Unveiling the Collective History and Racial Solidarity Between Black and Asian Americans in K–20 Education

• In Event: Learning, Living, and Teaching in Dual Pandemic: Experiences of Minoritized K–12 Educational Stakeholders

Abstract

Purpose
The deadly effects of COVID-19 impacted communities of color in particularly unequal ways, but also in violence. The deleterious rhetoric Donald Trump and his naming COVID-19 the “China Virus,” increased attacks on Asian Americans in the United States. In California, hate crimes against members of Asian American Pacific Islander communities increased by 107%. What seems surprising to some is the deep history of Anti-Asian sentiment and crimes in the United States currently being uncovered during this crisis. What is also surprising for many Americans, and known to very few is the deep history of Black and Asian solidarity in a time of crisis.

This study answers the following questions:
1) How do we begin to implement Black and Asian American ethnic studies and coalition building in our K-20 classrooms and school settings?
2) How do we decolonize the scholarship and clinical practices in our teacher education programs that are responsible for training the next generation of educators?

Theoretical Framework
Racial Literacy can be developed through love, humility, reflection, and historical literacy requiring deep self-work and courage to interrupt racism when recognized. Presenters will discuss Historical Literacy within the Racial Literacy Development Model as an approach for educators to understand the context for Black and Asian solidarity to interrupt the current climate of hate against Asian Americans. In addition, we use tenets and frameworks of ethnic studies and counter storytelling to build on the collective history and solidarity between Black and Asian Americans.


Data Sources
Data comes from a12 months interactions between faculty, doctoral students, and student teachers in both doctoral and clinical supervision programs in New York City. Data include 1) email communications; 2) text messages; 3) cross campus events between each researchers’ institutions; 4) collaborative writing in grant proposals; 4) social media posts; and 5) photos from local and national events. Critical themes were coded from each source to identify emerging themes.

Results
The daily racial injustice of Covid-19 against Black and Asian American communities united faculty and students of color together. We came together to begin a conversation and an action oriented plan for curricular and community-based action to disrupt and decolonize the current standardized curriculum and pedagogical practices across our higher education institutions. We recognize the urgency that we must not go back to what we were traditionally teaching and doing with our university students, but rather we must resist and begin to center the histories and narratives of Black and Asian solidarity that have been erased from public knowledge and the academy.

Scholarly Significance
The presenters discuss their cross institutional activism and social and academic settings in K-12 schools and the academy.The racial violence that we have witnessed is an urgent call for action to all educators to act now on being socially responsible on what we teach in our K-20 classrooms. As educators, we have a social responsibility to decolonize the history, scholarship, and stories in our schools and begin to voice our stories for social justice.

Authors

• Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Judy W. Yu, REACH