tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/black-stereotypes-22592/articlesblack stereotypes – The Conversation2020-08-12T12:30:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411662020-08-12T12:30:00Z2020-08-12T12:30:00ZRoad rage, stop and search and vehicle stereotypes: why cars drive so much racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352026/original/file-20200810-18-1bjrfcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3840%2C2546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/boston-uk-april-01-2020-police-1701333685">Shutterstock/Tony Dunn</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picture this for a moment, you’re in the car, tootling along, minding your own business – keeping a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front. All of a sudden some maniac in a loud vehicle comes along and neatly zips in front of you: “Bastard. Ignorant, selfish, bad mannered bastard”.</p>
<p>Your outburst may well be more sophisticated, but the point is, some behaviours can offend. Ordinarily, such encounters are part and parcel of the driving experience. But my <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/race-taste-class-and-cars">research</a> shows that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1070289X.2016.1232197">something else sometimes occurs</a> if the offending driver happens to not be white. Bastard can then mutate into “Paki”, “black” or “foreign bastard”.</p>
<p>As the recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests have shown, racial bias, prejudice and discrimination very much still exists, but has, in some cases, become more <a href="https://lithub.com/why-insidious-racism-is-much-harder-to-navigate/">subtle and complex</a> in formation over the past few decades. But, as <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/race-taste-class-and-cars">the research for my new book</a> shows, one space where racism is routinely present <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/how-enthusiasm-for-cars-can-break-down-racial-boundaries-1.4276439?mode=amp">on the road</a> – specifically when it comes to the type of car a person may be driving.</p>
<h2>Driver stereotypes</h2>
<p>You might even be familiar with some of the simplistic stereotypes about various types of cars and drivers: from the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/cars-popular-driving-stereotypes-subaru-boy-racer-bmw-businessman-white-van-man-motoring-survey-a8107196.html">White Van Man to the Subaru Boy Racer</a>, narratives are created and circulated.</p>
<p>There are stereotypes about certain brands: Audi drivers as <a href="https://www.petrolprices.com/news/bmw-drivers-the-most-disliked-in-the-uk/">aggressive</a>, some convertible models are either “womens’ cars” or said to be “<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hairdressers%20Car">hairdressers</a>” cars – read that as sporty looking on a budget. And of course, the ubiquitous “Chelsea tractor” sobriquet is often used to describe any large four-wheel-drive vehicle in urban areas.</p>
<p>Over time and through repetition these stereotypes become highly meaningful and form shortcuts – underpinned with logic and experience, each reinforcing the other. Such ideas end up seeming normal, accepted and constitute conventional wisdom. </p>
<h2>Racism on the road</h2>
<p><a href="https://policypress.co.uk/social-cohesion-and-counter-terrorism">In my sociology research</a>, I’ve found that racial stereotypes are fairly common on the UK’s roads – particularly in multi-ethnic areas.</p>
<p>Over a period of several years, I spoke with people from various ethnic, gender, class and professional backgrounds. Through interview, observation and participation, the emerging data often painted car ownership as a complex but important indicator of status or success. But, at the same time, for many people, owning what appeared to be expensive cars also posed risks for the driver.</p>
<p>My research shows that narratives around particular types of cars in the hands of particular types of owners were abundant and held as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1070289X.2016.1232197">common shorthand</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Modified cars parked in carpark." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352000/original/file-20200810-16-1tlfyhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bradford Modified Club car meet, Bradford, May 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>I found, for example, that if you’re young and of South Asian heritage and you drive an expensive looking car in an inner city, then you run the risk of being stereotyped as a drug dealer. How else, after all, could someone who is not expected to have the life chances to succeed using legitimate endeavour, demonstrate such success?</p>
<p>Similarly, people with cars that happen to be equipped with loud in-car entertainment systems, may be seen as unruly, self-indulgent and possibly antisocial.</p>
<h2>Changing lanes</h2>
<p>In my new book <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/race-taste-class-and-cars">Race, Taste, Class and Cars</a> I look at the complexity of car acquisition, ownership and maintenance. Part of my book is dedicated to car modification – and looks at the experiences of owners who tweak their car’s performance, or aesthetics to improve its overall style, in turn adding a layer of creativity. </p>
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<img alt="BMW and other vehicles parked in carpark." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351998/original/file-20200810-24-16aajtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bradford Modified Club car meet, Bradford, September, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>But I’ve found that instead of seeing car customisation and modification as a creative, artistic endeavour, those who invest emotionally and economically into the look, feel and sound of their cars are often <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/race-taste-class-and-cars">made to feel</a> they are problematic troublemakers – and doubly problematic if they are not white.</p>
<p>At the heart of my analysis is the fact that race and class-based prejudices are given licence to be enacted on the road with such frequency that they become rational, banal, accepted and – as things stand – unlikely to be challenged. </p>
<p>And this can have wide implications. Just look at <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/police-defend-officers-who-stopped-22507146">the recent</a> experience of Labour MP Dawn Butler who has accused the Metropolitan Police of racial profiling after the BMW in which she was travelling (driven by a black male drive) was pulled over in Hackney, east London:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1292734075904634880"}"></div></p>
<p>Then there was also the recent case of team GB sprinter, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bianca-williams-metropolitan-police-watchdog-racial-profiling-a9606616.html">Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos</a>, the Portuguese 400m runner, who were stopped when they were driving through Maida Vale in west London. They were both dragged from their vehicle and handcuffed – Williams has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/53301318">since accused</a> the police of racial profiling. </p>
<p>Indeed, a prestige car with tinted windows and black occupants in a largely white and affluent district may have been something of a flag – hence the stop. </p>
<p>There are many similar cases, some of which have lasting effects on those suspected by police officers as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x0G4NCBTzg">criminal</a>, partly because of the false assumption that the car they drive seems only attainable through illicit means.</p>
<p>It is clear that what is needed is a shift in cultural attitudes as well as an acknowledgement of these now racially primed shortcuts for what they are. In turn, policing strategy especially within multi-ethnic areas needs modification to ensure practices aren’t just a result of stereotypical prejudice.</p>
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<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249586/original/file-20181210-76983-1azl8ax.png?h=128">
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<header>Yunis Alam is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/race-taste-class-and-cars">Race, Taste, Class and Cars.</a></p>
<footer>Bristol University Press provides funding as a content partner of The Conversation UK</footer>
