Responding to Hate in Your School

Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's webinar on responding to hate in your school. We're so glad that you could join us. My name is Megan Barney and, I'm the Coordinator for Online Learning here at Facing History & Ourselves. I'm joined today by my colleague Dimitry Anselme and Kira Simon, a close partner from the ADL who will be facilitating the conversation today. We're also very excited to be joined this evening by Jessica Acee, a co-author and lead trainer on the Western State Center's "Confronting White Nationalism in Schools" toolkit.

Before we get started with our conversation today, I'd like to cover a few of the ways you can use the engagement tools at the bottom of your screen. We invite you to join us on social media and tweet about this webinar using the hashtag #FHOnline. If you have any technical issues, the Q&A window will let you interact with me during the webinar. We can help try and solve any issues you might be facing.

You'll also see at the bottom of your screen the group chat window. We invite you to open that up and introduce yourselves. Throughout the webinar, you can share your experiences, ask questions, and interact with my colleague Dustin Tenreiro.. You can also find the resources we'll be discussing today at the bottom of your screen. And this webinar also has live captions available for you. Finally, please know that this webinar is being recorded and will be available for on-demand viewing for you and your colleagues to return to. And without further ado, I'd like to hand the conversation over to Dimitry to get us started this evening.

Well, thank you. Welcome, everybody. My name is Dimitry Anselme, and I'm the Executive Program Director of Professional Learning and Educator Support at Facing History. I'm excited to have all of you with us. I can see that many of you are introducing yourself in the chat box.

So I'm going to quickly pass it over to Kira so she can introduce herself as a co-facilitator, and then we'll talk about the overview of what we're going to cover for the webinar, and then we'll get started. Kira, if want to introduce yourself.

Yes, thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Kira Simon. I'm the Director of Curriculum and Training at ADL. I'm based here, I'm based in New York City. I want to thank you all for joining us. I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Wonderful. Let's get going with an overview. So for tonight, what we are hoping to do is to start with some basic terms and definitions that you can use when thinking about antisemitism and ways to respond to hatred in the classroom. Then we will move to sharing a resource from Facing History, a quick video resource, and from there, we will engage with our guest speaker, Jessica Acee from the Western State.

And Jessica is the co-author of a toolkit for confronting white nationalism. So we'll engage-- so Kira and I will engage in a conversation with Jessica, and then we will move to sort of sharing other resources available to you from the ADL and from Facing History & Ourselves. So Kira, I'm putting up some terms and definitions.

Thank you very much. Before we get started, I did want to just acknowledge that as we were planning this webinar, we started planning it months before-- a couple months ago. We're living in unprecedented times, and I want to especially thank everyone for making time in their day to be here when we're responding to new experiences and responding to the COVID-19 virus. So we thank you so much for being here.

I'm going to start and kick us off with talking about some terms and definitions. At ADL, we create a lot of learning experiences to help us understand and challenge bias and also antisemitism specifically, but all forms of bias. And one of the core principles of understanding how bias manifests is language. So we want to make sure that we are on the same page about terms. So we have this definition of antisemitism that the ADL has been working on and revising and updating over the years as we see how it manifests.

So I want you to take a moment and read through the definition for yourself. And I want to draw your attention to a couple of features. Antisemitism may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. That language is very particular, because antisemitism also can be manifested in many other ways. We see it happen both intentionally and unintentionally, and we understand that antisemitism is both an attitude and a prejudice but also a system that exists that affects all of us, whether or not we are fully aware of it, which is why we often see antisemitic rhetoric and tropes being used unintentionally-- and which offers an opportunity to educate and respond and interrupt those examples of antisemitism.

Next we're going to look at this definition for white supremacy, because it's very lengthy and complicated. So I'm going to bring us through a couple of different points in this definition here. So white supremacy is a multifaceted and complex set of beliefs and ideologies that, again, like antisemitism, it could show up as an individual attitude, but we also know that it shows up as a system that exists within our society and often operates invisibly.

So this definition here is one that is written by our Center on Extremism at ADL. And their job is to look at extremist activity, which often is based on white supremacy. And so in this definition, we look at the four different characteristics that we often see extremists profess in their ideologies. So beliefs about white people compared to people of color about society, how society should operate, about culture that white supremacists belief is specific to white people, and beliefs about science and genetics.

