About Us
A lot of people have been having thoughtful conversations about racism and xenophobia with friends and family recently. Parents and teachers have told us that many recent events have brought these topics up in their households and in schools, events like the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement, the increase in anti-Asian hate with the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-immigrant laws, and more. Our team realized that there are many people who are ready to have these hard conversations about racism and immigration with the youth in their lives but don’t know where to start. And others others who are already doing it are looking for more opportunities to keep learning.
Our team has looked at (and contributed to) decades of research on the ways adults teach youth about ethnicity and race in age-relevant ways, otherwise known as ethnic-racial socialization. Hundreds of studies tells us how it crucial it is for young people to have adults who can support them to recognize and resist racism and xenophobia. We also know that parents and educators who want to talk to young people about racism find it challenging for lots of reasons. To create this website, we wanted to learn more about what makes these conversations so hard and what people need to make them easier. So we interviewed 62 parents of 3-17 year old children and 26 K-12 educators across the country. We spoke to people who are from or work with Asian/Asian American, Black, Latinx, Multiracial, Native American, and White communities.
What we learned was simple.
Adults need opportunities to learn from their own experiences so they can in turn support the youth in their lives. Their lives are also busy and complicated! They told us they want a rich but easy-to-navigate menu of options for learning. They want different types of resources that they could read, watch, or listen to and at different entry points to a bigger conversation.
With insights from researchers, practitioners, caregivers, and community co-designers in mind, we designed the Stepping uP Against Racism and Xenophobia (SPARX) Project. This is a theory- and evidence-informed website that has free, publicly available resources as well as a curriculum with structured learning modules. We hope these carefully curated resources will help adults feel confident in having conversations with the youth in their lives and keep growing their ability to recognize, respond to, and disrupt racism and xenophobia wherever they encounter it.
Who We Are
Our vision is to center antiracism in ways that are attentive to intersectional oppressions. We acknowledge that people benefit from, perpetuate, see, and/or are victims to several systems of oppression including, but not limited to, ableism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, classism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, transphobia, and ageism. It is important that we work to understand all of these forms of intersecting oppressions in order to work towards antiracism. We also recognize that because of our intersectional experiences, no one is exempt from the potential to cause harm.
SPARX Project and Curriculum Team
Deborah Rivas-Drake
Debbie is a parent and professor at the University of Michigan. Her work explores how schools, friends, families, and communities can help young people understand the role of race and ethnicity in their lives and how these experiences affect their schooling, social relationships, emotions, and involvement in the community.
Laura-Ann Jacobs
Jozet Channey
Dr. Jozet Channey is a parent and researcher at the University of Michigan, where she helps evaluate and assess projects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her research examines how adults’ beliefs and behaviors affect learning environments for youth from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Victoria Vezaldenos
Victoria completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA and earned her graduate degrees at the University of Michigan. She conducts research on how Multiracial young people learn about race and what it means to them.
Missy Fuentes Delgado
Missy completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University. She is interested in exploring the role of race and ethnicity within bigger systems, and how that can be transformed to create real world solutions.
Research Steering Committee
Christia Spears Brown
University of Kentucky
Dawn Witherspoon
Penn State University
Enrique Nebett
University of Michigan
Gabriela Livas Stein
University of Texas at Austin
Tiffany Yip
Fordham University
Community Advisory Board
Andrew Grant-Thomas
EmbraceRace
Tyrone Martinez-Black
Kevin Carter
Owner, Belonging, Loss and Freedom Innvervisions, LLC, Senior Research and Practice Fellow, Wealth and Work Futures Lab, The Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University
Demitrius Snaer
Social Media Influencer and Community College Educator
Theresa Beals
Parkside Resident, Vice President of Resident Counsel, Current Board Member and Volunteer
Debi Smith
Retired military; actively involved in her community, currently working with YWCA homeless women and children; proud Grandma of five
Joy Lieberthal Rho
LCSW, IAMAdoptee.org
Curriculum Co-Designers
Tyrone Martinez-Black
Parent and Practitioner
Andrew Grant-Thomas
Parent and Practitioner
Christina Rucinski
Practitioner
Lauren White
Parent and Practitioner
Jaqueline Vargas
Parent
Mici Rae Bos
Parent and Practitioner
Isai Robledo
Parent and Practitioner
We are grateful to all the students who have provided assistance and support at various points in the research and development of this site:
Jesus Calvario Aguilar, Madeleine Wren, Kendall Grayson, Natalia Morato, Serena Hao, Samedha Gorrai, Paige Bost, Amanda Webster, Julissa Carreno, Sebastian Lopez-Padilla, Oluwaseun Ogunleye, Kate Mormon, Gaby Bernal, Sophia Grewal, Yadira Estrada, Gaby Kubi, Jiahao Yang, Ana Patricia Esqueda, Sydney Kayne, Mandy Finn, Angelica Ramos, Nathan Schooner, Kaitlynn Vo
Our Funders
The SPARX Project is made possible with the generous support of the University of Michigan and the National Center for Institutional Diversity.