pace,
posture—all “just so.” Just so someone
would not challenge him for being offensive in a stiflingly
fear-based Black community. He remembers
coming close to death as a peer slowly drew a gun out of a coat pocket to point
at him. Why? No reason Coates could discern.
He
recounts the death by police shooting in Maryland of a college acquaintance,
driving his own Jeep, on his way to his fiancée’s home. This college graduate, doctor’s son, and
rising professional seemed to “have it all.”
But having Black skin that made him a mistaken identity target to
(ironically) a Black off-duty police officer who killed him during a traffic
stop.
Applications in
school/classroom:
1.
Read
the passages of Coates describing his caution on the streets of Baltimore, walking
to school, and reacting to school. (See
pages 20-26).
a.
“When
I was your age, fully one-third of my brain was concerned with whom I was
walking to school with, our precise number, the manner of our walk, the number
of times I smiled, whom or what I smiled at, who offered a pound and who did
not—all of which is to say that I practiced the culture of the streets, a
culture concerned chiefly with securing the body….”
b.
Ask
students to write about their approach to the school/classroom. Have them note similarities and differences.
For example,
I share my personal recollection with my students: “As a White high school
student, I walked with my own fists, head, pace, posture—all ‘just so’—to avoid
calling attention to myself as an intruder in a predominantly Black high
school.”
c.
Do
our students each see themselves as some kind of intruder? Do they experience some kind of stereotype
threat, as Claude Steele articulates in Whistling
Vivaldi? Finding common ground is a
way to use Coates’s experience to build ties across boundaries.
2.
Research
the economic history Coates explores.
The slave trade benefitted many Americans. How could White “Christians” treat enslaved
Africans so cruelly? Follow the money. Why
didn’t people of conscience stop it sooner?
Follow the money.
a.
Among
other resources, find “Key Distinctions for Understanding Race and Racism” at The
Tracing Center www.tracingcenter.org developed by filmmaker Katrina Browne.
Browne made the film Traces of the Trade
in response to learning about her White Rhode Island family’s deep involvement
in America’s trans-Atlantic slave trade. She has uncovered the connections between her
family history and her White privileges compared to families of enslaved
Africans, for example. (Her yarn-web exercise demonstrating a small town and
all craftspeople and gardeners supplying slave ships is useful to students).
3.
Investigate
police interactions with Black motorists.
Using this NPR Code Switch
article, high school and college students can research numerous links in the article
to statistics, police department policies for body cameras, and court
rulings. “Some Key Facts We’ve Learned
About Police Shootings Over the Past Year (April 13, 2015)” http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/04/13/399314868/some-key-facts-weve-learned-about-police-shootings-over-the-past-year
a.
Examine
this quotation as a way into the lesson: "There
are racial disparities in police stops — blacks are stopped twice as often as
whites — but they aren't related to traffic safety offenses, in which cops
exercise a little less discretion and violations are equal within groups. Where
we see a difference — even after we adjust for driving time (on average, blacks
drive more and longer than whites) — is in investigatory stops. In these,
drivers are stopped for exceedingly minor violations — driving too slowly,
malfunctioning lights, failure to signal — which are used as pretext for
investigations of the driver and the vehicle….”
4.
Use my September 2015 blog to further explore these issues: “Preparing our
Multicultural Selves to Teach/Reach All of our Children in the Era of Black
Lives Matter” http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2015/09/preparing-our-multicultural-selves-to.html
5.
Have
students explore their own implicit biases by visiting Project Implicit (www.implicit.harvard.edu) and taking
the race (and other) Implicit Association Test [IAT], developed and explained
by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald in Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People.
a.
Use
the book Blindspot to help students
put their (likely) racially biased test results into perspective. Explore other ‘isms with them: gender bias,
ageism, size bias, etc.
b.
See
my blog on the book for more information: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/
6.
How
can we build caring classroom environments in which students feel safe to
tackle unsafe topics? To make our class environment a caring place for daring
conversations I use the “Circles of Culture” exercise explained in my
blog. Taking time to create a caring
place for daring conversations makes all the difference in the student (and
teacher) experience and forges our bonds as a community of readers, writers,
and upstanders, ready to build a welcoming and inclusive community in and out
of school…. This is relevant teaching and learning: today and every day.
a.
(Sample
questions: In which of your circles of culture do you find safety/refuge? Why?
In which of your circles of culture do you find discomfort or lack of safety? Why?)
Read more: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2016/07/creating-caring-classroom-community_6.html
7.
Students
can read The Atlantic article “Letter
to My Son” as an entry to the book. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/
a.
Invite
students to write their own letters to Ta-Nehesi Coates and/or his son. What is the hope they hold for a welcoming
and inclusive world? What will they do
to make their classrooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, and communities safe for
people of all backgrounds? What is the
future of race relations in the US? What
is their role?
8.
Older
students (high school and college) can use Jordan Peele’s social horror film to
further explore issues raised by Coates.
a.
Students
can listen to Peele’s interviews on the film on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry
Gross. Read excerpts from the interview:
“ ‘Get Out’ Sprang From An Effort To Master Fear, Says Director Jordan Peele” http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/15/520130162/get-out-sprung-from-an-effort-to-master-fear-says-director-jordan-peele
b.
Read
the Forbes interview with filmmaker Jordan Peele: “Jordan Peele Talks 'Get Out'
And His Love For Horror Movies.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/10/05/interview-jordan-peele-discusses-get-out-and-his-love-for-the-horror-genre/#77580e9c187e
9.
Older
students (high school and college) can continue to explore the economics of enslavement
and the Civil War with this reference article by Roger L. Ransom, University of
California, Riverside: “The Economics of the Civil War” https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economics-of-the-civil-war/
10. Watch Ta-Nehisi
Coates’s July 2015 interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show http://www.cc.com/video-clips/yy2dzc/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-ta-nehisi-coates
In
the Daily Show interview, Coates
reveals that his book, Between the World and Me, reflects
his ongoing fearful conversation with his Black teenaged son. Jon Stewart feels Coates is offering “an
opening to a conversation” for the wider society, and I think teachers would be
wise to participate. In spite of daunting
times, I agree with Coates, who affirms “Struggle is important, whether success
is assured or not.”
Susan
Gelber Cannon, March 2017
