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When Multicultural Education Is Not Enough

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DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2017.1331741

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 Multicultural Perspectives

ISSN: 1521-0960 (Print) 1532-7892 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hmcp20

When Multicultural Education Is Not Enough

Wayne Au

To cite this article: Wayne Au (2017) When Multicultural Education Is Not Enough, Multicultural
Perspectives, 19:3, 147-150, DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2017.1331741

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 Multicultural Perspectives, 19(3), 147–150
Copyright Ó 2017 by the National Association for Multicultural Education
ISSN: 1521-0960 print / 1532-7892
DOI: 10.1080/15210960.2017.1331741
When Multicultural Education Is Not Enough
Wayne Au
University of Washington
In the face of rising white nationalism, multicul-
tural education is simply not enough. In addition
to suggestions for curriculum and instruction, in
this article the author suggests that teachers,
parents, administrators, and students need to be
organizing to push back against this tide of racism,
sexism, and xenophobia and find ways to con-
Downloaded by [73.140.87.71] at 16:17 01 September 2017
cretely support their students and communities.
In September of 2016, teachers at John Muir
Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, had planned
an event. One part of this event was to have 100 Black
Men Uniting to welcome the predominantly African
American student body to school in an effort to change
the narrative around Blackness and schooling. Another
part of this event, and in solidarity with the what was
happening locally and nationally, school staff had also
decided to wear specially made shirts that read, “Black
Lives Matter: We Stand Together: John Muir Ele-
mentary” (Taylor, 2016). White nationalists and right
wing media picked up this story (see, e.g., Rodriguez,
2016), and after a flurry of hateful e-mails, phone calls,
and, eventually, a bomb threat made on the school,
Seattle Public Schools officially cancelled the event
(Cornwell, 2016).
The morning of the planned event, the school was
cleared, bomb sniffing dogs were brought in, police where
posted outside, and no bomb was found. Then, a beautiful
thing happened: scores of Black men showed up at John
Muir Elementary that morning anyways, and the staff
wore their Black Lives Matter shirts (Q13 Fox, 2016), all
in defiance of threats by White supremacists and the offi-
cial district cancellation. Then, another beautiful thing
happened: the Seattle Education Association voted unani-
mously to support both John Muir Elementary and Black
Lives Matter, marking the first time anywhere that an
entire wide would be supporting Black Lives Matter
through teach-ins and other activities (Taylor, 2016).
Correspondence should be sent to Wayne Au, University of Washington
Bothell, School of Educational Studies, Box 358531, 18115 Campus Way
NE, Bothell, WA 98011-8246. E-mail: WAu@uwb.edu
Multicultural Perspectives
147
What happened at John Muir Elementary shows
the seriousness of the times. Violence is being visited
on our communities. The threats are themselves
forms of violence. The fact that likely White
supremacists callously made a violent bomb threat
against a school that is about 80% students of color
generally and 50% Black students (Office of Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, 2017a), should not be
lost on us. Racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, Islam-
ophobia, transphobia, sexism, anti-environmentalism,
anti-indigeneity, and white supremacy are all on the
rise, and our kids and communities are rightfully
anxious and fearful.
In their April 2016 report, the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC) referred to this dual rise in hate and fear
in schools as the “Trump Effect” (Costello, 2016). After
surveying 2,000 K–12 teachers, the SPLC reported
numerous cases of children being scared and experienc-
ing increased hate speech based on religion and immi-
gration status. For instance, a teacher in Tennessee
described how one Latino student asked her every day,
“Is the wall here yet?” (p. 5). As another example, a
teacher in New Hampshire commented, “A lot of stu-
dents think we should kill any and all people we do not
agree with. They also think that all Muslims are the same
and a threat to our country and way of life. They believe
all Muslims want to kill us” (p. 10).
The November 2016 election of Donald Trump as the
45th president of the United States has likely intensified
this effect. Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement
(ICE) raids on Latino, Asian, and African communities
in the United States and the resulting detentions have left
children crying with worry in their classrooms (Kame-