So we also know that these views that white supremacists often hold are built upon a foundation of more subtle and oftentimes invisible aspects of white supremacy that are woven into our society. So it's important when we're talking about white supremacy that we keep both of those ideas in the forefront of our mind.

One of the aspects that we'll be talking about today that I want to draw your attention to is in this bottom paragraph. We have seen in recent years, especially beginning with the rally in Charlottesville in 2017, that many white supremacists today believe that the white race is in danger of extinction because of an incoming tide of people of color who are immigrants from other countries. And that-- the connection to antisemitism is that many believe that Jewish people are playing the role of a puppet master and manipulating the actions of other groups and the actions of people of color and immigrants of color to bring about this change. So these are one of the trends that we want to especially pay attention to as it comes up in overt and subtle ways.

White nationalism is a term that comes from white supremacy. It actually started to be used as a euphemism as a way of making white supremacy seem more palatable to the general public. And sometimes these terms are conflated because they are related so closely. What white nationalism focuses on specifically is the idea that a country, a nation, would be defined by the white race, the white racial identity of the people in that country or nation.

And so those who espouse white nationalist views are emphasizing that particular aspect of white supremacy that we just read before, the multiple aspects that a country or that a region should be defined by its white racial identity and that those people should be held above people of color and their interest should be promoted at the expense of people of color.

Thank you, Kira. So we've given you some terms. What we would love to do is to begin to hear from you. So if you could use the chat box and respond to this question that we're asking, we just would love to hear how you're responding, or how do incidents of antisemitism show up in your school or in your communities.

Great, thank you. I could see some posting coming up. And as many of you are pointing out, these incidents of hatred oftentimes will happen. So sometimes it's targeted toward Latinx students, immigrants, or other communities. What we're hoping to do with all of you tonight is to begin to show you the intersectionality, sort of the integrated roots of some of these hatred and their confluence in white nationalist thinking.

Thank you. I just saw something about Confederate flag being treated as an issue of free speech. And that's a huge challenge for us, and it sets me up for the next piece that I would love to engage all of us in. So one of the resources from Facing History we've created is a resource-- a lesson looking at Charlottesville.

So in 2017, we have a debate, if you want, or a protest around the removal of statues connected to the Confederacy. And quickly, the Charlottesville demonstration moves into an expression of violence and an outburst of antisemitic violence and racist language and violence targeted toward people of color.

So we're going to show you this video. And what I'm going to have you pay attention to is look at the manifestation that begins around issues around the Confederacy and then gets expressed in antisemitic language when the conversation is actually a conversation about race.

So why are these connections being made in the context of the worldview of white nationalists? Why is it getting expressed this way? And how can this be a conversation not only about antisemitism but about racism and about inclusion and hatred of other groups?

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

 

[ALL YELLING]

 

-- You will not replace us. You will not replace us. You will not replace us. Jews will not replace us. Jews will not replace us. Jews will not replace us. Blood and soil. Blood and soil. Blood and soil. Blood and soil. Blood and soil. Blood and soil. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets.

No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA. No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA. No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA.

[ALL YELLING]

 

No Nazis, no KKK, no fascist USA.

-- White lives matter. White lives matter. White lives matter. White lives matter.

-- Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter.

[ALL YELLING]

 

[END PLAYBACK]

 

This is a pretty disturbing video. Before transitioning to introducing us to our speaker, I would invite you to please go back to the chat and just type reactions, emotional reactions to the video, to what you've just watched.

I see a question came up that-- if that wasn't clear, that was actual footage from the protest rally in 2017 in Charlottesville.

Thank you, Kira.

And I'm just going to emphasize some of the points that I'm seeing that are being made. I probably have watched video footage of that rally hundreds of times over the last two and a half years and still have that deep nervousness and anxiety every time I see it that many people are expressing in the chat.

And as well, as part of the lesson, we do talk about how to use a video like this in a classroom. I think you would have to do a lot of contracting with students before they watch the video. I was able to sort of give you a short background and then show you the video as adults. But I think there would be some contracting activities to do with kids in the classroom before showing this.

And then of course, you know your classroom better as professionals, so you probably will need to make a judgment call as to where and what level is this most appropriate. We have written the lesson to be accessible at both middle school and high school levels, but even in those contexts, I think you would need to create some kind of contracting and setting up of an environment in order to allow for students to be able to understand the video and being able to take this.

