The experience of racism can cause a wide range of mental health disorders for racialized learners in German classrooms, many of which go unnoticed. This contribution works towards establishing anti-racist English language education with a focus on creating awareness of the effects of racism on the mental health of racialized learners in the German school context, and especially in secondary language education. After outlining the connection between racism and mental health disorders and suggesting basic principles of anti-racist English language education, the potential of graphic novels as multimodal, multi-semiotic, and highly engaging texts to connect mental health literacy, i.e. recognizing and identifying mental health disorders, with racial literacy, i.e. an in-depth understanding of concepts of race and racism will be explored. In connecting these two literacies in the English language classroom, this contribution posits, the detrimental effects of racism are made visible, awareness is promoted, and potential mental health disorders of racialized learners can be understood, destigmatized, and actively countered. Racism has gained an unprecedented global salience (Milman et al. 2021). Violent excesses of racist violence, such as the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, in May 2020 or, more locally, the attack in Hanau, Germany, in February 2020, garnered enormous media attention. However, these extreme forms of racist violence can divert from the prevalence and ordinariness of racism and its detrimental effect on the mental health of those who experience it. Focusing on what Ahmed has called the “bad apples” (2012: 44), i.e., those individuals with openly racist or extremist attitudes, can distract from the pressing problems of institutional, structural, interpersonal, and epistemological racism. These forms of racism are especially relevant to the educational context where learners are confronted - with them on a daily basis (see, e.g., Karabulut 2020). With mental health defined as a “state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community” (WHO 2020, emph. S.B.), awareness of the harmful effects of racism on learners is of tremendous importance for teachers. Experiencing racism on an interpersonal as well as an institutional level is a source of psychological distress and trauma that can result in race-based traumatic stress, which causes complex symptoms comparable to post-traumatic stress disorder (Helms et al. 2010; Carter et al. 2013: 2, Kluge et al. 2020: 1019f)). This constant distress to which learners in educational context feel subjected can lead to a number of mental health conditions and severe psychological disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Taking the potentially traumatizing effect of racist discrimination seriously is a highly relevant task for educators in increasingly diverse English language classrooms. In these contexts, committing to countering discriminatory practices is especially relevant for white teachers, who - as members of the majority in the Global North - need to reflect on their positionality and its effect on the power structures in the classroom. 1 Here, I posit that English language education can play a vital role in fostering an awareness of the effects of racism in the German school context, building upon existing curricula, frameworks, and educational objectives for the subject that repeatedly highlight the relevance of openness, tolerance, and respect for others (e.g., KMK 2012; TMBJS 2019). 2 Addressing the complex and difficult problem of racism without reproducing racist narratives and images requires thorough self-reflection, and in-depth knowledge of the topic and the learner group, thus calling for extensive and thoughtful preparation by the teacher. While teachers are already taking on this challenging task in their teaching practice, theoretical conceptualizations for implementing anti-racist approaches to English language education in German schools are surprisingly scarce (Mihan 2012; Mihan & Voerkel 2022; Braselmann 2023, 2023b). The connection of mental health issues and experiences of racism in language education has not been examined so far. 1 Informed by critical whiteness scholarship (Leonardo 2002), the term whiteness does not refer to white people but is understood as a socially constructed racial category and an ideology tied to material privilege. As such, whiteness is seen as a category that is malleable and changing (Delgado & Stefancic 2017: 88f; DiAngelo 2023: 101) and not monolithic or fixed. Further, not all white people benefit from their white privilege to the same degree, as intersectional approaches show (Crenshaw 1989; DiAngelo 2023: 216ff). As with all aspects of anti-racism, essentialist notions and the monolithic grouping of individuals need to be approached with caution so as not to reproduce and construct alterity (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 8). 2 I am grateful to my former colleague Anja Keil for her invaluable input for the initial draft of this paper. To address this desideratum, this theoretical and analytical contribution suggests the use of literature, specifically: graphic novels, as a point of departure for English language education at secondary level (approx. grade 8 and up, 14-18 years of age) for creating an awareness of the detrimental effects of racism on the mental health of racialized learners in heterogeneous classrooms 3 . So-called multicultural (or ethnic minority literature) offers several valuable insights, aspects for analysis, and potential for meaningful and self-reflexive tasks (Mihan 2012; Braselmann 2023). Literature is still at the heart of English language education (Matz 2020: 53), and fictional narratives, as the following sections will show, can be highly valuable in approaching complex, potentially discomforting but pressing social issues. The following pages will ask how graphic novels as multimodal texts (Hallet 2018; Eisenmann & Summer 2020) that address and visualize the effects of racism on different levels can be used in establishing an antiracist approach in English language education, which can help to uncover and counter racism by helping learners to understand and reflect on the problems that it causes for racialized learners. It will show the challenges and the potential of including these texts from the perspective of a white teacher. 