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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cmeji6E3M9AvVXFqGNBKH8xKnOEatd-g/view?usp=sharing

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1txrOr2zo6M1hRFjxtqmwmX1XccEEWvve/view?usp=sharing

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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https://pflag.org/

Equity / LGBTQ+ | Founded in 1973, PFLAG is the first and largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families.

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We're so glad you found us! PFLAG is the nation's largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.

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Website | Equity | California Department of Education

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Website | Equity | California Department of Education

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https://www.cde.ca.gov/qs/ea/

Equity | Resources from the California Department of Education, to promote equity in education.

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Resources

Tools

Coalition for Educational Equity for Foster Youth Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP)
The Coalition for Educational Equity for Foster Youth has developed a sample LCAP with action steps and accountability measures that school districts can use to assist foster youth. The members of this coalition are former foster youth, advocates, service providers, and representatives from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the juvenile court. The sample LCAP addresses three main goals: close the achievement gap between foster youth and the general student population, promote school stability and prevent push out of foster youth to alternative schools, and ensure foster youth are promptly enrolled in school and in the right classes.
Note: While the LCAP template used in the sample is not current, the information contained within the sample does provide sound guidance.

Promising Practices

Broadening the Benefits of Dual Enrollment: Reaching Underachieving and Underrepresented Students with Career-Focused Programs
The authors provide recommendations for effective dual enrollment practices and public policies. The authors provide tools, processes and procedures to improve educational outcomes for a broader range of students including at-risk, low-income pupils and those who are historically underrepresented in higher education. The authors collected and evaluated data from eight sites including 10 colleges and 21 high schools which generated a quality resource. Kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) and college teachers and administrators may use these concepts, strategies and findings in dual enrollment classrooms, programs, schools and districts.

Learning Hubs: In-Person Learning for the Whole Child (PDF)In this brief, local policymakers, schools, and expanded learning partners will learn best practices for implementing the learning hub model. Included is guidance for the design and operations of learning hubs, and the policies that support the model.

Research

Adolescent Girls' Experiences and Gender-Related Beliefs in Relation to Their Motivation in Math/Science and English
Educators and community leaders who seek science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) equity in schools, by engaging more students in STEM education, may read this study to understand what social and personal factors are related to students' motivation in STEM. This information will be useful to leaders when determining the importance of implementing strategies to support STEM education within their schools and communities.

Exploring the Foundations of the Future STEM Workforce: K-12 Indicators of Postsecondary STEM Success (PDF)
This is a review of 23 research studies on K-12 indicators that significantly predict students' postsecondary STEM success with a specific focus on Hispanic students. Education leaders who seek equity in schools and strive to engage Hispanic students in STEM may find evidence of what engages and motivates Hispanic students in STEM in order to implement interventions at their schools and/or community.

Dear Colleague Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline
This federal guidance letter, translated into six languages, provides an overview of the Civil Rights Data Collection, summarizes schools' obligations to avoid and redress racial discrimination in administration of student discipline, explains the investigative process under Title IV and VI, and includes examples of school practices and policies that may violate civil rights laws.

Thriving, Robust Equity, and Transformative Learning & Development: A More Powerful Conceptualization of the Contributors to Youth Success (PDF)
This paper presents a research-based formula and rationale for addressing thriving, equity, and learning and development. The descriptions and conditions from the research ensure "equitable learning outcomes and development opportunities" created are powerful and inclusive.

Excerpted from California Department of Education's (CDE's) External Linking Policy: The CDE is providing these external links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any external link does not imply endorsement by the CDE or any association with the sites' operators.

Definition

"Any goal of competitiveness and excellence must start with equity or be doomed to fail." ( 1)

Students come to school with diverse backgrounds, abilities, talents, and challenges. Schools ensure equity by recognizing, respecting, and acting on this diversity. A common misperception is that equity means that all students are treated equally in all situations. In fact, high-quality schools have the capacity to differentiate instruction, services, and resource distribution to respond effectively to the diverse needs of their students, with the aim of ensuring that all students benefit equally.

Importance

Ensuring that all students benefit fully from public education has been one of our nation's most challenging civil rights issues. The achievement gap is the most pronounced expression of this challenge. The United States Department of Education describes the achievement gap as "the difference in academic performance between different ethnic groups." ( 1) Although this issue is often discussed in the singular-as an achievement gap-there are actually multiple gaps, in addition to ethnicity, based on such factors as socioeconomics, disabilities, and English language proficiency. California is not exempt from this challenge, as achievement gaps among our students have remained largely unchanged for many years.

In California, achievement gaps are defined as the academic achievement disparities between white students and other ethnic groups, as well as between English learners and native English speakers, socioeconomically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities compared to students without disabilities. ( 2) For some student populations (often referred to as subgroups), achievement levels are comparatively very low. Further, recent studies show that California schools also face school-climate gaps that are racially and ethnically defined, with student reports of key school-climate factors, such as safety, support, and engagement, differing across schools. ( 3)

Student achievement indicators can serve as the primary measure of the effectiveness of our education system. If we are to reduce and ultimately eliminate these achievement and climate gaps, school leaders will need to ensure equity for each and every student.

Characteristics

Research shows that equity in schooling is reflected in four broad areas: a) resource distribution, b) programs, c) school climate, and d) achievement. ( 1) Resource equity addresses the distribution of, and access to, high-quality administrators, teachers, and other school personnel; funding; high-quality materials and equipment; technology; facilities; and community resources or partnerships. Programmatic equity refers to the policies and practices that lead to student participation in curricular and extracurricular courses, programs, or other activities, as policies and practices relate to student selection, enrollment, support, assessment, and completion. School climate equity addresses student engagement, academic and other supports for students, and safety. ( 2) Achievement equity addresses the academic outcomes and performance of all students on all indicators.

Effective school leaders help ensure equity by using data to make decisions about all of their systems, policies, procedures, and practices, and to make sure that their students are not negatively impacted by their actions. ( 3) Addressing the following equity-related goals is key to ensuring that no inequities exist and that every student, regardless of his or her background or personal characteristics, will experience success and high achievement. ( 4)

Six Goals of Equity in Education

Research and best practices in high-quality, effective schools reveal six goals for education equity. ( 5)

Goal 1

Quality schools will produce comparably high academic achievement and other positive outcomes for all students on all achievement indicators.

This first equity goal is overarching: school leaders will provide and target every opportunity and resource to obtain comparably high academic and other positive outcomes for every student on all achievement indicators. Fulfillment of the remaining goals contributes to high outcomes for all students. Given that achievement gaps are an expression of inequity, comparably high achievement for all students across all indicators (including but not limited to attendance/absenteeism rates, promotion/retention rates, and graduation/drop-out rates) serves as evidence of equity leading to excellence.

Goal 2

Quality schools will provide equitable access and inclusion for all students.

This goal refers to eliminating disproportion, which is the under- and over-representation of various student groups in special education, gifted and talented programs, such "gateway" classes as algebra and geometry, honors and advanced placement classes, science, technology, engineering and mathematics classes and programs, college preparatory classes, extracurricular programs and activities, support and counseling programs, and opportunities such as internships and scholarships. Inequities in these areas often stem from ineffective policies, systems, and procedures (e.g., creating the master schedules) for student placement. Equitable access and inclusion requires identifying students' individual needs, removing barriers to access, and providing appropriate accommodations for those students who need them. Equitable access and inclusion also involve providing parents and students with adequate and clear information so that they are empowered to make good decisions and choices that benefit students and align with their interests. In a school with equitable access and inclusion, school staff, parents, and students work together to outline programs of study that facilitate all students to academic success.

Goal 3

Quality schools will treat all students equitably.

