So You Don’t See Color? Part 1

By

Keith L. Anderson, Ph.D

Before I say what I really want to say, I need readers to understand something. I think teaching is one of the most important professions in our society. It is also an endeavor of sacrifice and nobility. That is why it has to be just and true. I respect those teachers who are truly professionals. Having said this, I will now write from my heart. I will write this introduction, borrowing the frankness of W.E.B. Du Bois', "The Souls of Black Folk". I make no bones about the fact I'm addressing White teachers. Therefore, you will read the words "White teachers" a lot in this book. I hope it doesn't cause you to put the book down. Here's the deal. The percentage of White teachers in this country's education system is 90%. The student of color population is 41% (Hondo, Gardiner and Sapien, 2008, pp. 1-2). "Of the 3,022,258 teachers in the United States only 470,680, or 15.6 percent are minority, and of the minority teachers 7.5 percent, or 227,505, are African American", (Landsman, Lewis, 2006, pp. 95-96). Therefore this book uses the term White teacher(s). The fact I use the term White teacher through this book, in no way puts the drop-out rate and low student of color post-secondary rate on White teachers. I, like many others, know there is a connection. This connection is being ignored. Because this connection is being ignored a significant percentage of students of color are not being educated. The percentage of students of color not finishing high school or not attending college has gotten too significant to continue to pretend we don't see them. We are at the point where we must seek and find every variable related to this problem. We have analyzed students, parents and what appears to be an unmanned education system. Now it's time to analyze the teacher and the student communication process. Unless you're blind you have to see the students dropping out and not continuing their education to the post-secondary level are Black, Red, Brown and Yellow skinned students. The foundation of this problem has to do with the growing percentage of students of color in America's classrooms; the high percentage of White teachers in America's classrooms and the small percentage of teachers of color. It is time to see what is obvious. It is time to take action.

In this introduction I will quickly justify examining the communication problem between White teachers and students of color and the consequences of this problem. I say "quickly" because it's a problem academia has been coddling for a very long time. Jonathan Kozol's "Savage Inequalities" was published in 1992, almost twenty years ago. Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", was published the 1970's, over forty years ago. The content of these two books are as relevant now as they were when they were first published. The problems examined in these books have gone covert, but the ramifications from those problems have hit American like a ton of bricks, yet, we continue to not see color. Therefore I don't need to spend a whole lot of time proving the problem is real. Sadly, because of the always present, intense racial climate in this country, hardly anything ever gets done in regards to teaching White teachers how to better communicate with students of color. In short I want this book to be a guide. My hope is it will lead teachers to better understand themselves, their communication skills and the students of color they teach.

I'm not much of a conspiracy theory believing type person, but if I didn't know better I would think the powers to be, know as long as a group of people stay uneducated, said group of people can be kept in their place; that place being engulfed in an ongoing cycle of generational poverty. It doesn't take a doctorate in education to understand if one were to trace backwards from poverty, one would end up at the doorstep of education. Or, should I say a lack of education. After one arrives at the doorstep of education, one enters and immediately hears in action the line from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, "What we have here is failure to communicate...” This failure to communicate is why I wrote this book. Again, the ultimate goal of this book is to bridge the communication gap between White teachers and students of color.

The writings of Lisa Delpit, Paulo Freire, Mary Gardiner, Geneva Gay, Gary Howard, Jonathan Kozol, Gloria -Ladson Billings, Chance Lewis, Sonia Nieto, Nel Noddings and many other educators stress the importance of White teachers communicating more effectively with students of color. Their understanding is reflected in the titles of their works. "Other People's Children; We can't teach what we don't know; Latino Dropouts in Rural America; White teacher / Diverse Classrooms; Savage Inequalities; and Affirming Diversity", leave no doubt about the hearts and the goals of these warriors. These educators, like me understand White teachers cannot effectively teach students of color unless they are willing to take a long hard look within their own souls and conquer their own biases. Too often White teachers hide behind their own feelings and beliefs and without knowing it, often alienating the very students they are trying to teach. This alienation may cause distrust. Distrust soon turns to disrespect, causing confusion between both White teachers and students of color. The confusion, disrespect and distrust can be and often is, interpreted by students of color as non-caring, judgmental and even racist. This causes students of color to act out in ways that causes anger and confusion within teachers. The end result of all this confusion, distrust, disrespect and even anger is, students of color in staggering numbers are do not achieve success within the America's educational system.

At this time I must say, I honestly do not believe there are very many teachers who sit up late at night plotting ways to systematically derail students of color. However, the truth of the matter is, just because the motive behind the miscommunication between White teachers and students of color isn't intentional, doesn’t change the alarming drop-out rate or the low percentage of students of color entering postsecondary institutions.

What mentality is behind, “I don’t see color. I just see students”? This is a statement White teachers often share when the subject of students of color is brought up? “Because of the complexities and pain associated with issues of dominance and diversity, it is understandable that White teachers would often feel inadequate and confused regarding their role in multicultural schools. In my work with teachers over the past 20 years I have found that there are many significant contributions we can make to the healing process” (Howard, 1999, p. 69). Howard continues by listing honesty, empathy, advocacy, and action as tools White teachers can use to better help students of color and students from diverse backgrounds. “Diversity is not a choice, but our responses to it certainly are. And to date, all indications point to the fact that our responses have not been adequate to deal with the full range of issues presented by the complexities of teaching in a multicultural nation (Howard, 1999).” Therefore, White teachers who uses the slogan “I don’t see color. I just see students”, to justify how they communicate with students of color are probably afraid to get into serious discussions about diversity and race in America's classrooms. This fear directly affects students of color.