Education Commons^™

Deep Understandings And Thick Descriptions: Tackling Questions About Race, Gertrude Tinker Sachs, Rachel Grant, Shelley Wong

Middle and Secondary Education Faculty Publications

In this article, three professors of color speak out in response to the continuation of White police killings of Black people in the United States. We contend that there is a strong need for everyone, professors and educators in particular, to be proactive in confronting racism by tackling not avoiding, difficult questions and conversations. We propose that through the enactment of deep understandings and thick descriptions in our classrooms at all levels we may encourage a critical humanitarian response to the challenges of not knowing the diverse “Other.” We present real experiences from our teaching to illustrate the kinds of …