4 Here, it is posited that these multimodal texts lend themselves to a balanced approach that encourages critical analysis and can promote selfreflexive engagement with the texts. To lay the groundwork for this, this contribution will begin by outlining the points of departure for addressing racism in English language education and highlighting the necessity of doing so in a decisively anti-racist approach - one of the motivations for this complex endeavor is acknowledging the traumatic and distressing effects of racism experienced in school contexts. To do so, it will present the theoretical foundation and the principles for an anti-racist approach in English language education as a necessary underpinning for the endeavor. These suggestions are intended to be implemented in teacher education to minimize the reproduction of racist narratives and images in school contexts (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 6), focusing on the specifics of English language education. The final aspect of this section is a delineation of the potential of racial literacy as a teaching goal. In a next step, to make these considerations more tangible and to relate them to teaching practice, this contribution will focus on the use of graphic novels in the classroom, showing the specific potential and limitations of the genre for anti-racist teaching with a view to mental health 3 “Racialized” is used to underline the constructedness of race as a social category. 4 I acknowledge that I am writing from the privileged perspective and relative safety of white women working in academia and understand that my positionality contributes to a subject-specific discourse that is shaped and dominated by white perspectives and resulting power structures (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 7, DiAngelo 2023: 6). I am reflecting critically on my positionality and attempt to promote this critical stance in the predominantly white field of teacher education, despite the dilemmata this endeavor holds. issues: As multi-semiotic texts, this section will demonstrate, they can serve as an engaging starting point for discussion and can be used to foster an active engagement with the narrative, thus promoting critical analysis and self-reflexivity. Here, I will briefly show how the concept of racial literacy as a teaching objective focusing on racial identities (Price-Deniz & Sealy- Ruiz 2021) can be a highly beneficial objective in establishing anti-racist teaching practices that can help to uncover and sensitize learners as well as teachers for the effects of racism. Despite increasing attention to racism as a societal problem that permeates the school context, subject-specific didactic research with a critical perspective on racism (Rassismuskritik) is still rather scarce in Germany. 5 However, identifying and understanding concepts of race and racism is of great relevance to educators since racism and its effects negatively impact the lives of racialized learners and influence both learners and classroom dynamics on various levels of interaction, learning, and communication, some of which are connected to mental health issues related to the experiences. Here, race is defined as a social construct that groups individuals based on a few shared physical traits (Delgado & Stefancic 2017: 9). Racism is a form of oppression in which one racial group dominates others, and encompasses institutional, political, social, epistemological, and economical actions and beliefs with effects on the distribution of privilege, power, and resources (DiAngelo 2023: 108). 6 Racial discrimination, therefore, refers to the behavioral manifestation of racism used to establish or reinforce these power structures and their material effects on the distribution of resources and access. As a global system of oppression, racism works across all societal and political levels, including educational contexts. Research has highlighted that experiences with racism and race-based encounters (including unintentional othering or microaggressions) lead to 5 The German term Rassismuskritik refers to a critical analysis of racism as a structuring principle (Strukturmerkmal) of Western societies (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 3). In this contribution, I use the term anti-racism, which entails a double focus on analysis and action that is not equally emphasized in the German concept. 6 In Germany the dominant group is white. Therefore, racism is white racial and is used to the advantage of whites (DiAngelo 2023: 108). As a form of oppression, racism does not operate on an individual level (Ahmed 2012: 44; DiAngelo 2023: 62) but is group prejudice and discrimination backed by institutional power (e.g., in educational contexts or politics). While members of a dominant group may experience contextual discrimination, they do not face oppression. enhanced stress and can be potentially traumatizing (see, e.g., Carter et al. 2013: 1, Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017; Kluge et al. 2020: 1019). Following the World Health Organization’s (2022) definitions, this stress can result in learners’ limited ability to learn and work and to engage with others in classroom settings. Carter et al. (2013: 2) describe severe mental health conditions as results of so-called race-based traumatic stress, which they define a syndrome that can occur from race-based encounters “that are experienced as sudden, out of one’s control, and emotionally painful”. Experiencing racist discrimination and race-based encounters can be “associated with symptoms of psychological suffering and emotional disturbance, such as depression, general distress, generalized anxiety, [...] hyperarousal, and physical reactions” (ibid.). Even though mental health issues within minority communities are systematically underrepresented in health research (Arday 2018: 2), it has been shown that the intensity at which racism is experienced is a direct determinant of mental health (e.g., Williams & Williams-Morris 2000; Masko 2014; Paradies et al. 2015; Cavalhieri & Wilcox 2022). The experience of racism, especially in early childhood, appears to have lasting detrimental effects on the children’s social and emotional development as well as on their adolescent and adult mental health (e.g., Berry, Tobón & Njoroge 2021), which makes an awareness of the problem specifically relevant for educators. Regarding the experiences of racism in educational contexts, Arday (2022: 81) further points out that the victimisation experienced can often be a catalyst towards feelings of isolation and marginalisation, which can be a precursor to altered [sic! ] psychological state [...]