Racism: What It Is and How to Deal with It - Uned

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A Guide to Talking about Racism | 14 Some Dilemmas While preparing the Guide, we ran into some dilemmas that refer both to the audience and to the Guide’s contents and application. We would like to share our reflections and the provisional answers that we proposed in each case: • The Guide targets professors and educators who carry out their activity in school centers, in educational programs, in associations, etc. However, is the Guide meant exclusively for them, or for anyone interested in the subject? Even though we expect out main audience to be professors and professional educators, the Guide was conceived as a document aimed at any person interested in the subject. In each section, we included a specific module for “adapting the curriculum” with the purpose of situating the issues discussed in the educational context, but it can also be interesting for any reader who, in one way or another, has had experience with situations like the ones we describe. • The Guide may often be used in seminars or brief sessions, that is, for a specific purpose or with a very limited amount of time. But it is meant to be a global document in which each module focuses on the subject from a particular perspective, even while it is related to the other modules. The same goes for the glossary. Each module was created around a specific issue that gives it its own entity. The contents of each module are linked to those of the rest, but there are cross-cutting subjects that show up in most of them. We think that it is fitting to choose the modules or module to work with according to the conditions and time available (workshop, training seminar, sessions, work group in a center). • Sometimes the Guide will be used with groups of teachers, orientation counsellors, mediators, educators, other professionals, etc., without previously having had access to significant information about their interests, previous knowledge, and expectation. How can we select, in this case, the proper contents and the most relevant activities? We recommend starting by asking the audiences about their ideas on the subject, their expectations about the session/seminar, and their concerns with respect to racism and education. It is also useful to do one of the activities proposed in the Guide for “breaking the ice.” • How can we balance individual reflection and cooperative activities? Seeking this balance can, at times, become a limitation. Often, some people are prepared to read and write, to look for information on Internet, but… they feel it is inappropriate to ask others, interview people, or get involved in activities that require personal contact.
Introduction | 15 We recommend that you insist on the need to collaborate and participate in a dialogue with others, avoiding work carried out exclusively on one’s own, as a way to become aware of, to reflect on, and to act against racism. This idea seems particularly important to us because we are talking about education. • How can we approach the ambiguity of some of the concepts that are used in the Guide, such as racism, prejudice, stereotype, majority group, power, etc.? First of all, it is necessary to acknowledge the polysemic character of the majority of the concepts used in the social sciences, as well as in this Guide. The same concept offers different meanings depending on the theoretical focus from which it is approached. Throughout the Guide, we have been especially careful to make the meaning with which the terms are used clear. In this sense, the Glossary is a very useful tool for clarifying the main concepts and reviewing the stereotyped ideas that we often use them with. • “Recipes” or general recommendations? This tends to be a common question in training activities. Sometimes people expect something like an instruction book that will let them know what to do in each case, following a specific recipe. We believe that we should point out right from the beginning that we do not think recipes are at all useful. Each social and educational context is different and requires specific procedures. We propose that the Guide be used as a tool to challenge our preconceived ideas about racism and its manifestations. We believe each reader to be capable of analyzing its contents, of reflecting, and of making decisions that will improve the way he or she deals with racism. • Utopia or reality? “This is all utopian,” “It’s not possible to apply this in the real world…” These or other similar arguments may be used with regard to the proposals that the Guide offers. A utopia is defined as an ideal that is impossible to put into practice. For us, “racism-free” education is possible. If it is a utopia, then it is a utopia that is not only necessary, but possible and achievable. We are betting on inventing, imagining, building this reality, a reality that has no room for anything “racial,” but with room for everything human.
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