Should Schools Be Colorblind?

Should classroom teachers only talk about race during Black History or Hispanic Heritage Month? Should schools pretend that race doesn't matter? Award-winning sociologist Laurie Cooper Stoll argues that, as long as society is stratified along racial lines, schools should never be colorblind. Given the many enduring racial inequalities that persist in education - against the backdrop of increasingly overt racism across US society - schools should strive to be color-conscious and actively engage in everyday antiracism. Drawing on her research and professional development with educators as well as her experience as a publicly elected school board member, Cooper Stoll illustrates the complexities, contradictions, and consequences of colorblindness in schools and provides concrete suggestions for engaging in antiracism in the classroom. Without a coherent approach to the role race plays in society, educators cannot address white supremacy and institutional racism, and in fact end up perpetuating racial inequality, whether deliberately or not.