About STARS

University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
The Student Teachers Anti-Racism Society (STARS) promotes anti-racism education at the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan through the support of the College. We work collaboratively to understand, identify, and address individual and systemic racism and its interlocking forms of oppression based on gender, sexuality, ability, class, religion and other socially constructed categories. We believe that anti-racist and decolonizing education, when woven together, can create humanizing and emancipatory change for everyone.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Whiteness video resources


Checkout this excellent site. There are some powerful video clips of lectures from the likes of bell hooks, James Baldwin, Paul Kivel, Allen Johnson, Tim Wise and others, plus many other resources such as the 2007 BBC documentary three part series Racism: A History.

I couldn't find any information about the site, but the video collection is quite amazing.


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Just another Indian joke

I saw this on Media Indigena: Interactive Indigenous Insight

http://www.mediaindigena.com/rickharp/polls/poll-how-should-a-bc-legion-atone-for-publishing-a-joke-about-beer-baiting-and-hunting-indigenous-people-to-their-death?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mediaINDIGENA+%28mediaINDIGENA%29

This is something to talk about with students. How are 'Indian jokes' connected to and used to justify colonization and ongoing violence towards Indigenous peoples? Children hear such jokes at a young age, and it is important that teachers take the time to help them understand the destructiveness of this racism masked as humour. But teachers need support to do this work from parents and administrators. As September is coming up, I hope all of the teachers out there have an amazing year with lots of support to have those difficult conversations our children so desperately need.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I am Kenyan Project

Here are links to a Kenyan driven activist project!

See 'I Am Kenyan Project' at: 


https://www.facebook.com/IAmKenyanProject
http://iamkenyan.or.ke/
It would be interesting to use this project to introduce students to the history and current context of Kenya. Students could also talk about how to show solidarity (through such projects) without erasing racialized power inequities at global levels.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Deficit views of racism in sports and society

After Gabby Douglas won gold, NBC aired a commercial about a monkey that does gymnastics and people were outraged. And when people commented about her hair on Twitter, others were outraged. But when Bob Costas (NBC) claimed that the barriers for African Americans in gymnastics have long been torn down, after Gabby won gold, there was a lack of outrage. He further explained that it is psychological barriers that now keep African Americans from competing in the sport. In this way, Gabby is a role model for African American youth who have low self-esteem. This is one reason why racism is powerful - the 'hidden common sense' attitudes/ideologies of whiteness that are left unexamined. In this case, it is the belief that racial inequality is caused by the low self-esteem of the victims of systemic and structural racism. 

Here is an interesting take on the matter:

This might be a great way to start the year off with students. Perhaps it will keep them thinking critically about the discourses we use to talk about race...

Photo from: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/american-gabby-douglas-wins-gold-in-womens-gymnastics-all-around-20120802

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Race Card Project


Thought you might find this interesting.

Could be used as a way to start conversations about race and racism in your school: http://theracecardproject.com

Total Pageviews