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</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yunis Alam previously received funding from JRF, AWYA, DFG.</span></em></p>As the recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests have shown many people, racial bias, prejudice and discrimination very much still exist, but have become increasingly subtle and complex.Yunis Alam, Lecturer in Sociology, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1109872019-02-25T11:38:54Z2019-02-25T11:38:54ZStop the BS – when you hear a negative statistic about black students, question it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256788/original/file-20190201-109820-g1hi5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Negative statistics about black people are widely embraced in American society – even when they are wrong.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-portrait-headshot-handsome-serious-corporate-207154840">pathdoc from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Evidence suggests white teachers <a href="http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2019/02/white-teachers-three-times-more-negative-with-black-students-rutgers-study-finds">are more negative</a> with – and have <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/power-of-teacher-expectations-racial-bias-hinders-student-attainment/">lower expectations</a> for – black students.</p>
<p>As a counseling professor who specializes in educating black children, these findings do not surprise me. I often hear education professionals and others use simplistic negative statistics to explain complex challenges facing black students. </p>
<p>In my book, “<a href="https://brill.com/view/title/54716?format=PBK&offer=498218">No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear about Black People</a>,” I refer to these kinds of negative statistics as “BS.” “BS,” or “bad stats,” are data points that are incomplete, poorly contextualized, usually negative and sometimes wrong. My book uses data, research and anecdotes to confront nine lies about education and black students. </p>
<p>I give three examples of the falsehoods here.</p>
<h2>Myth #1: More black men are in prison than college</h2>
<p>In 2002, the <a href="http://www.justicepolicy.org/research/2046">Justice Policy Institute released a report</a> called “Cellblocks or Classrooms.” The report was meant to spur policymakers to invest in college education for black males. One line resonated and echoed more than others: “Nearly a third more African American men are incarcerated than in higher education.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260141/original/file-20190221-195864-1h579a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Claims that there are more black men in prison than in college are no longer true.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-graduation-low-angle-view-young-400221604?src=6CyIMD5GN9GuH8ZLBYmGQg-14-77">gstockstudio from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Was it ever true? As I noted in an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21791038">interview</a> with the BBC in 2013, the Justice Policy Institute accurately reported the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/">federal education data</a> available at the time. The problem is that data was incomplete. For instance, several historically black colleges and universities, as well as my alma mater, Temple University, where I was enrolled as a doctoral candidate in 2001, reported no black male students in 2001 – which would have been impossible. Colleges have apparently gotten better at reporting race and gender data since.</p>
<p>When documentary filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2269912/">Janks Morton</a> and I first <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41341100?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">published</a> our 2011 response to the claim that there were more black men in prison than in college, we refuted it by showing that there were about 1.3 million black men in college and 840,000 black men in prison. By 2015, the total number of black men in college was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/12/8020959/black-men-prison-college">1,437,363</a> and the total incarcerated was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/12/8020959/black-men-prison-college">745,660</a>. A <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/28/chart-of-the-day-ii-14/">chart</a> that I produced in 2013 shows the trend in black male incarceration and college enrollment over the 10 years after the JPI report.</p>
<p>Not only is “more black men in prison than college” false, it may lead to bad policy and practice for black boys. In my view, educators who believe their black male students have a better chance of ending up in jail than college might focus more on preventing delinquency, rather than preparing helping them realize their college potential.</p>
<h2>Myth #2: Black students lag in reading ability</h2>
<p>During a panel discussion, I once heard a principal of a predominantly black high school state that “100 percent” of the students at her school were reading below grade level. Another panelist added the common <a href="https://www.inflexion.org/do-prisons-use-third-grade-reading-scores-to-predict-the-number-of-prison-beds-theyll-need/">myth</a> that low reading scores in the third grade help prison builders calculate the need for future prison beds. But assessing reading ability involves much more than using standardized tests of reading proficiency.</p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Childrens-Reading-Comprehension-and-Assessment/Paris-Stahl/p/book/9780805846560">scoring errors</a>, lack of motivation, fatigue, resentment and attention deficits can reduce the accuracy of standardized reading test scores. These sources of error may be more prevalent in predominately black schools with <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/586d777ecd0f6848a35d6f4b/t/59499ea2d1758ee25e98723c/1497996965486/Fine+--+Why+Students+Drop+Out+of+HS.pdf">substandard conditions</a>. </p>
<p>Before writing off an entire school because of test scores, educators should become familiar with the specific assessments used, the circumstances by which the test was administered and the basic concepts of testing theory. Consider Orange County School Board member Rick Roach who – in a quest to understand reading tests better – took Florida’s state test for reading comprehension. Although he has two master’s degrees, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/education/florida-backtracks-on-standardized-state-tests.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all">failed</a>. Rick Roach’s experience backs up <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429970276">research</a> that recommends educators look for beyond the tests to assess achievement.</p>
<h2>Myth #3: Single mothers are to blame for problems among black students</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/state-reports/copy3_of_dignity-disparity-and-desistance-effective-restorative-justice-strategies-to-plug-the-201cschool-to-prison-pipeline">training</a>, a teacher told me that single mothers were the “number one” reason for black boys getting suspended. When I asked the teacher what research supports this conclusion, he insinuated that it was common knowledge.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260143/original/file-20190221-195873-p3r0yn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Household composition and academic outcomes have a tenuous link.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mid-adult-african-american-woman-sits-46618714?src=6jCDp-Tlr9R8ekyISdrW9g-1-0">iofoto from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>In my book, I detail the research that I have conducted and reviewed on the connection between parents and academic success. Although <a href="https://www.theroot.com/single-parents-arent-the-problem-1790897125">69 percent</a> of black children live in homes without both biological parents, there’s <a href="https://www.theroot.com/single-parents-arent-the-problem-1790897125">little conclusive evidence</a> that household composition determines educational outcomes.</p>
<p>In my 2013 <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10911359.2013.747407?journalCode=whum20">analysis</a> of more than 12,000 parents who completed the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nhes/">National Household Education Surveys-Parent and Family Involvement Survey</a>, I found that parents who were black and Hispanic, non-native English speakers, lived in unsafe neighborhoods and had less than a high school education were less likely to visit school for conferences with teachers and administrators or school activities. My study found that this lack of involvement with school was statistically associated with lower levels of academic achievement among their students. </p>
