Escaping the White Matrix: Equity Work in Education
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system…You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”
Morpheus, The Matrix
It took me 37 years to notice that all the santas and angels on our Christmas tree were white.
It’s not that I was unaware of the murder of unarmed Indigenous, Black & Brown men and women at the hands of police, or of discriminatory practices such as carding, police response time to missing Indigenous women, profiling, undue process, the racial-wealth gap. But it was when my six-year-old unpacked our Christmas ornaments last December that I realized how race was represented in our home, and how this might be impacting my children’s understandings of themselves, the world, and others.
So we made Black angels and I started to pay attention to the media consumed in this household. And to have conversations about race.
Decisions about how we parent, teach, police, write policy, and plan for structural changes are integral to challenging racism – as is the recognition that our home lives & the representations of race in the media are often indicative of the racism that exists in our world.
We exist within multiple interlocking systems of oppression, a kind of white matrix, where all behaviours and actions, regardless of intention, tend to reinforce the racial status quo. In this matrix, companies produce white representations of religious symbols & ornaments, media dismisses diversity by centering white experiences (and tokenizing “Others”), and legal and economic policies criminalize individuals who are BIPOC, perpetuating the racial wealth gap and the racial hierarchy.
And within this matrix, there are individuals — some trying to decolonize, others unable or unwilling to see the truth. But when individual actions (at home or work, whether conscious or not) are plugged into these systems, there is generative power and the matrix gets stronger, the racial hierarchy is perpetuated.
For example, regardless of whether I was aware of racism, the act of hanging those white ornaments on our tree communicates the centrality and value of “whiteness” to my kids. And the act of turning on Netflix and watching a show further reinforces this. And the act of living downtown, buying a home here in this neighbourhood, means taking part in a process of gentrification where individuals are removed to make way for wealthier (often white) families (E.g., Rochester heights). Policy decisions around affordable housing, such as the convergence of subsidized housing into market-price apartments, reinforces the racial-wealth gap, which in turn results in segregation among students by neighbourhood, school, stream. And the process of segregation without opportunities for mobility = increased police presence (School Resource Officer (SRO) programs, neighbourhood watches) which discriminate based on race.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) calls this interest convergence where collective white interests converge around white supremacy. The connection between individual actions and systems is important here. As emphasized by Tisha Nelson in a conversation with Colinda Clyde about the book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools: “Sometimes we use the discourse of systemic racism…but we don’t necessarily know how to name what the system is…Friends, we are the system. The system is not a nebulous entity that is invisible and you can’t touch. There are things that we are doing, and speaking and representing [that make up the system]. (Nelson in Clyne’s Anti-Racist Reads, min. 30).
Another way that collective interests converge around white supremacy is through the pushback to activism & advocacy. CRT discusses this as material determinism, where each step towards “progress” results in two steps backwards as moral panic coalesces with policies and planning, demonstrating the fragility of the white psyche (Stanley, “Jason Stanley On CRT and Why it Matters”).
According to Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, Educational institutions are at the centre of this tug-of-war, because they can be a place where “[i]llumination implying the need for structural change [can] produce a moral panic seeking to reinforce a racial status quo” (Stanley).
As I write this, for example, I worry about reader response. Whether my goal of exploring the interconnection of systems of oppression will be clear, or whether this will result in backlash.
But I am hoping that swallowing the red pill & reflecting on my understanding might highlight some of the complexity and incessant & unrelenting nature of the white matrix.
So here it goes:
How do choices in my classroom reinforce the white matrix? Even if the intention beneath an action is in the spirit/purpose/vein of equity? For example, if I decide to differentiate assessment and evaluation in order to acknowledge and value different ways of knowing, will this translate to success in other classes or higher levels of education? My classroom is a microcosm within a larger system of oppression where academic writing and jargon is valued. What if valuing other ways of knowing contributes to a lack of preparedness for postsecondary studies and result in further disparity (not being able to meet expectations at the PS level)?
By zooming out and understanding that each decision exists within the white matrix, I can adjust my practice and accompany differentiated assessments & evaluations with deliberate scaffolding, building towards “traditional” academic reading and writing. Maybe, just maybe, I bridge “gaps,” or more appropriately, diminish educational debts (Bettina Love, “The Crisis in Black Education”). But if do scaffold and adhere to “traditional” academic expectations, am I reinforcing the matrix? Can we work within the matrix to dismantle it? Or is Audre Lorde correct in her assertion that “[T]he master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change” (Audre Lorde).
