An update on Talking About Race

Talking About Race - One Woman's Story

My name is Kaolin. I am a Caucasian woman and the author of a book titled Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives. My family is biracial and while my children and I went through many trends regarding race/ism and diversity in school systems we were never completely satisfied with the results. We experienced racism often enough to have learned how to cope with the stress of racism in our lives. However, as many of you already know, one never really adapts to racism. With each occurrence we are required to assimilate every nuance of it, then process it and then continue to assimilate into a culture that might prefer to believe that it does not exist. In fact, due to President Barack Obama being biracial, I have been told that we are in a post-racial era, meaning racism is truly behind us. Many say we have enough evidence of that in the fact that our President is a man of color therefore we can move on, don't make waves or fuss about the legacy of slavery whose affects we have each inherited; or, the continued assaults on people of color that exist in politics, in our communities, in our institutions and often times in our own families.

In 1995 I transferred from Holyoke Community College to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I went to school full time by day and worked full time at night for a residential program for children and families. While in school the racism the students of color were experiencing drew me to a halt and I had to pause and think about what to do about it. I heard from many white students that they were silent about racism when they would prefer to speak-up and out about it; I heard that they were fearful of racism and that they had seen it as an inevitable part of life they would eventually succumb to because they had come to believe they may be helpless to do anything about it.

So I designed a course titled Let's Talk About Race: Confronting Racism Through Education and through an independent studies program in the WOST (Women's Studies) department was able to teach it for a year.

In Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives you will find that the chapter titles map out a road for you to follow that involves your active involvement in the book. For example, I ask you to define racism in the beginning of the book and then again at the end of it. Why? Because your impression of racism changes as you read, and so do you. I ask you to recognize racism, resist racism, to talk about your insecurities regarding racism (we all have them) and to shape your own identity where racial equality is concerned. There were both students of color and Anglo students in class. So you learn a great deal about what our youth is going through about racism as they struggle for racial equality. The students quotes are embellished within the 120 page paperback and there is a fine glossary and workbook questions in each chapter with plenty of room for you to jot down your own ideas while you record your own race-story. Everybody has one.

I hope you will contact me with any questions or comments you might have about my book. Talking About Race: A Workbook About White People Fostering Racial Equality in Their Lives is being sold at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon books, Indie Bound Bookstores and http://cddbooks.com Log onto to my book site http://ltar.biz for more information or contact me by email at kaolinltar@comcast.net I look forward to your questions and comments about this work. And do join my Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Talking-About-Race/161062685786?ref=ts