<p>The study also found that parents of black students received less frequent and more negative communication from their child’s school. Specifically, parents of black students were the most likely to receive phone calls from school because of a problem with their child’s behavior or academic performance. Parents of white children were the most likely to receive regular newsletters.</p>
<p>My book details three parenting factors that increase students’ academic functioning regardless of marital status. </p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19413429">academic socialization</a> – that is, lessons around the goals and purposes of education and strategies for success. </p>
<p>The second is <a href="https://www.theroot.com/fixing-the-miseducation-of-black-children-1790897230">positive parenting</a>, which is when parents frequently tell their children they love them and are proud of them, and reinforce good behavior. </p>
<p>The third is having <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10464-013-9575-5">high expectations</a>, such as expecting children to finish college.</p>
<h2>Why we need to stop the BS</h2>
<p>The first step to correcting a problem is to acknowledge that it exists. </p>
<p>In my opinion, BS is pervasive in educational settings for black children because educators want quick and easy ways to understand longstanding and complex issues. People should question negative statistics, like those I discuss in this article, and seek a better and more nuanced perspective of the issues, instead of just accepting BS as proof of failure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Negative statistics about black students may be prevalent, but they are often out of context, misleading or just plain wrong, a professor of counseling psychology argues.Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1096212019-01-23T11:48:08Z2019-01-23T11:48:08ZWhy it’s wrong to label students ‘at-risk’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254420/original/file-20190117-32807-1skekoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The term "at-risk" is frequently used to describe students from challenging circumstances. Some educators are working to change that.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-people-education-group-hispanic-students-583892335?src=ATrTAJnT0I6cVrwmvHbO2g-8-27">Diego Cervo/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the terms used to describe students who don’t perform well in traditional educational settings, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED493702">few are used as frequently</a>– or as casually – as the term “at-risk.”</p>
<p>The term is regularly used in <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs92/92042.pdf">federal</a> and <a href="https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/lawmakers-plan-to-provide-a-better-education-for-at-risk-students/5214101/">state</a> education policy discussions, as well as <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/US/lebron-james-opening-school-risk-kids-culmination-decade/story?id=56913186">popular news articles</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/02/at-risk-students.aspx">specialty trade journals</a>. It is <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/DefiningAtRisk1.pdf">often applied to large groups</a> of students with little regard for the <a href="https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2513">stigmatizing effect</a> that it can have on students.</p>
<p>As education researcher <a href="https://naeducation.org/our-members/gloria-ladson-billings/">Gloria Ladson-Billings</a> <a href="https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2513">once said of the term “at-risk,”</a> “We cannot saddle these babies at kindergarten with this label and expect them to proudly wear it for the next 13 years, and think, ‘Well, gee, I don’t know why they aren’t doing good.’” </p>
<p>My most recent encounter with the term “at-risk” came when I was tapped to review and <a href="http://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabMtg/CmsnInnovEduc/2018_12_06_ToldsonFinalRecommendations2.pdf">critique</a> a draft report for the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, also known as the “<a href="http://dls.maryland.gov/policy-areas/commission-on-innovation-and-excellence-in-education">Kirwan Commission</a>.”</p>
<p>The Kirwan Commission, chaired by <a href="https://www.agb.org/bios/william-e-kirwan">William E. Kirwan</a>, a longtime higher education leader, was <a href="http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2016RS/chapters_noln/Ch_702_hb0999T.pdf">created in 2016</a> to make recommendations for improving education in Maryland. The initial draft of the Kirwan Commission report included a working group report called, “More Resources for At-risk Students.”</p>
<p>Fortunately, in this instance, commission members were aware of some common objections to using “at-risk” to categorize students and <a href="https://www.aclu-md.org/en/press-releases/race-equity-expert-delivers-highly-anticipated-second-address-kirwan-commission-what">publicly discussed</a> the <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/at-risk/">limitations</a> of using the term. Some of those objections included risk of social stigma to students and <a href="http://www2.ncte.org/blog/2017/02/redefining-risk-new-times-call-new-ground-rules/">lack of a uniform definition</a> of “at-risk.”</p>
<p>However, when it came to finding a better way to describe students who show lower levels of academic success because of nonacademic factors, such as poverty, trauma and lack of English proficiency, commission members were not sure what term to use.</p>
<p>As an <a href="http://www.qem.org/presidentbio/">outside consultant</a> for the commission, I was asked to come up with an acceptable alternative word or phrase. As I argue in my forthcoming book, “<a href="https://brill.com/view/title/54716">No BS (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear about Black People</a>,” three things are essential to good decision making in education: good data, thoughtful analysis and compassionate understanding. What I have to say about the term “at-risk” will be based on those three things.</p>
<h2>Practical uses exist</h2>
<p>First, let’s acknowledge that, paired with good data, “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/01623737015004380?fbclid=IwAR0hGmYiFL93HcnHT2SUCfCYcDBQvR_ZmqfuahwFO_TnIY3dIhx4uvqWiac">at-risk</a>” is practically useful and generally accepted in professional and academic settings. Used <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25608745?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">effectively</a>, identifying risk and protective factors can help mitigate harm to students.</p>
<p>For example, dating back to the 1960s, research about how <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/90/6/855.short">exposure to lead</a> placed children at risk for cognitive impairments helped educators create <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240871/pdf/ehp0110-000563.pdf">safer learning environments</a> for students by removing lead from paint, toys and drinking water.</p>
<p>Today, in educational <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S1479-3644(2009)0000007009">research</a> and <a href="https://www.fdschools.org/departments/student-services/at-risk-programs">practice</a>, educators <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED493702">routinely use “at-risk”</a> to classify students who do not perform well in traditional educational settings. However, the factors that determine “at-risk” are often either unknown or beyond the control of the student, caregiver or educational provider.</p>
<p>As a scholar of counseling psychology – and as one who specializes in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=i9M5DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA143&dq=Ivory+Toldson+counseling+psychology&ots=mwAv76j3Ea&sig=MBU-X3J5lMJkQKaVyz-LuvWdFvE#v=onepage&q=Ivory%20Toldson%20counseling%20psychology&f=false">counseling persons of black African ancestry</a> – I believe that to designate a child “at-risk” for factors such as growing up in a single-parent household, having a history of abuse or neglect, or how much money their families make or their race or ethnicity – adds more chaos and confusion to the situation. Instead, compassion and care are what are needed.</p>
<h2>Never use ‘at-risk’ as an adjective</h2>