. The oppression faced resides within the wider context of enduring institutional racism sustained through hostile and violent cultures. Acknowledging and understanding these mental-health effects and their potential to hamper the educational paths of racially marginalized learners is a prerequisite for assuming an anti-racist teaching approach. Even though post-Nazi Germany likes to understand itself as post-racist (Roig 2017: 617f), the idea of German schools as spaces without racism appears to be an illusion that does not hold under scrutiny: Here, racialized learners are experiencing interpersonal, institutional, and epistemological racism daily (Scharathow 2014; Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017; Moffit & Juang 2019; Karabulut 2020). Racially marginalized learners experience hate speech, othering, biased assessment practices, and Eurocentric teaching material and content throughout their education. Additionally, in predominantly white classrooms, they can suffer from classroom discussions shaped by minimizing racism or negating race-based encounters (Rodriguez 2009: 494). As a result, racism becomes a grueling “background noise” (Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017: 281) in the lives of learners from racialized groups. For teachers across all subjects, acknowledging what this means for different learner groups requires an awareness of what Critical Race Theory scholars refer to as the ‘ordinariness’ of racism: Racism, as Delgado and Stefancic (2017: 8) stress, “is ordinary, not aberrational - ‘normal science’, the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color”. Racism, they point out, is hard to address and counter because it is frequently left unacknowledged. This lack of understanding, in turn, results in denial or, when racism is observed or confronted, resistance (see, e.g., Giroux 1997; DiAngelo 2023; for English language education: Braselmann 2023). However, as US-American scholarship on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (see, e.g., Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995), Critical Whiteness Pedagogy (see, e.g., Giroux 1997), Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (see, e.g., Alim 2010) and Anti-Racist Pedagogy (see, e.g., Kishimoto 2018) have stressed, paying attention to racism and its effects on learning processes, classroom discussions, and outcomes is of utmost importance. These educational concepts and approaches, which also inform this contribution, are based on the multidisciplinary framework of Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2017), Critical Pedagogy (Freire 2005) and critical approaches to English language education (Pennycook 1999). The specific relevance of educational contexts in countering and dismantling racism is thus rooted in the belief that all education is political and that there is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Understanding and analyzing racism, critically self-reflecting, and actively promoting critical self-reflection among learners are thus the cornerstones of anti-racist approaches to English language education. Taking the effects of racism on the mental health of the racially marginalized seriously can drive changes in teaching practices. Especially for white teachers - who, as numbers suggest, are still the vast majority of the German teaching force (Rat für Migration e.V. 2023) - understanding the ordinariness of racism is a prerequisite for taking a stance against racism in their teaching practice. This entails being aware of the fact that even the most careful, most open-minded, and ‘woke’ teacher can accidentally and unwillingly reproduce racist narratives and images (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 3). I argue that English language education offers an ideal space for establishing this anti-racist teaching approach in German secondary education and presents various opportunities to foster an awareness of mental health conditions caused by the prevalence of racism within the school context. This suitability for addressing racism is connected to the role of the English language, curricular demands, recent developments in English language teacher education and didactics, as well as teaching content and material, as it will be explained in the following sections. One of the fundamental reasons lies in the subject itself and in the connection of the English language to discourses of race and the history of English language education. As Von Esch, Motha, and Kubota (2020: 391) point out: While scholarship explicitly connecting race to the language teaching profession began to emerge notably only in recent decades, the racialization of language teaching has a history that is likely as old as language teaching itself. For many centuries, even millennia, language contact and transmission have frequently taken place between communities and individuals of different racial identifications. The ways languages have been shared, withheld, or forced upon learners have played an important role in shaping related power inequities and racial formations and in mobilizing different material and social resources as well as teaching materials and textbooks, the English language classroom is already a place in which teachers discuss and address racism. In Germany, discussing racism is already part of the day-to-day of English teachers: Not only does racial content such as the Civil Rights Movement, postcolonial literature, or the Black Lives Matter movement offer a plethora of starting points for a critical analysis of racism. Educational goals and curricula, too, provide a clear educational objective for teachers: On national and European levels they strongly emphasize the relevance of teaching for democracy, openness, and tolerance in language education (Council of Europe 2001; KMK 2012). State curricula further specify these rather vague goals by including content foci related to respect in multicultural societies, openness and tolerance across all grades, and adding civic engagement for secondary education, specifically for advanced learners (e.g., MSB NRW 2019; TMBJS 2019). However, as with all challenging topics, these educational goals and curricular demands run the risk of turning into “affirmative lip-service” (Lütge & Merse 2020: 182): While the frameworks may demand teaching for democracy, these honorable objectives are not yet consistently interlinked with social justice elements, thus also neglecting a stronger focus on the mental health of all learners. Only a decisive stance against discrimination and injustice, and a strong connection of educational objectives with action for human rights, such as mental health (WHO 2020), could help to translate these broad values into tangible action and encourage participation (Matz 2020: 63). Without this participatory perspective, integrating political elements in English language education can always revert to the long-standing paradigm of cultural learning in the sense of intercultural communicative competences (Byram 1997; Council of Europe 2001; European Centre for Modern Languages 2010), thus not establishing a connection to the learners’ contexts and experiences, by limiting the focus on the so-called ‘target cultures’ of language teaching (Römhild & Gaudelli 2022). This approach consequently results in lacking the localness of learning, which