Handout from NASPA Annual Conference, March 2017
Consulting Requests:
Presenter contact information
●Christine Nguyen ()
●Christopher Hughbanks ()
●Wiliama Sanchez ()
●Brenda Dao ()
Definitions – Based on Readings for diversity and social justice
●Internalized Racism is any type of conscious or unconscious belief, thought, action, or behavior by people of color, which reinforces racism and suggests inferiority and subordination to White people and Whiteness. This may impact one’s perception of self, others who share one’s racial identity, and other people of color.
●White Dominance is any type of conscious and unconscious belief, thought, action, or behavior of White people that suggests their superiority to People of Color. This may impact one’s perception of self and other White people.
Presentation premises – Note: Race operates in an intersection of other identities as racism operates within intersections of other forms of oppression.
●Racism exists, is pervasive, separates us, and negatively impacts our working relationships and work environment.
●Living in a society with racism is dehumanizing to all people: agents of racism, people targeted by racism, and people who may hold both of these roles.
●None of us would willingly accept or tolerate racism; the ways we have internalized racism and white dominance allow us to continually perpetuate racism at work, and accept and tolerate racism as inevitable.
●Those of us targeted by racism have power to transform and change racist systems. We have a role in our own liberation. We can create coalitions that combat racism and value our collective humanity.
●Any meaningful and effective solution to ending racism will never involve the oppressed taking on the role of oppressor.
●Our lived experiences are valid and are sources of knowledge in helping us understand how we have internalized racism and white dominance.
●Neutrality does not exist; we are all a product of a system of racism. In the workplace, our actions will either participate in a system of racism or work to dismantle racism.
Building Strong Work Teams: Transforming Messages of Internalized Racism and Dominance in Our Work
Functional areas and scenarios to ask yourself to see how Internalized Racism and White Dominance may be operating
Collegial Relationships – Right to Comfort
An office on campus gets called out by students of color who file a petition against some of their practices. A fellow colleague from that office reaches out to you to discuss the petition, and becomes upset that you allowed this to happen given your prior working relationships with these students on similar topics. The petition has caused discomfort among their department’s leadership, particularly because it does not take into consideration the hard work they have already done for communities of color. Furthermore, your colleague is worried this will only upset more of the upper administration, so they ask you to fix it because “they get you.”
Supervision – Perfectionism
Gennyfare works in the Dean of Students Office at a large university. She arrives five minutes late to her weekly staff meeting which prompts her supervisor, Daisy, to address it in Gennyfare’s next one-on-one meeting. Daisy expresses concern over Gennyfare’s ability to role model professionalism within the department, describing that lateness is a sign of Gennyfare’s “lack of concern for her colleagues’ time” and that she is concerned that Gennyfare does not see the importance of staff meetings. Furthermore, Daisy is frustrated with the way Gennyfare presents herself—she feels her attire is too casual and her hair is not always neat and clean.
Committee/Group-Based Work – Quantity Over Quality
Paula, who identifies as a woman of color, has been assigned to a working group comprised of colleagues across campus. The group’s purpose is to plan initiatives designed to increase student engagement and is chaired by Sarah, who identifies as a White woman. When the group discusses their monthly programming series, Paula states that she has heard from several students of color that they have not been attending because the programs are not inclusive spaces designed with their needs and interests in mind. Sarah comments that the program evaluations consistently score in the “5” category (the highest possible score). Since they only have 30 minutes to meet and ratings indicate students are “perfectly happy” with the program, Sarah suggests they no longer spend time updating the programming model, despite the anecdotal evidence Paula shared.
Hiring and Recruiting Practices – Sense of Urgency
You are on the search committee for a new position in the conduct office. You are the only person of color on the search committee (which is heavily dominated by White women), and only one of two people of color in the conduct office. The conduct office is looking to fill this position immediately. The search committee has gone through a couple weeks of intensive résumé and cover letter reviews, and the first round of Skype interviews. From the screening process, the search committee narrows it down to five candidates with top ratings and experiences. Three of these candidates identify as white, while two identify as a person of color. When it comes to finalizing candidates for the on-campus interviews, the committee discusses organizational “fit” (in the context of the office’s culture) at length before deciding to move forward with the three white-identified candidates.
Presentation references
●Freire, P. (1986). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
●Love, B. (2000). Developing a liberatory consciousness. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castañeda, H. Hackman, M.L. Peters, & X. Zuñiga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice (pp. 470-474). New York: Routledge.
●Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: New York University Press.
●Hardiman, R., & Jackson, B. W. (1997). Conceptual foundations for social justice courses. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (pp. 23-29). New York: Routledge
●C. L. Wijeyesinghe and B. W. Jackson (2001). New perspectives on racial identity development: A theoretical and practical anthology New York: New York University Press.
Additional resources and ways to learn more –This is not meant to be an exhaustive or comprehensive list. It is a list of resources that we and our students have found helpful as they discover more about ourselves and others.
Online Lectures/videos
●Chimamanda Adichie’s “Danger of a Single Story” (
●Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones’s “Six Rules of Allies” (
●Jay Smooth on “How To Tell People They Sound Racist” (
●Shakti Bulter’s Cracking the Codes (
Blogs and websites
●Sociological Images (
●Tim Wise’s reading list (
●The Gradient Lair ( Please make sure to read this post first:
●Colorlines (
●Tressie McMillan Cottom – Sociology and Academia (
●Michele Norris’s The Race Card Project (
●Black Girl Dangerous (
●Crunk Feminist Collective (
●Racialicious – Pop culture and race (
●Son of Baldwin (
●Angry Asian Man (
●Reappropriate (
●18 Million Rising (
●Muslimah Media Watch (
Articles
●“There is No Hierarchy of Oppression” by Audre Lorde (PDF,
●“Acknowledging Racism: Confronting yourself” by Peter C. Mather (available at:
Books and short stories
●Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood by Delphine Red Shirt – a memoir of a Lakota woman’s childhood
●How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez – stories about four daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders
●Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home by Kim Sunee – a South Korean American woman’s memoir
●Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks – an inclusive look at feminism
●Native Son or Black Boy by Richard Wright – fictional and autobiographical stories of growing up Black in the US
●Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice by Paul Kivel
●Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino
●A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Lifeby Janet Helms
●Faces At The Bottom Of The Well by Derrick Bell
●Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates