The Main Idol/Objective
The desired goal is to be “culturally competent.” Gary defines this as “the will and the ability to form authentic and effective relationships across differences.”
“We need to, part of asking questions is when we start talking about issues or having conversations, and I’m talking about social dominance or social justice or white identity orientations related to the journey of white folks related to race, we need to be able to be clear about that language and ask each other to kind of stop and say, “what’s really going on here?”
The objective is to commit to social justice
Color blindness is not the same. Color blindness is shamed in this ideology.
Original sin
This ideology is based on an oppressor/oppressed paradigm. He speaks a lot about this in an exercise about the founding documents.
The exercise “We the people (pt 2)(pt 3)” emphasizes that only “rich, white guys” were the only people able to participate in American life in 1787. He says that the American Foundation is based in exclusion.
Gary also presents a chart of “White Identity Orientations” where he explicitly calls out whiteness as a problem to address.
“Facilitator Note: At some point in your work with Social Dominance, it is recommended that you focus specifically on issues of race and white privilege. This is important precisely because such a large percentage of teachers are white. This video Segment creates a conceptual foundation and a process for guiding the conversation on race and whiteness. Your Facilitation Team should talk about when might be the best time to initiate this activity and how you want to structure the small groups for discussion. For diverse faculties, it is best to have a mix of white people and people of color in each of your small groups.
”
Guilt and Redemption
Gary Howard brings up a story about an 8th grader “Mr. Howard, I want to rip my white skin off.” Gary Howard then brings up the necessity for white people to feel shame.
https://rumble.com/v10mlt5-shame-in-8th-grade.html
He also introduces a sheet that explains the stages of organizational growth. He claims schools can be “all three” and that stage 3 is not the limit that the chart would “go on”
Redemption is made an unachievable goal, there are three key phrases to this “journey”
Choosing Cardinals
“Selecting Your Facilitation Team
Although as school leaders, you could implement much of the professional development process on your own, it is highly recommended that you bring together a Facilitation Team to support you in the work and collaborate in planning and leading sessions with staff, Following are suggested guidelines for selecting members of your Facilitation Team:
• People who have demonstrated a strong commitment to equity and social justice
• People who have earned the respect of their colleagues--who are opinion leaders among their peers
• People who are good stand-up presenters and facilitators of reflective conversations
• People who represent the diversity of your school in terms of race, gender, age, grade level, role, department, specialty, classified and certificated, and other dimensions of diversity you feel are salient
• People who can help you connect with different constituencies or opinion groups within your staff, particularly those who could be resistant to the work
• People who will support you in the implementation of a systemic change process related to cultural competence and culturally responsive practice”
Self Reflection
In this program, there are a few exercises that are meant to encourage “reflection.”
“I am Poems” - Writing poems based on personal attributes and experiences.
“Sharing personal culture”- (And the implications of your culture on to your students)
These are typically done in groups that have been pre-made by the facilitator and he leaves time for conversation.
Finding “the light”
“Culture Toss”- A sheet is handed out with 6 facets of identity.
He claims some places are like this and that “some would argue” the US is too.
“Race/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, language, life value, vocation, possession.” These boxes are filled out and elaborated. Then he shifts to a thought experiment where the participant is to imagine they are in an “oppressive police state” and to cross two boxes that they would be willing to “hide” out. Pause, now imagine it’s worse and cross out two more. You are left with two boxes in which you are allowed to openly identify. This is also referenced as “give it up.”
