Malini Johar Schueller unpacks critical race reading and the role of discomfort in the classroom on episode 625 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

Racism is a permanent structural feature of American society, and law alone, as now we have it, cannot deal with racism because racism is also part of law.

Racism is a permanent structural feature of American society, and law alone, as now we have it, cannot deal with racism because racism is also part of law.
-Malini Johar Schueller

Critical race reading takes off from that, and it asks, is there a way of reading… that can awaken us to questions of racial privilege and hierarchy, but without us imagining that we have taken over somebody’s place?
-Malini Johar Schueller

Critical empathy, where you feel for others and you feel the injustice of others, but you also feel differently, you know, differently.
-Malini Johar Schueller

Some level of discomfort is fine for learning, because if learning doesn’t produce any kind of discomfort, you haven’t moved outside your zone of what you already know.
-Malini Johar Schueller

Resources

Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading, by Malini Johar Schueller
Malini Johar Schueller’s personal site
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Patricia Williams
Disparate treatment vs. disparate impact
The 1619 Project
Shoshana Felman
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
Teaching to Transgress, by bell hooks
Defy: The Power of Saying No in a World That Demands Yes, by Sunita Sah
Jesse Stommel on Episode 320
Journey through infertility (Pudding, March 2026)

Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading with Malini Johar Schueller

Teaching in Higher Ed

Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading with Malini Johar Schueller