This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
I encourage all to listen to Dr. Efren O. Perez' presentation on the topic of implicit bias. His biography is interesting, considering that he is a "Political Psychologist," a pairing of terms in a professional title that I've not come across myself until now. Currently, Dr. Perez is a Professor of Political Science and Psychology, UCLA, where he also serves Director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy.
Understanding implicit bias is of obvious importance to an increasingly diverse nation where intergroup relations are oftentimes fraught with emotion and serious consequences. See informative synopsis below.
-Angela Valenzuela
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Biases that people hold below the surface are influencing how they view this electoral season, as well as major political issues before them, such as race relations, gun control and immigration, according to a Vanderbilt University researcher.
Vanderbilt professor Efrén O. Pérez, author of Unspoken Politics: Implicit Attitudes and Political Thinking, is available to talk about “implicit bias”.
Pérez, associate professor of political science and sociology at Vanderbilt, calls implicit bias “an umbrella term for a variety of attitudes, beliefs and knowledge, and stereotypes that we all carry to some degree. They tend to be automatically triggered, hard to control, and can often influence what we say and do without our awareness.”
Pérez says our mind picks up on patterns that we see in society, the media, and other places and forms snap judgements before our mind has time to process all the information in a more deliberative and controlled manner.
“One of the best examples in the United States concerns its racial hierarchy: the idea that racial and ethnic groups are arrayed in descending order of social status and dominance, with whites atop and minorities to varying degrees below. Even if someone explicitly disavows this state of affairs,” Pérez explains, “a part of one’s mind recognizes that in the U.S., whites are more socially esteemed than non-whites.”
LATINOS AND IMMIGRATION
He gives the example of immigration.
“I've done work showing that many people in the mass public have an implicit attitude toward Latinos, which tends to be negatively charged—and opposite of what they self-report to pollsters. This implicit attitude emerges, in part, because people’s minds detect patterns in immigration news coverage, where one group is constantly paired with negative information, irrespective of whether the information is valid or not. Part of our mind learns a negative evaluation of this group and stores it memory. So, when the issue of immigration is broached, it draws out this implicit attitude, which colors people's thinking about immigration politics.”
POLICE, GUNS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS
Pérez says despite all the training police officers receive, when it comes to split decisions, implicit bias often comes into play. And that implicit bias often consists of a mental association between African Americans and weapons that many people—including trained police officers—possess.
“Even with all the motivation in the world to make a calm and controlled decision, implicit bias can get the best of people if they don’t have sufficient time and clear enough information to wholly analyze a situation,” said Pérez.
POLITICS
Pérez says studies show that people in polls who claim to be undecided actually have an implicit preference for a candidate as much as four weeks before an election. That implicit preference ends up predicting who they vote for.
And often, instead of spending time getting more information, people try to rationalize their initial thoughts. Pérez says if there is “just something” about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump that a voter doesn’t like, without digging deeper into substantive issues, it’s probably because that person is relying on their implicit attitude toward either candidate.
“A lot of what we consider to be deliberation is, at the end of the day, a verbal rationalization of those implicit responses we all have,” said Pérez
TESTING IMPLICIT BIAS
One way to reliably measure implicit bias is through the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a timed computer-based measure that can detect “blind spots” in one’s thinking.
Pérez believes continuing this area of study will help us go beyond the traditional public opinion survey to better understand what voters really think.
“In many ways, what we’re learning is that implicit cognition is primary to what we characterize as explicit cognition. So that means that the tip of the iceberg—or what people are willing to talk about in a survey— is often heavily influenced by what is submerged below—things that people either don't want to or can't report,” said Pérez. “Nonetheless, these thoughts still leave an imprint on what individuals ultimately believe.”
-VU-
Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt.
See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.
