Chapter 7: Race and Social Justice: A Matter of Context and Reflection in Teaching Applied Diversity

There are moments when you stand in front of a class and you are confronted with an overwhelming feeling of being alone. Whether in a large lecture hall or a small discussion classroom, the sense that you stand there alone with your thoughts, plans, trials, and questions cascades over you. Then you begin class and you become part of something else. Yet there are times as a Black instructor that this feeling of being alone continues rather than transitioning to feeling part of a community of learning. This feeling is often due to the lack of models I identify with or I feel share my perspective and the nuanced and subtle ways that issues of race have arisen during my time at the University.