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Students of all races are engaged when Critical Race Theory is used in Humanities classes and young adult literature that addresses race through representation or education. However, because white students often lack such understanding about racial issues, privilege, and power structures due to various factors, these novels will also provide a safe environment for discussing these topics without passing judgment on anybody. Not isolating pupils, but educating them, is the key objective. Some of these pupils may find it difficult to understand a new word view, thus courses should strive to be interesting and inclusive of all students (Eddings 2020).

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In class, discussions regarding various works of literature and other sources will start off subtly, with engaging yet educational exercises to get students thinking about their own bias. When students are more invested in the book and the subjects, the unit should move on to more challenging lessons designed to inspire deeper thought about how literature, storytelling, and other resources show how our communities and the wider world shape our opinions, behave, and affect how we relate to one another in society (Eddings 2020). 

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Below are specific examples for educators to consider when deciding to bring in Critical Race Theory to their classrooms:

 

The 1619 Project:
For instance, the 1619 Project, originally a journal article with the fundamental premise that America's founding was not in 1776 when the founding fathers signed the declaration of In, but in 1619 when the first African slaves arrived, is a notion which Democratic scholars believe to be a revolutionary historical retelling, capable of manifesting awareness (Eddings 2020).
High School students have had assignments like this where they read books about the arrival of slaves and factual dates of historical events. Students are asked to write low and high-stakes short & long essays, and multi-modal projects such as websites and discuss these topics in class (Eddings 2020).

Privilege Walk Lesson Plan 
When I taught English 101 in the Western Washington Community College System, I worked with the Office of Diversity to have our class participate in privilege walks and write about it in reflective assignments and multi-modal projects. We also watched Jane Elliot's "Blue-Eye/Brown Eye Study, and which was part of the lesson to compare and contrast the experience of a privilege walk (where students took one step forward or back depending if they had a certain privilege) and being separated in a class in terms of whether eyes were blue or brown. The blue eyes students were treated the way people of color are treated daily in society. We discussed this at length in a safe environment (Layne 2016).

Book Clubs: 
African American, Latinx, Asian American, and Native American Literature:

Providing students options of books they want to read by multi-cultural authors. This can be various African American authors such as Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Langston Hughes. This can be Latinx authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Carlos Fuentes, Gloria Anzaldua, and Isabel Allende. Asian American authors such as Julie Otsuka, Amy Tan, and Grace K. Shim can and should be included. Furthermore, Native American authors such as N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie are all great options. Students choose a book from one of the above authors, and we form book clubs, where eventually, each small group will teach the class what their book is about and discuss issues of race and other topics. We will have many discussions and small and high-stakes assignments around these authors. Furthermore, we have honest conversations with questions for discussion developed by students (Kan 2009) 

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Work Cited: 

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Eddings, J. (2020, December 8). Exploring race, class, and power in Young
Adult literature. DigitalCommons@EMU.

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Layne, R., et al.teacher_canuk. (2016, March 14). Privilege walk lesson plan. Peace Learner. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://peacelearner.org/2016/03/14/privilege-walk-lesson-plan/

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Kan, K. (2009, May 31). Multicultural book clubs : exploring cultural identity with young children through literature [G]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0078041