In order to do educational equity work, we must name the elephant in the room: race. Achieving systemic equity requires mindfulness in centering race and identifying and addressing power and privilege. In our next activity, we will think about why naming race is important and the danger of ignoring it. As you watch the video, you will hear the term color-blind. We want to move away from this term as it supports ableist language. We want to keep the same idea and concepts of the term but use the term color-evasive instead.

As you watch the video, think about the dangers of color-evasiveness. What tensions (personal, structural, strategic) are you experiencing as you watch?

Step 1: Watch the Video

"America works overtime to create a color-evasive society, but does this color evasiveness perpetuate, rather than resolve, racism? Despite a growing racial divide, attorney, activist, and author Traci Ellis says the time is now to have the courageous conversation about the damage done in the name of color evasiveness. Traci O’Neal Ellis is a Chicago-area-based attorney, HR professional, frequent speaker on race, law, politics, and radically inclusive leadership; and she is a fierce advocate for social justice." (TEDx, 2018).

For an accessible transcript of this video, click here.

Step 2: Reflect in Your Journal

Go to your Cluster 1 Journal and respond to the prompts for Activity 1.4, where you'll reflect on the video and the concept of color-evasiveness.