Similarly, how do decisions at the school level reinforce the white matrix? A couple of anecdotal examples come to mind which were shared with me on two separate occasions. BIPOC colleagues shared that interview questions about equity were written in a way that assumed the interviewee was white. From an HR perspective, I can imagine the complexities involved in constructing equitable questions and equitable processes on the subject of equity. Should interview questions change based on audience? What will this mean for equal opportunity? From a CRT lens, the focus should shift to equitable opportunity. Each decision needs to be assessed through a CRT equity systems perspective to determine the impact on marginalized students & moving equity forward. These decisions might include how departments are organized, which courses are offered, how interview questions are composed, which teachers are hired, as well as larger structural changes, including leadership practices (which should work from a place of collaborative inquiry to decolonize process), as well as the ways in which timetables and scheduling are organized.
Additionally, it is important to consider how decisions at the school or board level reinforce the white matrix. Book clubs on equity, for example, are centered on allyship (Me and White Supremacy, White Fragility, etc.) and therefore assume that teachers engaging in equity work are white. While some school & board book clubs do centre BIPOC voices in equity work, this remains a minority. Again, from a CRT lens, does equity work (including book clubs and the inclusion of equity centered questions for interviews) result in greater equity and awareness or do they cater to, and therefore centre, a white lens? When we are stuck in a system where there is little representation of BIPOC teachers, equity work becomes focused through the lens of the white educators.
Through a CRT systems lens, affirmative action is one step towards equitable practice and could be transformative at every level.
But the matrix is a powerful thing and affirmative action can seem difficult when the “white tape” of provincial policies, such as the recent inclusion of a mandatory math test for teachers, makes it more difficult for BIPOC teachers to become certified. The standardized math test, which will supposedly address a gap in student learning by ensuring teachers are more “proficient” before they graduate, is punitive in its measures to disqualify teachers who don’t pass. This practice is consistent with other ministry level practices which reinforce white supremacy by putting up “white tape” (colonial curriculum & tools of regulation: report cards, learning skills, disciplining appearance, zero tolerance policies, and streaming practices where students’ opportunities & future paths are determined by the bias of teachers in grade 8) (Bowen on Monique W. Morris’ Pushout, Antiracist Educator Reads).
White supremacy trickles down through systems within the matrix: Provincial policies in education discriminate against BIPOC teachers (and students), which results in a lack of representation of BIPOC in schools, which leads to a white lens framing equity work, which contributes to school decisions (course texts, timetabling, interview questions, who is hired), which impacts actions & decisions in the classroom (what we teach, expectations for students, whether we are conscious of, have the know-how and/or time to address educational debts). But more importantly, individual actions within these systems can either function to reinforce systems of oppression or to dismantle them. Too often, decisions in the classroom about what content to cover, whose voices to center, what students should wear, what is appropriate behaviour, what is “academic” vs. not, who is streamed, how tools for reporting are used (learning skills, parent-teacher interviews, etc.), reinforce a culture of white supremacy (Nelson in Clyne’s Antiracist Educator Reads, 37.44).
And so the question becomes: “How [can] we use the tools [of the system]…[as] platforms…to be transformational in our practice?” (Nelson on Morris’ Pushout in Clyne’s Antiracist Educator Reads, Episode 1, 37.44).
In order to move equity work forward, each decision (especially those made by white educators) needs to be assessed by considering the reality within which it exists. A systems equity approach, which combines CRT and systems theory, can support the creation of a meaningful decision making process where students, teachers, administrators, politicians come together around a common goal: equitable action.
Racism is a shapeshifter, conforming as liquid fills a vessel. The cracks and crevices created by decisions at the classroom, school, board, and provincial level allow for it to morph again into a new being. Anti-racist work, despite the commitment of educators, can become a drop in an ocean of oppression (Spogmay Akbari, class discussion, April 2021); diluted, performative, disconnected, seemingly addressing gaps while reinforcing the racial hierarchy.
We can’t escape the white matrix, and any belief that we have moved beyond race is colour blindness & disillusionment. But we can use CRT and systems theory as tools to critically assess each decision that is made, especially if we are white educators; and maybe, just maybe, understanding the breadth and depth and interconnectedness might somehow support the work that BIPOC colleagues have been engaging in to challenge systems of oppression.