“We’re gonna simulate an environment, which I would call a police state. So if you just imagine, kind of sit back for a minute and imagine what it would be like to be sitting in this room in a police state, in an oppressive environment, dangerous to be who you are, all those identities that you just listed can be targeted. People are watching, people are disappearing, people are being arrested and taken away, that kind of environment, an
oppressive police state, which unfortunately is happening in many places around our planet and some people feel even in our own country. This oppressive environment where it’s not safe to be who you are. I want you in this setting to be thinking about that, and for your survival and the protection of the people around you, everybody in the room has to give up two of their boxes. So two boxes have to go. Cross off two of your boxes. Now let's talk about what that means for a minute. Race and ethnicity, let’s take that box. I’m not talking about a face change operation. I’m talking about the fact that you deny your racial identity. Actually, this is something people do all the time, denying who we are, trying to be something else. You cannot benefit from that identity, you can’t
join a group around it, you can’t talk about it or celebrate it. So just imagine that, what that would be like to deny your identity racially and ethnically. Religion. You may still hold the beliefs, but you gotta go underground with it. Think of Jews under the Nazi regime in Germany who were hiding out. They were still Jewish, but they couldn’t be Jewish. If they were discovered to be Jewish, it was dangerous. So religion might have to be stuffed underground. You might lie about it. Life value is similar. Life value, you may still believe it, but you can’t live from it, you gotta stuff it down and cross it out. Language. Language. Whatever language you wrote in that box, you lose that ability to speak that language. It doesn’t mean you can’t speak, it just means you can’t speak English or Spanish or French or whatever languages you put in that box. They’re gone. You can speak another language but you lose that one. We look at vocation, you lose it. We look at possession, you lose it. So everybody take a few minutes now, just probably a couple of minutes, to look at your six boxes and under an oppressive survival culture or environment, a police state, and you had to give up two, which two would go?”
“Guessing game”- “Then the other part of this is the activity is really designed to introduce ideas of privilege and power and the impact those have on our students as individuals and as groups. Group 1 was definitely the privileged group. We set up a privileged system. We’ll talk more about that later when we define social dominance. But we set up a privilege and power system, where certain folks were preferred and given all the clues and the skids were greased for their success and other kids that were left out, other groups that were left out of that. So look at issues of privilege and power and how it’s unequally distributed, even back to the beginning of our country, that we did in We, The People, inclusion for a set group of folks. They were really group 1; white male landowners. And everybody else in varying degrees was group 2, 3, and 4, alright, during that founding of the nation”
Baptism/ Transformation
“ Everybody now knows the language and everybody can speak about social justice, what White Privilege means. We can speak about all those kinds of things and have a common dialogue so when you talk about it, whether it has to do with students, or families, or administrators, or staff, we have a base of language and common language that we can speak from, which is I think very useful.” Dennis Carlson, Superintendent, Anoka-Hennepin School District.
Once you have accepted this into your personal practice, you have to spread the word and fix the institution.
Dealing with non-believers
When resistance occurs, possible Facilitator responses include the following:
Recognize the Resistance
Look for signs of resistance in the workshop and acknowledge them to yourself and your Facilitation Team.
Ignore Behaviors
It is sometimes best simply to ignore the behavior for a while. See where it goes. Participants test us just like kids test teachers.
Delay
When you experience any behavior that feels like a direct verbal attack or negative challenge, simply tell the participant you will be dealing with that issue in a future activity or session. "We'll be getting to that, so just hold the thought and we'll deal with it during our next session."
Respond
In the case of a direct verbal challenge, you can also respond directly. Treat the issue not as an attack but as a reasonable question or concern, and give your best response to it. This can help reduce resistance by demonstrating that you can take any reaction seriously without becoming defensive.
Team
If you find yourself feeling angry or thrown off balance by a comment or behavior, turn to your Facilitator teammates and ask if one of them has a response, This has the added advantage of giving you some time to think or count to ten.
Back-Door Approach
In dealing with particularly negative behavior or attitudes, you may want to meet with the person during lunch or a break. Don't confront the resistance; just try to establish rapport and create a sense of inclusion. The realization that you aren't rejecting or avoiding the person because of his or her negative behavior can in itself sometimes reduce the resistance.
Direct Confrontation
Occasionally, a person or group becomes so negative that you need to confront the behavior directly during the session or perhaps privately afterward. This is necessary to demonstrate to the other participants that you value their feelings and commitment and will not allow one or two people to destroy the experience for others.
Regrouping
In the case of negative groups of participants, people who seem to reinforce each other's resistance or negativity, use small-group activities that separate these people. Plan ahead for the next activity, and organize the groups so these dusters of negativity are neutralized.
Evaluation Review
When you are reviewing any Evaluation Comments you have gathered from your participants, use this opportunity to directly or indirectly acknowledge or confront resistance behaviors and issues. Make public the most damaging" evaluation comments you have heard or read. Once again, this demonstrates that your Facilitation Team is willing to deal directly with any feedback from the group. Also, bring up any comments that suggest other participants are being negatively affected by some of the resistance or distracting behaviors evident in the group. Ask the group to respond, and give your response if it seems appropriate. Be creative with the evaluation review--if you and the other Facilitators have an issue, bring it up. You are part of the group, too.
Pure psyops... 😡