High-quality schools create and maintain environments that value and promote acceptance, respect, support, and safety among the students and the staff. School leaders ensure that school handbooks, rules, guidelines, and all communications convey strong messages of respect for members of the school community, while simultaneously conveying that bullying and harassment are not tolerated. These schools implement programs to help students resolve conflict, develop socially and emotionally, and engage fully in the school community. Further, these schools ensure that disciplinary measures are administered fairly and appropriately across all student groups, without disproportionate negative outcomes for any group of students. School leaders attend to school climate, making sure that every student has a positive connection or relationship with at least one adult in the school, and making sure that all students are safe while they are on campus, as well as in transit to and from the school.

Goal 4

Quality schools will distribute resources equitably to meet the needs of all students.

The fair distribution of highly qualified administrators and teachers across schools is crucial to ensure resource equity throughout a district. Just as effective leaders can help schools improve, effective teachers have a tremendous positive impact on the achievement of their students. All students should have access to high-quality teachers at every grade level and in every subject area. Equitable resource distribution must also address the distribution and availability of up-to-date computers, other technology and laboratories, well-stocked libraries, high-quality instructional materials, and adequate supplies for all students, particularly those most in need and at-risk of school failure.

Goal 5

Quality schools will provide equitable opportunities to learn for all students.

Opportunities to learn are essential to a quality schooling experience. Effective school leaders ensure that every student enjoys a schooling experience that is conducive to learning and thriving, with school leaders providing everything students need in order to achieve academically. In fulfilling this goal, school leaders ensure that teachers have the on-going support and professional development they need in order to effectively teach all of their students; empower students to take responsibility for their own learning; and inform and equip parents to support learning at home and to effectively engage in their children's overall schooling experience.

Goal 6

Quality schools will be responsible and accountable for the academic success of all students.

Leaders in these schools also build the capacity of faculty and staff to share in leadership and take responsibility for contributing to the success of every student. ( 6) In high-quality schools, all stakeholders (faculty, staff, students, parents) are informed about the achievement of the students. These schools follow protocols for regularly reviewing student data and addressing student progress. Their leaders communicate in a transparent fashion with the total school community (including parents and students) about desired outcomes and efforts to improve. These schools ensure that every student receives the academic support and services he or she needs in order to succeed.

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Fair outcomes, treatment, and opportunities for all students.

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Book | The Warmth of Other Suns | Isabel Wilkerson | 

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Book | The Warmth of Other Suns | Isabel Wilkerson | 

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http://warmth.isabelwilkerson.com/

Immigration / Culture | From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

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Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson devoted 15 years to the research and writing of The Warmth of Other Suns. She interviewed more than 1,200 people, unearthed archival works and gathered the voices of the famous and the unknown to tell the epic story of the Great Migration, one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th Century and one of the largest migrations in American history.

The book was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other honors, and made national news when President Obama chose WARMTH for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, The New York Times named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time.

Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting. She has appeared on national programs such as CBS' "60 Minutes," NPR's "Fresh Air" and PBS' "NewsHour" and "Charlie Rose Show." She had taught at Princeton University, Emory University and Boston University and has spoken at more than 100 universities in the United States and in Europe.
Learn more about Isabel Wilkerson

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Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson devoted 15 years to the research and writing of The Warmth of Other Suns. She interviewed more than 1,200 people, unearthed archival works and gathered the voices of the famous and the unknown to tell the epic story of the Great Migration, one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th Century and one of the largest migrations in American history.

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Book | Dignity: Seven Strategies for Creating Authentic Community | Sarah Beth-Wright

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Book | Dignity: Seven Strategies for Creating Authentic Community | Sarah Beth-Wright

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDNPiauw5Q8

Equity | This practical guide will help the spiritual community bridge the gap between where we are, and where we want to be.

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Introducing DIGNITY: Seven Strategies for Creating Authentic Community

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Book | Learning and Teaching While White: Antiracist Strategies for School Communities | Jenna Chandler-Ward 

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Book | Learning and Teaching While White: Antiracist Strategies for School Communities | Jenna Chandler-Ward 

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https://www.teachingwhilewhite.org/learning-and-teaching-while-white

| Equity / Race | Learning and Teaching While White is an accessible guide to help white educators, leaders, students, and parents develop an explicit, skills-based antiracist practice.

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" Learning and Teaching While White is the book educators need right now. As reactionary forces seek to stifle equity efforts in schools and intimidate teachers from discussing race, Jenna Chandler-Ward and Elizabeth Denevi have provided an indispensable and practical guide for teachers who know the importance of this work but are uncertain of how to do it. A must-read for all who care about racial equity, the creation of white antiracist solidarity, and the future of America."

- , antiracist educator, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race From A Privileged Son

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Learning and Teaching While White - Teaching While White

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" Learning and Teaching While White is the book educators need right now. As reactionary forces seek to stifle equity efforts in schools and intimidate teachers from discussing race, Jenna Chandler-Ward and Elizabeth Denevi have provided an indispensable and practical guide for teachers who know the importance of this work but are uncertain of how to do it.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34519483-what-unites-us

Equity / Integration | With a fundamental sense of hope, What Unites Us is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one.

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"It is important not to confuse "patriotism" with "nationalism." As I define it, nationalism is a monologue in which you place your country in a position of moral and cultural supremacy over others. Patriotism, while deeply personal, is a dialogue with your fellow citizens, and a larger world, about not only what you love about your country but also how it can be improved."

"We are a nation not only of dreamers, but also of fixers. We have looked at our land and people, and said, time and time again, "This is not good enough; we can be better."

More quotes...

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"It is important not to confuse "patriotism" with "nationalism." As I define it, nationalism is a monologue in which you place your country in a position of moral and cultural supremacy over others. Patriotism, while deeply personal, is a dialogue with your fellow citizens, and a larger world, about not only what you love about your country but also how it can be improved."

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Book | How to Raise an Antiracist | Ibram Kendi

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Book | How to Raise an Antiracist | Ibram Kendi

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https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-raise

Book | How to Raise an Antiracist | Ibram Kendi | Race | Following the accessible genre of his internationally bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi combines a century of scientific research with a vulnerable and compelling personal narrative of his own journey as a parent and as a child in school. The chapters follow the stages of child development from pregnancy to toddler to schoolkid to teenager. It is never too early or late to start raising young people to be antiracist.

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YA Book | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Erika L. Sanchez 

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YA Book | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Erika L. Sanchez 

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https://www.nationalbook.org/books/i-am-not-your-perfect-mexican-daughter/

A young adult novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.

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Finalist, National Book Awards 2017 for Young People's Literature

ISBN 9781524700485
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House

Erika L. Sánchez

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it's not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister's story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

Judges Citation

Part mystery, part love story, part inner quest. In I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, the vibrant teen protagonist struggles to prove who she is not, and in that journey, discovers who she is: stronger, braver, more worthy of loving and living than she ever imagined. Bold new voice Erika L. Sánchez carries us through an amazing exploration of family, grief, and culture, reminding us that we are all flawed, and it is those flaws that make us priceless.

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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - National Book Foundation

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Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

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https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52220686

Race |A remix of the National Book Award-winnig Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

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Middle school through adult. It is accessible and digestible, but not condescending. It provides viewpoints and information that is not always well-knMiddle school through adult. It is accessible and digestible, but not condescending. It provides viewpoints and information that is not always well-known, even to many highly educated adults. Ms. McGregor...more (less)

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Middle school through adult. It is accessible and digestible, but not condescending. It provides viewpoints and information that is not always well-knMiddle school through adult. It is accessible and digestible, but not condescending. It provides viewpoints and information that is not always well-known, even to many highly educated adults.