I am embarrassed and ashamed to think that I was once a proud member of the Robert E. Lee Middle School Rebel Band in the San Angelo Independent School District (SAISD) and that we regularly played such songs as "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again"duringhalf-time performances at football games while wearing blue and gray, military-style band uniforms donned with two rows of yellow-brass buttons that made us all look like we were members of the Confederate Army. I hope that they retire that uniform, too, if they haven't already. They were horribly hot in the summer and early-fall, West Texas heat. Of course, none of us kids had any choice in the matter. Other than to cultivate a rote, unthinking sense of empty patriotic pride, I don't recall ever learning anything about Robert E. Lee. When my American History teacher at that school didn't read the morning paper to us, the rest of the time was dedicated to showing us films, of which only a few were about American History. Since his class was always after early-morning band practice, it became a time for me to catch up on my sleep in class once the lights went down. Now I understand all of this today as systemic racism and how my classmates and I were miseducated, at least in this significant way, as a consequence. Contrary to how Susie Smith might consider me writing this post based on her comments below, I am most definitely not an "outside agitator." Quite the contrary. This is deeply personal to me. I am a witness to the history and effects of Jim Crow racism that my family and community endured in San Angelo. I was able to ultimately get a Ph.D. at Stanford University and secure a position at the University of Texas at Austin where I am a member of the faculty very much as a consequence of the Mexican American Civil Rights and Women's Movement that expanded opportunity for young people like me during that time period of the late 70s and early 80s. I was born and raised in San Angelo and still have family, friends, and a church community there that I am confident would fully align with those mentioned below who are calling for a name change to Robert E. Lee Middle School. I'm surprised that this hadn't come up sooner, particularly since we've been fighting the presence of Confederate statues on the UT Campus for close to a couple of decades. Optimally, San Angelo needs to additionally offer Ethnic Studies—which is now state policy at the high school level—and teach the truth of segregation and its own racist past. I myself have a story to tell about how my grandfather, the Reverend Camilo Alfredo Rios, desegregated both the Concho River and the Municipal Swimming Pool. He was also engaged in sit-ins and helped desegregate public establishments like restaurants and hotels downtown. There are many stories, many scars, and people who are still alive to tell them. For example, children could learn about Ben Aguirre, whose story sheds a light on the systemic violence involving police and Anglo teenage boys who had the practice of hunting Mexican boys "for sport," together with a complicit judicial system. Accordingly, all students could and should read this historical research by Dr. David Montejano (2005) on how twenty-year old Private Benigno Aguirre nearly lost his life at the hands of not only white boys and the police, but also a hospital system that nearly left him for dead, as well. I am in full agreement with Ashley Rodriguez, NAACP public relations chair at Angelo State University, who testified at last Monday's SAISD Board Meeting, that honoring Robert E. Lee equates to endorsing "the oppression that the Confederacy fought so hard to uphold," the same oppression that nearly took Ben Aguirre's life on that horrifically violent day on September 1, 1945 (see Montejano, 2005, pp. 41-66). I respectfully disagree with Billie Munguia who says that this isn't the time to change the name. I actually don't think that there could be a better time if San Angelo is to stay in step with the current social justice, #BlackLivesMatter, multi-ethnic and racial millennial movement that is currently under way. I encourage advocates to adjoin this request for a name change to the teaching of Ethnic Studies in all SAISD high schools—which is now state policy—so that this re-naming decision can productively move in the direction of curriculum that, among other things, provides all youth with much-needed critical perspectives on history while promoting anti-racism (Note: "Ethnic Studies" is the umbrella terms for "Mexican American Studies," "African American Studies," "Asian American Studies," and "Native American Studies," and all of these have been approved by the Texas State Board of Education; TEKS standard have been approved for both Mexican American Studies and African American Studies.). As I and others have blogged and documented over the years, Ethnic Studies is a formidable movement in Texas and numerous other states. California is poised at this very moment with Assembly Bill 1460 to make Ethnic Studies a requirement for graduation in the California State University system.
All told, it's such a breath of fresh air to read that local residents in San Angelo have mobilized against the school's name. Please let me know if I may be of any help. -Angela Valenzuela #BlackLivesMatter #Protests2020 #EthnicStudiesNow
Reference
Montejano, D. (2005). The beating of Private Aguirre: A Story about West Texas during World War II. Ch.2 in Rivas-Rodriguez, M. (Ed.), Mexican Americans and World War II. University of Texas Press.
Excellent opinion-editorial by Stephanie Hawley, AISD's new Chief Equity Officer. Racism is indeed in the very DNA of our country. Scroll below to view Hawley's proposed antidotes to what she terms," the cancer of educational racism."
Chief Equity Officer at Austin IndependentSchool District
“There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.” --Albert Einstein, The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein
As a Black woman, mother, teacher, administrator, racial equity advocate and inclusion strategist, I have been asked more times than I can remember by well-meaning White teachers, leaders, and politicians, "How can you help close the racial achievement gaps?" The question in and of itself assumes that "I," as a woman of Color, may have the cure for the cause of the racial equity gaps in education-- that devastating centuries-old global disease of racism.
Racism is in the very DNA of our country birthed in the bloody legalized genocide of Indigenous people, nourished and gorged for centuries on the "human capital" of enslaved Indigenous people and enslaved Africans and currently sustained by the exploited labor of people of Asian and Mexican descent.