netz, 2017). Teachers have reported a drastic increase in
post-election hate speech (Wallace & Lamotte, 2016),
and the Trump administration has since reduced protec-
tions for transgender students (Somashekhar, Brown, &
Balingit, 2017). There were over 100 reported attacks or
threats on Jewish synagogues or people in the United
States in the first 3 months of 2017 alone (Bacon, 2017),
as well as 49 reported attacks against Muslims or mos-
ques in roughly the same time period (Beinart, 2017).
 South Asian Indian Americans have become targets for
violent and sometimes deadly attacks by White
supremacists yelling, “Get out of my country,” or “Go
back to your country” (Basu, 2017).
The events at John Muir Elementary and in the
rest of the country raise an important issue for educa-
tors. Yes, multicultural education is important, but in
the face of the hateful violence being visited on so
many of our students and communities, it is simply
not enough. We need to consider what we are willing
to do to defend our children, their parents, and our
schools, and we need to be clear about where our
solidarities lie.
Yes, multicultural education is
important, but in the face of the
hateful violence being visited on so
many of our students and
Downloaded by [73.140.87.71] at 16:17 01 September 2017
communities, it is simply not
enough. We need to consider what
we are willing to do to defend our
children, their parents, and our
schools, and we need to be clear
about where our solidarities lie.
Unfortunately, some teachers have publicly made
their solidarities clear. For instance, during the
February 16, 2017, “Day Without Immigrants,” sev-
eral teachers were put on leave for their commentar-
ies on social media. At Rubidoux High School in
Jurupa Valley, California—a school that is 90%
“Hispanic” (Start Class, 2017)—teachers were caught
saying things like: “That’s what you get when you
jump on some sort of bandwagon cause as an excuse
to be lazy and/or get drunk . . . Best school day ever.”
Another Rubidoux teacher commented, “. . . Small
classes, trouble makers were gone fantastic day!”
(Chasmar, 2017, n.p.). In Naples, Florida, in a district
that is a little over 50% “Hispanic” (Collier County
Public Schools, 2017), a teacher tweeted: “The funny
part about immigrants staying home is the rest of us
who pay for them are here at work like we’ve always
been. . .. So glad to hear about massive deportation.
Let’s make America great again. Thanks Donald
Trump!!” (ABC10 News, 2017, n.p.). An elementary
teacher in Prosser, Washington—which is over 50%
“Hispanic” (Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction, 2017b)—was also placed on leave after
she posted the following to Facebook:
The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education
148
This [Day Without Immigrants] is a great idea narrows
the search down. . .
If you would like to report illegal aliens, please call
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 1–866–
DHS–2ICE (347–2423). They will need to know names,
locations (either work place or residence) and any other
specific information you can provide. Visit www.ice.
gov for more information.
If this offended you in anyway do me a favor and
unfriend my American ass!!!
This was going viral on my daughters SnapChat . . .
TRUMP all the way!!! (Probert, 2017, n.p.)
These teachers’ responses to the “Day Without
Immigrants” show both the racist coding of associating
Brown kids with being “bad,” “illegal,” and not wel-
come in schools, as well as the sharp need for us to really
evaluate who should be teaching our children. It also
raises the question: Can someone who is fundamentally
anti-immigrant (or anti-LGBQT, anti-Islam, anti-Black,
for that matter) be trusted to care for immigrant students,
let alone be an effective teacher?
Different levels of racism are certainly persistent
across our predominately White teaching force (Lurie,
2015), and unfortunately these teachers’ views towards
immigrant and English Language Learner students is
more prominent than it should be (Walker, Shafer, &
Liams, 2004). However, it is also important to recognize
that in communities like Prosser there has been consider-
able popular pushback against the racism of these teach-
ers, as well as the building of solidarity with immigrant
students and communities in response to what they
deemed a racist “educational cancer” (Fannin, 2017).
Further, the example of John Muir Elementary and Seat-
tle teachers shows that many educators are taking strong
stands in support of our students.
Admittedly, amid all this racist vitriol, multicultural
education should be prominent in our classrooms,
schools, and districts if we want to help build student
and teacher critical consciousness around what is hap-
pening right now in the United States. For instance, we
ought to complicate students’ understandings by analyz-
ing the history, economics, politics, environment, and
human experiences of the U.S.-Mexico border, as done
