Antiracist and Faith-based: Critical Pedagogy-Informed Writing and Information Literacy Instruction at a Hispanic-Serving, Lutheran Liberal Arts University

English faculty and librarians at a Hispanic-Serving Lutheran liberal arts university collaborated to integrate critical information literacy in a first-year writing course, following the Lutheran educational tradition of valuing inquiry and aligning with a faith-based social justice mission. The authors discuss an Evangelical Lutheran tradition of education committed to antiracism, and the challenges of enacting these values of equity and inclusion while addressing institutional racism. The authors also describe how curricular revisions in writing and information literacy instruction informed by critical pedagogy decentered whiteness in the curriculum, while creating needed opportunities for students and faculty to engage in cross-racial dialogue about systemic racism.

Promoting allyship among South Asian and Arab Muslims toward Black and Latino/a Muslims in American Islamic centers

Increased social justice awareness in the United States and shifting demographics are giving birth to a more diverse and egalitarian generation. Improving relations across social categories has been a key topic in di-versity, equity, and inclusion work, but less emphasis has been placed on cross-racial allyship within mi-nority populations. While allyship in racial contexts is often perceived as a White versus non-White issue, this binary position erases the diversity that exists within communities of color. A dichotomous approach to allyship that positions White heterosexual males as the primary holders of privilege does not address the disparities that exist within and across minoritized communities. While Arabs and South Asians are minori-ties in the US on a macrolevel, they often hold privileged positions in Islamic centers and other Muslim spaces—even though Black Americans make up a larger percentage of the Muslim population. Additional-ly, there is an increasing number of Latino/a Muslims in the US, but they are often invisible in larger con-versations about Islam in America as well as in discourse among Muslim Americans. In this chapter, we explore the concept of allyship and how South Asian and Arab Muslims can support and advocate for Black and Latino/a Muslims in American Islamic centers. We also discuss Islamophobia in the US as well as the anti-Blackness and racism that exists within Muslim communities and provide suggestions on how Islamic centers can serve as spaces of allyship and cross-racial dialogue.

Racial Spectacle and Campus Climate

Media spectacle has become an important way countries, culture, and commerce is expressed in the global marketplace. Media spectacle is a combination of power and capital and in its final form produces ideology. The U.S. is the global leader in the production and distribution of media, accounting for one-third of more than $90 billion annually in worldwide film distribution alone. U.S. media representations can be distinctive due to their racial dialogue and International college students with little exposure to the U.S. outside of media depictions arrive in America with perceptions that may be detrimental to campus climate. Supported by two independent qualitative studies, this chapter interrogates implications media representations may have for cross-cultural interactions. We identify ways U.S. colleges and universities are addressing campus climate issues, and how these efforts may not be enough. We call for increased diversity training across curricula to promote greater tolerance.

NASA, the Association of Huntsville Area Contractors, and Equal Employment Opportunity in the Rocket City, 1963–1965

Brian Odom surveys the implementation of Equal Employment Opportunity at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Odom contends that Marshall’s strategy focused on recruiting qualified African American engineering students outside Alabama and developing a partnership with the Association of Huntsville Area Contractors (AHAC) locally. By serving as both a catalyst for technical educational programs in the Huntsville community and clearinghouse for job opportunities and racial dialogue, AHAC facilitated a modicum of progress toward minority gains. During the civil rights movement, local activists such as Dr. Sonnie Hereford III and aerospace executives, including Brown Engineering Company’s Milton K. Cummings, brokered “backroom” agreements meant to improve Alabama’s “image” problem.

A case study of classroom faculty experiences with racial dialogue in one rural Missouri university

The divide of America and the racial injustices occurring support the need for ensuring faculty development to confront race and racial inequities in the classroom (Hughey, 2012). This study explored the experiences of White faculty members who incorporate racial dialogue in their courses. Based on ten interviews, one focus group, and a qualitative survey, this study explored the experiences and background factors of White faculty members who incorporate racial dialogue in their courses. This qualitative study (Creswell, 2014) worked to fill this gap in knowledge present in understanding these background factors. Findings inform developers of diversity, equity and inclusion trainings on how White faculty members have arrived at incorporating racial dialogue within the classroom. It is important in future professional development opportunities to increase White faculty member's engagement with racial dialogue within the classroom to foster inclusion and create a more just society.

When Good Intentions Only Go So Far: White Principals Leading Discussions About Race

This cross-case case study explores how two White principals took the first steps to engage in racial conversations. Using the constructs of race consciousness and antiracism, race neutrality, and resistance to racial dialogue to frame our findings, we illustrate how both principals broached the topic of race with staff members. We demonstrate how the structures of whiteness hindered the principals’ progress toward addressing systemic racial inequities within their respective schools. Our article concludes with recommendations and strategies for principal preparation programs and practicing school leaders.

Carpentaria: a foray into Indigenous consciousness

As the first novel written by an Indigenous Australian to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Alexis Wright’s 2006 epic Carpentaria traverses Australia’s traditionalist literary landscape and allows her readers access into the kaleidoscopic style of Aboriginal storytelling and history. Through her poignant depiction of a town in crisis, Wright challenges established notions of time and authenticity while considering the place of storytelling in contemporary Australia. Still feeling the effects of the white imperialism that arrived with the first fleet, Carpentaria’s predominantly white readership is forced to reassess whether it is truly ‘post colonial’. Through her fairly blunt, ironic characters who serve as representations of the division between Western pragmatism and Indigenous spirituality, Wright eases her readers into the long overdue flow of cross-racial dialogue.

The Seeds of a Black Movement?

The last chapter of the book, chapter 9, takes a look at formal or above-ground expressions of racial consciousness in Cuba and the development of a space, albeit a small one, for racial dialogue on the island. The chapter looks at organizations that were created after the political opening in the 1990s to address issues of discrimination, and how their focus and influence affect the debate that is beginning to circulate around race. It also highlights how the hip-hop movement, one of the most important and far-reaching messengers of black consciousness in Cuba, uses music to insert a new racial rhetoric into the public sphere that has not been heard prior to this period. Finally, the chapter joins the under- and above-ground components of black consciousness to show that black public opinion regarding organization and activism often aligns with what elites and writing about in the public sphere.