When I ask questioners, "What do you think is the real problem causing the racial achievement gaps," individuals inevitably point to a myriad of stereotypical factors (that often also apply to millions of White students): Black, Brown and Indigenous children's lack of motivation and preparation, poor parenting and most often labels are affixed including economically disadvantaged, in poverty, traumatized, etc. While these descriptors of the conditions with which children of Color (and White students) may live might be accurate, rarely is there a mention of the strengths, resourcefulness, resilience and creativity Black and Brown students bring to the public school learning experience. Most often, well-meaning educators with deficit mindsets about the children, recommend additional supplementary grant-funded programs or extended time with the same failing curricula and the same teachers who are under prepared to support students of Color. Few, if any of the questioners, profoundly and consistently interrogate a public school system perfectly designed to predictably fail students of Color (statistically speaking).
The American public school system is where racism insidiously metastasizes without detection, intervention, and treatment because we've been "schooled" and socialized NOT to examine the system. Antiracist educators are stepping up to transform White cultural conformity in schooling to racially and culturally inclusive learning experiences for all students.
Individually and collectively, we educators may be in denial that we are the system and we are the disease that tacitly and blindly normalizes, centralizes and prioritizes the thinking, needs, values, history, culture and fears of White children and White families. We have been "schooled" to do so.
Even in the face of alarming data for decades, educators continue to assume the achievement data gaps are telling us howbroken the students of Color are, but in fact, the achievement data tell us how well the system is working for White students and how poorly it is designed to serve Black and Brown students. Educating Diverse (including White) students is not about choosingone group or the other, but using researched-based strategies that promote the learning and flourishing of all students.
Educators who are growing in racial and cultural consciousness sometimes shield White colleagues from words like, "antiracist," 'White fragility," "White privilege," "White supremacy" and other terms that might upset their sensibilities and shut down their amygdala for fear they may tune out/run away and never come to the table for courageous conversations and accountable actions to address individual and systemic racism in classrooms and schools. While empathy is critical, coddling and protecting fragile colleagues to the detriment of students have created and sustained an environment that is toxic and unacceptable.
As awakening individuals and those desperately trying to remain racially and culturally conscious in school systems, we may continue to silently wait at the speed of comfort for White educators and administrators who have been schooled and socialized to avoid conversations about race and racism.
While we are patiently waiting for White leaders and educators to "elect" to confront racism and engage in the necessary and uncomfortable ongoing conversations and training needed to be held accountable for taking direct action for change, disproportionate numbers of Black children languish in detention, suspension, and Special Education. The children are predictably placed on the conveyor belt from frequent suspensions to juvenile detention and on to for-profit prisons. This is a hard truth from which we too often protect White privileged and fragile educators whose daily decisions as early as pre-k are one of the determining factors in the fate of Black and Brown children.
Systemic Diagnosis & Systemic Cures
Racism is a disease that takes on many forms and avoids the light of analysis while it benefits, privileges and profits all systems: health care, city governments (gentrification), insurance, housing, collegiate sports, banking, tech, law enforcement, entertainment, the multi-billion testing industry, for-profit prison industries and yes, public schools.
No child in America should be segregated by low expectations, imprisoned by illiteracy, abandoned to frustration and darkness of self-doubt. . . .Now some say it is unfair to hold disadvantaged children to rigorous standards. I say it is discrimination to require anything less -- the soft bigotry of low expectations. . . .
Denial about racism (a common symptom of the disease) is so deeply entrenched in the individual and collective American psyche, many educators and administrators truly believe ourselves to be innocent and unaffected by racism because we are not directly involved in overt and intentional acts of hate.By focusing on our intentions instead of looking at the serious and daily impact and damage of individual and systemic decisions and policies that routinely exclude and criminalize children of Color, we educators, leaders and politicians believe our hands are clean. Racism is insidious and can be difficult to detect if educators are enmeshed in the traditional time constraints of schooling, focused on bureaucratic routines, and initiating the latest "quick fix"interventions.
Certainly, more questions could be asked to detect the cancer of institutional racism, but those below are an introduction to compassionately interrogating the system and are worthy of discussion with elected officials, families, colleagues, principals, board members and the community:
1.Are the system's annual measurable achievement goals lower for Black and Brown students than those established for White students?
2. Are Black, Brown and Indigenous children disproportionately placed in suspension, detention, mental health facilities, alternative learning environments and Special Education?
3. Are Black, Brown and Indigenous children consistently "missing" from gifted and talented programs?
4. Are the system's most experienced teachers placed and/or allowed to select teaching assignments in predominantly White schools, historically supported by strong leadership, rigorous programming and modern facilities?
5. Are students of Colors historically and disproportionately zoned and assigned to old buildings that are in disarray, unattractive, poorly maintained and plagued by high teacher absenteeism and new, failing or developing leadership?