I do you want to draw your attention to some of the language we heard in the piece. A chant about Jews will not replace us. So again, I want to place this in a context where oftentimes we're trafficking in antisemitism in a context of racial hatred and the targeting of other groups which may be Latinx, immigrants, and so on. And so it becomes very difficult to tease out antisemitism because it's getting embedded, interwoven, integrated into a larger racial discourse.

And so what we're hoping to do tonight is to provide you with resources where you as an educator can begin to tease out those pieces in helping students recognize those elements, recognize the language, recognize the symbols in order to equip them with the tools necessary to combat antisemitism and any other hatred. So with this, I think we are ready to welcome our guest speaker, Jessica.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Glad to have you with us. Kira, I will have you start the interview, and then I will pick up after that.

Thank you. So Jessica, to start us off, one of the core aspects of the work that we do with understanding antisemitism and hate is knowing that for each of us as professionals and educators, we have our own journey and professional learning and growth that we have to do to make an impact on our students. Can you speak a little bit about your professional journey and how you arrived at the work that you're doing now?

Yeah, absolutely. And we all have our own path. I started out doing anti-hate work in Portland, Oregon, where I currently live and where I grew up, because it was part of my music scene. I was confronted with white power music at shows that I wanted to attend or at record stores where I wanted to buy obviously not white power music, but it was there, and I started organizing against hate in that way with the young folks who were also excited to be part of an anti-racist community.

I started doing immigrant rights work in college and then worked as an immigrant rights organizer for a few years after college full time and have stayed pretty close to that movement for a while, too, and learned a lot about the relationship between white nationalists and anti-immigrant or nativist groups in my time doing that work. And then for the last 11 or 12 years, I've worked in schools as an educator and as a program developer primarily.

And I feel like my experience as a community organizer has lent itself quite nicely to working in a school. I think probably many of you at home can relate, but it's such an amazing feeling to be part of a school community and the cycle of the year in the life of a school.

I've often likened it to an organizing campaign in some ways, although it's nice that you have a set deadline. Obviously, we're working in slightly different times these days. And then I think the other thing that I've benefited from is just a tremendous amount of professional development. I try to take advantage of whatever I can to learn about my own identity, also how I show up in school with students, and what I can do to make sure that our schools are safe places for the kids that I work with and hopefully for yours too.

Jessica, you are the co-author of "Confronting White Nationalism in Schools: A Toolkit." And I was wondering if you could talk a bit about what motivated you to put together the toolkit and also what did you learn in the process of putting that toolkit together.

Yeah, I partnered with Nora Flanagan, who's an amazing educator out of Chicago, and then with the Western States Center, which is a national civil rights organization headquartered here in Portland, Oregon that works on building democracy nationally. And we created this toolkit about a year and a half ago. We wrote it over one long, intense weekend and then sent it around to every educator we knew to get feedback and had a number of calls and a number of experts reflect on what we had written and eventually were able to publish it.

I think I have been really fortunate to talk to a number of-- many, many educators, I should say, more than a number-- across the country who are dealing with these issues in their own schools and looking for resources for help. I've certainly learned one, I would say, is what this looks like on a national level beyond just what it looks like in my own community, what hate in schools-- all the myriad ways that can show up for us.

I think two, I would say I have learned how important it is for teachers to feel supported by colleagues, by administration, by other folks in the school community. And I would say the third thing that I always try to hammer home is how important it is for us to have access to counselors and to librarians. We should consider them, in addition to teachers, they're sort of frontline workers in the fight against hate in our schools.

Jessica, going back to how you have developed the ability to have these conversations with students and grown as an educator in that way, what would you say to the educators on this call for how to have these difficult conversations with students? And you also mentioned doing some identity work in your professional learning journey, and do you think that that plays a role in being able to do so with students?

Yes, I do. I identify as Arab American. I am bi-racial. I'm Jewish. I benefit from a lot of light-skinned privilege. I have certainly benefited from workshops and professional development and reading and close networks of other folks of color and other colleagues who are interested in exploring identity work.

And I think as much as we can, often-- I mean, people have varying degrees of capacity for extra work, for sure, but as much as we can, often we should. And I think I feel the same way about talking to our students. You just have to try and I'm sure everyone out there can relate. We only get better by practicing. We know that. Practicing is how we learn.

It's up to schools to create some professional development opportunities and also some safe spaces for faculty to practice. But if we as educators can practice with each other, can practice with our students, maybe we have a small group of advisees we work with, maybe we are the teacher advisor for a student group. In any way that we can get some practice in, every little bit helps. And it doesn't have to be perfect. You can take a step without knowing exactly where you're going.

