Teaching about Race and Racism Across the Disciplines

Introduction

At my school I teach Spanish for Heritage Speakers. In the course, heritage speakers have the opportunity to learn about history that is part of their heritage and that is normally not taught in the public school system. During the past school year, the topic of race and colorism popped up a lot in our class discussions, particularly because the textbook we were using for the class did not show many famous Latinx people of color. The textbook and curriculum that is offered for this course does not have anything to teach about racism and race formation in Latin America, like they do in American history textbooks.

This unit will focus on racism and race formation in Latin America. It will focus on three different areas to demonstrate how racism and racial formation work differently in Latin America: the favelas in Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico City. This unit will focus on race and racial formation through literature and film is intended to use Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico as examples to show students how racism and racial formation is varied in Latin America. Students will explore racism and racial formation in Latin America and be able to compare it to racism and racial formation in the United States using the target language. This unit will be implemented in my 12^th grade Spanish for Hispanics course.

The recent Black Lives Matter Movement has made the racial inequality that exists in the United States more prevalent than ever before. We have seen that racial inequality not only exists with police brutality, but it exists in every aspect of our society. Racism is not just an “American” thing; racism can be seen in any country that has been colonized throughout our history, it just hides in plain sight. Racial formation is used to look at race as a socially constructed identity where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic and political forces.¹ Race and racial formation look different throughout the world and can be studied in many different disciplines, but the language classroom is not a place to have serious conversations. It is supposed to be a fun space where we come together and learn a new language and experience new food and culture. On the contrary, I believe the language classroom is a perfect space to talk about race and racial formation.