Race and the Curriculum

Multicultural awareness should be better incorporated into American education, two panelists said during a discussion entitled "Race, Power and Resistance to Change" at the Graduate School of Education last night.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd of 250 at the Gutman Conference Center, Beverly Tatum, a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the department of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College, said "success-oriented behavior" should not be perceived as "acting white."

"The question that educators must ask is, how did academic achievement get defined as exclusively white behavior?" said Tatum. "What in the curriculum reinforces the [idea] that academic excellence is an exclusively white domain?"

Tatum said including multiculturalism in a school's curriculum would strengthen the racial identity of African-American students and increase the cultural awareness of white students. "[Black students] will learn to think of themselves as potential agents of change, not as victims," she said.

Tatum cited a case study in which a Blackstudent pursued a "racelessnessstrategy"--de-emphasizing the fact that he isBlack--but then switched to the alternativestrategy of being an "emissary."

"An emissary is a student who plays hisBlackness down but also maintains his identitywith that group," Tatum said.

She said the student, who did well in school,felt he was "inventing the wheel of achievement"because academic excellence was perceived to be"white behavior."

Tatum, however, said she disagreed. "Academicachievement is not an exclusively white domain buta part of the well-established African tradition,"she said.

Lisa Delpit, senior research associate at theInstitute for Urban Research at Morgan StateUniversity, said multiculturalism should be amajor consideration in the evaluation of teachers.

"We need to have a sense of what knowledgeteachers need to teach in a multiculturalsetting," Delpit said.

Teachers must be sensitive to multiculturalismin order to better serve heir students and toprevent misunderstanding between themselves andtheir pupils, Delpit said.

In response to a question at the close of thediscussion, Tatum said she was concerned becausestudents can easily name prominent white racists butoften cannot name prominent anti-racists.

"One of the most significant things to me isinforming students of anti-racist activities,"Tatum said. "There's a real need for students inthat role to publicize themselves

Tatum cited a case study in which a Blackstudent pursued a "racelessnessstrategy"--de-emphasizing the fact that he isBlack--but then switched to the alternativestrategy of being an "emissary."

"An emissary is a student who plays hisBlackness down but also maintains his identitywith that group," Tatum said.

She said the student, who did well in school,felt he was "inventing the wheel of achievement"because academic excellence was perceived to be"white behavior."

Tatum, however, said she disagreed. "Academicachievement is not an exclusively white domain buta part of the well-established African tradition,"she said.

Lisa Delpit, senior research associate at theInstitute for Urban Research at Morgan StateUniversity, said multiculturalism should be amajor consideration in the evaluation of teachers.

"We need to have a sense of what knowledgeteachers need to teach in a multiculturalsetting," Delpit said.

Teachers must be sensitive to multiculturalismin order to better serve heir students and toprevent misunderstanding between themselves andtheir pupils, Delpit said.

In response to a question at the close of thediscussion, Tatum said she was concerned becausestudents can easily name prominent white racists butoften cannot name prominent anti-racists.

"One of the most significant things to me isinforming students of anti-racist activities,"Tatum said. "There's a real need for students inthat role to publicize themselves