Jessica, I'm really interested if you could help us [INAUDIBLE] understand better the roots of antisemitism and the role that symbols or other language-- antisemitic language may play out in white nationalist worldview expressions. So what I'm really interested in is what are the roots of antisemitism in white nationalism?

Yeah. It's a great question. And Kira did a really good job sort of setting that up for us at the beginning. White nationalists do not understand how it is possible that folks of color, that African American folks, were able to win the successes of the civil rights movement, that they, that we were able to win. And their explanation is that somebody must have been pulling the strings, must have been funding this movement, must have been masterminding. Because otherwise, how is it that this subhuman race could have advanced the way they did?

And they point the finger at the Jewish community. They say Jews are the reason that the civil rights movement was successful. And from there, it just builds. So that's why you hear a lot of antisemitic tropes about Jews as puppet masters, Jews funding movements. It's where a lot of the antisemitic attacks against George Soros come from. And it's the root of-- it's really a core tenet of white nationalism. So white nationalists will layer other things around sort of pride in their own identity on top of that, but antisemitism, excuse me, is the bedrock.

And so we often see-- I think when we talk about this work, sometimes we use the word signaling, which is sort of our term for less overt white nationalist behavior. But we see less overt behavior around antisemitism constantly. It's a near constant in communities of young people, because it feels a little bit less threatening. If it's like a way you can kind of dabble into something more provocative.

It's a way to-- I think people don't-- we have a lot of antisemitism in our country, for one, and it appears on all sides of the political spectrum. And so it feels like a safer place to kind of dip your toe into. So certainly there are real consequences and there is real violence associated with antisemitism, but oftentimes in schools, we see it pretty frequently and at a low level. But it must be taken seriously. It must be taken seriously. It must be taken as seriously as any other kind of hate speech or actions in our school communities.

And building on that, can you talk about some specific types of language, memes, symbols, or even some organizations or sites that are being co-opted and used to perpetuate or expand this white nationalist and white supremacist rhetoric? And what can we do about it?

Yeah. I mean, certainly I am sure I'm speaking to a lot of folks who have seen this firsthand. But in schools I think Pepe the Frog is probably the first symbol that comes to mind, and we see that all over the place. There's also sort of a-- we call it in the toolkit a happy merchant. It's a caricature of a Jewish looking face with a big, kind of hooked nose. That image appears quite frequently in different forms. So any time you see that hooked nose, that's for sure antisemitism.

The number of white nationalist groups grows pretty frequently. They change their names. They are different players online. They look differently. Some are focused more on recruiting young people. Some are focused more on sort of base building in their own community. Some are all online. Some have higher political goals.

So I think one of the pieces of advice that I always give educators is not to get too hung up on specific memes, specific images, or even specific names of organizations, but be curious and wonder what your students are looking at online. If you see an image that you don't know what it is, Google it. Look into it further. If you see a flyer in your neighborhood or something that's been posted up on the school campus or something that's been scratched into a desk, explore that and get a sense of what our kids are engaging with. Because certainly the online landscape changes frequently.

And especially now we have almost all of our young people at home and probably spending a lot of time online and being exposed to all sorts of different memes. And oftentimes they look sarcastic, and this is how white nationalists are appealing to young people. They're trying to make something, funny something, that's kind of edgy, something you'd want to share with your friends. And it's really easy to stumble into all that without totally knowing what you're doing.

And if I could just follow up that question, what are some of the sites where students might accidentally stumble into this white supremacist language without specifically looking for an organization that espouses those views?

Yeah, I mean, I think the most common place that students stumble into this material is through video games. So the chat groups on a Fortnite or a Minecraft or any other game that students are playing, especially games that appeal to young men. That is the number one place where students would encounter this material. And it's why it's super important when we're home with our young folks to ask them what they're seeing online, sit down with them, and talk about things that they're experiencing or something someone said.

Or if they share a joke with you and you know it's got white nationalist undertones or overtones, ask them, why is that funny? At whose expense is that funny? And when we're talking about-- and when school's in session, which hopefully will be back very soon. I know I'm eager to get back. We have to talk to our students. It's a responsibility of adults, and it's an added layer of work, unfortunately. But we have to talk to our students about their online lives too, because they have them and they're vulnerable in those spaces.

Jessica, I was wondering if you could talk to us about other tools that you are recommending in the toolkit for how to combat hatred. We are living in an environment that is now with increasing anti-immigrant language and activities. In the post COVID-19 world that we're living right now, we've seen acts toward Asian American citizens, for example. So what other tools would you recommend for educators to consider using or bringing to the classroom or in their schools when wanting to respond to acts of hatred?

Yeah. That's a great question. There's so much. So I think on a proactive side, we have to always be considering what kind of community we're building at school. Students spend tons of time at school. I want, at least for the schools that I work in, to be models of what an inclusive democracy can look like for young people who are then going to be graduating and voting and participating in civic society to a greater extent than maybe they do already. So what kind of community are we building at school? And what ways do we have for students to find a positive sense of belonging in our school community without turning to white nationalism or white nationalist ideas?

We know from a University of Virginia study that's a little over a year old that a very small percentage of Americans are members of white nationalist groups. But a much larger percentage, almost 30%, agree with, identify with some of the core tenants of white nationalism. So there are a lot of students who are coming from homes where some of these ideas have some ground and some traction. They do spend a lot of time at school, and we can make clear what our values are as schools.

We can do community-building work, making sure that there are clubs and activities that students can plug into, making sure that in our home rooms or in even just if that's our classroom that we've build some community, some safe spaces where students can talk, where they feel like they could bring up an idea, even if they think it's an unpopular one, and it can be challenged in a healthy way in the classroom. So I think building those kind of communities is really important.

I'm struggling to answer this question because I have so many things I want to say. I recently read a book called Not Light But Fire, and maybe some of you have read it. And I thought it did an excellent job laying out-- it's really geared towards teachers, and it does a great job of laying out what you can do to build community in your classroom, especially around having some of the hard conversations around race or identity. So I'd recommend that.

I think we can do proactive stuff school-wide in terms of, maybe you set up an anonymous tip line where if students see or hear something, they can share it with administrators so people can be aware of what's happening at school. Some of the things that negatively impact our school culture happen on online platforms and the adults might be the last to hear about them. We can set up climate and culture committees where we have adults in the building and perhaps students too who are getting together and proactively figuring out ways to make our school community stronger.

I think certainly we can do a school-wide educational event. There are lots of opportunities to read a book and discuss it together or to bring in a speaker or to have these conversations scaffolded in a way that makes sense for your school community but to sort of start having these conversations that way. And then I would say just jump in just a little bit. Dip your toe in. There's a lot of good resources out there. I know all of us would be happy to support you in any way that you need to find those resources. But those are my biggest takeaways.

Thanks, Jessica. Can you repeat the name of the book again? It looks like somebody in chat was hoping to get it.

Sure. It's called Not Light, But Fire. And I think that author is Michael Kay, but it might be Matthew Kay, and I apologize to him. He's a high school teacher I believe out of Philadelphia. But the last name is Kay, K-A-Y, I think.

So I'm trying to transition to this new question in the chat box. Why don't we see if anybody has questions for Jessica? And of course, you can use your chat box.

While we're waiting, I would say one more thing that I think is really important is that if you have concerns about a student in your class, don't keep it to yourself. I mean, these things can escalate, and it really can become a school safety issue. So talk to your school counselors. Talk to your administrators that you trust and have a good relationship with, and hopefully that's all of them. Talk to whoever you feel like is an ally in your school, because it really does take all of us.

So there are two questions for you right now. One is-- sorry. What have you learned in the anti-bias work?

What have I learned in anti-bias work? Let's see here. I'm not sure if this is exactly what the questioner was asking, so tell us if it's not. But I think that the best antidote to bias, in general, is just having a really diverse group of people around you and engaging together. So I think it's really important for young folks to have a sense of all the different biases they encounter, especially in their online lives.

I'm a big believer in digital literacy work that we can do with our students. And I think that if we can continue to understand how we show up in the world, we can help our students to understand how they show up in the world. And really the best way to make sure that we're building that inclusive democracy that I dream of is to have a really big table and invite as many people as you possibly can.

And Jessica, I didn't phrase that question properly for you. What the person really wanted to understand is what kind of challenges have you encountered as you were doing this work?