all critical pedagogy puts center stage (Freire 2005; Akbari 2008), and further misses the self-reflective stance that forms the prerequisite of anti-racist teaching. However, a re-politicization of English language education may be underway, as teacher education is slowly embracing a more critical stance in the face of current political changes (see, e.g., Gerlach 2020; König 2020; Lütge & Merse 2020; Ludwig & Summer 2023; König & Louloudi 2023 forthc.). For teachers, embracing the principles of critical pedagogy means an analytical focus on existing power structures, inequalities, and forms of injustice that are manifested in the classroom in various forms and to different degrees. It also entails a somewhat radical student-centered approach that always includes the immediate lived experiences of the learners and establishes a localness of learning (Akbari 2008: 280). This aligns with the demands of anti-racist English language education that will be outlined in the following and that will further be connected with the objectives of mental health literacy. These principles relate to both classroom practice and choice of materials and can be implemented in teacher education as a way of preparing for anti-racist classroom practice. In lesson planning, material design and reflection on methods and activities, these principles can be presented, discussed theoretically, practiced and evaluated. Implementing these principles in English language teacher education could also encourage further theoretical and methodological reflection in teacher education and didactics, which is still needed (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 9). They are informed by Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2017), Critical Whiteness Pedagogy (Giroux 1997; Leonardo 2002; Gillborn 2006; DiAngelo 2023), the German conceptualizations of racism critique in subject-specific didactics (rassismuskritische Fachdidaktik; Simon & Fereidooni 2020), and Anti-Racist Pedagogy (Kubota & Lin 2009; Kishimoto 2018). Without claiming to be an exhaustive list, the following points present a general idea of anti-racist English language teaching and can thus be an orientation for preand in-service teachers that may serve as starting point for further discussion and specification. 1. Anti-racist English language education begins with the teacher’s critical self-reflexivity and an understanding of positionality and its relation to power structures in the classroom (see, e.g. Kubota & Lin 2009; Kishimoto 2018; DiAngelo 2023; Braselmann 2024: forthcoming). 2. This self-reflexivity includes a thorough understanding of the specific educational context, as it is aware of racial identities and the experiences with racism among learners and thoughtfully considers the mental health related issues that are connected to these experiences, i.e. race-based traumatic stress and its symptoms. This perspective demands a previous reflection on the difficulties of addressing racism and thus offers several opportunities for participation, making space for sharing personal experiences but always providing safe and more abstract options for learners (e.g., reverting to a fictional story for those who may be retraumatized). For teachers, this also entails paying attention to differences among learners without categorizing them into monolithic and racialized groups, and engaging in potentially hurtful othering. Navigating this fine line of being considerate and thoughtful but not careful to the point of avoidance (DiAngelo 2023) requires thorough preparation and needs to be addressed as a challenge in teacher education. 3. This needs to inform establishing rules for classroom discussion geared toward establishing a relatively safe atmosphere for discussing racial content and, potentially, personal experiences. These discussion norms require an awareness of the potentially traumatizing effect of racebased encounters (Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017). Thus, thorough preparation (e.g., conveying knowledge about the genesis and history of terms, such as the n-word) is needed. In teacher education, this selfreflection should be interwoven with reflection on the power of language as well as the powerful role of the English language in the construction of categories and discourses, specifically race, and in processes of racialization (Pennycook 1999; Akbari 2008; Kubota & Lin 2009; Alim 2010; Braselmann 2023b). 4. In English language teaching, the dimension of language and communicative competence is a crucial aspect of teaching against racism. Antiracist English language teaching acknowledges how language - and especially the English language - serves to uphold power structures and social injustice. This is a key element of critical language awareness (Pennycook 1999: 333) and critical discursive awareness (kritische Diskursfähigkeit; Römhild & Marxl 2023). Anti-racist English language education therefore asks, “‘How can language be used to maintain, reinforce, and perpetuate existing power relations? ’ And, conversely, ‘How can language be used to resist, redefine and possibly reverse these relations? ’” (Alim 2010: 214). 5. Teachers are also aware of the potential of educational settings to reproduce politics of domination, i.e., marginalized learners’ hesitance to speak up in classroom debates (hooks 1993: 39f). In anti-racist teaching, the voices of all learners are recognized, and teaching activities geared toward amplifying the voices of marginalized learners are integrated (e.g., reflective writing activities and journals, anonymously written responses, discussion corners, reading aloud). 6. Anti-racist English language education also actively addresses racism on the content level and does not shy away from discussing issues related to race and racial identities, even in predominantly white classrooms (Borsheim-Black & Sarigianides 2019: 93). It does so in a transcultural way, acknowledging and pointing toward the transversality of racism, establishing localness in the classroom, and promoting critical self-reflexivity. 