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Book | When You Look Like Us | Pamela Harris 

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Book | When You Look Like Us | Pamela Harris 

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https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53018309

Race | This timely, gripping teen novel is about a boy who must take up the search for his sister when she goes missing from a neighborhood where Black girls’ disappearances are too often overlooked, from debut author Pamela Harris.

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When You Look Like Us is a young adult mystery thriller novel written by Pamela N. Harris. It centers on a high school junior fights to find his sister before times runs out.

After their father died of cancer and their mother was sent to prison for driving under the influence, Jay Murphy and his sister, Nic, who is older by a year, were sent to live with their grandmother in the Ducts - a public housing complex in Newport News, Virginia.

Now 16, Jay juggles the stresses of high school, the odd jobs he's working to secretly save up for his grandmother's retirement, and being Nic's keeper. After years of covering for Nic, whenever she's high on bliss - a drug she receives from her neighborhood drug dealer boyfriend, Jay decides he is done worrying about Nic and trying to get her back on the right path.

His resolve, though, breaks down when Nic disappears and the police dismiss his concern, considering his sister just another missing Black girl in their county and a bliss-head besides.

When You Look Like Us is written rather well. Harris unapologetically gives voice to the grief that a community can feel when the law fails them, as well as their need to, instead, rely on the hope, love, and power they bring to one another. The strength and endurance of the Black family reverberate throughout this achingly honest debut. Harris' book shines a light on the repercussions of institutionalized racism on Black communities and the plight of missing Black girls.

All in all, When You Look Like Us is a powerful story about misperceptions, reality, and the lives lived in between.

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When You Look Like Us is a young adult mystery thriller novel written by Pamela N. Harris. It centers on a high school junior fights to find his sister before times runs out.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43719523-riot-baby

Race | Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

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Read 1,766 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's so...

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Book | Caste: The Origins of our Discontents | Isabel Wilkerson 

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Book | Caste: The Origins of our Discontents | Isabel Wilkerson 

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https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/

Equity / Culture | CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents, explores the unrecognized hierarchy in America, its history and its consequences.

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From the bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns:

The Origins of Our Discontents

"Wilkerson's work is the missing puzzle piece of our country's history."

- The American Prospect

Caste

The Origins of Our Discontents

Poetically written and brilliantly researched, Caste invites us to discover the inner workings of an American hierarchy that goes far beyond the confines of race, class, or gender.

A book steeped in empathy and insight, Caste explores, through layered analysis and stories of real people, the structure of an unspoken system of human ranking and reveals how our lives are still restricted by what divided us centuries ago.

"Modern-day caste protocols," Wilkerson writes, "are often less about overt attacks or conscious hostility. They are like the wind, powerful enough to knock you down but invisible as they go about their work."

Wilkerson rigorously defines eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, heredity, and dehumanization. She documents the parallels with two other hierarchies in history, those of India and of Nazi Germany, and no reader will be left without a greater understanding of the price we all pay in a society torn by artificial divisions.

"The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality," Wilkerson writes. "It is about power - which groups have it and which do not."

Before its release, the Chicago Tribune declared that Caste "should be at the top of every American's reading list." Dwight Garner, the chief critic of The New York Times, called Caste "an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."

Upon publication, Oprah Winfrey announced that Caste was her Summer 2020 pick for Oprah's Book Club and proclaimed it "the most essential...the most necessary-for-all-humanity book that I have chosen."

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

In this critically acclaimed, modern classic of narrative nonfiction, three young people set out on a perilous journey out of the Jim Crow South to the North and West in search of what the novelist Richard Wright called "the warmth of other suns."

"They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left.
"

- Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns

An intimate epic that puts in perspective our current era, The Warmth Of Other Suns follows Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster over the tumultuous decades of the 20th century as they join the six million African-Americans fleeing southern repression in what would come to be known as the Great Migration, a watershed in American history.

This deeply researched book interweaves their stories with the larger forces that triggered one of the largest migrations within the borders of this country.

"Absolutely revolutionary," Ta-Nehisi Coates said of The Warmth of Other Suns. "I always felt like it was the spiritual mother of 'The Case for Reparations.'"

The Great Migration was a leaderless quest for freedom, lasting from World War I to the 1970s, and became one of the biggest underrecognized stories of the 20th Century. It changed the country, North and South. It brought us John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Toni Morrison, August Wilson, Bill Russell, Motown, Denzel Washington, Michelle Obama -- all children or grandchildren of the Great Migration. It changed the social, cultural and political landscape of the United States, with consequences that persist to the current day.

The Warmth of Other Suns became an instant New York Times bestseller upon publication and has reappeared multiple times since its release. It has been named to TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade and to The New York Times Magazine 's Best Nonfiction of All Time.
Visit The Warmth of Other Suns website ▷

About Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, has become a leading figure in narrative nonfiction, an interpreter of the human condition, and an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country, and our current era of upheaval.

Through her writing, Wilkerson brings the invisible and the marginalized into the light and into our hearts. Through her lectures, she explores with authority the need to reconcile America's karmic inheritance and the origins of both our divisions and our shared commonality.

Her debut work, The Warmth of Other Suns, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction, the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia universities, and the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize and was shortlisted for both the Pen-Galbraith Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

She is a native of Washington, D.C., and a daughter of the Great Migration, the mass movement that she would go on to write about. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1994, as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times, making her the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. She then devoted fifteen years and interviewed more than 1,200 people to tell the story of the six million people, among them her parents, who defected from the Jim Crow South.

As for her new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the venerable U.K. bookseller, Waterstone's calls it an "expansive, lyrical and stirring account of the unspoken system of divisions that govern our world."

"Wilkerson combines impressive research ... with great narrative and literary power.... She humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.
"

- John Stauffer, The Wall Street Journal

News, Reviews & Interviews

Reviews

"Caste: The Lies That Divide Us by Isabel Wilkerson - review," Ashish Ghadiali, The Observer: Culture: Society books, The Guardian, August 31, 2020.

" Oprah's New Book Club Pick: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson," Oprah.com, August 4, 2020.

" Isabel Wilkerson's 'Caste' Is an 'Instant American Classic' About Our Abiding Sin," Dwight Garner, New York Times, July 31, 2020.

Interviews

" Isabel Wilkerson: Writer" in "You Said Hope," essay By Jacqueline Woodson, interview by Justine Goode, Vanity Fair, September 2020.

" Isabel Wilkerson, 'Caste' (with Bryan Stevenson)," Politics and Prose, August 20, 2020.

"'Racism' Did Not Seem Sufficient: Author Isabel Wilkerson on the American Caste System," Justin Worland, TIME, July 23, 2020.

" Isabel Wilkerson This History is Long; This History Is Deep," On Being with Krista Tippett, November 17, 2016.

" Race And 2016: Isabel Wilkerson Weighs In," The Last Word, MSNBC, 2016.

Q&A with Isabel Wilkerson, C-Span, 2010.

" Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North," Fresh Air with Terry Gross, 2010.

Articles by Isabel

" America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system," Isabel Wilkerson, The Guardian, July 28, 2020.

" America's Enduring Caste System," Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times Magazine, July 1, 2020.

Talks & Media Appearances

" There's No Place Like Home: Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson in conversation with Isabel Wilkerson," Obama Foundation, Oct 29, 2019.

" Isabel Wilkerson, J.D. Vance, Diane Guerrero," Face the Nation, 2017.

" Isabel Wilkerson: 2011 National Book Festival," Library of Congress, September 24, 2011.

" A Conversation with Isabel Wilkerson," The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale University, 2011.

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Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson is the author of the New York Times' bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns. Her new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, is available for pre-order now and will be published Aug 4, 2020.