<p>Using “at-risk” as an adjective for students is problematic. It makes “at-risk” a category like honors student, student athlete or college-bound student. “Risk” should describe a condition or situation, not a person. Therefore, “More Resources for At-risk Students” might more appropriately be “More Resources to Reduce Risk Factors for Students.”</p>
<h2>Be specific</h2>
<p>Assessments of risk should be based on good data and thoughtful analysis – not a catch-all phrase to describe a cluster of ill-defined conditions or characteristics. If the phrase “at-risk” must be used, it should be in a sentence such as: “‘This’ places students at risk for ‘that.’” If the “this” and “that” are not clearly defined, the “at-risk” characterization is useless at best, and harmful at worst. But when these variables are clearly defined, it better enables educators and others to come up with the solutions needed to reduce specific risk factors and improve outcomes.</p>
<h2>Skip the alternatives</h2>
<p>Common alternatives to “at-risk” include “historically underserved,” “disenfranchised” and “placed at-risk.” These indicators acknowledge that outside forces have either not served the individual student or population well, or have assigned the at-risk label to unwitting subjects.</p>
<p>These phrases move the conversation in the right direction. However, using these phrases still comes up short because they obscure the problem. For example, research suggests that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10509674.2010.519666">child abuse</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10911359.2013.747407">poverty</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25608729?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">racism</a> can place students at risk. However, different strategies can lessen each risk. When the risk factors are more clearly identified, it puts educators and others in a better position to strategically confront the issues that impede student learning. It also better enables educators and others to view the individual student separately and apart from the particular risk.</p>
<p>Some have suggested replacing the term “at-risk” with “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fQX2czepcW8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%22at-risk%22+%22at-promise%22&ots=yLkU8c1_8q&sig=Jf5h6Ya_p9gIh-p7n0RP7OmRNlM#v=onepage&q=%22at-risk%22%20%22at-promise%22&f=false">at-promise</a>.” While well-intended, the problem I see with that is it could easily be seen as a condescending euphemism for the term it was meant to replace.</p>
<h2>The best alternative for ‘at-risk’</h2>
<p>In my book, I describe an in-service training for staff members of a public high school, in which I asked the participants to describe the neighborhoods of their students. I heard phrases like “crime-ridden,” “broken homes” and “drug-infested.” I then asked if anyone grew up in neighborhoods that had similar characteristics. After several raised their hands, I asked, “How did you grow up in such a neighborhood and still become successful?” This question spurred a more meaningful discussion about the neighborhoods where students are from. It was a discussion that considered community assets – such as hope and resilience – against a more thoughtful examination of community challenges.</p>
<p>Every student has a combination of risk and protective factors among their friends, in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. These factors can help or hurt their academic potential. Students who live in poverty, or have been assigned to special education, or have a history of trauma, or who are English learners, may or may not be “at risk” depending on their respective protective factors. But when students are labeled “at-risk,” it serves to treat them as a problem because of their risk factors. Instead, students’ unique experiences and perspectives should be normalized, not marginalized. This reduces a problem known as <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/stereotype-threat/">“stereotype threat,”</a> a phenomenon in which students perform worse academically when they are worried about living up to a negative stereotype about their group.</p>
<p>For all these reasons and more, I believe the best alternative to describe “at-risk students” is simply “students.” For what it’s worth, the Kirwan Commission agrees. The commission recently <a href="http://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabMtg/CmsnInnovEduc/2019_01_18_PolicyArea4.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2rCDkWkBSdXnbfQely6FiUiUoGU2aupfmXrxPVm360veL_VVceEa4KBXc">revised its call</a> for “More Resources for At-risk Students” to “More Resources to Ensure All Students are Successful.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson is affiliated with Howard University and The QEM Network. </span></em></p>Using the term ‘at-risk’ to describe students from challenging circumstances often creates more problems than it solves, a professor of counseling psychology argues.Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1019042018-08-28T11:09:07Z2018-08-28T11:09:07ZThe terrifying power of stereotypes – and how to deal with them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232869/original/file-20180821-149472-1csgvk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From “girls suck at maths” and “men are so insensitive” to “he is getting a bit senile with age” or “black people struggle at university”, there’s no shortage of common cultural stereotypes about social groups. Chances are you have heard most of these examples at some point. In fact, stereotypes are a bit like air: invisible but always present. </p>
<p>We all have multiple identities and some of them are likely to be stigmatised. While it may seem like we should just stop paying attention to stereotypes, it often isn’t that easy. False beliefs about our abilities easily turn into a voice of self doubt in our heads that can be hard to ignore. And in the last couple of decades, scientists have started to discover that this can have damaging effects on our actual performance. </p>
<p>This mechanism is due to what psychologists call “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4713435/">stereotype threat</a>” – referring to a fear of doing something that would confirm negative perceptions of a stigmatised group that we are members of. The phenomenon was first uncovered by American social psychologists in the 1990s. </p>
<p>In a seminal paper, they <a href="http://mrnas.pbworks.com/f/claude%20steele%20stereotype%20threat%201995.pdf">experimentally demonstrated</a> how racial stereotypes can affect intellectual ability. In their study, black participants performed worse than white participants on verbal ability tests when they were told that the test was “diagnostic” – a “genuine test of your verbal abilities and limitations”. However, when this description was excluded, no such effect was seen. Clearly these individuals had negative thoughts about their verbal ability that affected their performance.</p>
<p>Black participants also underperformed when racial stereotypes were activated much more subtly. Just asking participants to identify their race on a preceding demographic questionnaire was enough. What’s more, under the threatening conditions (diagnostic test), black participants reported higher levels of self doubt than white participants. </p>
<h2>Nobody’s safe</h2>
<p>Stereotype threat effects are very robust and affect all stigmatised groups. A recent analysis of several previous studies on the topic <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02417.x">revealed that</a> stereotype threat related to the intellectual domain exists across various experimental manipulations, test types and ethnic groups – ranging from black and Latino Americans to Turkish Germans. A wealth of research also links stereotype threat with women’s underperformance in <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0012702">maths</a> and <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-00652-004">leadership aspirations</a>. </p>
<p>Men are vulnerable, too. A study showed that men <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-005-3714-x">performed worse</a> when decoding non-verbal cues if the test was described as designed to measure “social sensitivity” – a stereotypically feminine skill. However, when the task was introduced as an “information processing test”, they did much better. In a similar vein, when children from poorer families are reminded of their lower socioeconomic status, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167298246003">they underperform on tests</a> described as diagnostic of intellectual abilities – but not otherwise. Stereotype threat has also been shown to affect <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4495554/">educational underachievement in immigrants</a> and <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00223/full">memory performance of the elderly</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232872/original/file-20180821-149469-c1u87f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We become aware of stereotypes early in life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Impact Photography/shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is important to remember that the triggering cues can be very subtle. One study demonstrated that when women viewed only two advertisements based on gender stereotypes among six commercials, they tended to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-00652-004">avoid leadership roles</a> in a subsequent task. This was the case even though the commercials had nothing to do with leadership.</p>
