So You want to talk about Race Book Review

'So you want to talk about race' does just as the title says. It talks about race. This book offers a simple way of explaining racial and social justice issues in today's racial landscape. As a person of Afro-descent who has spent tons of time reading about racial injustices and experiencing racial inequities, it can sometimes be challenging to talk about race, because honestly... its personal.  This book offers a basic understanding of racial issues, specifically in America. From affirmative action to whether police brutality is about race and "why can't I say the N-word?".  

Side note, people seem to really struggle with why they cant say the N word. 

While reading this literature there were two chapters that really struck me.... 

The first being the affirmative action and the second being the school to prison pipeline. The author talks about her experiences, and the experiences of black and brown individuals in education and in the work-force. As she described her experiences it started to sound all too familiar.  Black children being labeled as "bad" and "dangerous", singled out, suspended, and expelled. Which then turns into a self-fulfilling prophesy... unfortunately confirming the beliefs of their superiors. The superiors that they love, trust, depend on... and look to for guidance. These children are literally brain-washed into thinking that their inherently bad, when they simply made a mistake and in some cases didn't even do anything wrong. Not to my surprise, in the US black students are 3.5 times more likely to be suspended than white students. However, what was surprising to me was that even black kindergartener's were 3.6 times more likely to receive one or more out of school suspensions, unfortunately, the indoctrination starts young. All the way in the great white north, Canada, specifically the Greater Toronto Area, I have seen this stat play out as I grew up. Most "bad" kids at school were black, and it didn't take much to be bad. For context I went to a predominantly South Asian middle school and my high school was predominantly Euro-Canadian. I wanted to see if my experience was reflected in Canadian statistics... According to the Toronto District School Board black students had a 34% suspension rate though they only accounted for 11% of the student population, while white and South Asian students were underrepresented for suspensions and expulsions. 

This reputation follows black students from class to class... even school to school... with teachers and administrators already having their preconceived ideas of them. Ijeoma talks about how most reasons black students are even suspended are subjective, for example having a bad attitude. In contrast, white students are mainly suspended for provable actions like being violent. 

As I read these two chapters I was reminded of a time when I was 10 years old. I had moved from my multi-cultural school to my new predominantly South Asian and white school. I was a timid, shy and underprivileged black girl, so it is no surprise that I had difficulties making friends. For quite some time I spent most of my lunches as a reading buddy for kindergarteners and when I wasn't able to do so, I sat alone on the playground. As luck would have it, at the end of the school year, I had finally made two friends. One day my friends dared me to ask any random boy if he would be my boyfriend. I found a boy on the playground and nervously yelled " will you be my boyfriend" then fled before hearing his response. My new friends were greatly impressed by my courage.. and I felt like I had finally made it. No more lonely lunches. 

Unfortunately though, the white boy started crying and I am guessing reported me for my crimes against him. After lunch I was cluelessly sitting in class, I had completely forgot about the incident until a white teacher and a South Asian teacher came knocking on my class door and asked my black teacher to speak with me. The white teacher instantly began screaming. At first I had not even realized why she was screaming, after some time I realized that my bravery or what I thought to be bravery had led me here. I tried to explain to the teacher what happened but she would not let me respond. After some minutes of being yelled at, I broke down and started crying, the teacher continued to berate me for a few more minutes while I sobbed. She threatened to report me to the office and call my parents but ended up letting me go. 

I walked back into my class and continued to cry. I was confused about what I had done that was so terrible it required two teachers to come to find me, yell at me and threaten to take me to the office. My two white friends who also participated in this outrageous crime remained happily seated at their desk and after hearing the commotion in the hall and seeing me sobbing they asked what I did wrong. My teacher looked extremely concerned but didn't really say anything. Years later I continued to question why my actions had warranted such a violent reaction and I simply could not put my finger around it. Knowing what I know now, I cant help but think this reaction probably would have been different if I was a little white girl. 

In doing more reading... I found a study by Yale University. In this study teachers were told to watch a video with four students and detect challenging behavior. Though none of the children in the video actually had challenging behaviors... 42% of the teachers chose the black boy. His only crime was his skin color. I also watched a small study by CNN which looked at racial bias in young children. When told to point at the dumb child, the ugly child or the bad child, the black child was chosen a majority of the times. When told to pick the good child, the beautiful child and the child everyone wanted to look like a majority chose the white kid. This made me think of all those "bad kids" growing up. The ones who would constantly be in the office, always got kicked out of class, with endless suspensions, and were eventually sent to an alternative school with other "bad kids". I think about what their lives would've been like if they were supported, encouraged, loved and told that they are intelligent, good, and well-behaved.  If society and the education system had not made them believe that they are the dumb child, the bad child or the ugly child solely because of their skin. 

'So you want to talk about Race' definitely made me think and reflect back on some of my experiences and the experiences of my peers. I would recommend this book to anyone but especially for people who don't have an understanding of racial issues or those who are struggling to have a healthy dialogue about race with those who don't.  This literature gives you the tools to explain racial issues to people who don't understand in a way that they can understand. With that said, it is not a black person's job to go around educating people about racial injustices. This can honestly be emotionally exhausting. However, having resources like these is helpful as you can direct people to them. For non-black people... if you want to learn about racial issues, read from credible sources. So you want to talk about race is a perfect place to start.  

Sources 

Ijeoma Oluo. So you want to talk about race

Billante, J., & Hadad, C. (2010, May 14). Study: White and black children biased toward lighter skin. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/13/doll.study/index.html

Gilliam, W. (2016, September 28). Do Early Educators’ Implicit Biases Regarding Sex and Race Relate to Behavior Expectations and Recommendations of Preschool Expulsions and Suspensions? Retrieved from https://medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/zigler/publications/Preschool Implicit Bias Policy Brief_final_9_26_276766_5379_v1.pdf

TDSB. 2017 TDSB. (2019). Https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/docs/Caring and Safe Schools Report 2017-18, TDSB, Final_April 2019.pdf.