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Book | Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White | Frank Wu

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Book | Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White | Frank Wu

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Race / Equity | Frank H. Wu offers a unique perspective on how changing ideas of racial identity will affect race relations in the twenty-first century. Wu examines affirmative action, globalization, immigration, and other controversial contemporary issues through the lens of the Asian-American experience.

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Book | The Person you were Meant to Be | Dolly Chugh | 

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Book | The Person you were Meant to Be | Dolly Chugh | 

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Race / Gender / Equity | An inspiring guide from Dolly Chugh, an award-winning social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business, on how to confront difficult issues including sexism, racism, inequality, and injustice so that you can make the world (and yourself) better.

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Video | Celebrating the Gender Spectrum 

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Video | Celebrating the Gender Spectrum 

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https://www.ted.com/playlists/459/the_gender_spectrum

Equity / Gender | A series of Ted talks about transgender, gender fluidity, and the struggle for gender equality.

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Celebrating (and deconstructing) the gender spectrum | TED Talks

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These talks celebrate and break down what it means to live outside society’s traditional (and outdated) understanding of gender.

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Video | We Should All be Feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

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Video | We Should All be Feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

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https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Equity | Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, based on her book, 'We Should All Be Feminists'.

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Mēs meitenēm mācām, ka viņām var būt mērķi, taču ne pārāk lieli, viņām jābūt veiksmīgām, taču ne pārāk veiksmīgām, lai neapdraudētu vīrieti, saka rakstniece Čimamanda Ngozi Adičī. Šajā klasiskajā runā, kas aizsāka sarunu par feminismu visā pasaulē, Adičī aicina sākt sapņot un plānot citādu, taisnīgāku pasauli – ar laimīgākiem vīriešiem un laimīgākām sievietēm, kas ir patiesāki un patiesākas pret sevi.

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Book	How to be an Antiracist	Ibram Kendi	

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Book	How to be an Antiracist	Ibram Kendi	

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Equity / Race / Culture Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

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Book	People's History of the United States	Howard Zinn	

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Book	People's History of the United States	Howard Zinn	

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Culture    Historian Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace.

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Book | We Should All be Feminists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century.

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Book | Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race 

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Book | Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race 

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Debbie Irving | Equity / Race / Culture | Irving offers a self aware look at how doing the right thing doesn’t just mean helping others. Sometimes you have to look inwards and understand where the problem really begins. Our world need more listening to heal divides.

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Book | The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Change 

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Book | The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Change 

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Michelle Kim | Equity / Culture / Ability | In The Wake Up, Michelle MiJung Kim shares foundational principles often missing in today’s mainstream conversations around “diversity and inclusion,” inviting readers to deep dive into the challenging and nuanced work of pursuing equity and justice, while exploring various complexities, contradictions, and conflicts inherent in our imperfect world.

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Melinda Briana Epler | Equity / Culture / Ability | You'll learn the ins and outs of allyship and build the knowledge and skills you need to: Listen and learn new perspectives; identify your own biases; avoid unintentionally harming people with microaggressions; express empathy with courage; advocate for people in small, everyday ways; rethink your work to be more inclusive, equitable, and accessible; build team norms that cultivate allyship; and create equitable, inclusive systems and processes.

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Book | Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say | 

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Book | Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say | 

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Emily Ladau | Ability | Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about

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Book | Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

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Book | Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

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Cathy Park Hong | Race / Culture  | A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian-American consciousness and the struggle to be human

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Book | Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

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Book | Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

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Cathy Park Hong | Race / Culture  | A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian-American consciousness and the struggle to be human

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Book | Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People 

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Book | Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People 

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Mahzarin R. Banaji | Race / Culture / Disability | Self-perceptions are challenged by leading psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald as they explore the hidden biases we all carry from a lifetime of exposure to cultural attitudes about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality.

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Book | Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain 

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Book | Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain 

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Zarretta Hammond | Culture / Education | This is a fantastic resource for any teacher or adult who works with students, especially students of cultures other than their own.

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Ben Mikaelsen | Culture | Ben Mikaelsen paints a vivid picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots of his anger without absolving him of responsibility for his actions, and questioning a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities.

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Book | Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? 

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Book | Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? 

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Beverly Daniel Tatum | Race / Ethnicity |  Of course, it's not just the Black kids sitting together—the White, Latino, Asian Pacific, and in some regions, American Indian youth, are clustered in their own groups, too. Is this something we should try to change or support?

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Gholdy Muhammad | Culture / Equity | Dr. Gholdy E. Muhammad presents a four-layered equity framework—one that is grounded in history and restores excellence in literacy education.

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Sharon Flake | Race / Identity / Ethnicity | Miss Saunders loves the skin she's in. Can Maleeka learn to do the same?

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Phillip House | Race / Ethnicity | Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

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Charles Yu | Immigration / Culture | A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

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Book | The Gangster we are all Looking For | 

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Book | The Gangster we are all Looking For | 

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Thi Diem Thuy Le | Immigration / Culture | In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, lê thi diem thúy has illuminated a world of great beauty and enormous sorrows. Here is an authentically original story of finding one’s place and voice in America.

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Zakiya Harris | Race / Ethnicity | A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.

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Book | A Map is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home | 

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Book | A Map is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home | 

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Nicole Chung | Immigration / Culture | Selected from the archives of Catapult magazine, the essays in A Map Is Only One Story highlight the human side of immigration policies and polarized rhetoric, as twenty writers share provocative personal stories of existing between languages and cultures

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Angeline Boulley | Culture (Native American Indian) | A novel about an 18 year old Native American Indian.

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Book | 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows | 

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Book | 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows | 

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Ai Weiwei | Culture (Chinese) | At once ambitious and intimate, Ai Weiwei’s 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows offers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.

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Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | 

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Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5d9CWV0Xg
Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | Emery Donovan | Culture / Race / Equity | The story of the Braceros in Southern California.

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Forgotten Voices: The Story of the Bracero Program

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Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | 

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Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5d9CWV0Xg
Video | Forgotten Voices: The story of the Bracero program | Emery Donovan | Culture / Race / Equity | The story of the Braceros in Southern California.

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Forgotten Voices: The Story of the Bracero Program

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Video | Harvest of Empire The Untold Story of Latinos in America 

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Video | Harvest of Empire The Untold Story of Latinos in America 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gW84cAN2Pw

INC Media | Culture / Race / Equity | Based on the groundbreaking book by award-winning journalist and Democracy Now! Co-host Juan González, Harvest of Empire takes an unflinching look at the role that U.S. economic and military interests played in triggering an unprecedented wave of migration that is transforming our nation’s cultural and economic landscape.

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Harvest of Empire The Untold Story of Latinos in America

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Article | Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students 

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Article | Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students 

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https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/culturally-and-linguistically-diverse-students/

American University  | Culture | Examining the growing need for diversity and exploring ways to modify behavior in the classroom constitute a critical step toward creating linguistically inclusive and culturally sensitive learning environments.

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Honoring the mandate to provide all students with an equal education requires adaptation. Shifting demographics in the United States have dramatically altered the ethnic and racial makeup of student populations, and a growing number of students do not speak English fluently. These changes present significant challenges for educators, requiring them to rethink their curricula and teaching strategies.

Examining the growing need for diversity and exploring ways to modify behavior in the classroom constitute a critical step toward creating linguistically inclusive and culturally sensitive learning environments.

The Growing Need for Diverse Teaching Strategies

US school districts are required to provide equal educational opportunities to language minority students, but meeting that standard has become more challenging as the number of students classified as an "English language learner," or ELL, has grown.

Generally, the term "English language learner" describes a student who is learning English in addition to their native language. Exact definitions of ELL vary, as do delineations between ELL and ESL (English as a second language), but by any measure, the number of students for whom English is not their first and primary language is growing as a percentage of all students enrolled in US public schools.

