I find the idea of student-faculty interactions being simultaneously important and “risky” to be very disconcerting.
I certainly want the minority students in my classroom to feel that I am supportive and approachable. I just worry about unknowingly doing/saying something offensive or unhelpful and then I don’t have a chance to clarify or remedy my mistake.
I worry about the so-called “color blind” approach, that seemed logical to me when I first started teaching, but now seems insufficient. Essentially, it’s much easier to just ignore race than to actual try to acknowledge and wrestle with it. I really don’t have any good ideas at this point so I’m hoping this conversation will help me out.