in “The Line Between Us” (Bigelow, 2006). We should
also be teaching about refugees, immigration, #BlackLi-
vesMatter, and other issues through literature (Gann,
2017; Parrott, 2016), as well as supporting the various
movements to get Ethnic Studies into states, districts,
and schools (Ware, 2017)—especially given the research
showing how much it helps students of color engage in
their own learning (Sleeter, 2011). Perhaps even more
importantly, we should be teaching children about social
justice activism and protesting through picture books
(Reeve, 2017) and historical examples (Bigelow, 2015)
because, especially now, our kids need to see themselves
 as potential warriors for justice who have power to fight
back.
However, as important multicultural education is, it is
not enough. Many of our students are living in fear, trau-
matized by the impact that police violence, ICE raids,
hate speech, and racist attacks are having in their com-
munities. Take my son’s school in south Seattle’s
Rainier Valley, for instance. Like many schools here,
almost 68% of the students qualify for free and reduced
lunch, 33% are officially designated transition bilingual,
almost 50% are African American—with many from
recent East African immigrant families—10% are
“Hispanic,” 11% are Asian American, and 11% identify-
ing as multiracial (Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction, 2017a). Some students have family members
who are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA), and some family members have been caught in
ICE raids. My son’s classmates, 7 and 8 years old, have
worried aloud about if they will ever get to see their
families at home in Africa or Mexico again, or if they
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themselves will be deported along with their parents.
The tensions for our families and school community are
palpable, and even though we know ICE’s official policy
of not encroaching on school grounds, the wanton disre-
gard of rules and regulations that have plagued the cur-
rent presidential administration has forced us to ask a
serious question: What are we willing to do if and when
ICE comes for our students or their parents?
In this historical moment, when
our communities are under attack,
we need to make clear where our
solidarities lie, and act on those
solidarities in material ways.
In multiple conversations with teachers in Seattle, we
have discussed a range of answers to this question. These
have included smaller actions like making sure there is
policy in place that all office staff must immediately
report that ICE has arrived at school, or that district and
school administrators at least implement policy that cre-
ates a “process” for ICE and other authorities to fol-
low—one that could buy kids, parents, and communities
more time and distance to get away if needed. Addition-
ally, we have talked about how schools can become
spaces for community conversation around these issues,
including sharing resources like legal support and
counseling, and getting local and regional immigrants’
rights organizations to make presentations.
We have also considered more risky interventions.
For instance, we have talked about how teachers and
Multicultural Perspectives
149
school staff should get clear about who among them
is willing to physically protect students should ICE
show up at school or in the neighborhood, as well as
who among them will help cover class responsibili-
ties should a colleague feel compelled to provide
such protection. Similarly, we have discussed the
need for neighborhood parents to make plans of who
could immediately come down to school and form a
blockade to protect our kids from ICE, or at least
come and provide formal witness to events. We have
also discussed how parents, teachers, and administra-
tors could establish a system of “temporary custody,”
such that a child could be passed along (or snuck
out) to trusted adults either to hide them from ICE or
in case the child’s parents cannot come to school
because they themselves need to stay away. Others
have suggested the possibility of immediate lock-
downs if ICE shows up, which would forcibly keep
anyone from entering or leaving the school.
Clearly, this is not an exhaustive collection of
responses, and Teaching Tolerance (2017) has also
offered a concrete, useful list as well. However, the trag-
edy is that we are forced to ask these questions and have
these conversations at all, and the fact of the matter illus-
trates the severity of what teachers, students, parents,
and administrators are facing. In this historical moment,
when our communities are under attack, we need to
make clear where our solidarities lie, and act on those
solidarities in material ways. Which is why, right now,
multicultural education simply is not enough.
ORCID
Wayne Au http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-7394
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