Anti-Racism Workshop

Unlike some of my peers, many of whom were anticipating a dry, dull, lecture-style presentation illuminating the continued reality of 21^st century American racism and providing actionable methods to counter it in schools, the workplace, and communities, I entered the anti-racism workshop expecting the opposite: something highly-interactive, engaging, and (dare I say it?) fun. (Interestingly, I cannot identify with any certainty the source of our expectational differences…) Regardless, however, the anti-racism workshop was a combination of the two, incorporating helpful periods of lecture, important periods of peer-interaction, and, above all, encouraging transparency and open communication as we explored the sensitive topic of  privilege and racial prejudice.

Led by Regina Shandz Stoltzfus, a professor in the Goshen College PJCS department, the anti-racism workshop began with a short “quiz” that asked basic questions—and illuminated common misperceptions—on the topic of race. To my embarrassment (I was not, however, alone) I only answered one question out of eight correctly. From the perspective of a developing educator, this was an effective and engaging way to begin the workshop (or “hook”) and encouraged discussion and transparency from the very beginning, which set the tone for the duration of the workshop. Regina also had each table group discuss their experiences of race, diversity, and racism and to present (after a short break and snack) to the larger group a key issue that emerged from these discussions. Following these presentations, Regina lectured on the topic of race and racism—meanwhile asking some insightful questions and substantiating the lecture with a powerpoint presentation—and ultimately ended the session with a powerful, 20-minute TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie titled, “The Danger of a Single Story.”

Although I enjoyed the 4-hour workshop and found some of the material—as well as the discussion it engendered—enlightening, much of it was familiar and echoed ideas/realities already covered in my Transforming Conflict and Violence Class. Nevertheless, this is material that must be covered and discussed several times over, and thus I think the workshop was still a valuable experience for me as both a person as well as an emerging educator. I was surprised, however, by the general unwillingness among my table-group members to admit to our inherent, racist prejudices. Although we were able to acknowledge that racism continues to be an issue in American society, it was difficult to acknowledge personal roles within its framework—which reinforces the relevance of the workshop and reminds me that racism cannot be resolved with a single, 3-credit course.

As an educator, again, the topic of race, diversity, and classroom prejudices is an important discussion. Several of our assignments have stressed the inevitability of prejudice as well as the importance of naming them, (with the objective, ultimately, of learning to overcome them) particularly within the classroom. Anti-racism workshops like these give students and educators the valuable opportunity to identify personal prejudices and social realities and allow us, once named, to finally begin the process of deconstruction. They also equip us with tools and strategies to begin doing so, and thus, while I found some of the information in the workshop redundant, I also think it was an important opportunity to begin the process of naming ingrained racial-prejudices and learning to deconstruct them.