Teaching About Racial and Economic Justice in the Age of Trump

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Union Square 23 & 24

Floor: Fourth Floor

The goal for this session is to have participants walk away with an understanding of how to talk about race and class in the current context by discussing the potential methods for helping students understand and develop the skills and values that students need to affirmatively assist individual and organizational clients by furthering racial and economic justice. The session will begin with each presenter giving an example of a case which they chose for the express purpose of helping students further racial and economic justice and listing the skills that they needed to teach in each case focusing on the skills common to all four practice areas. Each presenter will also discuss one challenge of and one benefit to being women of color teaching the skills needed to counter biased narratives.
The presenters will then ask participants to engage in a discussion designed to meet the learning objectives that participants will: understand what we mean by furthering racial and economic justice; leave with methods of how to teach about racial and economic justice in their clinics through both seminars and client work, including how to navigate these conversations with their clients; understand how each clinician chooses cases/projects to allow students an opportunity to counter negative narratives and frame positive and empowerment narratives for poor people and people of color; understand what skills are taught across a diverse range of clinics to help students frame these positive and empowerment narratives for their clients and their own professional development; understand how these skills could transfer to an even broader range of clinics; understand what it means to be women of color teaching these skills