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News + Notes

Teaching Tolerance | Diversity, Equity And Justice

06/08/20

Equity: The anti-black violence of the past few weeks, most recently about Christian Cooper and George Floyd, continue to highlight white supremcist structures throughout the US. I found this resource to contain a lot of great direct action suggestions, several of which are directed at educators: 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice.

Book Clubs

We started a summer book club to read How to Be an Antiracist. Another group, White Teachers Unlearning Racism (WPUR), is reading Me and White Supremacy. Many of us have read at least one of these books, and we are inspired to read more this summer. Some teachers also use some of the books in their classes.

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin

Minor Feelings - Cathy Park Hong

The New Jim Crow- Michelle Alexander

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni-Eddo Lodge

Good Talk - Mira Jacob

Blindspot - Mahzarin R. Banaji, Anthony Greenwald

Me and White Supremacy - Layla F. Saad

So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Olvo

How to Be Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi

Between The World and Me - Ta-Nemisi Coates

How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? - Moustafa Bayoumi

The Fire This Time - Jesmyn Ward

White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo

I'm Still Here - Austin Channing Brown

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir - Patrisse Kahn-Cullors

The African American and Latinx History of the United States - Paul Ortiz

Citizen - Claudia Rankine

An Indigenous People's History of the United States - Roxanne Dunbar - Ortiz

Mindful of Race - Ruth King

Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson

Tears We Cannot Stop - Michael Eric Dyson

Stamped from the Beginning - Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

This Book is Anti-Racist - Tiffany Jewel

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? - Beverl Daniel Tatum

The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein

Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram X. Kendi

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? - Mumia Abu-Jamal

The Warmth of Other Sons - Isabel Wilkerson

Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome - Dr. Joy DeGruy

Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain by Zaretta Hammond

We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love



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— Stephen Beal, President, California College of the Arts

If at any point Oxbow doubts the good it does, I just want to reassure you all that you’re changing the lives of young artists every semester.

— Colin Davis, Fall 2009

The art that goes on in most high schools is usually relatively skill-based. At Oxbow, there is more emphasis on looking and seeing and more critical thinking about what you are doing, the human connection, that personal element. Through art you can begin to understand yourself better. That may be the biggest eye-opener for students. It is almost a preview of college. Get out of the mechanical factory high school education and get into something open, new, and invigorating in a small environment.

— Bill Barrett, Former Oxbow Board Member, Former Executive Director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD)

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