Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania, REC, & Forward Promise
Given the national turmoil regarding racial relations and inequity, many concerns exist about how children and families make emotional sense of this unrest. Parents and teachers question how best to raise and teach children within this climate. The stress of these racial politics is most evident in relationships. This workshop will focus on racial literacy strategies to reduce, recast, and resolve the stress of in-the-moment, face-to-face racial encounters. We can reduce the negative effects of racism on our bodies, minds, and souls, but not without racial climate change. Racial literacy calls for improving racial storytelling, mindfulness, and assertiveness, fundamental skills in activism, and healthy decision-making. Participants will learn: 1) about the role racial socialization plays in coping with unpredictable racial encounters; 2) to interpret racial encounters as resolvable rather than impossible threats to control; 3) to help self and others regulate emotions during face-to-face racially stressful encounters; and 4) to use racial mindfulness and build confidence to assert oneself during incidents of injustice.
Guiding Questions:
1) How well can you notice your feelings, thoughts, self-talk, and images during a stressful racial encounter?
2) Do you ever get a deer-in-the-headlights reaction when a racial moment or conversation comes up out of the blue?
3) How confident do you feel in resolving a racial conflict regarding a racial slur, if presented to you by a client and/or student?