Please tell us about yourselves and your time with NCSS. 

Sohyun: I am an associate professor, soon-to-be full professor from this fall, of elementary social studies education at Kennesaw State University. I have been a member of NCSS since 2007 and participated in the annual conferences.

Noreen: I am an assistant professor of elementary social studies education at Iowa State University. I have been a member of NCSS since 2013. I won the Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award in 2017, served as the 2018 Chair of the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) Scholars of Color Faculty Forum and 2019 CUFA Program Chair, and am currently serving on the CUFA Executive Board. I am also a part of the Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, NCSS’ collaboration with the Library of Congress.

NCSS recently issued the current events response, A National Council for the Social Studies Response to Anti-Asian Harassment and Violence during COVID-19, which you prepared. What key points can you give to social studies educators to help explain this topic to classroom students? 

First of all, this is not the first time we have seen a surge of anti-Asian discrimination during a public health crisis. Historically, Asian Americans have been an easy target for a public health and other social, economic, and political crises.  Second, the uptick of anti-Asian violence during a disease outbreak and other social crises is rooted in longstanding biases toward Asian Americans, who are perceived as dirty, dangerous foreigners. Third, Asian Americans are not the only group who have been discriminated against during public health crises. In fact, COVID-19 is just the latest episode in US history in which a marginalized group in society has been scapegoated and discriminated against. Lastly, such times of crisis require solidarity, humanity, and hope, not hysteria or hatred. We as a society can flatten the curve, and only together can we prevent another curve of hate crime from rising. 

What would you say to social studies educators regarding the importance of teaching students about anti-Asian harassment and violence now? 

Although it can be a difficult topic to confront, it should be talked about and explored in order to stop the continued pattern of racializing disease and scapegoating particular groups during times of crisis. It is important to contextualize the current harassment Asians and Asian Americans are experiencing as part of a broader history of anti-Asian sentiment that dates back nearly 200 years. Teaching about the current anti-Asian harassment in this historical context will help students see how white supremacy works and has worked in the lives of Asian Americans in the US. It also helps students hear the too-often silenced and ignored voices and experiences of Asians in the United States. 

The NCSS response mentions "the urgency of racial literacy education." What does racial literacy education consist of in a classroom setting?

Racial literacy refers to a skill and practice in which students are able to discuss the social construction of race, probe the existence of racism, and examine the harmful effects of racial stereotyping. Racially literate citizens would understand that race is socially constructed; that racism is normal, pervasive, and permanent; and that racism is more than individual prejudice, instead involving the institutional, systemic, and cultural processes that perpetuate white supremacy. As a home for civic education, social studies is the content area where students should develop these understanding and skills. Social studies classrooms can and should center race and racism in the study of the past and the present of the US, particularly regarding the issues of citizenship, democracy, equity, freedom and social justice. 

On the heels of this statement, our country finds itself engaged in another issue of racial intolerance, the killing of George Floyd and countless black people, along with systemic racism. What similarities can be drawn between the two instances when teaching about racial intolerance and racial injustice?

White supremacy works in different yet related ways to shape the lived realities and opportunities afforded and denied to various groups of color. Police and state violence against Black men and women is part of a system of white supremacy that treats Black lives as less deserving of dignity, freedom, safety, health, and hope. This is the same system that causes Asian Americans to be attacked during the COVID-19 pandemic through deliberate racial scapegoating that dehumanizes us and invites harm. White supremacy relies upon dehumanization, but often operates in covert and insidious ways. It uses whiteness to dehumanize Asian Americans as dangerous dirty perpetual foreigners who can be expelled when they are perceived to be a danger to whites. It uses whiteness to dehumanize African Americans as dangerous, inferior, and criminal. This dehumanization starts in classrooms where teachers do not interrupt curricula built on dehumanizing assumptions about the history and lived experience of African Americans, Asian Americans, and other marginalized groups. While violence on unarmed Black, Brown, Asian and other marginalized bodies occurs on the streets, learning about violence against non-White bodies begins in the classroom. We also want to call attention to the Asian American police officer who stood by and did nothing as his partner literally crushed the life out of George Floyd. It is important to recognize that anti-Blackness exists in many communities of color, and that these communities sometimes find themselves at odds with other minoritized groups as they struggle to achieve particular rights. Educators must be intentional about addressing the historical and ongoing nature of settler colonialism and anti-Blackness as well as ways in which various groups have shown solidarity toward the fight for justice for all.