Faculty Addresses White Privilege
English 2 and English 2 Honors teacher and previous Black Student Union (BSU) adviser Maria McCloud held her first book club meeting at Peninsula during the Long Term Planning (LTP) Meeting, which consisted of a series of meetings that allowed staff members throughout the school year to discuss and evaluate all facets of life at Peninsula. The book club planned to discuss racial injustice by reading, analyzing and discussing the novel White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.
By advising BSU, McCloud furthered her understanding of the movements fighting against injustices, such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Since becoming the BSU adviser, she has remained devoted to educating herself on the hardships that Black individuals face daily.
“Just the simple act of being asked to [advise] the BSU has transformed the course of how I think,” McCloud said. “I truly believe that taking time to educate [myself] by reading books [like White Fragility] that talk about racism woven into America [is the first step to starting the conversation].”
McCloud’s book club filled up quickly, with many teachers wanting to participate in the racial injustice conversation beginning at Peninsula. One spot was taken by the new BSU adviser Patrick Daley, who is also a Physical Education (PE) teacher, boys’ soccer coach and the Peer Leaders Uniting Students (PLUS) adviser at Peninsula. Currently, Daley is taking over advising the BSU due to McCloud’s leave of absence. After hearing about the book club, Daley wanted to engage in this opportunity and was excited to meet other teachers who were willing to delve into the issue of racism in the United States.
“I thought [White Fragility] was a good, brief description [of] how white supremacy operates [in] this country, and why it is not what people [may expect],” Daley said. “As an educator I would love [it if] topics like [white supremacy] were discussed in the classroom more, [which] was something that we were able to discuss in the book club.”
Daley has taken steps to incorporate this discussion into his curriculum this year. He has started to talk about social injustices in the context of national sports, and his PLUS leaders discuss social injustice in class by identifying potential issues on the Peninsula campus. He has his PE classes study sport protests to understand their activism against racism.
“There have always been social injustice issues through sports,” Daley said. “[In class], we are discussing how [sports] brings about reform [regarding these issues]. I feel like a lot of students do not realize [racial injustice can be changed through sports].”
Advanced Preparatory (AP) English Language and English 4 teacher Magali Blazevic was another teacher who participated in the book club. She believed the book was an interesting read and that the conversations brought up during the book club were important to changing society.
“As a white woman, it is very difficult to understand a lot of the points that the author makes [regarding racial injustice],” Blazevic said. “It is crucial for people to understand [racial inequality], and the more staff that read the book, [the more that they] will see that it is applicable to our campus.”
White Fragility highlights the racist situations that some may not have been aware. Having read this book in the past, McCloud chose White Fragility because it causes discomfort for white readers as they address their privilege.
“There are several [scenarios] that I do not fear since I am [not a minority], and the awareness I have allows me to have the opportunity to enforce change in our society,” McCloud said. “One mentionable lesson [I have learned] from reading [White Fragility] is that if I do not use my privilege to talk about this, I am maintaining the status quo. Furthermore, that [was my motivation] to step in front of staff, to ensure I do every possible thing I could at Peninsula.”