7. In doing so, anti-racist English language education actively challenges binary notions of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ that are still, embedded in the concept of intercultural communicative competences, the predominant paradigm for teaching (e.g. Council of Europe 2001). For teachers, this also entails a thorough analysis of the use of pronouns in referring to particular groups or experiences. Instead of speaking about ‘them’, teachers are informed of specific ways to speak about certain groups. This requires in-depth knowledge of terminology and an understanding of racial identities and concepts of race. For material selection, the following aspects should be added: Anti-racist English language education is mindful of racist narratives, images, and materials that uphold, reproduce, and reinforce racist knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes. These images remain to be found in teaching material (Alter 2020; Bönkost 2020), and teachers thus need to know how to identify these elements and how to react to learners discovering or pointing out racist elements that they may not have recognized as such themselves. Further, teaching materials should foreground the voices of minorities and further focus on narratives of joy, resistance, or hope instead of choosing texts/ materials only when issues related to racism or victimization are addressed. Considering elements of counter-stories (Hughes-Hassell 2013) in the choice of texts and materials is especially valuable in supporting the mental health of racially marginalized learners - not only acknowledging suffering and shared experiences in counter-stories but also showing positive emotions, supportive families and communities, joy and the ability to prevail and even thrive within racist societies can be empowering and instill hope among racialized learners (Hughes-Hassell 2013; Kishimoto 2018). This focus demands diversified teaching material across all topics in English language education: Existing Eurocentric or predominantly white material can be supplemented with perspectives from different racial identities, thus breaking up stereotypical or monolithic representations of minority groups. Informed by critical pedagogy, learners can partially select teaching material in cooperative processes and engage in creating rich and diverse material selection, e.g. in text ensembles (Braselmann 2023). Teachers can use these processes to promote critical debate and controversy in classroom discussions. The chosen material also needs to be complemented with ample scaffolding providing essential knowledge regarding its racial content (e.g., historical background, terminology, the addressee of the material) to enable this critical debate in a way that allows for informed arguments. As a last aspect, choosing a variety of multimodal materials, texts, and images with various perspectives on a topic allows for various opportunities for participation in different classroom settings (Matias & Mackey 2016; Braselmann 2023b.). Here, teachers need to consider the different racial identities in their respective classrooms when selecting texts and materials and address racial content thoughtfully. Texts and materials in the classroom should also encourage learners to engage with perspectives that are different from their own, thus fostering critical analysis of multiple points of view. Broadly speaking, any anti-racist teaching approach unveils and addresses power structures and acknowledges the teacher’s role in power hierarchies that are at play within these structures, which may become especially sensitive regarding racial identities in the classroom. Based on the tenets of Critical Race Theory, anti-racist teaching knows that the social constructions of race, including that of whiteness, are fictitious, dynamic, and malleable but have very material consequences in every social setting, interaction, and institution (Ladson-Billing & Tate 1995: 58f; Delgado & Stefancic 2017). It thus aims to teach toward equity and liberation in the sense of social justice education (Randolph & Johnson 2017). Further, an anti-racist teaching practice acknowledges that classrooms are not safe spaces for racialized learners due to the power structures and hierarchies at play in all educational institutions (Rodriguez 2009: 503) and that risks for racialized learners and their mental health are a genuine issue - this awareness can lead to a more thoughtful but not careful, i.e. evasive, approach to the topic, i.e. it is takes the learners’ experiences seriously and takes into consideration possibly dangerous situations but does not avoid addressing racism to not make any mistakes. Anti-racist teaching in predominantly white educational contexts also expects forms of white resistance or denial (DiAngelo 2023: 193ff). It is cautious not to create a space that avoids these responses at the cost of marginalized learners, consequently re-centering whiteness (Rodriguez 2009; Zembylas 2018). While not avoiding controversy, an anti-racist teaching approach pays close attention to the different perspectives within the learner groups, including that of the teacher (Braselmann 2024, forthcoming). The varying positions that need to be considered in a transcultural and self-reflexive approach to teaching can evoke discomfort in response to discussions, dialog, and materials in the classroom. However, the Pedagogy of Discomfort (Boler 1999; Zembylas 2015) stresses that there is great value in these discomforting emotions since only moments of disruption can lead to actual and profound transformation - indeed, “discomfort is a requirement for growth for those who have previously benefited from the white heteropatriarchal system” (Hanna 2019: 233). With a focus on teaching English with literature, Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides (2019: 109) further argue that white learners find new ways of reflecting on their whiteness in classroom discussions about racial content, for example, in texts and material in the classroom. For predominantly white contexts, they suggest that even though discomfort is necessary, beginning by understanding foundational race concepts and focusing on conveying knowledge about concepts of race and racism may lead to less resistance than confronting learners with the notion of white privilege right at the start (ibid.). Which approach is chosen by the teacher depends on the learner group. Before engaging with the potential of graphic novels for understanding the effects that racism has on the mental health of racialized learners, the specifics of the genre and its tremendous potential in increasingly heterogeneous classrooms need to be explicated 7 . Debates about diversifying reading practices in English language education and working against the predominantly white and Eurocentric canonization of literature used in classrooms and teacher education have been held for a long time. The inclusive effect of so-called multicultural literature, i.e., literature written by members of ethnic minorities and representing members of these minorities, has been highlighted by different studies from various angles and in different contexts (see, e.g., Hughes-Hassell 2013; Ramdarshan Bold 2018; Toliver 2018). The empowering effect of representation in literary texts, the way in which these texts can help readers from a minority to imagine positive futures or validate experiences and broaden the horizon of readers from a majority, has been discussed widely, also in the context of English language education