Howard Stevenson - Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference

In pulling together this book, I have tried to integrate humorous storytelling, research, metaphor, and practical learning strategies. I want to thank the people who have been supportive of me being odd and in applying racial literacy in classrooms, neighborhood community centers, playgrounds, and barbershops. Thanks go first to my family. Gwendolyn Davis, thank you for being supportive and patient with my quirkiness, irritability, and need for room to complete this work. Through your powerful work of educating parents to care for themselves despite harsh life circumstances, you have given me new ways of thinking about racial matters. Julian, thank you for keeping me focused on how children think and feel and come to learn about racial stuff by asking a thousand questions. Also thanks for spontaneously hugging me for no reason. Bryan, thank you for pushing me to cultural, fatherly, worldly places that I hadnt been because of your commitment to follow your dreams and your creative style. Im amazed at your courage to step out on faith to be your own person. Playing soccer with you, though, keeps me smiling ear to ear and is priceless.

Id like to thank my father, Howard Hobby Stevenson, for reminding his children to take care of ourselves, relax more, and not forget to thank the Lord for every brand-new day. To the memory of my mother, Alice Golden Stevenson; Im grateful for her kisses and her brilliance under a bushel that she modeled for us to practice, shine, and speak loudly in the presence of friend and foe. To my sister, Christy, whose love for music is a testament to never giving up what you love to do, thank you. To my brother, Bryan, as always, you remain the angel from my childhood, reminiscing on our playful times and giving feedback and love at my most desperate times. Thank you for being there for me emotionally and making me laugh beyond and above despair. Thank you, family.

To my Penn students over the last 2 decades, I thank you for the questions and banter back and forth to help forge these ideas. I am particularly thankful for the most insightful question you often asked me: Isnt it educational malpractice and a violation of our commitment to all children not to practice racial literacy? The answer is still yes.

To my colleagues at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic in the 1980s, where I got to practice my therapeutic styling, you will see elements of Structural Family Therapy in this book. To my colleagues at the Jewish Board of Family and Childrens Services in New York City, thank you for letting me teach the odd combination of racial stress management and family therapy in my training of your staff and supervisors. Trying out these ideas of racial literacy, stress reduction, and family communication in domestic violence shelters, residential treatment centers, conference rooms, and outpatient clinics across the five boroughs for 3 years was amazing and lots of fun. To the JBFCS staff, like a bunny rabbit loves carrots, your hunger for learning was remarkably contagious and energized me to pursue the family racial literacy project, called ViRUS (Villages Raising Us).

To my When Keepin-It-Real Goes Right brothers, Brother Robb, Eric, and Russell: Thanks for your encouragement during knock-down drag-out debating/therapy sessions to keep pursuing ideas on Black folks and to not give up despite the multiple barriers in our way. We have much more writing and fighting to do and many more arguments to have.

To my teammates on the many soccer teams, it has been an honor to play with you and for learning that I will never be too old to play. The element of play can be found throughout this book when encouraging individuals to take risks with stressful moments and to try racial literacy as a powerful opportunity for relational depth and not simply a game.

Overcoming racism in schools requires more than rhetoric. It requires a willingness to fight against a special kind of ignorance and to fight for a different kind of literacy. Battling racial stereotypes that attack intellectual potential and motivation has to be one of the most stressful psychological challenges facing Black students in a society that is afraid to discuss or resolve racial matters (Purdie-Vaughns et al., 2009). As the efforts to close the achievement gap and leave no child behind in receiving high-quality education have not been matched in financial resources, there is a surreal hollowness to the social justice claims from political and educational leaders advocating school reform and choice (Slaughter-Defoe, Stevenson, Arrington, & Johnson, 2012). The emptiness of these claims is surpassed only by the failure of numerous programs to address directly the racism and prejudice that underlie the resource and achievement gaps.