Yang, M. (2022, February 14). Arkansas jail’s ivermectin experiments recall historical medical abuse of imprisoned minorities. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/14/arkansas-prison-covid-19-ivermectin-experiment-minorities-medical-abuse

Far-right lures recruits using COVID-19 conspiracy theories, alongside misogyny, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, says study. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2021, from https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/far-lures-recruits-using-covid-134548878.html

American vaccine disinformation used as ‘Trojan horse’ for far right in New Zealand. (n.d.). NBC News. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-vaccine-disinformation-used-trojan-horse-far-right-new-zealan-rcna6423

The Attack on "Critical Race Theory": What's Going on?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P35YrabkpGk

Lately, a lot of people have been very upset about “critical race theory.” Back in September 2020, the former president directed federal agencies to cut funding for training programs that refer to “white privilege” or “critical race theory, declaring such programs “un-American propaganda” and “a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue.” In the last few months, at least eight states have passed legislation banning the teaching of CRT in schools and some 20 more have similar bills in the pipeline or plans to introduce them. What’s going on?

Join us for a conversation that situates the current battle about “critical race theory” in the context of a much longer war over the relationship between our racial present and racial past, and the role of culture, institutions, laws, policies and “systems” in shaping both. As members of families and communities, as adults in the lives of the children who will have to live with the consequences of these struggles, how do we understand what's at stake and how we can usefully weigh in?

Hosts: Melissa Giraud & Andrew Grant-Thomas

Guests: Shee Covarrubias, Kerry-Ann Escayg,

Some core ideas of critical race theory:

• racial realism
  • racism is normal
• interest convergence
  • racial equity only occurs when white self interest is being considered (Brown v. Board of Education as an example to portray US in a better light with respect to the Cold War)
• Whiteness as property
  • Cheryl Harris' work
  • White people have privilege in the law
  • myth of meritocracy
• Intersectionality

People would rather be spoon fed rather than do the work themselves. Sadly this is being encouraged in the media.

Short summary of CRT: How laws have been written to institutionalize racism.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (also has the initials CRT).

KAE tries to use an anti-racist critical pedagogy in her teaching.

SC: Story about a book Something Happened in Our Town (book).

• Law enforcement got upset and the school district
• Response video of threat, intimidation, emotional blackmail by local sheriff's department.
• Intent versus impact - the superintendent may not have had a bad intent when providing an apology, but the impact was painful

It's not really a battle about or against CRT, it's an attempt to further whitewash American history. (synopsis of SC)

What are you afraid of?

"Although in the United States it is common to use the term multiculturalism to refer to both liberal forms of multiculturalism and to describe critical multicultural pedagogies, in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and other areas,anti-racism refers to those enactments of multiculturalism grounded in critical theory and pedagogy. The term anti-racism makes a greater distinction, in my opinion, between the liberal and critical paradigms of multiculturalism, and is one of the reasons I find the anti-racism literature useful for analyzing multiculturalism in music education."

ELO 2021 presentation on Joellyn Rock's Fishnet Stockings

Vancouver Is the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-vancouver-canada-asian-hate-crimes/?srnd=premium-canada

Call to action on a project to examine sentencing processes

ProPublica methods

ProPublica Analysis

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive Sentencing

Predictive recidivism

Journalism

Watched

[[Verna Myers]]: [[How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them]] [[Ted Talk]]

Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Verna Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.

"Stare at awesome black people."

Look for discomfirming data

"Walk toward your discomfort."

When you see something, have the courage to say something. ie "We don't say those things anymore."

Ideas for becoming less biased:

• Get to know black families
• If religious, join a black church
• foster conversations that include conversations

Life-changing magic of hanging out

Research on white/black roommates in "Interraciial Roomate Relationships" by Natalie J. Shook, Russell H. Fazio in Psychological Science, 2008.

Reminiscent of the institutionalized racism of Jim Crow at segregating/separating people to prevent understanding.

An excellent list of questions for framing discussions.

I've seen prior references to Italians, Irish, and others which were considered non-white in the late 1800's and early 1900's and which are now broadly considered white in the late 1900's. Now this seems to indicate something similar for Jews in America.

I'm curious what lessons could be drawn here for anti-racism?

Vachuska, K. (2020). Initial Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Racial Prejudice in the United States: Evidence from Google Trends [Preprint]. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/bgpk3

I remember early in my career being teamed with a teacher who allowed Vietnamese students to speak Vietnamese in math class, but wouldn't allow Hispanic students to speak Spanish. She insisted that the Vietnamese students were helping each other with the math while the Hispanic students were off task, even though she spoke neither language and couldn't tell. My eighth grade students told me about her practice and even labelled it as racist. They felt safe to do so because I encouraged them to use peer support and their native languages whenever they felt it would help.

I spoke up. I pointed out the inequity in her practice to her and when she dismissed my concerns, I spoke to our administrator about the practice, explaining that I thought it was racist and had a negative impact on student engagement and learning.

This was a challenge for me as a white teacher because I was working in an urban school with a high referral rate and the vast majority of classrooms had white teachers teaching students of color. In this case, because I spoke out, my colleague was asked to change the practice by an administrator. This probably served to add to some ideological friction between she and I. Still, I'd do it again in the same circumstances but my experience was that the system doesn't thank you when you speak out this way. It takes moral courage and a willingness to feel isolated.