Yeah. Thank you. Let's see here. So I think I do a lot-- I talk to a lot of teachers over the phone. I give a lot of trainings, mostly to adults, sometimes to students. And I do a little bit of this work on my own, in my own community here in Portland, Oregon in addition to traveling around. I think talking to people about free speech and how those intersections-- where are those lines and intersections between free speech and white nationalist rhetoric and what role parents play in communicating with administrators and teachers about the kind of topics that their students are exposed to. Those are really challenging, sometimes sticky places, and there is a wide variety of experiences of school communities across our country.

I think the other challenge that comes up a lot is teachers not feeling supported by administration when they're trying to think about how to build these communities in their classrooms or in their school at large. It takes all of us being brave, and not everybody is always ready for that. Those, I would say, are some of the biggest challenges that I have seen doing this work. Personally, the biggest challenges I face I think are just around getting over the fear we all have of getting it wrong and just jumping in.

Great. There are a lot of questions about its toolkit itself, the price and so on. But we'll have some time in a couple of minutes to address that. So I'll pause on those questions. There were a couple of other questions around, what would you say are helpful not to do?

I think schools have a tendency to sort of try to sweep things under the rug. Maybe it's you think, OK, this was one student. It's a one-off situation. We've dealt with it. There's been some discipline taken, and we're moving on. And we know with anti-hate work that, I know all of us know this, that we've really put ourselves in a bad position collectively if we try to look at these situations as one-offs or individual attempts.

Our student community is connected, and they know what's happening. And so we as adults are often the last to hear about something in a school community. And if one person sees-- if one person has done something, typically most of the kids in the school have already heard about that. And if a school response only addresses the one student, the offending student we'll call them, and then nothing else is done, then other students don't know how it was handled or that it was handled, and it doesn't build a stronger, safer community.

So there need to be-- I know we have confidentiality issues, certainly, in our schools, but there needs to be some kind of response that is the community taking a step forward beyond just sort of individual crime and punishment kind of situations. So that makes a big difference.

What can we do better? If we have frozen in the moment, which is many of us at many points in our lives, and we're not quite sure how to address a student who says something inappropriate and offensive or some white nationalist signaling, we'll call it, in class, if we're not sure in the moment what to say, we need to make sure that we circle back.

We circle back to have that conversation and preferably in front of other students so everyone knows that you handled it, or you're addressing it at least. I think what research has also shown us is that having a trusted adult who you respect in your life who debunks these ideas is one of the best ways for students to also abandon some of these white nationalist ideas. So it really matters what we do in our classrooms and the kind of modeling that we provide.

Thanks. There was also a question about if you have ever considered the use of role play.

Role play. Hm. I do a lot of role play work with students. I have a few different scenarios when I'm giving workshops and things that are around how white nationalism shows up in schools. And we do talk through the scenarios and we sort of-- so stay you're at a basketball game and your school is playing another rival school and the rival school's fans start yelling racial slurs at your team. And maybe you're the student in this scenario. Maybe you're the coach in this scenario. Maybe you're a parent from the rival team in this scenario. So unfortunately, these are scenarios that we've all heard about, if not experienced.

And I tend to talk through those with students or adults and sort of have some opportunity to share out. There's usually a wealth of experience and knowledge in the room. Even if maybe you as an individual teacher don't feel like you know what you would do in that situation, once you start to talk to other folks, you realize you have a lot more experience to draw than you think. So I hope that that is a little bit of comfort and encouragement to those of you listening.

Jessica, can you speak a little bit about what kind of ground rules you would set up or how to make sure that role play can be done in a way where students feel safe and are also taking the work seriously?

Yeah. I mean, the toolkit has really strived to center students' voices. In every scenario that we cover, students are the first category that gets listed. And that's the way that I approach my teaching and my workshops too. So I think if you were going to try to do some role playing in your classroom, you'd want get your students on board first and see what scenarios feel appropriate to them. And maybe you even have a group of students who you could work with to do the facilitating themselves.

I mean, I'm a high school educator. So I work with that age group of students, and I'm really always impressed with what you can do when you have their energy and their ideas. So I would certainly try to get the students on board first. I think it's always helpful, in addition, to have some community agreements that you've all agreed to, and maybe there's some students who-- if that's something that's familiar to you all, then you know I'm talking about. And if it's not, there certainly are plenty of templates online or I'm happy to share one. And students can come up with things that they think are important too, some ground rules for the conversation.

And then you can always try it out before you do it with a group of students. Maybe find some colleagues and talk through what might come up and think about how you might respond and at what points you might let the conversation go or what points you might want to jump in a little bit. A little prep work never hurts.

