What Does It Mean to Be White?
Developing White Racial Literacy – Revised Edition
Series:
Robin DiAngelo
Chapter 1: Race in Education
Extract
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RACE IN EDUCATION
The most recent data about U.S. teachers show that despite the fact that the public school population is becoming increasingly racially diverse, more than 80% of elementary and secondary school teachers are white (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Almost half of the schools in the United States do not have a single teacher of color on staff and therefore many students, regardless of their own race, will graduate from high school having been taught only by whites (Picower, 2009). These racial demographics are not shifting; 80% to 93% of all current teacher education students are white, and they are being instructed by a teacher education profession that is 88% white (Picower, 2009). This racial homogeneity is compounded by unabated racial segregation in schools and housing, and it may be assumed from these statistics that the majority of whites have not lived near or attended school with people of color, have had few if any teachers, friends, family members, or authority figures of color, and do not interact with people of color in any direct or equal way in their lives or in their teacher preparation programs. Yet as evidenced in many studies, while most teacher education students live their lives in racial segregation, they believe that racism is in the past, that segregation “just happens,” that they were taught to see everyone the same and therefore they don’t see color, and that being white has no particular meaning. ← 13...
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