Lesson Plan: Analyzing “Race” as a Global and Evolving Construct

Lesson Plan 1A

Beeman argues that to understand persisting racial injustice we must first study the historical construction of whiteness, different manifestations of racism, and how racial discourse shifts and evolves overtime. The type of racial discourse that dominates at any given time can affect the kinds of policies and practices we develop. This three-part lesson plan is designed to first help students understand and engage with the history of “race” as a social and political construct. Students should begin to question common-sense understandings of racial segregation, how ideas about racial classification compare in various societies, and how constructions of whiteness are still in flux. Students should think about racial classification not only as an issue of “identity” but a process that is tied to power and structural inequality. In preparation for part 1 of this lesson, participants should read chapter 1, pages 14 -17. In addition, I recommend that instructors and leaders include this short interview with Professor Audrey Smedley and ask students to view the PBS documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion. The following activities and discussion prompts can be assigned as discussion board assignments to be completed before the class meets, as group assignments, or in-class activities.

To begin, view this story map on Race: A Social and Political Construction.

Discussion Prompts and Workshop Activities:

- Reflect on your experiences and how you first learned about race and racism. This could be one specific moment or a collection of moments over time. It may be connected to something you experienced or something you observed. Describe and explain what you learned. Connect these experiences to the materials in this unit. How do these sources relate to, contradict, and/or complicate your experiences?

Lesson Plan 1B

In part two of this lesson, students will start to understand different levels and expressions of racism and their effect on public policy. They should be encouraged to think about these ideas on a more global scale. In preparation for this lesson, participants should read the Introduction and pages 17-24 of Chapter 1. Instructors could also assign Jean Beaman and Amy Pett’s article Towards a Global Theory of Colorblindness published in Sociology Compass, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12774.

Discussion Prompts and Workshop Activities:

- Listen to this episode of the podcast Code Switch about “race” in Puerto Rico. How does this podcast illustrate the idea of “race” as a social and political construction and Beeman’s argument that “Whiteness is not a human being, although people can embody whiteness in all sorts of harmful ways” and “as such, people of color can also uphold whiteness as superior” (p. 12).

- Beeman diagrams Carter Wilson’s theory of racial oppression on p. 18 (See Figure 1 below). Thinking globally, how might you apply this model and the interaction of economic structure, political elites, and racist culture to analyze racial oppression in at least two different countries? Can this model be used to understand other systems of oppression or injustice? If yes, explain. If not, how would you change the model to address a different form of injustice?

Figure 1. Carter Wilson’s Theory on Racial Oppression

- Beeman argues that color-blind ideology is part of the racist culture in contemporary society that upholds the racial and economic status quo. Color-blind and racism-evasive discourse is not exclusive to the United States. Listen to this podcast with Jean Beaman on the Limits of French Republicanism. How might color-blind policies in France be an example of the strategic racism-evasiveness Beeman conceptualizes? Where else do you think color-blind and racism-evasive public discourse operates globally?

Lesson 1C

- This final part of Lesson 1 will help students think more critically about how expressions of racism shift over time depending on the social and political context. Students should be able to make connections between this history, current events, and the author’s conceptualization of liberal white supremacy. Students will gain insights on how racism manifests in contemporary society and the methods we might use to effectively study and address more subtle and sophisticated forms in our workplaces, schools, and communities. To prepare for this discussion, participants should read pages 24-27 of chapter 1 and Beeman’s co-authored Harvard Business Review article that addresses liberal white supremacy in response to the racial violence and social protests over the summer of 2020.

Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

Discussion Prompts and Workshop Activities:

- Beeman lists several practices and behaviors that uphold liberal white supremacy: Vilifying working class people as the worst racists, white fragile behaviors of crying and defensiveness, vilifying radicals as too divisive and disruptive, and evading racism by pointing to other issues as more important (See Figure 3 below). Have you seen these behaviors play out in your organizations or community discussions? Does this liberal white defensiveness ever reach a point of unreasonable, hostile, or aggressive racism-denial? Is your leadership prepared for this kind of hostility and resistance? Does your organization have policies or practices to help protect members involved in anti-racist work from targeted attacks and more subtle forms of liberal white supremacy?

Figure 3. Practices that Uphold Liberal White Supremacy