Thank you, Jessica. We, in a lot of our professional development with educators, always caution with the use of role play and so on in terms of I think exactly what you said, being very thoughtful about what you're doing, how you set it up, and also exercising choice in when is the role play appropriate and when is not appropriate. So [INAUDIBLE].

Yeah, agreed.

Since people have begun to answer this question in terms of what work do you need to do outside the classroom to be equipped to have these conversations with students in the classroom? And many people have begun to respond to this in the chat box. There was one interesting question that came up in the chat box, Jessica, that I thought I could give you as the last question for you. What do you recommend educators do when students are being introduced or using these kind of ideas and language at home and then are coming to the school?

Yeah. That is a hard one. I think schools that have a better handle on this are schools that really lean into their values. And if your school doesn't have sort of a written mission statement or a statement of values that you can lean into, then I think you should create one for your classroom. And we have to-- maybe that's as much as you can do if your school community isn't as responsive.

But if you have a set of values and standards that you start off your year with, this is the framework for my class, here are the things that we value. Like, we value listening to each other, we value healthy debate and dialogue, we value everyone having equal access to opportunity, and we value the rights of all people, whatever it might be. You can lean into those. You can make that the framework for the conversations that happen in your class.

You can also use similar values to create a rubric for what's appropriate, what are appropriate sources to share, whether it's people writing papers or if it's sources that come up in your classroom discussions or conversations. I'm out here in the Pacific Northwest, so we certainly have students who want to bring up the Proud Boys in conversations as a legitimate source. So having some kind of rubric of what sources are appropriate and also having some values that you can lean into for your classroom conversations, I think, would be a good place to start.

Great. Thank you. So I think we can move to the part of the webinar when we can talk about some classroom resources. And Jessica, actually, I will call on you to talk a little bit about the toolkit. And people were interested in how to access it, price, and so on. And then after that, we could move to Kira talking about some ADL resources, and I can wrap up with some of Facing History's.

That sounds great. Thank you. And it's been really nice to talk to you both. I appreciate it. And to all of you at home. The toolkit is available online as a free digital download. There's just a little questionnaire you fill out. And I think we have the website that'll pop up at a later slide.

It includes some sort of introductory information about white nationalism. We dive in a little bit more into antisemitism, into misogyny, a few other topics. And then the bulk, the sort of meat of the toolkit are scenarios. So different scenarios you might encounter in your own school community and then suggested responses that you could take as students, parents, teachers, administrators, community members, et cetera.

There are after each scenario a couple stories of things that have gone well with scenarios like this, real life stories from schools that we know. A couple tips on what not to do. And then the very end of the toolkit is a bunch of different resources, proactive steps you can take, common myths that you might come across when you're trying to debunk some of these ideas in your classroom experience, and then a few images and logos of white nationalist groups that you're most likely to encounter.

So we're on edition number two. It's been shared every state around the country and internationally, a few other states. I think we're about 10,000 printings. And we are really excited to get it into your hands and welcome, of course, any opportunity to dialogue or share feedback about it.

Great. Thank you. Kira?

Yes, thank you. I'm excited to tell you about a few of our ADL resources. Many of them are listed in the resource list that is going to be available to everyone who participates in this webinar. ADL has, in our education department and in our other programmatic departments, puts out a number of different educational resources, some of which can be used directly with students, and some are just really great educational tools for educators and adults to better understand these issues so that they can be prepared to see them and discuss them with their students.

So right now you're seeing a preview of one of our lessons that helps educators unpack the different hate symbols with their students. And this draws from our database, one of the most comprehensive databases available, of hate symbols that is produced by our Center on Extremism. So you can do some personal education to make sure that you are knowledgeable about all kinds of symbols that are being used, some of which that might not be so obvious when you see them in the wild, online or in the classroom. And then this is a great lesson that teachers can use to have that conversation with their students.

I also want to mention that our partnering organization, Echoes & Reflections, recently produced a unit about contemporary antisemitism. So if you're looking for a way to discuss antisemitism in your classroom, including but also beyond, say, the Holocaust and looking towards how antisemitism is manifesting today, while drawing that connection to historical context, that's a really great place to start, and that is available also in the resource guide.

