Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn E. Singleton...

Courageous Conversations About Race: Chapter 5 Authors Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton in Chapter Five of Courageous Conversations About Race broach the topic of race, by asking the reader to evaluate his or her own consciousness of race. According to the authors, in order to address the achievement gaps between African American students and White students, educators should shift their energy towards focusing on the factors that they have direct control of inside the classroom rather than on the factors that influence this achievement disparity between races outside the classroom. The first step towards addressing the racial achievement gap begins with educators addressing his or her individual racial attitudes for, as the authors†¦show more content†¦Growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois was significantly different from where I was born in Morristown, New Jersey. One of the most startling differences was apparent in the make-up of the student body. In Morristown, I attended an elementary school with a diverse student body; many of my schoolmates were African American and I remember even at a young age, students regardless of race interacting all-together without any sense of stigma attached to it. In that sense, while attending elementary school, since it was the norm to have friends of different races, I did not think very much of my race. However, in contrast to living in Morristown, when I moved to Park Ridge, Illinois at the start of middle school, I will never forget meeting my classmates for the first time only to realize not one was of a differen t race. In fact, there was not one African American in my entire middle school! This was shocking to me. Transferring from a diverse school community to a completely homogenous school community made me more aware of my race simply because there