in the German school context (e.g., Freese 1996; Freitag-Hild 2010), where dialogic and analytical approaches to teaching with literature have been highly influential. Here, the potential of literature to foster an empathetic connection to people with different experiences and from other contexts has been conceptualized as Fremdverstehen (Bredella 2002), i.e., taking the perspective of others via empathetic connection to a fictional character. This has informed didactic considerations regarding the use of literature in the classroom for decades now, also those that promote a diversified reading practice in the classroom (for an overview, see Volkmann 2023). Especially when conceptualizations of difference are addressed through literary texts, including texts that provide insights into different lived experiences, literature can provide valuable insights into experiences of racism. However, an empathetic reaction fostered by literature that presents a struggle unknown to the readers, e.g. the effects of racism for white readers, requires thoughtful balancing with critical analysis (König 2020) as well as a self-reflective approach, as the principles outlined in the previous section have shown. Consequently, acknowledging that some perspectives cannot be taken, i.e. that race-based traumatic stress or other mental health issues related to experiencing racism cannot be felt or experienced by white readers, has an effect on the approach to multicultural literature and the ways in which it is taught: While the texts may offer 7 I want to thank my former colleague Anja Keil with whom I have worked on a previous version of a paper on graphic novels and whose invaluable input has also informed parts of this section. insight, reactions that go beyond pity need to be fostered by analytical tasks and an in-depth engagement that focuses on understanding the reaction that learners have to the text. To foster an understanding of the effects of racism as an underlying cause for mental health issues among racially marginalized people, teachers can choose graphic novels that focus on different aspects and effects of racist encounters (e.g., Black Lives Matter protests and police brutality in L.L. McKinney’s Nubia: Real One, or transgenerational trauma in the graphic novel adaptation of Olivia Butler’s Kindred). These novels hold great potential to foster critical analytical competences, and self-reflexive understanding in secondary classrooms: their multi-semiotic representation of complex issues encourages debates and reflection on the construction of meaning, potentially leading to a better understanding of the complex concepts of race, racial identities, and racism. In the sense of mental health literacy, these novels can promote an improved recognition and identification of mental health disorders, foster a more comprehensive understanding about the roots of race-based traumatic stress and other mental health issues such as depression or anxiety, and promote an open conversation and destigmatization of race-based mental health issues. In the past, graphic novels have incessantly been neglected or depicted as a ‘poor choice’ of literature in English language education, despite scholarly recommendations that emphasize the potential of multimodal narratives (see, e.g. Jacobs 2007; Decke-Cornill & Küster 2010; Hecke 2011; Boschenhoff 2013; Burger 2018; Eisenmann & Summer 2021). 8 In the long history of including sequential art (e.g., comics) in English language education, scholarship in Germany even cautioned that reading comics to a greater extent would be detrimental to more advanced reading competencies, lead to literary decline, and, would only result in psychological damage in general (Kußmann 2016: 68) - a claim which may have led to a rather underrepresented existence of graphic novels in the English language classroom (Hecke 2011). Over the last years, however, graphic novels have become an integral part of English language education in Germany (Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 59). As a valuable resource for teaching, graphic novels foster an engagement with different semiotic modes 8 Even though empirical studies suggest that learners are not enthusiastic about literature in general or comics as a visual text form in English language education (Rumlich & Deane 2013; Matz & Rumlich 2020), this contribution argues for a use of literary texts that is based less on the learners’ preferences, but focuses on the texts’ potential to engage with a variety of media and text forms. Especially in the form of (multimodal) text ensembles, different text forms can encourage a dynamic interaction with various narrative forms and critical analysis of different text formats (Braselmann et al. 2021; Braselmann 2023) - graphic novels lend themselves perfectly for inclusion in text ensembles, as excerpts and even single pages can provide ample potential for discussion and a plethora of creative tasks. and engage readers in a multiliterate act of making meaning with different codes (Hallet 2015: 292). Further, in addition to rich cultural knowledge and multiple literacy [sic! ] promoted through these highly diversified formats, they support the acquisition of all four skills - that is, speaking, listening, writing and reading, and thus achieve a general improvement in communicative competence. (Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 60) Because of their visual design and narrative construction that engages the readers in a more participatory and active reading practice (Hallet 2018), graphic novels do not only make a case for strengthening visual literacy but also provide struggling readers with mental imagery and multidimensional storylines. Regarding the social justice dimension, Carter (2008: 47) also strongly advocates for graphic novels in the classroom since they should be recognized as “a step toward a realization of more democratic notions of text, literacy, and curriculum”. This notion is connected to the debate about a more diversified reading practice in English language education: Carter (ibid.) argues that engaging with different sequential art forms can help to counter the prevailing dominance of elitist canonization in English language education. Additionally, graphic novels show the potential to not only excite already strong readers but also provide a point of entry for reluctant and demotivated students with the result of increased interest and involvement in class discussions (Downey 2009: 181; Hecke 2011: 654; Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 56). Teachers can include graphic novels in a way they can become “active deconstructionists” (Lundy & Stephens 2015: 1059), deconstruction and negotiation of meaning being one of the central aims of fostering multiliteracies in English language education (Cope & Kalantzis 2015). In the complex process of reading graphic novels, readers enhance their knowledge of “visual codes” (Hecke 2011: 657). The required visual literacy, i.e., the increased comprehension by combining text and images, helps readers to actively connect with literary characters rather than remaining passive observers of the narrative (Burmark 2008: 12). Multimodal texts such as graphic novels endorse the semiotic structures of the world, and consequently enable students to take agency as they actively illustrate potentially uncomfortable socio-cultural themes (Jacobs 2007: 24; Downey 2009: 181). The enhanced interaction with graphic novels offers great opportunities for anti-racist English language education and can simultaneously promote mental health literacy (Jorm 2012) 9 . When working with graphic novels, teachers can make use of the complex processes of meaning-making and decoding, thereby promoting a reading practice that focuses on critical selfreflection and positionality in the act of reading. This approach can further foster ‘racial literacy’. This concept was adapted for educational contexts from the field of legal studies in the US, where it drew on CRT and conceptualized “the capacity to decipher the durable racial grammar that structures racialized hierarchies and frames the narrative of our republic” (Guinier 2004: 100). In educational contexts, racial literacy refers to the multi-layered ability to identify and analyze concepts related to race and racism in various expressions (Brown 2017: 84), in different text forms and media formats and describes the skills required to discuss the complexity of these topics (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz 2021: 14). As an educational objective, racially literate students and teachers thus “reflect on their experiences with race and are reflexive about their attitudes and beliefs” (ibid.), which includes an understanding of the different layers in which racialized students are suffering under racist structures. A critical and self-reflective reading of a graphic novel can promote racial literacy as it can highlight the interconnectedness of lives across the globe by engaging the readers with the multimodal depiction of different realities and encouraging them in participatory acts of meaning-making (Habegger-Conti 2012). In predominantly white settings, formulating racial literacy as a teaching objective for including graphic novels comprises both a critical analysis of how the text and its semiotic modes work in terms of positioning the reader and reflecting on the affective and emotional response as well as an encounter with a lived experience that differs from the readers’ context and experiences. As the narrative introduces the reader to a lived experience that may vary significantly from their own (i.e., a Black child in an urban setting in the US and a white child in a rural area in Germany), it can convey relevant knowledge about these different contexts and underlying concepts. A transcultural approach to the text - created by supplementary material or reflection questions - can further foster a sense of interconnectedness among learners, help them reflect on the detrimental effects that racism can have on the people in their immediate surroundings and raise awareness of related social justice issues, i.e. discriminatory health care structures. In line with principles for anti-racist material selection outlined above, a critical reading of graphic novels encompasses “disrupting the ideal reader position, rejecting a single version of a story and ensuring that other 9 Mental health literacy refers to a person’s or a community’s ability to recognize mental disorders, knowledge of how to prevent them and where to seek help, effective self-help strategies for milder disorders and issues, as well as first aid skills that can help when mental disorders are identified or become virulent (cf. Jorm 2012). voices are heard, interrogating positions of privilege in the text, and highlighting the real-world relevance of the text and inspiring action” (Habegger-Conti 2021: 57f). Combined with critical visual literacy, this approach also focuses on the ways in which the specific images position readers or viewers. For textual analysis, teachers can focus on the questions such as: where are the viewers/ readers positioned within the arrangement of the image and text-image composition? How are the readers included or excluded from information, points of view, or certain aspects of meaningmaking processes, and how does this shape their reaction to the text? How do different panels work with color palettes, and how are these colors used to construct different positions in the text? Further, graphic novels can raise questions related to the learners’ positionality and thus serve as an exercise in self-reflexivity. In an anti-racist reading practice, self-reflective questions regarding reader response could be: “Where are you in this image? How might this position mirror your real-world position? In what situations do you have the power to decide when people are in or out of your group? ” (ibid.: 66). The potential graphic novels hold for developing racial literacy needs to be reflected regarding the choice of suitable graphic novels. Based on the principles for material selection outlined above, texts used to address racial content should not be limited to representations of racism and create the impression of a monolithic experience. However, when focusing on racial literacy as a teaching objective, choosing texts that address racism openly can be beneficial, as they can focus on an explicit understanding of concepts of race. When graphic novels are included to understand and analyze the effects of racism and the history of shaping structures and institutions detrimental to the mental health of the racially marginalized, texts that focus on these negative effects can unfold their educational potential. However, when including these texts, teachers need to be aware of a few pitfalls: First, they risk reducing the lives of racially marginalized people to narratives of victimhood or present issues as universal and racially marginalized groups as homogeneous or monolithic entities (Kishimoto 2018: 545; Chang & Viesca 2022: 11; Braselmann 2023: 172f). While creating awareness of the detrimental effects of racism requires insight into the realities that minority communities often face, graphic novels chosen for the classroom should also include elements of hope and resistance (e.g., L.L. Kinney’s story of a Black superheroine, Nubia: Real One), open up discussions about potentially positive outcomes (e.g., the open-ended Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds) and include storylines related to family, friends, love, joy, and everyday