<h2>Mental mechanisms</h2>
<p>Stereotype threat <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1997-04591-001">leads to a vicious circle</a>. Stigmatised individuals experience anxiety which depletes their cognitive resources and leads to underperformance, confirmation of the negative stereotype and reinforcement of the fear.</p>
<p>Researchers have identified a number of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/614f/4a7bc8917f4f968d6915e718863778fca7b5.pdf">interrelated mechanisms</a> responsible for this effect, with the key being deficits in working memory capacity – the ability to concentrate on the task at hand and ignore distraction. Working memory under stereotype threat conditions is affected by physiological stress, performance monitoring and suppression processes (of anxiety and the stereotype). </p>
<p>Neuroscientists have even measured these effects in the brain. When we are affected by stereotype threat, brain regions responsible for emotional self-regulation and social feedback are activated while activity in the regions responsible for task performance are inhibited. </p>
<p>In our recent study, <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00223/full">published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience</a>, we demonstrated this effect for ageism. We used electroencephalography (EEG), a device which places electrodes on the scalp to track and record brainwave patterns, to show that older adults, having read a report about memory declining with age, experienced neural activation corresponding to having negative thoughts about oneself. They also underperformed in a subsequent, timed categorisation task. </p>
<h2>Coping strategies</h2>
<p>There is hope, however. Emerging studies on how to reduce stereotype threat <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/614f/4a7bc8917f4f968d6915e718863778fca7b5.pdf">identify a range of methods</a> – the most obvious being changing the stereotype. Ultimately, this is the way to eliminate the problem once and for all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232877/original/file-20180821-149493-18ti25x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Role models can help mitigate effects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pete Souz/ United States Air Force</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But changing stereotypes sadly often takes time. While we are working on it, there are techniques to help us cope. For example, visible, accessible and relevant role models are important. One study reported a positive “Obama effect” on African Americans. Whenever Obama drew press attention for positive, stereotype-defying reasons, stereotype threat effects <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109000742">were markedly reduced</a> in black Americans’ exam performance.</p>
<p>Another method is to buffer the threat through shifting self perceptions to positive group identity or self affirmation. For example, Asian women underperformed on maths tests when reminded of their gender identity but not when <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2014-20922-008.html">reminded of their Asian identity</a>. This is because Asian individuals are stereotypically seen as good at maths. In the same way, many of us belong to a few different groups – it is sometimes worth shifting the focus towards the one which gives us strength. </p>
<p>Gaining confidence by practising the otherwise threatening task is also beneficial, as seen with <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617736887">female chess players</a>. One way to do this could be by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109002510">reframing the task as a challenge</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, merely being aware of the damaging effects that stereotypes can have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00799.x">can help us reinterpret the anxiety</a> and makes us more likely to perform better. We may not be able to avoid stereotypes completely and immediately, but we can try to clear the air of them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magdalena Zawisza receives funding from British Academy, Innovate UK and Polish National Science Centre. </span></em></p>Whether it is racism, sexism or ageism, most of us face prejudice in some domain. And it turns out that damaging stereotypes can significantly affect our intellectual abilities.Magdalena Zawisza, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924492018-03-06T13:15:44Z2018-03-06T13:15:44ZWhat ‘blackface’ tells us about China’s patronising attitude towards Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208457/original/file-20180301-152569-1ppwk0z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A skit on China's English language TV station CCTV's Spring Festival Gala featuring 'blackface' actors has gone viral.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You could compile a <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1535574/racist-maid-advert-draws-anger-hong-kong">long list</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-blackface-and-brownface-offend-65881">‘blackfaces’</a> in East Asian media over the <a href="https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2018/02/17/cctv-toothpaste-short-history-blackface-china">last decade</a>. But the latest version this Euro-American racist archetype in Chinese media is by far the most <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-media-struggles-to-overcome-stereotypes-of-africa-92362?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton">controversial</a> – a skit on China’s English language TV station CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala featuring ‘blackface’ actors. Like the others on the <a href="https://qz.com/1101699/africans-in-china-are-infuriated-over-a-museum-exhibit-comparing-africans-to-animals/">growing list</a> of racist incidents, this one has also <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-washing-powder-afrophobia-and-racism-in-china-60274">gone viral</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond the ‘blackface’, the skit’s story is rather simple but still problematic. Carrie, an 18-year-old Kenyan stewardess trainee, asks her Chinese teacher to pass as her boyfriend to avoid a blind date organised by her mother. Carrie doesn’t want to get married yet. She wants to work and then go to China to study.</p>
<p>In the skit’s resolution, Carrie confesses to her mother and explains her desire to go to China. It becomes clear that she sees China as a way to escape tradition (and her mother’s traditional views on marriage). </p>
<p>Carrie’s mother then starts praising China’s role in Africa and agrees to Carrie’s plans, shouting </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I love the Chinese! I love China!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The skit was intended to highlight the positive aspects of China-Africa relations. Instead, it presented a narrative in which China is seen as a solution to Africa’s backwardness. </p>
<h2>China, the saviour</h2>
<p>This episode echoes the broadcast of a similar story featured on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxr99UDYAug">‘If You Are the One’</a> – a highly popular Chinese TV dating show a few years ago. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://africansinchina.net/2013/08/09/%E9%9D%9E%E8%AF%9A%E5%8B%BF%E6%89%B0-africans-in-china-in-chinese-media-you-are-the-one/">analysis</a> of the show at the time I explained how <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxr99UDYAug">Xiao De</a> (a participant from Guinea Bissau) was portrayed as a free-spirited girl, trapped by tradition. Xiao De saw going to China as a way to escape her fate (an arranged marriage), study, and become independent. </p>