6. Are administrators, staff and teachers allowed to "opt out" of ongoing cultural proficiency, culturally responsive teaching, racial equity and inclusion training because they are "good" teachers, don't appear to be racist or simply express discomfort with the topics?
7. Are cultural proficiency and antiracist training experiences such low priorities in the system that when training opportunities emerge throughout the year, funding is difficult or impossible to secure?
8. Are antiracist teachers and administrators ostracized, silenced or isolated for speaking up about race, racist policies and differential treatment and outcomes for students of Color and students belonging to other historically marginalized groups?
A "yes" to even one of the questions is a sign racism is alive and has infested the district, school, program, department, and the classrooms.
Fortunately, we have had the cure for racism in education for many decades. Unfortunately, individually and collectively, we simply lack the political will to do what we know we must to bring about racial equity. We often blame the children, funding and politics (code for fear of making White people in power uncomfortable) for our individual and collective failure to do what we know works for Black, Brown and White children.
Over many decades, thousands of Black and Brown families and children have told us what is needed through interviews and research studies. What is needed to close the gaps is no mystery. It requires belief in our collective ability to transform the system with daily courageous action.
First steps with antidotes to the cancer of educational racism include several do-able actions:
Ensure all leaders, board members, administrators ad community partners are engaged in ongoing training and development sessions to build relationships and community to establish and monitor the achievement of realistic equity goals.
Ensure all Black and Brown students are taught and supported by excellent (experienced, culturally conscious and antiracist) teachers, staff and administrators with high expectations.
Ensure curricula and teaching materials are culturally responsive, rigorous, relational, inclusive and affirming with positive images of students and achievers of Color and support varied approaches to critical thinking and interactive instruction.
Ensure buildings are modern, clean, and well-lighted; make certain external and internal facilities are welcoming and reflect respect for the culture(s) of the community.
Hold all leaders i.e. boards of trustee members, superintendents, and principals accountable for allocating the appropriate funding and developing policies and strategies to recruit, hire, develop, retain and reward excellent (experienced, culturally conscious and antiracist) teachers and staff.
The actions above are a mere primer for beginning the work to interrupt racism to close the racial achievement gaps. All actions require the "grit" constantly demanded of students of Color and students who have been impoverished by multiple racist systems since birth. Taking action to interrupt racism requires consistent courage and commitment to "unlearn" years of unconscious and conscious socialization and conformity to domineering White cultural norms in the P-16 system.
Public education is by design and default deeply and unconsciously racist as evidenced in the enrollment and academic outcomes data and the continued acceptance of the dominance of White cultural norms, segregated and low performing schools and poor building conditions for students of Color. I've been told many times over the years that teachers' unions, individual White educators, White parents, the nation, the city, the county, school districts, and school cultures are just not ready to accept responsibility for engaging in and benefiting from racism, let alone curing racism-- even when presented with evidence and tools to interrupt the privileges and damages.
Civilly and relentlessly examining interactions, policies, practices and communication that exacerbate and feed racist outcomes is only the beginning. Collectively, we can and will heal racism in public schools with a systemic commitment to lifelong "unlearning" of our socialization and public schooling that has had no time for self-diagnosis or the meaningful inclusion of the history and strengths of all cultures and races. The healing of educational racism will begin when politicians and educators actually engage in culturally proficient leadership, assure culturally responsive teaching for all students, and when immersing Black, Brown and White students students in inclusive and affirming learning experiences is the only way schooling is done in America.
The question from White politicians, educators and administrators will no longer be "How canyou (Black educator, administrator and equity strategist)close the racial achievement gaps," but the core question will be,"What am I doing with my power as a White person to individually and collectively identify and eradicate the malignant disease of racism that creates racial equity gaps in education?"
While heralded as an antiracist by many African Americans, Einstein himself, struggled with deeply racist views of people of Asian descent as reported in his own diaries. However, like Einstein, educators cannot "be quiet about racism" and like Einstein, we all have unexamined racist beliefs and values that have yet to be addressed and transformed. The time is now for us to begin to heal ourselves individually and collectively so that we can cure a racist educational system that disproportionately wounds Black, Brown and Indigenous children daily.
How are you engaging in self-reflection, community-building and direct action to eradicate racism in public education? Let's chat! Contact me at convergenceconsulting3@gmail.com
Such a shocking and dreadful story that speaks to the vitriolic racism of White folks living in the Clifton-Morenci area of Arizona in the early 1900s—where my grandfather, Camilo Alfredo Rios, once worked as a miner by day and a minister in the evenings and weekends in nearby Clifton in the early 1940s. He preached alternatively in Baptist and Presbyterian churches, saying that Presbyterians were "Baptists in dry country," referring to the differences in baptism, submersion in water versus Presbyterians' sprinkling or pouring of water.
