How to become racially (and intersectionally) literate
Much of our work today is in the simple task of listening, often for hours, to complete strangers. Yet, the perpetual strangers in our lives were ourselves. Our childhood was filled with questions like: How can I be as un-Chinese as possible to be more cool and fit in in school? Mom, dad, should we talk about how that woman called us a terrorist?
In 10th grade, the last person we expected to talk about race did — our white, male, and blue-eyed U.S. history teacher. His courage pushed us to bring the conversation outside of the classroom. We started talking to random passersby on the street — we were curious to see how race manifested itself in everyday life… and, perhaps, we were seeking validation of our own experiences. Eventually, we started interviewing these strangers (taking their photo, recording their stories on our phones), and we started sharing these interviews on our website.
A year later, we co-founded CHOOSE. Two years later, we published The Classroom Index — a racial literacy textbook modeled as a collection of stories paired to research and discussion points, for long term curriculum changes.
But racial literacy shouldn’t stop outside the classroom.
Instead, we envision a culture where every person’s story and act matters, where people can refocus their work toward justice no matter what background or profession they have, no matter who they are.
So The Race Index was born: our next book. From last July 2017 to this February 2018, we’ve been traveling to all 50 states during our gap year before college, collecting stories from ordinary people — as well as research — about race, culture, and intersectionality.
During our travels, one thing’s been confirmed: our nation’s racial and intersectional literacy is stunted by what we call heart-mind gap, barring our ability to understand and communicate.
It starts at a young age: the racial narratives we are fed as children from TV shows, movies, cartoons, school, and each other, are often dehumanizing and inaccurate. As a result, so many of us lack the shared burning and authentic desire to really do good for the humans that suffer the most. We lack a fundamental understanding of and compassion for each other. We lack our fullest hearts.
To bridge the mind part of it, we must also understand the “academic” side of things — the systemic implications of interpersonal events and the proper language to describe it. We must understand why using the term color-blind perpetuates today’s white supremacy, how to define racial literacy, how to respond to a microaggression; when we live in a world where language is the vehicle for accessing and sharing knowledge and culture, we must not forget to always keep learning the history and systematic impact of the words we use. An ignorance to the statistical reality, the vocabulary, and terminology we use when we talk about race — even paired with good intent — will still be hurtful and harmful.
To be racially and intersectionally literate requires not only knowing the stats and the stories, but developing the core ability to care. To understand. To love. To listen to a human experience and be inspired to learn more. To act. We envision a new generation — one equipped with both the wisdom and the care to act on inequity, one whose minds AND hearts had been transformed in their early education. That’s why we do what we do.
*Check out more about our story in this episode of This Pod is Your Pod (we got the opportunity to speak to Pantsuit Nation’s co-founders Libby and Cortney!!)
