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White Privilege Conference Presentation_LinkedIn_KReddick
- 1. Krystal M. Reddick Educatorand Blogger SOCIAL JUSTICE ENGLISH ELECTIVES: POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND ACTION VIA GRAPHIC NOVELS AND INCARCERATION ACTIVISM WHITE PRIVILEGE CONFERENCE 2015
- 2. Are you livetweeting? •The Twitter hashtag is #WPC16 •My handle is Krystallised26
- 3. Presentation Overview andObjectives • Overview • Speaker Introduction • Ice Breakers • Conversation Norms • Elective Presentations • Identity & Graphic Novels • Incarceration & Autodidacts • Next Steps: Creating your own social justice elective • Q & A • Objectives • Teaching strategies for teaching issues of social justice • A model of social justice curricula (texts, resources, video clips) • Forum for mediating difficult issues in the classroom via Conversation Norms
- 4. Meet the Speaker… •B.A. from Duke University • Majors: African American Studies and Political Science • Minor: English • Ed.M. in Education from Rutgers University • M.S.W. expected in May 2017 • Seven years’ experience as an educator (urban charter school and suburban independent school) • Blogger for Huffington Post about mental health Photo credit: Madeline Cedeno
- 5. Who’s in theaudience? •K-12 Teachers? •Professors? •Administrators? •Social workers? •Activists/organizers? •Anyone else?
- 6. Getting to Knowthe Audience… • How do you define social justice? • Think/Pair/Share • How old were you when you learned about social justice? • How old do you think students should be before we as teachers (or parents, coaches, advisors) broach the topic of social justice, white privilege, and power with them? Why?
- 7. Conversation Norms: How toNavigate Difficult Conversations • One speaker at a time • Share the air; say what’s core • Use “I” statements • You are the owner of your own experience and the expert of you • Practice purity of motive • “Ouch!,” then educate • Take responsibility for what you say and how you say it • Be real, take off the mask • Maintain confidentiality • Lean into discomfort; take positive risks • (Adapted from the Lead for Diversity program norms.)
- 8. Identity & GraphicNovels •What is a graphic novel? •Think/Pair/Share •How does your identity shape your experiences? (Focus only on the following: race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status.) •Do you generally think of yourself as a privileged being? Where are you a target and where are you an agent?
- 9. Graphic from Teachingfor Diversity and Social Justice
- 10. Identity & GraphicNovels: Overview of Syllabus and Assessments… • Texts: • Ellen Forney’s Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me (2012) • Mat Johnson’s Incognegro (2009) • Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1994) • Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (2010) • Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2004) • Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986)
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- 13. Image from A.D.:New Orleans After the Deluge
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- 16. Identity & GraphicNovels: Overview of Syllabus and Assessments… • Documentaries and films (all are accessible via YouTube): • Persepolis • Up/Down: The Bipolar Documentary • When the Levees Broke
- 17. Identity & GraphicNovels: Overview of Syllabus and Assessments… • Topics covered include: • History of comics and comics vocabulary • Matrix of Oppression • Identity • The Iranian Revolution • The Holocaust • Lynching in the American South • Hurricane Katrina • Mental illness (Bipolar Disorder)
- 18. Identity & GraphicNovels: Overview of Syllabus and Assessments… • Assessments: • Reader Response Papers • AP prompt essay tests • Comics assignment • 3-to-5 page essay • Fishbowl discussion • Comics vocabulary quiz • Today’s Meet discussion while viewing films
- 19. Identity and GraphicNovels: Documentaries • Clips of the documentaries: • When the Levees Broke (0:00 to 3:56) • Up/Down: The Bipolar Documentary (0:00 to 7:18) • Processing Questions for both films: • Initial reactions? • What issues or topics are present in these documentaries? • Why do these topics matter for a social justice agenda? • What questions arise for you?
- 20. Incarceration and Autodidacts •What is an autodidact? How is it related to incarceration? • Think/Pair/Share • Statistics: • More than 60% of U.S. prisoners are racial and ethnic minorities (The Sentencing Project). Whereas, African Americans comprise 13.2% of the U.S. population and Latinos comprise 17.1% (U.S. Census). • School-to-Prison Pipeline. • An estimated 5.85 million Americans are denied the right to vote (The Sentencing Project).
