Our institutions are not prepared to prepare educators to deal with the reality that some of our students — including BIPOC students — will justify the murder of Black and Brown youth by police in “class discussions”. Literally no one prepared me for this..

When faculty are encouraged to “open up space” for students to “process” racial trauma, we need to get real about what this means. It means young people who are grappling with violence might very well say literally anything, including justifying killings committed by police..

The emotional and intellectual labor required to facilitate and participate in discussions of violence and trauma is literally beyond our pay grade and takes a toll on BIPOC faculty and students in particular. But even white students can experience vicarious trauma..