An average of 10 percent of students in US public schools are English language learners, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In cities, the average is close to 15 percent. (NCES defines ELL students as those being served by programs of language assistance, including ESL, high-intensity language training, and bilingual education.) Among ELL students in the US, Spanish is the most common language spoken at home (75 percent), followed by Arabic (3 percent).

The increase in ELLs in public schools reflects a larger demographic shift. The percentage of non-white students in US public schools has increased significantly over the last decade, from 48 percent in 2010 to an estimated 54 percent in 2020. The percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in public schools grew from 23 percent to 28 percent over the same period.

While addressing diversity in the classroom largely consists of focusing on ELL students, cultural and linguistic divides are not exclusive to that segment of learners. In 2018, 47 percent of students and 79 percent of teachers in US public schools were white. This contrasts starkly with the student-teacher ratio for Hispanics (27 percent of students, 9 percent of teachers), Blacks (15 percent of students, 7 percent of teachers), and Asians (5 percent of students, 2 percent of teachers). Such disparities in representation of races and ethnicities among educators constitute a longstanding issue in US public schools.

Teaching Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

The first step in addressing cultural and linguistic diversity is to be aware. The very act of considering culture and language skills when developing curricula and activities makes it more likely that lessons will be inclusive. Teaching culturally diverse students entails the following additional steps:

Learn about your students' cultural backgrounds and demonstrate appreciation of those cultures. Teachers show students how to embrace different cultures by modeling respect and acceptance.

Learn more about students' lives outside of the classroom, and let that information inform lessons. For example, try to find examples that are relevant to students with different cultures and backgrounds.

Embrace diversity in teaching styles. Making an effort to accommodate different communication preferences, cognitive styles, and aptitudes results in lessons with a greater chance of reaching all students.

Encourage students to relate the benefit of a lesson to their own lives.

Bring diverse guest speakers into the classroom.

Educators can also benefit from the following tips for teaching linguistically diverse students:

Develop a relationship and work closely with an ESL teacher or interpreter.

Incorporate more group work. This allows students to practice their language skills in a more personal, less intimidating setting than the front of the classroom.

Make things as visual as possible by writing on the board, diagraming, and using pictures.

Allow ELL students to preview materials before a lesson when possible.

Understand that some students may experience a silent period. Students learning a new language commonly go through a period of several weeks or longer when they are taking in the new language but do not yet speak it.

Efforts to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse student populations are not limited to the classroom. Developing responsive curricula and teaching strategies is critical, but a holistic approach that includes families and the larger school community promises better outcomes.

Working With Parents

Positive parent-teacher relationships can influence any student's success, but they can be particularly important for students whose culture or dominant language differs from that of the majority of their classmates. Developing a relationship with the parents of ELL students or any student who is outside the dominant cultural or ethnic group, or whose culture or ethnicity differs from that of the teacher, builds a sense of trust and acceptance among students and their families. Making the effort to build such relationships can be challenging for teachers, and in cases where there is a language barrier, it may be necessary to engage with a language instructor or interpreter for support.

Support From Schools

Schools can address linguistic and cultural diversity by working to recruit teachers of color and instructors who can teach and tutor in languages other than English. Demonstrating support for student diversity is also crucial. Measures such as providing school signage in different languages, encouraging students to speak their first language at school, and displaying non-English books and materials creates an environment of acceptance and appreciation that benefits all students.

Schools can also play a role in supporting more training designed to mitigate implicit bias. Research has shown that teachers are just as likely to have a racial bias as non-teachers.

Create Inclusive Classrooms

American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership prepares educators to shape education policy and create more inclusive learning environments.

The degree program provides future teachers and education leaders with the tools they need to transform the education system to benefit all learners. With a focus on building equitable learning environments, the curriculum emphasizes systems change, personal leadership, social justices and anti-racism, and policy and research.

Learn more about American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership.

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Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students | American University

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Students in US schools are increasingly diverse. Learn more about teaching strategies that address culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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https://www.pbs.org/video/the-lemon-grove-incident-gcrfxv/

PBS | Equity / Race | Examine Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, the first successful school desegregation court decision in the history of the United States.

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The Lemon Grove Incident | EXPLORE San Diego

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The first successful desegregation court decision in the history of the U.S.

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Book | Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and Struggle for Education Equality

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Book | Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and Struggle for Education Equality

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David G. Garcia | Equity / Race | Strategies of Segregation unearths the ideological and structural architecture of enduring racial inequality within and beyond schools in Oxnard, California. In this meticulously researched narrative spanning 1903 to 1974, David G. García excavates an extensive array of archival sources to expose a separate and unequal school system and its purposeful links with racially restrictive housing covenants.

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Book | The Elusive Quest for Equality: 150 Years of Chicano / Chicana Education 

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Book | The Elusive Quest for Equality: 150 Years of Chicano / Chicana Education 

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Jose Moreno | Equity / Race / Culture | The Elusive Quest for Equality documents both the plight and the struggle of Chicano communities over the past 150 years, using the guiding themes of segregation, Americanization, and resistance in the history of education for Chicanos/Chicanas.

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Book | The Elusive Quest for Equality: 150 Years of Chicano / Chicana Education 

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Book | The Elusive Quest for Equality: 150 Years of Chicano / Chicana Education 

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Jose Moreno | Equity / Race / Culture | The Elusive Quest for Equality documents both the plight and the struggle of Chicano communities over the past 150 years, using the guiding themes of segregation, Americanization, and resistance in the history of education for Chicanos/Chicanas.

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Children's Book / Video | How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving Story 

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Children's Book / Video | How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving Story 

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https://youtu.be/hDD5o_WmAvI?list=TLGGlyQNZal2NZUxMzAyMjAyMw

Eve Bunting | Immigration / Culture | A family flees its native country in a small boat and lands in America on a particularly appropriate holiday; PW called this "a Thanksgiving story that knows no season or race, but is for everyone all year 'round." Ages 3-8.

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Shyam Selvadurai | Culture | An evocative coming-of-age novel about growing up gay in Sri Lanka during the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict—one of the country’s most turbulent and deadly periods.

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Shyam Selvadurai | Culture | An evocative coming-of-age novel about growing up gay in Sri Lanka during the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict—one of the country’s most turbulent and deadly periods.

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Book | The Other Slavery: The uncovered story of Indian Enslavement in America | Andrea Resendez | 

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Book | The Other Slavery: The uncovered story of Indian Enslavement in America | Andrea Resendez | 

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Culture (Native American Indian) | For over two centuries we have fought over, abolished, and tried to come to grips with African American slavery. It is time for the West to confront an entirely separate, equally devastating enslavement we have long failed truly to see.

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Randi Pink | Race / Ethnicity | But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the Black community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

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Book | Identity Safe Classrooms, Grades 6-12 Pathways to Belonging and Learning 

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Book | Identity Safe Classrooms, Grades 6-12 Pathways to Belonging and Learning 

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| Becki Cohn-Vargas | Equity / Identity | The second of a two-volume set, Identity Safe Classrooms, Grades 6-12, is a call for educators to come together and realize a vision of schools as transformative places of opportunity and equity for all students.

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Giles Lamar | Identity | This collection addresses topics like gentrification, acceptance, untimely death, coming out, and poverty and ranges in genre from contemporary realistic fiction to adventure and romance.

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Jacob Tobia | Identity / Gender / LGBTQ+ | It took Jacob years to discover that being "a sissy" isn't something to be ashamed of. It's a source of pride. Following Jacob through bullying and beauty contests, from Duke University to the United Nations to the podiums of the Methodist church - not to mention the parlors of the White House - this unforgettable memoir contains multitudes.

