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. @zugenia begins by modeling what webinar will cover: Introducing ourselves by Where We Know From: the land where we are, Indigenous land struggles, her nationality & living-status where she works, who her ancestors are, and how she sits w/in intersections of colonialism & race.
@most_articulate acknowledges land-defenders where she works, & traditional ppls of land where she received education. Powerful. We know from colonized spaces where Universities currently stand. Navigating identity as Jamaican immigrant descendant. #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate notes that we know also from our #bodymind, bringing disability & mental health into our ways of knowing, learning, working, laboring, etc. #antiracismUMD
. @zugenia notes the ways that as educators, we learn from our students & experiences of learning w/them. She & @most_articulate shared class space together, & learned together. #antiracismUMD
@zugenia asks @most_articulate : "do you think anti-racist pedagogy exists?" A powerful thing to think about. Is it possible? Is it something we work toward (But may not ever fully realize or perfect)? #antiracismUMD
HELL YES @most_articulate asks "who is your pedagogy for?" & notes that WHOSE comfort you center is likely predicated on racism. #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate: "If you're teaching a racist text, are you in opposition to that text? How do you reconcile your 'love' for that text?"; "we have to get out of our own ways to enact antiracist pedagogies" #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate "harmlessness is not possible in our classrooms [...] but the anti-racist classroom does as much as possible to make racism unwelcome there" Someone will always be "hurt," but is that hurt feelings, or hurt BY RACISM? #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate asks @zugenia to talk on how students receive the question "where do you know from?" & how it shows up in her classroom environment #antiracismUMD
@zugenia notes that we often know from places other than "identity." That our obsession with individual identity obscures how we could see our knowing-from as community-built, land-built, trauma-built, experience-build, love-built, and more.... #antiracismUMD
@zugenia gets at something I'm thinking on a lot: Indigenous ways of knowing are DIFFERENT from colonialist ways of knowing. They are wise, inherent, and as humans, we are the least-versed in this World's knowledge. Nurturing knowledge, not extractive knowledge. #antiracismUMD
@zugenia students come to 'Where Do You Know From' w/...suspicion. Students/teachers bring boundaries well-cultivated, & suspicions based on the ways we've been in a class, ways we have spoken aloud. Pedagogy in uni is often about power, & we carry that in us #antiracismUMD
@zugenia drops truth-bomb: Anti-racist pedagogy has to make a firm commitment to resisting mastery. #antiracismUMD
Resisting mastery returns us to the role of constant learners. We are students of this plane. All of us. It is humbling, & freeing. @zugenia #antiracismUMD
@zugenia : students must know that they will not be punished for "resisting" in the class. Pushing back, breaking down, questioning, poking-holes, being critical -- this is what we really want to teach them! #antiracismUMD
@zugenia : it is our work as educators not to disavow our power in the classroom (we can't its always there), but to make that power & learning opportunities open enough to student resistance. They can stretch space for themselves wo fear of retaliation. #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate gives concrete examples: faculty *wont* tolerate racial slurs, truly supports accessibility, welcomes questions/alterations to meet student needs. You can change racist behavior. You can't change race. Gender. Sexuality. #antiracismUMD
@zugenia : white communities often don't experience the difference between comfort and harm. Discomfort for white communities is not the same as active racist/abelist/gendered/sexist/xenophobic HARM #antiracismUMD
@zugenia reminds us that anti-racist pedagogy is not just teaching race. It's instead not shying away from race, not ignoring race & gender. Making them present. These subjects have always been in our classrooms, we must make a syllabus that acknowledges them #antiracismUMD
Me squealing "I love Pompey the Little!" in the background. #antiracismUMD
@zugenia reminds us that anti-racist pedagogy is also about working through joy, pleasure, futures in regard to race-- not just centering racism (which is still centering white experience, privilege, etc.) #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate answers @profchander question on how the syllabus can be a place of beginning -- that the classroom is only *one* site of our learning in a term. #antiracismUMD
@zugenia reminds us that we don't HAVE to chuck out all white-guy texts, but rather let the syllabus be a space of discussion about what knowledge is, who gets to decide, what voices are there & why, what is left out, what is central? #antiracismUMD
@zugenia lets the students who choose not to engage with anti-racist vocabulary, ways of knowing, ideas tune out. This is powerful for me to hear: I don't need to chase them #antiracismUMD
@most_articulate talks about moving with the least harm in the learning environment: students can name the harms they're experiencing in the class. Making space for them. Dont assume students have specific forms of knowledge--that gives them freedom to learn #antiracismUMD
All the cheers for @zugenia and @most_articulate for speaking. And @TitaChico1 for facilitating. This was the most engaging Zoom meeting I have EVER EVER EVER been to. #antiracismUMD