<p>In the dating show, Xiao De is looking to marry a Chinese man. As with Carrie, moving to China and marrying a Chinese is her way of escaping tradition and entering modernity — a Chinese version of it. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Xiao De in her last appearance in ‘If You Are the One’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These skits reproduce a narrative that is representative of China’s general approach to Africa. Both official and popular Chinese narratives about Africa consistently try to construct an image of the continent as China’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/search?id%3D%22208045%22+align%3D%22centre%22+caption%3D%22Paolo+Uccello%27s+depiction+of+Saint+George+and+the+dragon,+c.+1470,+a+classic+image+of+a+damsel+in+distress.%22+/%3E&rlz=1C1NHXL_enZA711ZA711&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ibanAKDQ6f1mmM%253A%252C_tmjTF3Otcm0kM%252C_&usg=__DUltEDS4-tLDsOpeS7-Bpx49-6o%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-zo_R2srZAhVEDcAKHbipC1IQ9QEILDAC#imgrc=ibanAKDQ6f1mmM:">‘damsel in distress’</a>. </p>
<p>Africa is depicted as a young and beautiful woman who needs to be saved by a male hero. In the end, the woman usually marries her rescuer. The narrative is also always gendered – China is portrayed as the (modern) male hero and Africa the princess in jeopardy. </p>
<p>Multiple versions of this have been repeated over the decades. In short, behind the Gala’s ‘blackface’ lies a consistent top-down, ego-boosting effort to see and represent China as a way for Africa to enter modernity. </p>
<h2>Africa as the past, China as the future</h2>
<p>The Spring Festival Gala is a programme full of skits. While the skits are normally comedic, they generally intend to inform and educate the audience about a particular topic, from military affairs and everyday life. More <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/racism-and-the-belt-and-road-in-cctvs-spring-festival-gala/">controversially</a>, they also sometimes focus on other cultures. </p>
<p>The ‘blackface’ skit was the first in the Gala’s history to portray China-Africa relations. If it’s intention was to educate its viewers about the complexities and realities of contemporary sub-Saharan life, it failed miserably. For example, the skit’s story is supposedly set in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, but all you can see in the background is a savannah. There are in fact no savannah’s in site in modern-day Nairobi.</p>
<p>Representing ‘Africa as the past’ means associating ideas about Africa strictly with nature and tradition. </p>
<p>But stereotypical views about Africa aren’t only evident in China’s media — they pervade everyday life in China, a fact that African students who have lived in China can attest to.</p>
<p>The CCTV skit was merely catering to age-old stereotypes held by many ordinary Chinese people. </p>
<p>Naivety and ignorance are often cited as justifications for this stereotyping. As one argument has it, ordinary Chinese only reproduce what is offered to them by Hollywood.</p>
<p>This is to some extent true. But, there is evidence from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmRNfonkdug">museum exhibitions</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=uV1IRVWnQGA">film festivals</a> that point in another direction. Even people in positions of power in China seem to hold these views. Blaming Hollywood seems a poor defence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberto Castillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>China’s offensive ‘blackface’ skit intended to highlight the positive aspects of China-Africa relations, has done the opposite.Roberto Castillo, Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies, Lingnan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/923622018-02-26T13:40:47Z2018-02-26T13:40:47ZChina’s media struggles to overcome stereotypes of Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207815/original/file-20180226-140217-309rbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spring Festival Gala with some Chinese actors in blackface.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most Chinese people, the <a href="https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/spring-festival.htm">Spring Festival</a> is a time to honour family ties, friendships and acquaintances. </p>
<p>This is what producers of this year’s Annual Spring Festival Gala on China’s national broadcaster, CCTV, probably had in mind when they agreed to include a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAhaj5sG8fc">comedy skit</a> about the growing ties between China and African countries called “Celebrating Together” (同喜同乐). </p>
<p>In a celebration of Sino-African friendship, what could go wrong? In fact, quite a lot. </p>
<p>The 13-minute long skit opens with dozens of African performers, alongside antelopes and a lion, dancing to the tune of Shakira’s “Waka Waka”, all rejoicing over the opening of the China-built Nairobi to Mombasa Railway. They are joined by a group of Kenyan train attendants and the female lead, a Gabonese actress speaking fluent Mandarin. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/siEPxHafx-4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV’s 2018 Lunar New Year TV Gala.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And, then, a well-known Chinese actress in full blackface comes on stage wearing a colourful yellow dress, fully equipped with oversized butt pads, carrying a fruit plate on her head and leading a cheerful monkey played by an unidentified African actor. </p>
<p>In less than 12 hours, descriptions of the skit were all over <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43081218">international media</a> – always ready to run a “China, the foe” story. Turning to the Twittersphere, the public opinion thermometer of the 21st century, journalists found a divided audience: many called it racist, others argued it was not.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"964312803573141504"}"></div></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"964149617297248257"}"></div></p>
<p>The skit might not have been ill-intentioned. But it was both culturally and racially insensitive. It also reeked of propaganda and relied on all the stereotypes about Africa that Chinese media claim to be debunking in their public diplomacy activities in the continent.</p>
<h2>Chinese representation of Africa</h2>
<p>It is not the first time that a Chinese state-sanctioned production has misrepresented Africa and African people in such a grotesque way. Last summer, the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7131870/">“Wolf Warrior 2”</a>, the highest-grossing Chinese film ever, managed to bring together in a single movie all the clichés of Hollywood’s white-saviour subgenre: an unnamed African country affected by a deadly disease descends into chaos as civil war erupts. That is, until a Chinese mercenary comes to the rescue. </p>
<p>All film scripts in China <a href="http://americanfilmmarket.com/working-in-film-in-china/">must be pre-approved</a> before production starts and they must get a final green light before they’re released. CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala also goes through multiple stages of supervision. Sometimes movies and TV acts are tossed out because a red flag is raised. That clearly didn’t happen this time.</p>
<p>Neither “Wolf Warrior 2” nor the Spring Festival Gala were conceived with global audiences in mind. They are cultural artefacts that speak to domestic audiences and, as such, they are tuned to the so-called <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=FL3RCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=jiang+zemin+main+melody&source=bl&ots=VQfyj0-OQz&sig=qv0ow-GvWaCvwBAVR2bCDnI9lpI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjejLPgjcPZAhULC8AKHXhcB88Q6AEIQzAI#v=onepage&q=jiang%20zemin%20main%20melody&f=false">“main melody”</a>, a concept often attributed to China’s President in the 1990s, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-20038774">Jiang Zemin</a>. Cultural products that dance to the main melody need to be aesthetically attractive to the masses, but remain politically aligned with the doctrine of the Communist Party.</p>
<p>China has a different repertoire for global audiences. As part of its quest to improve its image overseas, Beijing has promoted the expansion of companies like CGTN, Xinhua, China Daily and StarTimes. All have a strong presence in Africa, where they claim to be presenting a different view of the continent and its people.</p>
<p>These efforts are hit hard every time a gaffe, such as the CCTV’s skit, goes on air.</p>
<h2>Savannas and safaris</h2>