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Book | Kaleidoscope: A Queer Anthology | 

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Book | Kaleidoscope: A Queer Anthology | 

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Max Turner | Identity | A collection of stories from voices all over, Kaleidescope, brings you through adventures, romances, nightmares, and more. Pride isn't a deadly sin when it's found in the hearts of those striving to live and prosper in a world that demonizes you, and in the world's of these authors, sometimes that doesn't exist, sometimes it does, and that's all part of the adventure for these queer heroes and heroines.

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Book - Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution

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Book - Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution

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Kelly Lytle Hernandez | Culture / Race / Ethnicity | Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States.

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The Identity-Conscious Educator | Liza A. Talusan | Diversity / Inclusion | A framework for building awareness and understanding of five identity categories: race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.

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Robin Wall Kimmerer | Culture | Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices.

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Website/Courses | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion K-12 |

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Website/Courses | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion K-12 |

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https://www.vectorsolutions.com/solutions/vector-lms/k12-training-management/diversity-and-inclusion/

Vector Solutions | Diversity / Inclusion / Equity | Courses for educators which give teachers and staff the skills for engaging with diverse students and colleagues with our online courses, which are based on peer-reviewed research and input from top scholars in the field.

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Vector Solutions' diversity and inclusion training for K-12 schools helps to advance inclusive culture with teachers and staff through interactive online courses.

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Website / Courses | American Indian Studies 

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Website / Courses | American Indian Studies 

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https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/americanindianstudies/

https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/americanindianstudies/| California State University, Long Beach | Culture (Native American Indian) | Courses and resources about Native American Indian people.

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The AIS program office will now be open from 8-12 noon and from 1-5 pm - Monday through Friday.

Monday and Friday office hours will be held remotely. In-person office hours will be on campus (FO-3 308) Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Art Neri, the AIS Program Administrative Support Coordinator, is also available via email at art.neri@csulb.edu.

Returning in 2023! CSULB Annual Pow Wow

Welcome Dr. Thomas Reed

This semester we are very pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas Reed, new tenure track professor in American Indian Studies. The College of Liberal Arts magazine, Aspire has a feature article profile about Dr. Reed at the link below.
Welcome Dr. Kimberly Robertson
In spring semester 2022 we were very pleased to welcome Dr. Kimberly Robertson as the first person to be hired as an Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at CSULB. Dr. Robertson brings a wealth of experience in American Indian Studies and Women and Gender Studies as an outstanding educational leader, teacher, scholar and artist/cultural producer. The College of Liberal Arts webpage has a feature article profile about Dr. Robertson at the link below.

American Indian Studies Welcomes New Faculty Member
The AIS Faculty
Dr. Robertson joins our two other full-time faculty, Assistant Professor, Dr. Theresa Gregor and full-time lecturer/NAGPRA Coordinator Cindy Alvitre along with our thirteen part-time lecturers and our FERP (half-time) AIS Program Director, Professor Emeritus Craig Stone. Check out the faculty page https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/americanindianstudies/ais-faculty/ to learn more about the American Indian Studies Faculty.
AIS faculty and author Cindi Alvitre receives the 2021 award from the Children's Literature Council of Southern California in the category of Excellence in Picture Book of Cultural Significance. https://www.childrensliteraturecouncil.org/award-winners/waa-aka-the-bird-who-fell-in-love-with-the-sun?fbclid=IwAR1p4phMJs8VMSl6j8Bfej7H68MTKV5IVwBOdv7FqdhlQDJpxcxs49vKgK8 AIS faculty and new tribal leader Heidi Lucero in a renewed fight to gain federal recognition for The Juaneño Band of Mission Indians. https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2021-09-22/new-tribal-leader-will-help-the-first-people-of-o-c-in-its-three-decade-battle-to-gain-federal-recognition
Latest Updates on our Response to COVID-19
https://www.csulb.edu/covid-19
Welcome to American Indian Studies
Welcome back to Cal State Puvungna (CSULB) for the Fall 2021 semester. Most of the AIS courses this semester will be offered on-line with face-to-face instruction being offered in our LBESI dual-enrollment courses that we teach at high schools in three local school districts. This means that faculty office hours for on-line courses will be on-line again this semester with the exception of LBESI courses in the high schools.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us via email.

Craig Stone, Program Director - craig.stone@csulb.edu

Art Neri, Administrative Support Coordinator - art.neri@csulb.edu

Kimberly Robertson, Associate Professor - kimberly.robertson@csulb.edu

Theresa Gregor, Assistant Professor - theresa.gregor@csulb.edu

Thomas Reed, Associate Professor - thomas.reed@csulb.edu

Cindi Alvitre - cindy.alvitre@csulb.edu

Adelita Arredondo - adelita.arredondo@csulb.edu

Daniele Bolelli - daniele.bolelli@csulb.edu

Farrah Ferris - ferrah.ferris@csulb.edu

Bruce Gomez - bruce.gomez@csulb.edu

Kevin Hale - kevin.hale@csulb.edu

Heidi Lucero - heidi.lucero@csulb.edu

Anna H. Nazarian-Peters - anna.nazarian@csulb.edu

Les Peters - les.peters@csulb.edu

Harrelson Notah - harrelson.notah@csulb.edu

Rosalena Ruiz - rosalena.ruiz@csulb.edu

Rebecca Sanchez - rebecca.sanchez@csulb.edu

Judge Deborah Sanchez - judgesanchez@aol.com

Moira West - moira.west@csulb.edu

Vincent Whipple - vincent.whipple@csulb.edu

Lola Worthington - Lola.worthington@csulb.edu

Any Inquiries that require immediate assistance, please visit
The College of Liberal Arts Offices (CLA Building) or call 562.985.5381
The American Indian Studies Program Update The New CSU Ethnic Studies Requirement, General Education, Category F
The California State University System is now requiring that students take an Ethnic Studies course as part of their General Education requirements to graduate from the CSU. This is required of incoming freshman and transfer students beginning this Fall 2021 semester. To meet the demand for new courses that meet this requirement at CSULB, we have been busy this past year and over the summer developing two courses being offered this semester.

The lower division course is AIS 119 - Introduction to Racial and Ethnic Studies and the upper division course is AIS 319 - Racial and Ethnic Studies in the United States. Both courses are comparative ethnic studies courses where students learn about the four racialized groups in the United States as defined in California Law AB-1460, American Indian, African American, Asian American and Chicano(a)/Latinx. The goal at CSULB is to provide instruction about all four of these racialized groups in the United States in each of the courses we teach to meet the new requirement.

These courses are offered by all the four Ethic Studies disciplines at CSULB which are among the oldest Ethnic Studies departments and programs in the CSU. Founded in response to student demand, the California State University System created the first Ethnic Studies courses, programs, departments and a College of Ethnic Studies in the late 1960s and is now the first major university system to develop an Ethnic Studies graduation requirement. The American Indian Studies Program at CSULB is fifty-three years old, the oldest American Indian Studies Program in the CSU System.
The Increasing Value of an American Indian Studies Minor or Certificate
The Minor and Certificate offered at CSULB in the American Indian Studies Program have become especially valuable to faculty seeking to be hired to teach these new required ethnic studies courses. Having a minor, certificate or degree in American Indian Studies has been a major factor in hiring instructors to teach these new comparative ethnic studies courses in American Indian Studies.
New Demand for Ethnic Studies Educators
With the increased demand for Ethnic Studies Professors at the university level to meet this new requirement in the CSU, we are also seeing an increased demand for qualified Ethnic Studies teachers in Community Colleges in California who recently passed an Ethnic Studies requirement as a graduation requirement. In addition, school districts in California are now required by state law to teach ethnic studies courses, increasing the demand for even more qualified teachers in American Indian Studies.

