Every teacher is a messenger. The message that a teacher communicates and portrays is acquired formally and informally through systematic study, and environmental and socialization processes. While formal study happens consciously within a particular period of time, experiential learning that impinges on the development of the message happens all the time. It is a pervasive force with a long incubation period. No matter how the effects of environmental processes are suppressed and ignored, eventually they must crystallize and impact one's practice of giving the message. Noting that the demographics in American education are such that 85% of teachers are White, while the public school population is increasingly made up of children of color, the message conveyed in this article involves ways to prepare preservice teachers to work effectively with culturally diverse children. The author describes the course, "Critical Issues in Secondary Education, an educational foundations course for secondary education students in a southwestern urban U.S. university. The course was designed to help students examine perspectives of critical issues in contemporary education, to think critically about these issues, and to develop their own viewpoints. Relating her experience in helping to design and teach this course, the author discusses the reaction of some students when attention was focused on the educational implications of issues of race, racism, and White privilege. Amobi then suggests ways to engage novice teachers in conversations about race, and relates some of the lessons that she has learned from the volatility of conversations on race.