Visual Racial Literacy: A Not-So-New 21st Century Skill

After 2 decades and one pandemic, this millennium has brought a range of technological, educational, and social developments. Just think--social media apps, online instruction, and global protests for racial justice are rapidly becoming the norm. Therefore, a question that begs to be answered is, How are art teachers adapting their skills for this new world? Moreover, are the teaching practices of yesteryear still relevant in this changing context? What do art teachers need to know and be able to do to be effective educators in the 21st century? Joni Acuff and Amelia Kraehe come to these questions as art teacher educators, as mothers of young children, and as Black women. These identities provide an intersectional lens through which they have experienced much of the 21st century, including the pandemic of COVID-19 and the entrenched pandemic of systemic racism (i.e., White supremacism). COVID-19 may not be the source of injustices, but it has amplified and aggravated preexisting systems that produce racial inequities and racist feelings in the United States and other White settler-colonial societies. In this article, Acuff and Kraehe make the case that racial events demand attention in art teacher education and they show how they go about that in their own art teaching practice. They define "visual racial literacy," describe how to turn racist events into teachable moments, and discuss how they activate visual racial literacy to unpack events such as "The Insurrection."

"Not Your Model Minority": An Inquiry on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

The realities of COVID-19 have clearly revealed the myth of the model minority, a stereotype in which Asian Americans are seen as successful and high achieving in contrast to other Communities of Color. An ever-present, but sometimes seemingly dormant, anti-Asian racism in the United States is reflective of patterns in U.S. immigration history. Yet, neither is often taught in PK-12 education. In this article, the authors briefly outline the history of two major policies in Asian American immigration history and share an inquiry designed to help students explore the institutionalized racism that has defined who is a "good" immigrant.

Racialized Pandemic: The Effect of Racial Attitudes on COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Beliefs

As national and international health agencies rushed to respond to the global spread of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, commonly known as COVID-19), one challenge these organizations faced was the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the virus. Troublingly, much of the misinformation was couched in racialized language, particularly regarding the source of the virus and responsibility for its spread, fostering the development of related conspiracy theories. Media coverage of these conspiracy theories, particularly early on in the pandemic, had negative impacts on individuals' engagement in protective behaviors and concern with the spread of COVID-19. From extant work, racial resentment and white identity have been shown to be deeply woven into the fabric of contemporary American politics, affecting perceptions of public opinion even after accounting for social and political identities. While racial attitudes have been less studied in relation to conspiracy theory belief, we expect racial resentment and white identity to affect compliance with public health behaviors and COVID-19 conspiracy theory belief. Using observational and experimental survey data (N = 1,045), quota-sampled through Lucid Theorem (LT) in the spring of 2020, we demonstrate that framing the virus in racialized language alters endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, contingent upon levels of racial resentment and white identity and find that higher levels of conspiracy theory belief decreased compliance with preventative measures. Copyright © 2022 Farhart and Chen.

COVID-19 and Asian Americans: How Elite Messaging and Social Exclusion Shape Partisan Attitudes

Extending theories of social exclusion and elite messaging, we argue that Trump's targeted rhetoric toward Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic pushes the racial group, largely "Independent" or nonpartisan affiliated, to lean more towards the Democratic Party. We support this claim by combining social media (Study 1) and survey data (Study 2) analysis. Tracing 1.4 million tweets, we find that Trump's rhetoric has popularized racially charged coronavirus-related terms and that exclusionary, anti-Asian attitudes have increased in the United States since the pandemic began. Next, by analyzing repeated cross-sectional weekly surveys of Asian Americans from July 2019 to May 2020 (n=12,907), we find that the group has leaned more towards the Democratic Party since Trump first made inflammatory remarks towards Asian Americans. Whites, Blacks, and Latina/os, on the other hand, exhibited fewer and less consistent changes in Democratic Party-related attitudes. Our findings suggest that experiences with social exclusion that are driven by elite sources further cement Asian Americans as Democrats.