A Concern

Something that I wanted to mention in class, but we ran out of time:

I think a major problem with discussing issues of diversity in the classroom is the disparity in previous knowledge about such issues between students of color and white students. We have to remember that students of color deal with issues of multiculturalism, stereotying, racism, and diversity every day. But for most of our white students, a classroom discussion about such issues might be the very first time they've ever even thought about it. But as a teacher you have to give equal weight to each student's opinion (to avoid the tokenizing "Well, you're black, so you know a lot about this" or "You're white, so you don't have as much right to speak").

This is, in effect, like a bunch of chemistry majors walking into our 8010 classroom and spouting their opinions on how we should teach writing because they took English 1000 and because they've written some lab reports . We would be outraged: "But we've devoted our lives to this!" we would say. "What gives you the right to just waltz in here and offer your opinons? Have you even done the reading?" I feel like it would much the same feeling for students of color who have to listen to white students talk about issues of race. Or for LGBT students to have to listen to straight students talk about issues of sexuality, women to have to listen to men talk about campus safety, etc.

Granted, any issue we teach will have more resonance with some students than others. But with a polarizing and personal issue like race, how do we acknowledge disparities in experience with the issue without granting one student the right to speak over another?