I have White Privilege, how do I address that in the classroom?

I had a very privileged upbringing, I grew up in a white, middle class household with two parents who both had reasonably-paying jobs. All of my teachers were white, most of the novels I read where written by white people (normally males), the storylines we discussed almost always featured a white, middle-class female like myself, and there was not much diversity in what I learned. There were not many opportunities to discuss other perspectives or to explore the concepts of racism or oppression; we often discussed the “classics” such as plays by Shakespeare, and when we discussed the meanings of these plays in class, there was always a “more right” answer that the teacher was looking for. 

I did not notice many of these things until I was finished high school. Because of my privilege, I almost always saw myself represented in the course material somehow, and I didn’t realize how some of the “single stories” were at play. We learned about Residential Schools every year after grade four, and I knew they were bad, but I didn’t feel much responsibility for them and I thought that feeling bad was good enough. In History class, when we learned about European expansion into North America, it was always a positive thing, never really framed as colonialism and usually failing to focus on the negative effects of these actions. In English class, when we discussed our assigned texts and the teacher eventually gave us the “right” answer/interpretation, I accepted that as being more right than my own and I didn’t see a problem with this—I didn’t consider what those from a different socio-economic background, culture, or those who identified differently from me would think or how they were represented (or excluded).

The truth of White Europeans and the “Western World” were what mattered, they had the most focus and they were seen as what was right. The truth of oppressed and less-privileged groups was sometimes acknowledged, but it was never the main focus and it was always in the periphery. I remember a few visits from Elders, discussing the seventh generation, and a trip to Wanuskewin, but I don’t remember discussing why this was so important. I don’t remember discussing White Privilege, the lasting effects of colonialism, the oppressive systems that exist in society, or how to examine and identify oppression and discrimination. 

In my own classroom, it is important that I acknowledge my privilege and the societal systems that create it. I need to use my position and privilege to create progress and benefit others. It is also important for me to include more than one narrative, to consistently be questioning why I think the way I do and how I can try to include the perspectives of others. It is important for me to learn from my students and community members and to consider how they are represented, how I can represent them better in my classroom, how I can address differences, how I can include different forms of traditional knowledge, and to consistently work to identify oppression/oppressive structures while deconstructing them for my students and helping them to identify them as well.