From Tema Okun (2022):
“[W]hite supremacy culture’s number one strategy is to make us afraid. When we are afraid, we lose touch with our power and are more easily manipulated by any promise of safety, even as we come to slowly learn that safety dependent on violence is not safe at all.
White supremacy, white supremacy culture, and racism are fear-based. White supremacy uses fear to…
- disconnect us from each other across lines of race,
- disconnect us from each other within our racial groups,
- disconnect us from ourselves,
- disconnect us from the earth, wind, and sky, and all the creatures that roam the earth,
- disconnect us from source, god, creativity … or whatever you call the wisdom we carry inside us.”
What does fear look like in music education?
Manifestations
Where did you see this WSCC in your K-12 music education? Where did you see this in your preservice training program? How does this characteristic show up in your job requirements now? How does this characteristic show up in your standards? What behavioral management practices reflect this characteristic? How do your teaching practices perpetuate or challenge this WSCC? Try to be specific.
Remedies
What specific pedagogical tools have you used to challenge this characteristic? What repertoire or content could be incorporated to remedy this characteristic? What needs to change in music education culture or school culture in order to accommodate remedies for this characteristic? What do you wish you learned in your preservice program that would help you challenge this characteristic? How could remedying this characteristic benefit your students and their communities?
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