With the new growing demand for qualified Ethnic Studies educators, students should seriously consider adding the Minor in Native American Cultures or the Certificate in American Indian Studies and Indigenous Studies to be more competitive and employable when they graduate. Most students can graduate on time while earning a Minor in Native American Cultures and a Bachelor's degree at CSULB.

Contact Craig Stone at Craig.Stone@csulb.edu for more information. And the ATLAS team at https://cla.csulb.edu/atlas/ to declare your minor or certificate.

I Appreciate and Respect You

To reaffirm our appreciation and respect for all languages spoken at CSULB, we created a "Linguistic Landscaping project," that uses language in virtual and real public space on campus. This is the first project of, The Puvungna Arts Empathy Production Project. An ongoing project that focuses on ways to foster "empathy production" that grew out of the recommendations of the Report on the Advancement of Ethnic Studies in the CSU.
kaqʰinalin k'e ksukuwin
Translation: I appreciate and respect you in the Šmuwič Chumash Language

Translated by AIS faculty member, Judge Deborah Sanchez, this is one of first of many videos translating the phrase, I appreciate and respect you, into the languages that are spoken by members of the CSULB community. Signs are placed on campus with a QR code that one is able to scan with your phone linking you to videos like the one above where you can hear or see the phrase pronounced/signed in each language

The goal of the project is to encourage learning more about our own diversity on campus and to stimulate empathy for others in the process. We also appreciate and acknowledge that California has been the most culturally and linguistically diverse area of North America for thousands of years. To learn more about how you can participate in this project click the link below.
Link to Other Languages At CSULB
CSULB Press Releases Regarding 49-er Mascot Removal

https://www.csulb.edu/mascot
https://www.csulb.edu/news/article/students-select-the-shark-as-new-mascot
https://daily49er.com/news/2020/06/26/prospector-pete-statue-removed-from-campus/
https://daily49er.com/news/2018/09/11/lbsu-opts-to-move-prospector-pete-statue-and-get-a-new-mascot/

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The AIS program office will now be open from 8-12 noon and from 1-5 pm - Monday through Friday. Monday and Friday office hours will be held remotely. In-person office hours will be on campus (FO-3 308) Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Art Neri, the AIS Program Administrative Support Coordinator, is also available via email at art.neri@csulb.edu.

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Website / Courses | Kumeyaay Community College Tribal Courses |

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Website / Courses | Kumeyaay Community College Tribal Courses |

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http://kumeyaaycommunitycollege.com/

Kumeyaay Community College | Culture (Native American Indian) | Courses for learning the culture and history of the Kumeyaay people.

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Board of Trustees

The Kumeyaay Community College Board of Trustees has members representing six reservations of the Kumeyaay Nation.

The Trustees have been working diligently to establish a college, which reflects the culture and mores of the Kumeyaay People.

Better designed programs for you

Online Availability to sources

Helping Board in your learning management

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The Kumeyaay Community College Board of Trustees has members representing six reservations of the Kumeyaay Nation. The Trustees have been working diligently to establish a college, which reflects the culture and mores of the Kumeyaay People.

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 Website	Learning for Justice Workshops	

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 Website	Learning for Justice Workshops	

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https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/learning-for-justice-workshops?gclid=CjwKCAjw79iaBhAJEiwAPYwoCBuk-oIz0IB4Tk6Ka8et6_KbAF8VgjK-WkWFTpBtqXPcrmOmTJGL9hoC-IQQAvD_BwE

Learning for Justice Social Justice Provides resources for teachers and workshops to promote equity and social justice in education.

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Skip to main content

Learning for Justice now offers open-enrollment professional development workshops in various cities. Our next stops are Orlando, Florida, Houston, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee and Indianapolis, Indiana. In each location, our teaching and learning team will host two daylong workshops: Social Justice Teaching 101 and Facilitating Critical Conversations. Join us for one or both!

The cost of each workshop is $35; this fee covers the workshop materials, lunch and a certificate of completion for credit hours. Group rates are available.

Don't miss the opportunity to learn from the experts and to network with like-minded educators. Space is limited-register today online! We do not accept offline payments such as checks or purchase orders.

These workshops are open only to current K-12 classroom teachers, administrators and counselors or those who coach classroom teachers and administrators.

Have questions or want to let us know where we should go next? Please contact us.

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Skip to main content Learning for Justice now offers open-enrollment professional development workshops in various cities. Our next stops are Orlando, Florida, Houston, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee and Indianapolis, Indiana. In each location, our teaching and learning team will host two daylong workshops: Social Justice Teaching 101 and Facilitating Critical Conversations.

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Article | Arts integration and differentiated instruction | Lynne B. Silverstein

https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/collections/arts-integration-resources/arts-integration-and-differentiated-instruction/

| Diversity / Inclusion | This article provides insight to the ways art integration can promote individuality and diversity in the classroom

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“In arts integrated schools, students constantly move back and forth between different methods of inquiry and observation, symbolic languages, expressive modes, formal curriculum, and their own lives.”¹ –Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond

Through differentiated instruction “…students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.”² – Carol Ann Tomlinson

“We have tried to be very clear about arts integration – that it is differentiated instruction.”³ -- a participant in the Community/Schools Partnership for Arts, Sarasota, Florida

Introduction

Classrooms are full of individuals that learn in different ways. For example, some students learn aurally, visually, or kinesthetically. Some learn quickly, others struggle, and still others fall somewhere between. Acknowledging this diversity, many educators are recognizing that it is no longer appropriate to approach teaching as a singular, one-size-fits-all endeavor. Recognizing the wide variance that exists within any group of learners, educators are recommending that teachers offer “multiple and varied avenues to learning.”⁴

According to Carol Ann Tomlinson⁵, differentiated instruction is: “a way of thinking about teaching and learning that values the individual…”⁶

“Differentiation doesn’t suggest that a teacher can be all things to all individuals all the time. It does, however, mandate that a teacher create a reasonable range of approaches to learning much of the time, so that most students find learning a fit much of the time.”⁷

Arts integration offers a “range of approaches to learning” aligned with the principles of differentiated instruction. Specifically, arts integration helps students access content, process their learning, create products, and work in a productive and supportive learning environment in ways that take into account individual readiness, interest, and learning profile.

This article provides an overview of the core elements of differentiated instruction 1) beliefs about learning; 2) content, process, and products; 3) learning environment; and examines the alignment with arts integration.

1. Beliefs about Learning

Differentiated instruction draws support from research about how people learn and constructivist beliefs about learning. Tomlinson states:
“…classrooms in which students are active learners, decision makers, and problem solvers are more natural and effective than those in which students are passive recipients of information.”⁸ Differentiated instruction “operates on the premise that learning experiences are most effective when they are engaging, relevant, and interesting.”⁹
Arts integration involves students in active learning, decision making, and problem solving through the creative process in which students construct and demonstrate their understandings.

