Double consciousness: Faculty of color teaching students of color about race

Abstract

Students of color inevitably come to the classroom with a fundamentally different relationship to the social construct of race than do their white peers. While whites may have spent little time consciously exploring what it means to be white previous to joining our classes, most students of color will have been deeply and personally grappling with issues of race since they were young. Those born outside of the U.S., not raised under the regime of contemporary U.S. racial logic, upon coming here, find themselves thrust onto the rocky terrain of our racial history, forced into dialogue with ideas about “blackness” or what it is to be “Asian”; with assumptions about who they are that are imposed upon them by others. The chapter includes the insights of several scholars to assist instructors in reaching out to students of color in their classes. By interrogating the experiences of students of color, these instructors provide insights regarding creating safe spaces in the classroom, including students of color in classroom conversations, and addressing issues that particularly effect these students.