More Than an Ally

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Michael L. Boucher Jr.. More Than an Ally

Acknowledgments

Introduction

No One Can Just Close the Door and Teach

Who Am I?

Strategic Essentialism and Diversity

Capitalizing White

The Task at Hand

A New Paradigm

Caring Solidarity, Race, Teachers, and Schools

The White Teaching Force

The Quick Fix?

Is the New Generation of Teachers the Same as the Old Generation?

Talking about Race Out Loud

Requiring Whiteness as Normality

Naming the Unmentionable: White Supremacy

Centering Race, Not Talking about Race, Offense, and Avoidance

Ending Color Blindness

Meet the Participants

Gaps and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Origins of the “Gap”

The Opportunity Gap and Education Debt

Grit

The Discipline Gap

How the Pipeline is Built and Maintained

Cops But No Counselors

Participant 1: Frieda Kohn, the “Warm Demander”

Frieda’s Solidarity with Students

Multicultural Education as Implemented and Caring Solidarity

Multicultural Education Does Not Go Far Enough

The Foods and Festivals Approach

Schools Reinforce White Supremacist Structures

Moving beyond Multiculturalism: Critical Multiculturalism

A New Paradigm Is Needed

Participant 2: Bianca Romano, the “Care Bear”

Bianca’s Solidarity with Students

The Asset Pedagogies

Caring for African American Students and Warm Demander Pedagogy

Allyhood and Allyship

Solidarity

Participant 3: Mark Johnson, the “Fighter”

Mark’s Solidarity with His Students

A New Framework

The Caring Solidarity Framework

Commitment to Recognition

Recognition and Critical Theory

Shibboleths as Signs of Recognition

Love as a Mind-Set Conduit to Proximity

Discipline

Concentration

Patience

Commitment to Proximity

The Caveat: Neoliberalism, Reform, and Gentrification

Commitment to Interrogation. Whiteness and Its Power

Positive White Racial Identity

Contact

Disintegration

Reintegration

Pseudo-Independence

Immersion/Emersion

Autonomy

Things to Consider

Count the Cost

Study, Read, and Reflect

Ask Questions

Seek Learning and Professional Development

Engage in Dialogue but Avoid Explaining All You Know

Grace as a Mind-Set Conduit to Action

Commitment to Action

Personal

Structural

Societal

Crossing the First Boundary and Entering Solidarity

Building Caring Solidarity with Students. Across the Color Line

Identifying Solidarity as a Need: Identity and the Door to Caring Solidarity

Empathy: The First Level of Solidarity

Transference of Solidarity and Entering New Territories

The White Alliance, Solidarity with Whiteness, and Becoming a “Race Traitor”

Whiteness Is Property

Transference of Solidarity

Transference of Solidarity vs. False Empathy

Caring Solidarity as an Advocate

Structures

Police in Schools

Suspensions—In and Out of School

Pedagogy

Students Are Valued and Feel It

Students Are Being Prepared for (Actual) Adulthood

Students Learn Consciousness

Curriculum

Caring Solidarity as an Accomplice

What to Do

Protesting

Money

White Communities

Advocacy on Social Media

At Work

Electoral Politics

Confronting Violence

Your Children and Your Students

Conclusion

Epilogue

Minneapolis

Conclusion

References

Index

About the Author

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There are so many people who guided me over the years and have made it possible for me to produce this book. First, I want to thank my brilliant, amazing wife, Karen Burgard, for her unwavering support and willingness to read and edit every word that went into, and came out of, this book. It would not have been possible without you, Dollface. Second, I want to thank my hero and mentor, Robert Helfenbein. Rob, you are my model for how professors in the academy should approach research with communities and someone who truly understands the impact of centering those communities in that research. I will be forever grateful for your counsel and encouragement, especially when I needed it the most.

I want to thank Lynne Boyle-Baise, who offered me the opportunity to study at Indiana University, and Jesse Goodman, Mary McMullen, and Crystal Morton, for their support throughout my dissertation. The questions you raised and the support you provided were invaluable. My excellent teachers at IU and IUPUI provided me with a different approach to discussing the complex issues raised in this work, and I appreciate the perspectives they provided. I want to thank the teachers who participated in the study on which this book is based. Their commitment to working in the community allowed me to see that solidarity comes in stages and in different packages but is crucial to successful teaching across the color line.

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From August to June, teachers meet young people in schools to teach them the ideas, skills, and knowledge needed to become successful in the wealthiest, most powerful society ever created by humankind. The responsibility is awesome. With the mechanisms that teachers provide, these students will vote, earn a living, raise a family, and leave their own legacies to society. The work teachers do in the classroom every day shapes the future. There are many jobs that pay more and carry more prestige, but it would be difficult if not impossible to find a job with as much influence over as many people as being the teacher.

If an adult conversation is to be had about teachers working across the color barrier, whiteness both as a concept and a fact must be addressed. The waters ahead are not easily navigated, but unless the gaps between teachers and students in terms of race, culture, income, political power, and privilege are embedded in the structure of reforms, they will not address the issues facing today’s schools.

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