Anti-bias in the classroom

Well, I don't know about everyone else feels, but today's social studies class brought up a lot of questions in my little brain about thinking, dealing and organizing an anti-bias classroom. Too many news items are coming up these days that highlight a need to talk about race and bias in America. I don't want to work in a classroom where these issues go unexplored. Yet I feel I lack the tools and vocabulary necessary to facilitate positive discussion.

An incident came up in my class last week during Reading Workshop. The children had just listened to the story "Amazing Grace" and were asked to rate the story. Many of the children were asked to rate this store on a scale of 1-5, the majority giving the book a low rating. However, the reasons they gave for their marks were rather lame, and my mentor teacher was trying to brainstorm more in-depth reasons with the students. At one point, she suggested that maybe some boys were not interested in the story because it was about a girl and maybe they weren't interested in girls. While this statement in itself was not intended to breed bias, it opened the door for biased response. One boy stood up and said "I know! Maybe people didn't like the character because she's Black and they don't like Black people. The children in the group were surprised by this comment, some shouting "that's racist!" My mentor teacher and I were both dumbfounded, and while she move on at that moment, so mentioned to me later that she would think about what to do.

Now, I feel this is a time when we could separate the statement from the child. He wasn't stating that this was his opinion. Yet there was something about the statement that pushed the comfort zone for a lot of people in the room. While we didn't have any African American children in the class, there were others who looked visibly shocked and upset. And anyways, just because there are no African American or Black children in the room, it doesn't mean this issue should go unaddressed. So basically, I'm wondering what you, my cohort mates, would have done in this situation.

If anyone is reading this and is interested in organizing some sort of round table/anti-bias workshop, let me know. I'd be glad to offer my house as a potential meeting spot. Also, does anyone know a person in the field who can give us some real, hands-on ideas on how to address anti-bias? I'm tired of talking about these things in abstract. It would be great if we could organized a speaker or workshop leader. Is there funding available for this???

let me know what you think, or if you have any stories to share,

Thanks!

Andrea