Tema Okun - The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching about Race and Racism to People Who Dont Want to Know

The Emperor

Has No Clothes Teaching About Race and Racism to People

Who Don't Want to Know

A volume in

Educational Leadership for Social Justice

Series Editors:

Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Missouri-Columbia

Denise E. Armstrong, Brock University

Ira Bogotch, Florida Atlantic University

Sandra Harris, Lamar University

Whitney H. Sherman, Virginia Commonwealth University

George Theoharis, Syracuse University

Educational Leadership for Social Justice

Jeffrey S. Brooks, Denise E. Armstrong, Ira Bogotch, Sandra Harris,

Whitney H. Sherman, and George Theoharis, Series Editors

Leadership for Social Justice:

Promoting Equity and Excellence Through Inquiry and

Reflective Practice (2008)

edited by Anthony H. Normore

Bridge Leadership: Connecting Educational Leadership

and Social Justice to Improve Schools (2009)

edited by Autumn K. Tooms and Christa Boske

The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism

to People Who Don't Want to Know (2010)

by Tema Okun

The Emperor

Has No Clothes Teaching About Race and Racism to People

Who Don't Want to Know

Tema Okun

National Louis University,

Chicago, Illinois

Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Charlotte, North Carolina www.infoagepub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Okun, Tema.

The emperor has no clothes : teaching about race and racism to people who

don't want to know / Tema Okun.

p. cm. -- (Educational leadership for social justice)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61735-104-4 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-61735-105-1 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-61735-106-8 (e-book)

1. Racism--Study and teaching. 2. Multicultural education. 3. United

States--Race relations--Study and teaching. 4. United States--Ethnic

relations--Study and teaching. I. Title.

HT1506.O48 2010

305.80071--dc22

2010027126

Copyright 2010 IAPInformation Age Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or by photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Series Editor's Preface.................................... vii Acknowledgments........................................ ix Explanations and Terms................................... xi Introduction: The Emperor Has No Clothes.................. xvii

Identity Matters...................................... xviii

Why Identity Matters.................................. xviii

Setting the Context..................................... xx

Deliberate Choices.................................... xxi

A Clarification........................................ xxii

Assumptions........................................ xxiv

Overview............................................ xxv

Privileged Resistance................................... xxv

Cultural Turning..................................... xxvi

Teaching as Process................................... xxvii

Two or Three Things I Know For Sure.................... xxvii

Final Thoughts..................................... xxviii Poem: Lament for Dark Peoples............................... 1

1. The Tailors Weave: White Supremacy Culture............... 3

Defining Culture........................................ 4

White Makes Right...................................... 5

Digging Deeper......................................... 8

The Right to Profit...................................... 9

Individualism.......................................... 15

The Binary............................................ 23

Conclusion............................................ 29 Poem: Passover.......................................... 31

2. Refusing to See: Privileged Resistance....................

Introduction..........................................

Privileged Resistance....................................

A Stage of Development.................................

Aspects of Denial.......................................

Silencing and Shifting...................................

Marginalizing.........................................

Trivializing...........................................

Rationalizing Entitlement................................

Blaming the Victim.....................................

v

Reverse Racism........................................ 55

No Intent = No Racism.................................. 57

Guilt and Shame....................................... 59

Attention and Engagement............................... 61

A Strategic Approach.................................... 62

Abusive Resistance...................................... 68

Conclusion............................................ 70 Poem: The Heart of the World............................... 73

3. A Different Parade: Cultural Shift........................ 75

Know the Unknowable................................... 78

The Imperative of a Power Analysis........................ 81

The Power of Vision..................................... 85

The Myth of the Majority................................ 88

The Personal Is Political................................. 90

The Power of Energy.................................... 96

Conclusion............................................ 99 Poem: A Black Girl Talks of the United States.................. 101

4. Aspiring to See: a Process of Antiracist Pedagogy.......... 103

Introduction.......................................... 104

Teaching as Process and Product......................... 105

The Process: An Overview............................... 107

Relationship-Building.................................. 111

Analysis............................................. 114

Feelings and Self-Awareness............................. 118

Diverse Methods...................................... 122

Application.......................................... 122

Vision............................................... 127

Conclusion........................................... 129 Poem: Red Brocade...................................... 131

5. Reflections on the Parade: What I Know for Sure........... 133

Love................................................ 134

Critical and Compassionate.............................. 140

Timing.............................................. 144

Feelings............................................. 150

Holding Contradictions................................. 154

Together We Change the World.......................... 161

In Conclusion ......................................... 164 Poem: The Long Road.................................... 167 After The Parade: Epilogue............................... 169 References............................................. 171 About the Author........................................ 181

SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE J. S. BROOKS Jeffrey S. Brooks

I am pleased to serve as series editor for this book series, Educational Lead- ership for Social Justice, with Information Age Publishing. The idea for this series grew out of the work of a committed group of leadership for schol- ars associated with the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Leadership for Social Justice Special Interest Group (SIG). This group existed for many years before being officially affiliated with AERA, and has benefitted greatly from the ongoing leadership, support, and counsel of Dr. Catherine Marshall (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). It is also important to acknowledge the contributions of the SIG's first president, Dr. Ernestine Enomoto (University of Hawaii at Manoa), whose wisdom, stewardship, and guidance helped ease a transition into AERA's more formal organizational structures. This organizational change was at times difficult to reconcile with scholars who largely identi- fied as nontraditional thinkers who push toward innovation rather than accept the status quo. As the second chair of the SIG, I appreciate all of Ernestine's hard work and look forward to the leadership of Dr. Gaetane Jean-Marie, University of Oklahoma, as she succeeds me in this position.