The Real Answer Might Surprise You

By Joanne M. Haas

Ask someone if he or she is a racist and expect to hear a quick, emphatic denial.

Julie Kailin, a multicultural education consultant, says probe a little deeper and the answer might change. It also might surprise you.

Such self-discovery is vital if the racism alive in public schools statewide is ever to be recognized and then addressed, she said. However, first you have to get people to think and talk about it.

"They don't think they have a problem," said Kailin, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she teaches courses on race relations and related issues in education. "That's the problem. We don't understand what the problem is."

But the 20 or so gathered for this workshop Thursday (October 26, 2000) at the WEAC Convention seemed ready to tackle the debate and engaged in discussions with not only Kailin but also with each other. Most of the participants were women, and the three white males in the group were told they might get insight into how students or teachers of color in Wisconsin schools might feel - outnumbered and not really understood.

Kailin said about 80% of Milwaukee students are of color while about 80% of the teachers are white, adding that a parallel situation exists in Madison.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring the seemingly uncomfortable, possibly confrontational issue into the open, and offer teachers ways to first recognize and then confront racism in themselves, and among colleagues, students, parents and others.

Kailin and participants agreed racism is not unique to schools, but schools do reflect society.

In addition, teachers must think about how to teach about diversity and race relations, especially if they have had very little contact with people of color.

One of the ways racism and classism manifest themselves in schools is through testing, Kailin said.

Critics cite research showing how some tests are biased against minorities and the poor. Some test questions are based on certain assumptions about a child's home environment, therefore ensuring a wrong response from children whose home lives may be very different.

In addition, Kailin said, "Teachers are being forced to teach to the test." And with the pressures for high scores, teachers may sometimes resent students who do not score high, Kailin said.

As part of her research, Kailin gathered information from teachers regarding race relations in a school district labeled "liberal." Respondents to Kailin's survey tended to put the blame on blacks.

She cited various examples of how racism may appear in school:

• Sometimes black staff are assumed to be the race experts and are unreasonably expected to be able to solve the problems of black students.
• When black parents come in for conferences and challenge a teacher on methods, a white teacher may respond by saying: "I'm just doing my job. They're the ones with the bad attitude."
• Teachers may ignore black students, such as in the hallway, and then later complain that the students exhibit bad behaviors and bad attitudes.

Some teachers told Kailin they heard racist comments made by white colleagues, and by students about other students. These people told Kailin they were very troubled by what they heard and saw.

"But they did nothing. In no case did anyone say, 'I called a meeting,' " she said. "Many of them said they wanted to confront someone but they couldn't.

"So if the students had an ally, they would not have known it," she said.

She also showed a portion of an Oprah Winfrey show that discussed racism in places you may not see it. One is the map of the world which shows the equator in the lower section of the map so as to show the United States and other mostly white nations much larger than the nations of color.

Another sign of racism comes in nylon stockings. Most notably, the shade of nude - which is nude for a white person.

With such a preponderance of underlying racism in our society and in our schools, Kailin said, educators must develop action plans for increasing cross-cultural understanding.

"We have to figure out ways to develop allies in the schools," she said.

Kailin offers an in-service/professional development program for teachers and other school staff on the topic of race relations and how to handle them.

She also will have a book published in 2001 titled: "Anti-Racist Education: From Theory to Practice."

Posted October 27, 2000