I come from a long line of Protestant, mostly Baptist, ministers that were in fact founders of the Baptist church in Mexico back when it was viewed more like a religious sect—and still is in some places. This is the part of my lineage that is Sephardic Jew, successfully evading the Spanish Inquisition in the vast Sierras of southern Mexico. It's really interesting to see all these folks in the mountains of Guerrero who have been Protestant for generations in great part because of the many seeds that were planted and sown there in the early- to mid-1800s. My grandfather's father himself, Vicente Rios Pineda, founded 15 Baptist churches in Guerrero and Michoacán, many of them operating still today.
My grandfather shared with his grandchildren stories about the wage discrimination that he experienced while working in the copper mines. It angered him that he would be required to train Anglos to do their jobs and how they would then make more money after that doing the same job for the same work right next to him. My grandfather's positionality as a minister combined with his social justice impulse that he had inherited from his own parents—found expression in his activism as a minister upon his being
on the receiving end of this discrimination by Anglos in his day. He didn't understand this unequal treatment and it always angered him deeply.
In the 1950s, my grandfather was involved in the desegregation of public establishments. He single-handedly as a minister desegregated the Concho River where the children used to swim—Anglos upstream, Mexican Americans midstream, and African Americans downstream. He and his sons desegregated the municipal swimming pool. There's a lot of important detail to these stories, of course. My grandmother worked, as well, to persuade the Protestant ministers' wives in town to tell their husbands to employ Mexican Americans for their businesses so that they did not have to leave San Angelo to work on the migrant stream so that the children could remain in school and get educated. These efforts, of course, led to significant changes over time, including the bringing down of the "No Mexicans or Dogs" signs at public establishments.
Next to my parents, my grandparents were easily the most influential persons in my young life, growing up in my West Texas town of San Angelo, not very far from Austin—3 1/2 hours drive, which is a short distance by Texas standards.
My grandparents had arrived in Morenci-Clifton after this "Irish Orphan Abduction" story had already occurred. I wish my grandpa were alive so that I could talk to him about this because he would have definitely known the details surrounding this case since he was
deeply involved in the community.
I encourage you to read the entire story. It provides insight into the history and complexities of race relations, including what often is an affinity between Mexicans and Irish folks. Through my maternal grandfather who was Spanish-Irish, our name is O'Hara. According to my DNA analysis, I myself am part Irish—10 percent. However, our family name is "Haro," because Mexican immigration agents couldn't say the name and
"translated" it to another, more recognizable, one for Mexicans. Racial purity is such a profound, misguided myth. Race itself is a social construct—and a very powerful one, indeed.
Aside from the atrocious way that these children's attempted-adoptions-turned-abductions were handled, a deeper concern is with how these Irish children, members of an ethno-religious group, were forced to become white—and violently so.
We often think of these racial categories as fixed and unchanging when, as this story exemplifies, race is best understood as a process of "racialization" which means a coming into being. We largely assume that race is natural, like the "air that we breathe,"
when, in fact, it is a deeply historic and profoundly lived aspect of our existence—for minorities and majorities alike.
The best book to read on this, in my opinion, is Michael Omi & Howard Winant's, Racial Formation in the United States. They theorize a credible, well-documented framework on an historical process that they term, "racialization."
Slavery has always existed, unfortunately. But historically, one never enslaved a race. One enslaved a people who could be of any hue. So race is a modern construct and related to the colonization of this continent by settlers who in the span of time—abetted by machinations and artifice—come to see themselves as superior and entitled to their status within the extant social (racial and economic) structure of society.
This story on Arizona screams white entitlement.
I'm not pointing fingers here. I am a teacher. I am asking what can we learn from this story? It is an important question, lest we open the door to even darker ways of knowing and being in the world. In what world would a scenario like this ever be acceptable? I frankly don't care if it's the "lawless" Wild West. How convenient...as if that were an explanation.
However casually, unknowingly, or painfully we liveand experience race and racism in our lives today, it remains a social construction tied to powerful facets of our history that this story poignantly illustrates. W.I. Thomas' dictum works well here: "That which is perceived as real, is real in its consequences."
Race is real, my friends, but not biologically. Rather it is tied to social, economic, and political forces that have given, and continue to give, rise to it. It's an everyday affair about which we all need to be more cognizant.
It had been awhile since giving thought to Linda Gordon's excellent historical account, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. So many lessons to take away from another great book for race relations/Ethnic Studies
scholars.
Thanks to Juan Marinez for sharing. Continue reading here.
