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Eliza: "Why do they hate us?" My students have asked me this question. My immigrant students, my Latinx students, my queer students have asked the same question posed by a Syrian immigrant child in Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. When reading through the incidents of prejudice, bias, and racism in verse novels for our teacher book club-like the one that prompted this question-I reflected on the way I, as a Mexican American, straight, cis-female introverted daughter of immigrants, present and discuss these moments with my students. I asked: How do I hold space for them to learn the vocabulary to name and discuss people in books, so they may name and discuss realworld incidents and find their path toward healing from the many incidents they witness and experience in their young lives? How do I ensure we discuss these incidents for what they are without perpetuating harm? How do I empower them to speak out against incidents of bias and injustice?
Sarah: I met Eliza through a summer online teacher book group. Across June and July, we read middle grade novels together and met online to talk about sharing these books with our middle school students. Eliza's questions about Other Words from Home prompted me, a white, straight, cis-female introverted granddaughter of immigrants, to reflect on how I present and discuss bias and racism with my students, mostly white pre- and inservice teachers preparing to teach grades 6-12. And I reflected on other reading I was doing that summer. Like many teachers, I read Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist, who wrote: "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist'" (p. 9). He explains there is no in-between safe space of "not racist" in that we either allow racial inequities to persevere as a racist or confront racial inequities as an anti-racist. So when I read with the teachers and when I now read with my students, I know that when I model reading in a way that does not confront racial or social inequalities, I model biased, racist reading. By not naming harm, I am not confronting bias and racism and therefore sustaining inequity. But I was not sure how to do this in a way that also...