diversity in education part 2 of 3
Words and actions scrutinized during Consortium on Racial Equity
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Monday, May 19, 2008
At the end of last semester, students in Alexis Vafides' diversity class held a "funeral" at Fairfield High School. Placed on the photocopied renderings of caskets were words of hate, misunderstanding, and disrespect.
Among them was the "N" word, never again to be used by blacks or whites. The "B" word would not to be used to address a female.
Extras
"Red neck" would not be uttered in a classroom bent on respecting all.
"Every word that you say ... it starts with assumptions," Vafides said.
As a member of the Fairfield School District's equity team, which was formed as part of the Consortium on Racial Equity in K-12 Education, Vafides said she learned that her words as a teacher could negatively affect students. So could her assumptions about race, no matter how politically correct she thought she was. Her actions and the actions of her peers have been fueling the achievement gap between white students and students of color.
The goal of the consortium is to help teachers and administrators analyze and change the way they view race.
"Our nation and our school systems don't have anti-racist leadership," she said. "We can't because we haven't talked about it yet."
And even with all the talking, Vafides said she doesn't have all the answers yet.
"Any change we make is going to have to be long-term systemic," she said. "It's about leadership and how we can help individual teachers understand what they are and what they do impacts the students in their class."