Something else that I want to mention is a new publication we have called "Uncovering Anti--" Or sorry, "Antisemitism Uncovered." It's a really comprehensive brief about what is antisemitism, what is the history of it, what does it look like now, but what did it also look like 100 or 1,000 years ago. One of the themes that we have discussed is the way that white supremacy uses the Jewish people as the puppet master, the controller of other world events. And so that is a tool that will help you to understand where did that trope and that myth come from and how does it show up throughout history and throughout different aspects of society.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. So please take a look at the list that is provided with this webinar and explore our website. And you also can contact a regional office. We have 25 offices all over the country, each that has an education staff member who can work with school communities to help figure out what resources are best for you and talk about what kinds of training programs and professional development we can provide to educators. And stay tuned for more online offerings as well.

Thank you, Kira. So at Facing History & Ourselves, we have a variety of resources as well for many of you. We will end the webinar with the list of resources and telling you where you may access resources from the ADL, the Western States, and from us. But on facinghistory.org, you should be able to access many of our resources.

Right now what you're seeing is one of the lessons that we have recently released, again, looking at Charlottesville and the contemporary expression of antisemitism. Where as I mentioned earlier, we are looking at the manifestation of a white nationalist movement and looking at the underlying roots of antisemitism fueling that movement as it gets expressed toward Latinx, African American, and immigrant communities.

We also have a toolkit that we have developed, everybody has a toolkit, responding to antisemitism. These are collections of resources, classroom resources, readings, and activities that you can do with students talking to not only issues of antisemitism but growing issues of hate and exclusion that are happening not only in this country, but also resources looking at it globally.

Let's see. If you have any additional questions, you may go ahead and use the chat box for us.

I saw one that I think is worth answering up front. How do we distinguish between role play versus simulation? And somebody pointed out that both Facing History and ADL really advise against simulations, which is a little bit different than what you were talking about, Jessica.

Yeah, I saw that question after I answered it and realized that I wasn't quite hitting the mark there with what you were asking. But when I'm giving a workshop on the toolkit, I do find it helpful to have students talk through scenarios that they have probably experienced in their life. And I have prepared to facilitate that conversation. I think what it just comes down to is that you should use tools that you're comfortable with.

And I would just add that when we speak about simulation, a lot of times it is when teachers try to design, say, a historical incident or a era that they want to recreate with their students or set up some kind of social experiment among the students. There are many famous examples that many of us probably have seen and admire, but it's a very risky thing to do in the classroom and often leads to students experiencing trauma. So it's definitely something we don't recommend.

Well, with that, I would like to say thank you to you, Jessica. Thank you for giving us your time and talking to all of us. The work you're doing is just amazing.

Right back at you. Thank you for having me.

No problem. And I wanted to say thank you to my co-host, Kira, and for the wonderful work of the ADL.

Thank you. It's been a pleasure to speak with you.

Go ahead, Kira.

Oh, thank you to everybody here, and thank you to Facing History, Dimitry, Jessica, and the whole Facing History team for bringing me on. This has been a pleasure to speak with all the educators on this call.

Thank you. So Megan, I'm going to turn to you so you can help us close up.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dimitry, Kira, and Jessica for an engaging conversation and for sharing these important resources with us this evening. And before we finish up, I'd just like to share some next steps available for you.

During this time of uncertainty and change, we want you to know that Facing History & Ourselves is here to help you. We encourage you to check out the rich resource collection on support for teachers during the coronavirus outbreak. We are also very excited to announce the launch of our Digital Lounge, and we invite you to join a community of like-minded educators to share ideas and best practices. In the midst of our current global pandemic, we hope that you can find solace and renewal in this community. You can find a link in the resources where you can sign up and introduce yourself.

We also have many upcoming online learning opportunities available for you live and on demand, and we invite you to check out our calendar of upcoming events in our On-Demand Learning Center. And as we wrap up here, I'd like to show you just a couple other resources that might be especially useful to you at the end of the webinar. To access all the resources we talked about, you can open that Featured Resources window where you can get the Toolkit, all of the resources from the ADL, as well as many from Facing History.

Your completion of this webinar also give you one hour of professional development credit, and you can download your PDF Certificate of Participation via the window below. You'll also see a very brief survey at the bottom of your screen. Please do take a couple minutes at the end of a webinar to fill out the survey. We really value your feedback on today's webinar and how it met your needs.

And finally, please share this webinar with your colleagues, as it will be available for on demand viewing. And with that, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Wherever you're joining us from, have a great night.