Students Want to Build Anti-racist Praxis: How to Support Them in the Classroom with Grassroots Organizers

While university institutions have been legally codified as sites of free expression and academic autonomy, university administrations consistently repress student-led campus rebellion and activism against racism. With the resurgence of intersectional and transnational anti-racist and anti-war student activism across college campuses, how can sociology educators pedagogically invest in students’ desires to build anti-racist praxes within and beyond the university? Informed by experiences with mutually constructive grassroots spaces and undergraduate courses, I argue that educators of race, including but not limited to sociologists, must engage with grassroots and community organizers (especially organizers who are racially minoritized and queer, femme, and/or gender non-normative) and incorporate their learning tools for popular and political education. First, I use the example of “community agreements” to show how educators can incorporate political and popular education tools into their race courses to help their students build their anti-racist toolkits. Second, I discuss two examples of how educators can collaborate directly with working class and racially minoritized grassroots organizers and invite them into the classroom. I end with a call to support community-centered learning spaces beyond the university classroom, as it can strengthen anti-racist pedagogy. Despite academic and state repression, I highlight the long-held tradition and responsibility of educators to support their students’ anti-racist critiques and action. Continuing June Jordan’s anti-racist pedagogical legacy (along with others alike), the university can only survive through co-learning and co-building with students and grassroots organizers, especially racially minoritized ones.