ABSTRACT
Teaching about race or racial justice—one that seeks to dismantle the manifestations of Whiteness and White supremacy in the US educational system—in a predominantly White institution (PWI), taxes the hearts of those educators who teach it and is also highly dangerous. This chapter documents the emotional struggle and survival of two college educators (one of color and one White) in their ceaseless efforts to implement and teach the university’s first course on the topic of Whiteness, Problematizing Whiteness: Educating for Racial Justice. It offers the authors' journey as both a caution and a possible roadmap for other racially just educators at PWIs. Cheryl first introduced the course Problematizing Whiteness: Educating for Racial Justice in 2012 as a doctoral course under the name Critical Whiteness Studies in Education. Teaching is emotional work, and at the root of urban education are social constructions of race that are used to justify violence in racism.
