Generation Mixed Goes to School: Radically Listening to Multiracial Kids(Multicultural Education Series)

Grounded in the life experiences of children, youth, teachers, and caregivers, this book investigates how implicit bias affects multiracial kids in unforeseen ways. Drawing on critical mixed-race theory and developmental psychology, the authors employ radical listening to examine both how these children experience school and what schools can do to create more welcoming learning environments. They examine how the silencing of mixed-race experiences often creates a barrier to engaging in nuanced conversations about race and identity in the classroom, and how teachers are finding powerful ways to forge meaningful connections with their mixed-race students. This is a book written from the inside, integrating not only theory and research but also the authors' own experiences negotiating race and racism for and with their mixed-race children. It is a timely and essential read not only because of our nation's changing demographics, but also because of our racially hostile political climate. Book Features: Examination of the most contemporary issues that impact mixed-race children and youth, including the racialized violence with which our country is now reckoning. Guided exercises with relevant, action-oriented information for educators, parents, and caregivers in every chapter. Engaging storytelling that brings the school worlds of mixed-race children and youth to life. Interdisciplinary scholarship from social and developmental psychology, critical mixed-race studies, and education. Expansion of the typical Black/White binary to include mixed-race children from Asian American, Latinx, and Native American backgrounds.

Table of Contents:
Contents Series Foreword  James A. Banks x Preface xv Introduction: “It’s hard speaking about race...especially when you’re mixed because there are so many sides!” 1 Radical Listening as Theory: Creating a Children-and-Youth-Based Frame 3 Radical Listening as Method and Intervention: Collecting and Sharing Stories 7 Who We Interviewed 10 Language, Terminology, and Radical Listening as Epistemology 13 Grounding Our Work in Critical Mixed Race Studies 15 We Hope You Will Listen to Our Book 20 Radical Listening with Your Critical Friend 23 1. From (G)race to Race: Racial Identity Development and Mixed-Race Kids 25 How Do You Understand Race? 26 Radical Listening Exercise: Remembering Race, Listening to Race 27 Seeing Difference/Hearing Difference 28 Difference as Bad Versus Difference as Special 30 Children’s Brains and Race 32 What About Your Friends? 35 What About Your Siblings? 38 Racial Socialization 40 2. Changing Team(s): Mixed Kids’ Agency in Choosing, Moving, and Sticking with Racialized Identities 44 But First, a Radical Listening Exercise in Salient Identities 46 Racial Identity Development Meets Mixed-Race Kids 47 The Psychology of Mixed-Race Kids and Racialized Choice 51 Supporting Mixed-Race Kids in Racial Identity Even When They Don’t “Make the Team” 56 Checking the Box 58 (Sometimes) Choosing Whiteness: White Adjacency 60 Radically Listening to Mixed-Race Identities 62 Listening to Racial Identity Development 64 3. “He Didn’t Even Know My Name”: Singling Out Mixed-Race Kids Through the Forces of Implicit Bias 66 Assessing Your Own Implicit Bias: A Radical Listening Exercise 69 Choking on the Smog of Implicit Bias 71 Media and the Smog 75 Smog Kills 77 Implicit Bias and Mixed-Race Kids 79 Perceptual Ambiguity, Cognitive Depletion, and Mixed-Race Kids 83 A Closing Dilemma, and a Caveat 86 4. “Relationship Is Key”: How Teachers Are Radically Listening to Mixed-Race Kids in Schools 89 School Climate 91 Affinity Groups: Forging Mixed-Race Kinship in School 92 Radical Listening Activity: Affinity Group Time 96 Centering Students’ Voices in the Classroom to Foster Positive Relationships 97 Deepening Relationships in the Classroom: Expectations and Accountability in Relationships 98 Wise Feedback 99 Empathy 101 Student Connectedness 103 An Example That Works: GREET-STOP-PROMPT 104 Sharing Who We Are with Our Students 106 Interrupting Racism for Positive Relationships 109 “Teachers, I Want You to Know . . . I Think It Starts with Education” 111 5. “We Were Taught”: Family Practices of Radical Listening, Positive Friction, and Talking Race 113 Friction Without Positivity: Refuting a Child’s Racialized Identity 115 Listen to Your Child Even When You Don’t Think They “Look” Like How They Identify 118 Performing Color Blindness: On Not Listening to Race Talk 122 Being Vulnerable with Your Children 125 Providing Role Models for Mixed-Race Children 126 The Work: Parents Bringing Radical Listening into School 128 Radical Listening Exercise: Race, Listening, and Family Mission Statements 131 Coda: “I Just Raise My Hand All the Time”: Keep Listening and Talking with and for Generation Mixed 134 Appendix A: Generation Mixed Dialogue Questions 139 Appendix B: Generation Mixed Participants 141 Appendix C: Sample Guide to Affinity Groups 143 Appendix D: Table Describing GREET-STOP-PROMPT Practices  146 References 148 Index 162 About the Authors 174

About the Author :
Ralina Joseph is Presidential Term Professor of Communication, director of the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, and associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Washington, Seattle. Allison Briscoe-Smith is a clinical psychologist and director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at The Wright Institute.