What’s Wrong With Racial Tolerance?

If we do not learn together with open minds and hearts, then these realities will remain the same for our children and grandchildren, a prospect we find unacceptable as educators, parents, and citizens. It is essential that educators, parents, and community leaders see the challenges of discussing race not as a “Black issue” but rather as an issue that transcends every racial and geographic boundary. In our work, we have learned how misunderstandings and stereotypes affect all of us, whether the discussion centers on the experiences of Black people in the United States, South Asian populations, or indigenous peoples around the world, to name just a few. Indeed, there are echoes of stereotypes and demeaning characterizations, intentional or not, that we recall being directed toward Jews, Catholics, Irish, Slavs, Poles, and a host of other groups who, at one time or another in our history, were subjected to slurs, “jokes,” and discrimination. Our effort in these pages is not to solve the long-standing challenge of dominant groups suppressing others but rather to create an environment in which conversations, however difficult, move from talk to action.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 prepares readers for challenging conversations. We consider why talking about race is so difficult for some and how to use sample scenarios as an educational tool. Many parents and teachers use this device with small children, asking, “What if?” to help children learn safety, kindness, and other life skills. Older students and adults use scenarios in order to consider a variety of settings that, at first, are not immediately apparent. While we cannot envision every conceivable scenario, it is a helpful tool—intellectually and emotionally—to engage in experiences when the stakes are low and we can change our minds and ask for greater details. While real life may be the best teacher, we know from our experiences at every level of schooling that we can better prepare students for the experiences of real life through practice in a physically and emotionally safe environment. That is the fundamental purpose of using scenarios as an educational tool.

We then consider how to create a safe space for conversation, tolerating divergent viewpoints, encouraging questions, and making it safe for students and adults to admit that they don’t always have the right answer. Indeed, sometimes these scenarios reveal that there is no single right answer. It is this safe conversational space into which we also invite parents and community members. We are veterans of benumbing debates over

the years about everything from the teaching of reading to sex, mathematics, and evolution. If we don’t get it right, those discussions will be cakewalks compared to mishandled discussions about race, and we intend to get it right. The stakes for our children and grandchildren could not be higher. We conclude part 1 with how faculty and staff members can set an example with civil discourse. Having devoted a good deal of our lives to professional learning for teachers and school leaders around the globe, we find that sometimes leaders engage in the illusion of consensus among staff. We know this is an illusion because without exception, when leaders tell us that they have buy-in from every staff member, then only one of two things is true. Either the real arguments are happening in the parking lot well out of earshot of the leader, or second, the leaders are not really engaging in any sort of rigorous and challenging discussions. Talking about race is rigorous and challenging, and if we expect the students to get it right, then the adults must set an example.

Part 2 provides readers with a variety of scenarios and discussion questions. In middle and high schools, we encourage you to use this book as a supplementary text, allowing students to grapple with the scenarios and participate in choosing the ones that will best lead to a thoughtful classroom discussion. For elementary students, we defer to teachers on how to best convey the information, perhaps reading the scenarios and being attentive to student reactions. We understand that some faculty and parents may think that the topics are too sophisticated or perhaps even too frightening for young ears. We respect your wisdom and judgment on this point but hope that you will also consider ours: students know more, have seen more, experience more, and certainly hear more than the adults in their lives think.

In part 3, we guide the reader from discussion to action. We have been lucky enough to watch elementary students not only grieve about pollution but also get their hands dirty cleaning up their neighborhoods and telling public officials about their experience. We have watched middle and high school students advocate for the homeless, for those in foster care, and for racial justice. None of them need an adult’s prompting to tell them what to believe or how to act, only directions to the halls of government where they could make their cases more eloquently than a bevy of lobbyists. Change is difficult, and thus we help readers consider not only the history of successful change efforts but also how change