Episode 23

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(October 26, 2007) Conversations about diversity in schools and in society typically put people in categories based on race, gender, and so on. As a result, the duality that minority girls and minority women live in often is overlooked. Dr. Shirley Nash Weber, former chair of the Department of Africana Studies and Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University, presented a keynote this summer on the challenge African American women in particular face in balancing gender and equity. The keynote was presented during the annual conference of the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education (AGELE), which was co-sponsored by the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity. Send comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or fill out form online at www.idra.org/Podcasts.

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See resource links and show notes. (33.8 MB; 00:36:49 min.)

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Resources

Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education

Advancing Women in Leadership Online Journal
This is an online professional, refereed journal that publishes manuscripts that report, synthesize, review, or analyze scholarly inquiry that focuses on women's issues.

Research on Women and Education
This is a special interest group within the American Education Research Association (AERA) formed to promote communication about women in education within the intersections of race, class, gender and culture.

Handbook for Achieving Gender Equity through Education
(Publisher page)
Or see description on the Feminist Majority Foundation web site.

Show Notes

Host Bradley Scott, Ph.D., senior IDRA education associate, introduces speaker Dr. Shirley Nash Weber, former chair of the Department of Africana Studies and Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University, who delivered a keynote at the 2007 annual conference of the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education (AGELE) in San Diego. The conference was co-sponsored by the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity.

Dr. Weber's keynote, “The Watch on Racism Cannot Stop," focuses on the on the challenge African American women face in balancing gender and equity.

Dr. Weber discusses host city San Diego's own "skeletons" with racism.

Dr. Weber talks about the difficult duality of growing up and living as an African American female.

Dr. Weber discusses the definition of "diversity," and how it has evolved to often exclude African Americans, and specifically African American women.

Dr. Weber talks about the perception of black women as nurturers.

Dr. Weber says that in this country, we "take away the humanity" of people of color and to "put them in categories that they would normally not be in, and to not afford them even the smallest level of concern and sympathy that ought to exist."

Dr. Weber talks about America's problem of "the color line."

Dr. Weber discusses the challenge that people of color face to be "twice as good ... to be considered 'good enough,'" and how this is particularly unfair to children.

Dr. Weber speaks about how education systems should recognize children of color: "We have to be prepared to be uncomfortable in the environment in which they exist, and deal with that discomfort as our problem and not theirs. [We must] be prepared to create an environment so that we eventually erase the discomfort that we feel rather than run from it."

Dr. Weber says that in education, the issues of gender and race must be addressed at the same time, "without making apologies for either one."

Show length: 36:49

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