Teaching Race From a Place of Privilege

• In Event: Roundtable: Critical Teaching: Teaching Critically About Race, Racism and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Race is so entrenched in the criminal justice system that teaching race and racism is essential to any criminal justice or criminology course. In light of recent media attention and police brutality events that seem to have at least an implicitly racist motive, race is becoming an increasingly more contentious issue in the classroom, where some argue that racism exists and permeates our criminal justice system, while others believe that racism is a thing of the past. Thus, engaging students in a thoughtful and frank discussion about race is imperative. The difficulty arises in engaging students to discuss race from a position of privilege, particularly for professors and instructors from a white middle class background, who do not have the lived experience of racism. In this roundtable, we will discuss ways to teach students about race and racism and how to get students of all backgrounds to openly engage in the discussion. We ask: how does someone with white privilege teach about the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in a way that students from white privilege can truly understand? Also, how do we encourage racial and ethnic minority students to engage with their classmates and teachers as well?

Authors

• Jaimee Limmer, Northern Arizona University

• Kasey C. Ragan, University of California, Irvine