<p>Chinese media portray Africa in stereotypes not dissimilar to the rest of the world. The continent is routinely treated as a single unit, erasing its linguistic, racial and cultural diversity. It is often associated with cliched images such as savannas and safaris and its transformations over the last 30 years reduced to a market logic under the tagline “Africa rising”. </p>
<p>While misrepresentations of Africa are not an exclusive problem of Chinese media, two things set China apart.</p>
<p>As the release of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">“Black Panther”</a> has shown, many in the US are ready to engage in an open discussion about how the US movie industry has, for decades, failed to address racial biases. </p>
<p>In China, criticism of the CCTV African skit <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/02/sensitive-words-spring-festival-gala-2018/">on social media has been censored</a>. This is not surprising, given that, every year, Chinese censors work hard to erase negative comments of a show that has gone from being a must-watch for many Chinese families to a source of memes and jokes for younger generations.</p>
<p>This suggests that China needs to have a conversation about racial insensitivity, which is too common and too often dismissed as cultural specificity. The cultural specificity argument goes like this: while something might be considered offensive in the “West” (for example, blackface), it is not in China, and, therefore, there is no need to feel offended by it. </p>
<h2>Hard to say sorry</h2>
<p>For a long time Beijing has kept a double narrative going in its media strategy – one for domestic consumption and another one for global audiences. This worked in a pre-Internet era.</p>
<p>If China wants to be viewed as a responsible global actor, it needs to find appropriate ways to prevent controversies such as the one created by the offensive CCTV skit. It could, for example, seek out African specialists at Chinese universities to offer expert advise.</p>
<p>More importantly, when errors are made – and Chinese leaders need to accept that nobody is infallible – Beijing needs to be ready to acknowledge them. </p>
<p>Foreign companies, and sometimes foreign media, are forced to issue an apology when their actions are deemed to hurt Chinese people. Will CCTV be offering one? For now, that seems unlikely. Speaking to the press, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lunar-newyear-china-blackface/china-denies-racism-says-hyping-up-tv-blackface-skit-futile-idUSKCN1G60ZE">dismissed the controversy</a> and taken the usual path: attacking those who brought up the issue.</p>
<p>Next time Beijing may want to change its approach. By apologising, it would show the world that it is becoming an empathetic global power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dani Madrid-Morales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In China, like in other parts of the world, Africa is routinely treated as a single unit, erasing its linguistic, racial and cultural diversity.Dani Madrid-Morales, PhD Fellow in Media and Communication, City University of Hong KongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/496352015-11-17T11:02:18Z2015-11-17T11:02:18ZAre Texas textbooks making cops more trigger-happy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101758/original/image-20151112-9400-1x0szog.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are textbooks having an impact on the framing of race issues?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thefuturistics/3433367251/in/photolist-6eoUt6-aHkDq-8Pq3AD-5s4rom-a6uxGP-5ARCL9-49Bxe4-4DX1uB-wbt8X4-5fpdU8-6WEyNP-6R8GC1-aDhKm7-o8SL53-oq6kUR-oq6pq8-o8SZbK-o8SqPm-aPD3Q-6Ffq2Q-e88ekw-5myzaa-8hpwV-exYUot-5B458o-jGpeW-7GWSGL-vyRHtA-6DmXxF-792dMH-8kcmbn-9d75aM-dghBWj-67GiC6-5v71PY-7iiWkG-4BmTmt-6sThC-bYhfi3-6t2VUt-7Mio86-bYhfms-bYhfk5-5zvW6T-3Z6JSb-8HFHUk-a1s28E-bWH4pS-5zAeaq-272njD">thefuturistics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Perusing a passage on the Civil War in a high school student’s history textbook in Texas might leave you wondering if black Americans were ever enslaved and if there really is any truth to <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15592">anti-black racism</a> at all.</p>
<p>A natural question is, are these textbooks having an impact in framing issues of race on the reader? </p>
<p>The fact is that Texas’ size and buying power <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/">influence</a> how <a href="http://philpapers.org/rec/APPTPO">textbooks get written</a> for children throughout the nation.</p>
<p>As an ethnographic researcher of race and education in Texas for the last 10 years, I have come to recognize that the US history textbook materials available to high school students can end up perpetuating damaging images of blackness. </p>
<p>Textbook language may not exactly pull the trigger of a police officer’s gun, but it could very well drive the thinking involved in the act of shooting an unarmed black male. </p>
<p>This becomes evident during depositions on <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32740523">police brutality</a> by law enforcement officials. Many of these police officers describe their fear of the black male victims. They often said they anticipated violence and presented black aggression as their justification for firing. The expressed beliefs of these officers about black males sound very similar to the language authored by writers and publishers of <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153644">many Texas textbooks</a>. </p>
<h2>Perpetuating fear and ignorance</h2>
<p>Research has shown that fear and a lack of understanding of the context in which other people live (especially racial context) can have fatal outcomes. </p>
<p>Former Professor of Sociology <a href="http://barryglassner.com/">Barry Glassner</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=B9AWBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=glassner+2010&ots=wPlsRoOi4T&sig=RtK6KUa23HjupKo-TtfbzLULiT8#v=onepage&q=glassner%202010&f=false">explains</a> how such fears are perpetuated. Glassner shows how politicians and other opinion leaders emphasize the violence perpetuated by black males over the arguably greater amount of violence black males suffer themselves. </p>
<p>This ends up fostering a fear of black men in American minds and consequently in white police officers’ imaginations.</p>
<p>Further, Glassner notes, much of what is believed about black males comes from “omissions” made in the media and in news reports about black victims of crimes. Similar omissions occur in textbook passages as well and students are left thinking that during slavery white suffering outweighed black suffering.</p>
<p>This makes it difficult to connect a history of servitude and oppression to current day inequality.</p>
<h2>Connections with today’s violence</h2>
<p>Consider the language authored by writers and publishers of many Texas textbooks, specifically <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153644">David Kennedy</a>, the author of 15 editions of the nationally used advanced placement text, The American Pageant. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101747/original/image-20151112-9369-1hcjlgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The language in some books perpetuates stereotypical images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/smichael/4563914649/in/photolist-7XifPB-97apY9-sKzMF-JKY7K-JKZ9k-5Tfugo-9gbuW-8atxJD-38wtvn-9gbuU-8WzZvT-9cnGN-76RW2m-76N3gg-76RWJE-76RWBG-473PX3-46YFTK-asUdtJ-asUgh3-76N3qr-jsrTQP-gymF1g-9acf3H-aFonfx-96Fsth-6yTaFB-76N3nz-6vouPh-8atykn-4MuaYs-7EJEN-9Rwwft-6eYBaF-7FkcGW-6eYB5M-6Z17DN-6MUipK-8awNTE-6Z19wd-473Lhy-6eYBJH-8atzNg-6Z17GE-6YW6w6-46YL98-6eYBEr-8atzqt-6f3MbQ-6f3MfY">Sarah Browning</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kennedy perpetuates stereotypical images associated with black people such as laziness and black male aggression. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2016%20testing%20the%20new%20nation.pdf">following passage</a> highlights anti-white language and even blames black slaves for the perpetuation of these words. Notice that it omits common racial epithets for black slaves. