A review by ashleymarcolini
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Christopher Emdin

2.0

Christopher Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too preaches what he dubs “reality pedagogy,” a teaching practice grounded in the inclusion of neoindigenous – meaning non-white – students. He aims to challenge educators’ perception of urban youth of color, turning the previously unteachable into valued, accepted, and crucial classroom participants. Emdin, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, actively speaks on issues surrounding neoindigenous education and founded a movement he titled #HipHopEd, part of which is depicted in a chapter of this text (Personal Website, About). Emdin’s ideas are valuable in their hypothetical state, but the practical applications Emdin includes in For White Folks are almost completely unrealistic. While this book aims to educate “white folks” on teaching neoindigenous populations, it neglects the social and political institutions that prevent those students from valuing and respecting their white educators. This text conveniently neglects the mutual forces that prevent many neoindigenous students from achieving a well-rounded education. Instead, the blame is naively placed solely on the white educator and the white institutions. Much like a child throwing a temper tantrum, Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all too stresses that white educators coddle their adolescent students until they somehow, someway, learn to respect them.