obrienk: Empowering Students to be Anti-Racists - And the "Perils of Indifference"

When reflecting on The Holocaust and Elie Wiesel's words, I head his warning about the "Perils of Indifference" - and how we must pay attention to the rise in hate crime violence.
We must recognize the coercive propaganda spread online by white nationalists that are actively soliciting minors. Just as Hitler manipulated Germans to blame the Jews, white nationalists and the alt-right are blaming immigrants, people of color, and Jews today. Yet the language of white supremacy seems subtle and seductive in tapping into emotions of frustration and disillusionment.
From Portland Press Herald: “Baseless narratives about Jewish secrecy, power gaining ground – even here” (May 1, 2019)

White nationalists have long believed that Jewish “outside agitators” are behind every left-leaning protest and political cause. Indeed, in his article “Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism,” scholar-activist Eric K. Ward explains that anti-Semitism is a core component of white nationalism. Rather than understanding that fights for racial and economic justice represent the interests and ambitions of groups that are left out by a dominant culture that is white and Christian, white nationalists hold that Jews are “manipulating the social order behind the scenes,” Ward notes. Two examples are particularly illustrative: Last October, a flier was posted at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, stating: “Every time some anti-white anti-American, anti-freedom event takes place, you look at it, and it’s Jews behind it.” Depicted on the flier were several Jewish public figures, including Soros, with Jewish stars superimposed upon their foreheads. Former Gov. Paul LePage was making the same point when he recently claimed that the Democratic Party is funded “for the most part” by Jewish people.
Recently on November 19th on the PBS NewsHour:
"How these Oregon teachers are fighting back against white nationalism"
The FBI reports that hate crime violence in the U.S. is at a 16-year high. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, meanwhile, says the highest percentage of hate incidents since the 2016 election occurred in elementary and secondary schools. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault takes a look at how this problem has manifest in northwest Oregon -- and what tool teachers are using to intervene.

Read the Full Transcript
EXCERPT:
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

Well, Lindsay, this is where you come in.

There does seem to be, by all accounts, a rise in white supremacist speech. How is it that you came to deal with that, and how did you — what did you come up with?
Lindsay Schubiner:

We also know that white nationalist and alt-right movements are intentionally recruiting young people.

The editor of a neo-Nazi Web site has written that he designs his Web site to recruit children as young as 11 years old. We're talking about young people who are — who don't yet have fully formed views and opinions about the world. And that's a big reason why white nationalists and alt-right groups are working to recruit them.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

So you have come up with this kit, a kit that you have used in your classes. What does this kit do?
Lindsay Schubiner:

So, this toolkit provides some context and some guidance around the issue of white nationalist and alt-right recruitment of young people. And it also provides a number of scenarios, possible things that might happen in a school community.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

It also contains definitions and a road map to alt-right symbols to help teachers, administrators and community members strip the secrecy from white nationalism.

So how have you used the toolkit?
Patrick Griffin:

So, I like using the toolkit in my classrooms with my lesson plans, whether it be talking about definitions or scenarios.

The toolkit has been useful in, heck, conversations in the hallways with students as they're coming up to me to talk about, hey, Mr. Griffin, what do you think about this or that meme or whatnot, whatever's current in their life.

We're also using the toolkit to create advisory lesson plans that the entire school body, student body will be using.
Lindsay Schubiner:

One thing the toolkit tries to do is empower students that they do have a voice. But it's not their responsibility to take this on. There are adults in the community, and it's our job to take this on.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

And do your students, the students that you're talking with, do they understand? Especially those who are embracing these white nationalist tropes, how do you deal with them and prevent them from moving into the direction of violence?
Patrick Griffin:

If a kid is going through that, then you have got to make them feel known, valued, loved, part of the community, because so much of this is this isolationism that they're experiencing, while also educating some of their ignorance about the greater context of it.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

How — reaching the students in your classroom doesn't address what they're getting at home, so how do you deal with that?
Lindsay Schubiner:

For people who are already deeply involved in white nationalism, this toolkit is not for them.

But it also, we hope, will help create communities that are openly talking about issues of white nationalism, white supremacy, racial justice, and reinforcing values that include everyone.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault:

To both of you, how hopeful are you that the kind of extremism that this toolkit is trying to address can be contained or even defeated? Are you hopeful at all, or is it just moving too fast?
Patrick Griffin:

I have a lot of reasons to not be hopeful, I guess. That said, I have a lot of reasons to be hopeful too.

And it is that these kids are willing to engage in these conversations in a nuanced manner that I don't think some previous generations have been as willing to engage in. And so, if you just keep doing it, eventually, you get an entire new generation in charge, and I suppose there's a lot of hope there.