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many of the poorer whites were hardly better off economically than the slaves; some indeed, were not so well off…some of the least prosperous non-slaveholding whites were scorned even by slaves as “poor white trash.” Known also as “hillbillies,” “crackers,” or “clay eaters,” they were often described as listless, shiftless, and misshapen. Later investigations have revealed that many of them were not simply lazy but sick, suffering from malnutrition and parasites…“ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or, the <a href="http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2016%20testing%20the%20new%20nation.pdf">following</a> that suggests that white racial beliefs of black laziness are rooted in black people actually avoiding work, and not in racist notions of superiority:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Not surprisingly, victims of the "peculiar institution” devised countless ways to throw sand in the gears. When workers are not voluntarily hired and adequately compensated, they can hardly be expected to work with alacrity. Accordingly, slaves often slowed the pace of their labor to the barest minimum that would spare them the lash, thus fostering the myth of black “laziness” in the minds of whites. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or, yet <a href="http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2016%20testing%20the%20new%20nation.pdf">another quote</a>, that suggests that black slaves were given more freedoms than we are typically aware of and that these freedoms were willingly granted by white slave owners:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Within this paternalistic system, black slaves were able to make reciprocal demands on their white owners and to protect a “cultural space” of their own in which family and religion particularly could flourish. The crowning paradox of the slaveholder paternalism was that in treating their property more humanely, slave-owners implicitly recognized the humanity of their slaves and thereby subverted the racist underpinnings upon which their slave society existed. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now consider how law enforcers such as <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/the-cop">Darren Wilson,</a> the infamous cop who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/11/darren_wilson_s_racial_portrayal_of_michael_brown_as_a_superhuman_demon.html">described</a> his altercation with Brown. He said it made him “fearful” – like “a five-year-old child fighting <a href="http://marvel.com/characters/25/hulk">The Hulk</a>.” He insisted that he had never seen such “evil.” He said Brown behaved in a “monstrous” fashion that made him fear for his life. </p>
<p>Wilson’s language demonstrates the commonalities among racial profiling of black youth by police officers and the revisionist historical narrative of blackness in the United States that is available in the textbooks.</p>
<p>What Wilson did not mention was that he cursed at Brown and harassed him prior to the altercation that resulted in the teen running from a hail of bullets, as reported by Brown’s friend, eyewitness <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eyewitness-michael-brown-fatal-shooting-missouri">Dorian Johnson</a>.</p>
<h2>How violence of black lives is omitted</h2>
<p>This is not all. Texas history textbooks are replete with such revisionist history. </p>
<p>Consider the <a href="http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/files/chapter%2016%20testing%20the%20new%20nation.pdf">following interpretation</a> of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html">Nat Turner’s rebellion</a> from <a href="http://www.scuc.txed.net/webpages/cbaker/ap_us_history.cfm?subpage=40296">The American Pageant</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The state’s response to abolition was to strengthen the slave codes and moments like “Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831 sent a wave of hysteria sweeping over the snowy cotton fields and planters in growing numbers slept with pistols by their pillows.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The violence and fatal anti-black oppression that historians argue had fueled the uprising <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iVL74heFU-AC&oi=fnd&pg=PP16&dq=nat+turner+black+resistance&ots=DCDdhJoW3F&sig=XeNoen4RNr94ySgZukq8Z5G7Iy0#v=onepage&q=nat%20turner%20black%20resistance&f=false">were left out</a>. Instead, the “fear” and “anxiety” Turner purportedly put in the “hearts of white Americans” “causing them to sleep with their guns under their pillows” is the only description available. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101748/original/image-20151112-9400-b4pb9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some books omit the violence in black lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peskylibrary/1403426466/in/photolist-391VN3-ahMdtU-7AdSCZ-93ubki-8GnaRo-7AhC65-7AhvC1-3cDw3j-3cDw33-3cDw39-7AdGvk-7AdHnT-bihuKk-4XfjkY-73Gkqp-7AdRwD-7AhvRm-7AdHyK-7AdRQp-7AdGWg-7AdHbt-qZAQDS-7tA8xf-7twauZ-7tA8zA-76VtMk-7AdHVn-7AhBPW-7AdHHZ-6h3GqB-7tA8w9-6h7SMC-7tA8wy-caGvyU-npGqZ5-caGnC5-76Z9wm-76ZgtL-76ZgT5-76VkSg-76VjWK-76Zfyj-76Zhum-76ZhZS-76Vo6M-boKnnJ-61zmr5-61v6QV-61v7zn-61v75B">Pesky Librarians</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This potentially translates into narratives that are absorbed and expressed by law enforcers such as Wilson. Whether or not Darren Wilson was actually scared is not the point. The more telling detail is that he comes up with a narrative of his own victimization that sounds all too familiar. </p>
<p>Darren Wilson and the white Americans who slept with their guns under their pillows during slavery become the focus. The lived reality of pain and violence of black victims is omitted.</p>
<h2>Some more examples</h2>
<p>Representations of race in American history textbooks have become more exclusionary as they show even <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html?_r=0">less</a> regard for an accurate historical portrayal of black oppression. </p>
<p>The Texas State School Board (SBOE) has been debating whether or not to even include the word “slave” in the textbook since 2010. Just recently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/150-years-later-schools-are-still-a-battlefield-for-interpreting-civil-war/2015/07/05/e8fbd57e-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html">Texas education officials suggested</a> that slavery should be considered only as a side issue when teaching the Civil War.</p>
<p>Another recent example comes from a Houston-area mom, who conducted a cogent analysis of her ninth-grade son’s geography book. She demonstrated why her son was so upset through tweets of video and photographs of the textbook’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/04/living/mcgraw-hill-slavery-textbook-mom-complaint-feat/">whitewashing language.</a> She shows that the geography text refers to black slaves as “workers.” </p>
<p>Once her pictures went viral on social media outlets, <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/company-behind-texas-textbook-calling-slaves-workers-apologizes-we-made-380168">David Levin</a>, the CEO of McGraw-Hill, the major textbook publisher responsible for the geography textbook, expressed promises of a better review process in the future. He called the word choice of workers a mistake and issued an apology.</p>
<p>However, the contention around Texas textbooks and race continues. </p>
<h2>How can we stop the next Mike Brown?</h2>
<p>If we are to truly move toward making black lives matter, we must start with how we talk about black people in history. And more importantly, who we allow to shape the conversation on that history.</p>
<p>Often we do not focus on the important role of civil servants on textbook adoption committees, but <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5m2_xeJ4VdwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=loewen+2008&ots=Pz1wxn9Ssp&sig=uAYyhptxKjDPQSh-N4DaZpg61J0#v=onepage&q=loewen%202008&f=false">their choices</a> could well perpetuate racist beliefs and also lead to potentially fatal consequences. </p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, the decisions Texas makes matters beyond state boundaries. So, I suggest we start with a Texas State Board of Education that represents diverse racial perspectives. As <a href="http://tea.texas.gov/index4.aspx?id=2147506719">these officials</a> are elected, concerned citizens must support candidates that will bring a more critical eye to which materials are to be adopted into the schools. </p>
<p>I also suggest that we draft stronger policy restrictions on the materials that come out of major Texas publishing houses. </p>
<p>If public schools continue to teach police officers and members of society in general that black slaves and poor whites suffered the same conditions or that black resistance to unpaid labor and death was unnecessary and overly violent, how will we be able to stop the death of the next Mike Brown?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Reed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Textbook language can influence thinking. So, what do some textbooks say on issues of race?Naomi Reed, Post Doctoral Fellow, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.