life. Second, especially in predominantly white settings, teachers need to be aware of ‘tokenism’ in the choice of material as well as in the classroom discussion about the novels. As bell hooks (1994: 43) cautions, whiteness needs to be taken into consideration in these settings “so that everyone learns that [...] an unbiased inclusive perspective should be present whether or not people of color are present”. If there are only a few people of color present in the classroom, they may be forced into the role of the “native informant” and asked about their personal experiences. However, as mentioned earlier, this form of othering can be detrimental to the learners’ mental health and should be avoided in classroom discussions. Third, when focusing on promoting racial literacy and addressing racism and its consequences for the lives of marginalized people, (white) teachers have to be aware of the power that they hold and continue to engage in a lifelong process of self-reflexivity. This critical selfreflexivity also includes beliefs, attitudes, and actions regarding race and a thorough understanding of their racial identity. For white teachers, this further entails awareness of their privileges and the willingness to engage in potentially uncomfortable discussions within and outside of their classrooms (Gillborn 2006: 15; Kishimoto 2018: 544). In preparing for an antiracist approach with graphic novels, teachers should therefore identify and carefully prepare those parts of the book that will most likely spark controversy, raise questions, or lead to resistance and denial among learners. Lastly, engaging in anti-racist teaching practices entails the willingness to embrace risky situations. In line with the fundamental principles of critical pedagogy, liberatory pedagogues like hooks (1994) stress the relevance of making oneself vulnerable in the classroom and sharing experiences. When teachers learn to risk self-exposure and share about themselves, this can have an empowering effect. However, hooks (1994: 39) also addresses the pitfalls that this approach can hold for the classroom: The unwillingness to approach teaching from a standpoint that includes awareness of race, sex, and class is often rooted in the fear that classrooms will be uncontrollable, that emotions and passions will not be contained. To some extent, we all know that whenever we address in the classroom subjects that students are passionate about there is always a possibility of confrontation, forceful expression of ideas, or even conflict. Teaching with graphic novels in a way that seeks to establish a connection with the learners and engages them in critical discussion and self-reflexivity can be challenging, no matter how well-prepared teachers are (Borsheim-Black & Sarigianides 2019: 93). Nevertheless, in these situations, teachers can create a space for learners to experience their agency and can help them to navigate an increasingly complex and diverse world. For white learners, this may include an understanding of the effects that their actions may have on others and may foster a more thoughtful approach to aspects such as the careless use of language, etc. For racialized learners, this teaching approach may result in experiencing visibility, agency, and voice through fictional characters, images and narratives - and can potentially present them with narratives and images that acknowledge their own experiences. In these classroom discussions revolving around challenging issues, they can practice how to actively participate and position themselves within societal discourses, thus consequently working toward discursive competencies in a foreign language. While there may not be a larger controversy about the fact that racism is a problematic issue that has severe effects on individuals and society, this contribution highlighted the necessity to fully understand how - and with which effects - racism is an issue that is relevant to the English language classroom in Germany. Racism, it showed, has a tremendous impact on the mental health and, consequently, on the ways in which racialized learners can thrive within an educational context - a fact that is neglected especially in predominantly white settings. Teachers need to be prepared to address the effects of racism in a way that promotes a thorough understanding of concepts of race and racism (racial literacy) that is based on a critical understanding of their own positionality. Thus, I have argued for establishing an anti-racist teaching practice that builds on US-American scholarship, especially Critical Race Theory and anti-racist pedagogy, which promotes a stronger focus on taking action in and beyond the classroom. In Germany, teacher education is still hesitant to encourage pre-service and in-service teachers to take a stance in the classroom. However, claims for a re-politicization of teaching in the face of right-wing populism and ‘anti-woke’ backlashes have been made (Heil 2020). Looking at the effects and prevalence of racism in German school contexts, I argue that an anti-racist approach to English language education can serve the broader educational objective of teaching for democracy, openness, and tolerance in a way that goes beyond shallow lip-service or socially desirable reactions. Addressing racism and its effects on racialized learners openly can also work towards an increasing understanding, recognition and identification of race-based mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and symptoms of race-based traumatic stress. Graphic novels were chosen as one potential practical example for implementing an anti-racist teaching approach in the classroom, as they can hone analytical skills and engage learners in exploring different opportunities for participation in social discourses, promoting critical discursive competences. While reluctant to focus solely on the role of empathy, I have highlighted racial literacy as an objective that can be especially fruitful in addressing effects of racism, i.e., mental health conditions. Racial literacy promotes a thorough understanding of concepts of race and racism and the different forms in which it expresses itself and thoughtfully considers the ways in which learners are affected by racism. Focusing on racial literacy while narrowing the focus of textual analysis to racial content does not limit the text’s potential or reduce its complexity. However, it is an approach that aims to unpack a complex and difficult issue in English language education. This contribution can only be seen as one building block in an overarching project to promote anti-racism in English language education. The suggestions made here are a work in progress, and the focus on literature and graphic novels is just one potential starting point. 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