- 21. “I always tellmy students that Malcolm X came both to his spirituality and to his consciousness as a thinker when he had solitude to read. Unfortunately, tragically, like so many young black males, that solitude only came in prison.” ~bell hooks
- 22. Graphic from TheSentencing Project
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- 24. Incarceration and Autodidacts: Overviewof Syllabus and Assessments… • Texts: • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) • Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land (1965) • The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965) • Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets (1967) • The Autobiography of Assata Shakur (1987) • Black Artemis’ Picture Me Rollin’ (2005)
- 25. Incarceration and Autodidacts: Overviewof Syllabus and Assessments… • Excerpts from: • Michelle Alexander • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness • Angela Davis • Are Prisons Obsolete • bell hooks • “Preface About Black Men” (from We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity) • Jackson Katz • TED Talk “Violence Against Women” • Audre Lorde • “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” • Peggy McIntosh • “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” • Tupac Shakur’s • “Picture Me Rollin’” • The Rose That Grew From Concrete • LA Times’ article “Tupac Shakur: I am Not a Gangster”
- 26. Incarceration and Autodidacts: Overviewof Syllabus and Assessments… • Topics covered include: • The benefits and rewards of education • The disadvantages of not pursuing education • Institutional/structural racism • Prison industrial complex • Violence • White privilege
- 27. Incarceration and Autodidacts: Overviewof Syllabus and Assessments… • Assessments: • Reader Response Papers • AP prompt essay tests • Today’s Meet discussion while viewing Katz’s TED Talk • 3-to-5 page essay • Activism Project
- 28. Privilege Activities • BuzzfeedPrivilege Lesson • http://www.buzzfeed.com/nathanwpyle/this-teacher-taught-his-class-a- powerful-lesson-about-privil • Buzzfeed Privilege Quiz • http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you#48cynvy
- 29. Incarceration and Autodidacts: ActivismProjects • What now? Activism projects: • Students will be guided in creating an action plan to address an area of concern regarding the prison industrial complex. • Contact your elected local representatives via phone, email, or Twitter. • Brainstorm policy reform for a prison issue. The ACLU lists a number of important causes: • https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights • Start a petition around an important prison cause. • Hold a fundraiser to raise donations for an organization of your choice. • Donate new or used Torahs or prayer books to Jewish Prisoner Services International. • http://jpsi.org/get-involved/
- 30. Next Steps… • Howcould you use some or all of these texts and/or resources in your own classrooms? • What challenges do you foresee? Administration approval? Parental consent? Teacher autonomy? Others? • Create Your Own: • What social justice topics are you interested in creating a curriculum around? • Let’s brainstorm together. Tap the human resources in the room. Work in groups of three or four. • Jot down your ideas on the handout.
- 31. Any last questions, comments,or concerns?
- 32. Thank You! AndKeep in Touch. • I’d love to know how you implement any of these ideas. Or, if you want to brainstorm further, please feel free to contact me: • Twitter: Krystallised26 • If you’re interested in my personal resources on mental health (when teaching Marbles in the graphic novel elective), please refer to my blogs: • Huffington Post • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/krystal-reddick • International Bipolar Foundation • http://ibpf.org/tags/krystal-reddick • The Mighty • https://themighty.com/author/krystal-reddick/
- 33. Additional Resources… • JacksonKatz’s TED Talk “Violence Against Women: It’s a Men’s Issue” • http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_ katz_violence_against_women_it_s _a_men_s_issue?language=en Image from: http://www.usprison culture.com/blog/201 3/03/11/image-of-the- day-audre-lorde-and- the-prison-industrial- complex/
Editor's Notes
- #5 Time yourself for each section. Restart timer at the start of each section to keep you on track. Don’t go over the allotted time!
- #6 Ask audience to raise hands.
- #8 Read through these one at a time. For time’s sake, I will not be going through these extensively.
- #10 Use you as an example: black, woman, cisgendered, heterosexual, middleclass, able-bodied, protestant, adult, college educated
- #11 Give a brief synopsis of each text. Maus is perhaps the most well-known graphic novel; it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
- #19 Explain what Today’s Meet is
- #20 What do you recall about Hurricane Katrina? What do you know about bipolar disorder?
- #25 Give a brief synopsis of each text
- #26 Give a brief synopsis
- #31 Pass out the handouts now. Share how you came up with the idea for the two electives (The Walking Dead and Duke NEH institute).