Enhancing the School Success of Boys of
Color Grades PreK-3
Train-The-Trainer Summer Institute
Lansing Public Schools
July 13, 2011
Dorinda J. Carter Andrews, Ed.D.
Today’s Agenda
• Module 2: Engaging in Critical Self-Reflection as an
Educator of Boys of Color
• Take-Aways/Wrap-Up
Module 2
Engaging in Critical Self-Reflection as an
Educator of Boys of Color
Difference is Not the Problem
The trouble around diversity isn’t just
that people are different from one
another. The trouble is that society is
organized in ways that encourage people
to use difference to include or exclude,
reward or punish, credit or discredit,
elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave
alone or harass
Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Privilege: What is It?
• Privilege exists when one group has
something of value that is denied to others
simply because of the groups they belong
to, rather than because of anything they’ve
done or failed to do.
Two Types of Privilege
• Unearned entitlement
• Things that all people should have; basic
human and civil rights (e.g., feeling safe in
public spaces, working in a place where you
feel valued, an excellent education)
• Conferred Dominance
• Privileges that give one group power over
another. Often manifests itself as race privilege
(in the U.S.)
What Privilege Looks Like in
Everyday Life
• Men can succeed without other people being surprised.
• Male representation in government and the ruling circles of
corporations and other organizations is disproportionately
high (even in education).
• Most heterosexuals can assume that their sexual orientation
won’t be used to determine whether they’ll fit in at work or
whether teammates will feel comfortable working with
them.
• Heterosexuals don’t have to worry that their sexual
orientation will be used as a weapon against them, to
undermine their achievement or power.
What Privilege Looks Like in
Everyday Life
• Nondisabled people can ask for help without having to
worry that people will assume they need help with
everything.
• Nondisabled people are less likely to be segregated into
living situations – such as nursing homes and special
schools and sports programs – that isolate them from job
opportunities, schools, community services, and the
everyday workings of life in a society.
Privilege as Paradox
• Individuals are the ones who experience privilege or the
lack of it, but individuals aren’t what is actually privileged.
Privilege is defined in relation to a group or social
category.
• Race privilege is more about white people (i.e. Whiteness)
than it is about white people. A white person is race
privileged not because s/he is white but because Whiteness
is privileged in this society, and s/he has access to that
privilege only when people identify him/her as belonging
to the category “white.”
Privilege as Paradox
• When it comes to privilege, it doesn’t really matter who
we really are. What matters is who other people think
we are – the social categories they put us in. (Johnson,
2006)
Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference, 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
OPPRESSION: THE FLIP SIDE OF
PRIVILEGE
Oppression
• For every social category that is privileged, one or more
other categories are oppressed in relation to it.
• Belonging to a privileged category that has an oppressive
relationship with another isn’t the same as being an
oppressive person who behaves in oppressive ways. It is a
social fact that Whites as a social category oppress people
of color as a social category; however, that doesn’t tell us
how a particular white person thinks or feels or behaves
towards people of color.
White Privilege
• The invisible knapsack of privileges based
on race (Peggy McIntosh)
• Obliviousness about white advantage helps
maintain the myth of meritocracy
• White privilege in schools (Olson article)
Terms Defined
• White privilege when used to oppress
people is a form of white racism
• Racism = systemic privilege + power (Beverly
Daniel Tatum)
Tatum, B. D. (2000). Defining racism: ‘Can we talk?’ In Adams et al. (Eds.),
Readings for social justice and diversity (pp. 79-82). New York: Routledge Press.
Terms Defined: White
Supremacy
• White supremacy: a historically based,
institutionally perpetuated system of
exploitation and oppression of continents,
nations and peoples of color by white
peoples and nations of the European
continent; for the purpose of establishing,
maintaining and defending a system of
wealth, power and privilege.
Terms Defined
• White Culture/Whiteness
• White culture is an artificial, historically constructed
culture which expresses, justifies and binds together the
United States white supremacy system. It is the cultural
matrix and glue which binds together white-controlled
institutions into systems; and white-controlled systems
into the global white supremacy system. Since World
War II, the white culture of the United States has been
the center of the global white culture.
More on Whiteness
• It is the dominant culture in the U.S.
• It shapes one’s attitudes, thinking, behavior, and values.
• It consciously and unconsciously suppresses and oppresses other
cultures.
• It consciously and unconsciously appropriates aspects of other
cultures.
• It is normative: the standard for judging values and behaviors
• It is assumed, unquestioned, not on the agenda: the way things are
• It is hidden, not at all obvious to the dominating or oppressing
practitioners, but often painfully obvious to people who have been
oppressed by it
Exploring Identity
• Activity 2.2 – Social Group Membership
Profile
• Activity 2.3 – Identity Wheel
• Activity 2.4 – Privilege Exercise
Million Dollar Questions
• What does all of this talk about my social
identity have to do with my work with boys
of color? What are the real implications for
what goes on in the classroom and their
academic and life success?
What Stuck?
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An ‘Aha’ moment
A pleasant surprise
Something that you had to struggle with to understand
Something that you don’t agree with
Something that you agree with strongly
Something you thought was particularly interesting
Something you didn’t expect
An insight or solution
Something you want to know more about/A question
that you have