Arts integration is also recognized for providing learning experiences that are engaging, relevant, and interesting, and as a result, meaningful and highly motivating. Creating in an art form is naturally engaging. When students bring their personal voice, vision, and interests to bear on their learning, it results in increased motivation, sense of ownership and pride in their work, and the development of valued habits of mind.¹⁰

In Critical Evidence, Sandra Ruppert points to the link between the arts, motivation, and other outcomes valued for learning:
“The arts nurture a motivation to learn by emphasizing active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence and risk-taking, among other competencies."¹¹
Rabkin and Redmond add further support to Ruppert’s statement:
“Students in arts integrated classrooms: 1) are intrinsically motivated to master art skills needed to explore issues that have real social and personal importance, and to express their own ideas about them; 2) have a sense of ownership, responsibility, and pride for the work they produce….”¹²
Further, Tomlinson suggests that differentiated instruction is strongest when teachers use “concept-based teaching” in which they focus on essential and meaningful key concepts and principles rather than trying to cover many facts. Working with concepts, the “building blocks of meaning,” helps students to:

“(1) understand rather than memorize, (2) retain ideas and facts longer because they are more meaningful, (3) make connections between subjects and facets of a single subject, (4) relate ideas to their own lives, (5) build networks of meaning for effectively dealing with future knowledge”¹³

Arts integration is an example of concept-based teaching. Big ideas are the focus of connections between an art form and another area of study. For example, conflict is examined through theater and history, pattern is examined through music and math, and transformation is examined through dance and science. Students learn and apply facts that support the big ideas. Teachers report that arts integration helps students build understanding, retain those understandings, and make meaningful connections to their own lives:

“I have seen that children who participate in arts integration showed longer retention of concepts and found deeper meaning in the curriculum presented. Children can synthesize basic information and infer deeper meaning as to why things happen, not just spew back rote information.”¹⁴

2. Content, Process, and Products

According to Tomlinson, the primary intent of differentiated instruction is to “maximize student capacity.”¹⁵ To accomplish this, teachers can differentiate their instruction related to three classroom elements: content, process, and products.

Content—what is taught (information, ideas, skills) or access to what they should learn.¹⁶

Process—short-term activities that students engage to make sense of or process the content.¹⁷

Products—culminating projects that represent a student’s understandings and the application of those understandings gained across a longer learning segment (i.e., a unit, semester).¹⁸

Each of the three elements can be further differentiated by a student’s readiness, interests, and learning profile.¹⁹

Content

Arts integration offers a range of languages and symbol systems that provide alternative ways to encode and access information. For example, teachers and students use the language and symbols of line, shape, color, texture, and form in the visual arts; the language of physical and vocal expression in drama/theater; the language of movement in dance; and the language of rhythm, melody, and pattern in music. The arts with their alternative languages and symbol systems engage all students, particularly struggling learners that are typically not reached through traditional teaching methods.²⁰

The arts also draw on a range of learning modalities (visual, aural, kinesthetic) and intelligences (e.g., bodily/kinesthetic, spatial, visual, musical). For example, drama communicates visually, aurally, and kinesthetically and draws on interpersonal, intrapersonal, and linguistic intelligences. Dance communicates visually, kinesthetically, and aurally (if music is used) and draws on bodily/kinesthetic, spatial, and musical intelligences.

The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities points to several reasons for the growing interest in arts integration, including:

“the compatibility of arts integration methods with newer research findings about learning including personalization, repetition and reinforcement through multiple modalities, fluency with symbol systems, and the continuum of stages from concrete to representational to abstract.”²¹

Process and Products

Through arts integration, students use alternative ways (e.g., dancing, acting, writing, speaking, drawing, singing) to make sense of content they are learning and to demonstrate their understandings.

Arts integration offers in-process sense-making activities as well as culminating summative products. For example, during a unit, students may create short movement improvisations to make sense of the concepts of a planet’s axis and rotation in the solar system. If these improvisations are created at the beginning of the unit, they offer a way for the teacher to assess a student’s readiness/prior knowledge. When students create the improvisations within the unit, they demonstrate what they know, understand, and can do. These in-process improvisations are valuable formative assessments that teachers use to guide decisions about the additional level of support students need as well as the next instructional steps. For students, these in-process improvisations help them reflect on and clarify their understandings and to assess and revise their work so that it better demonstrates their understandings (in both science and dance). At the end of an arts integration unit, students create products that demonstrate their understandings of the concepts, knowledge, and skills learned across an entire unit. As such, these products provide summative assessments.

In all cases, students are engaged in the creative process. The creative process, by its very nature, is naturally differentiated. It allows varied degrees of sophistication in how students make sense of information. It is flexible; students can enter the creative process at different places and move within it at different rates. It can be adapted for different levels of readiness, interests, and types of participation. But, wherever a student is on a continuum of learning, and whatever his/her interests and learning style, the student can participate in meaningful ways, be given support, and challenged to move ahead.

A study about the impact of The Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program, an arts integration program serving 16 schools in the Washington DC metropolitan area, indicated:

“Across all three years of this evaluation, more than 90 percent of the teacher survey respondents used arts integration most frequently to help students demonstrate understanding in different ways and to address a variety of learning styles.”²²

In arts integration, the quality of students’ work in the art form is as critical as the quality of their work in the other subject area. The teacher invests time to help students develop the knowledge and skills in an art form so that they can use it authentically to demonstrate their understandings. For example, before students write a song about a science concept, they learn the basic skills and vocabulary needed to create a quality song (e.g., musical form, rhythm and rhyme patterns). Before students create a dance to demonstrate their understanding of math concepts, they learn some basic dance skills and vocabulary (e.g., body, space, energy, time, choreographic structures). The investment in teaching a baseline of art form knowledge and skills results in more authentic work—higher quality products and communication that is more nuanced.

In other words, differentiated instruction that aligns with arts integration is not the same as differentiated instruction that aligns with arts-enhanced learning where learning objectives are met in the other subject area, but not in the art form.

For teachers to use arts integration as a strategy for differentiating instruction requires that teachers gain a baseline of knowledge about an art form. The authors of Third Space: When Learning Matters describe the results of a study of teachers’ attitudes about learning more about the arts:

“Teachers reported that they are motivated to take on the often challenging task of increasing their competence in an art form as part of their teaching because of the insights the arts give them into the individual differences of their students and the increased satisfaction that it provides them as teachers.”²³

3. Learning Environment

In addition to focusing on beliefs about learning, and content, process and products, differentiated instruction also highlights the importance of a supportive classroom environment. Overall, in differentiated instruction, the teacher’s goal is to build a sense of community where each student is welcomed, feels safe and respected, and respects others.

“…the teacher leads his students in developing the sorts of attitudes, beliefs and practices that would characterize a really good neighborhood.”²⁴

Arts integration classrooms feel like supportive neighborhoods. They strive to be warm, welcoming, and safe places so that students can risk and try new things. Teachers encourage choice and honor the individual’s voice. In these classrooms, instruction focuses on what students can do.

“Learning in the arts helps students to develop a sense of self-efficacy, a feeling that they can be agents of their own learning and they can make positive change in their own lives and in their surroundings.”²⁵

Differentiated instruction places a premium on teachers getting to know their students. Arts integration provides a way for teachers to do that:

“Teachers … described learning about students through their art work as an illuminating and important outcome of the arts integrated units in their classrooms. The works that emerged made visible students’ backgrounds, understandings, and skills that often had been hidden, allowing teachers to see how they could build on what students know and to engage them more actively in learning.”²⁶

Neither differentiated instruction nor arts integration classrooms is chaotic. The classrooms are lively places full of orchestrated and disciplined energy. Teachers give careful attention to classroom management structures and routines that enable students to be active, engaged, and highly focused.

In both differentiated instruction and arts integration, the classroom’s physical environment is flexible. In arts integration, furniture is moved to allow for movement, theatrical or dance improvisations, or for various groupings. Students carry out routines for efficiently and quietly setting and re-setting furniture. Teachers organize materials and establish efficient routines for distribution and clean-up. The classroom reflects a student-centered focus with interesting displays documenting students’ creative process and the products they have created.

In both differentiated instruction and arts integration there is a dynamic interplay of challenge and support. In differentiated instruction, Tomlinson describes a “pervasive expectation of growth”²⁷ and a persistent, gentle push for students to tackle the next level of knowledge and skill, supported with appropriate scaffolds.²⁸ In arts integration, teachers expect students to meet evolving objectives in both the art form and the other subject area. This push to reach the next level of knowledge and skills is pervasive. The teacher often moves among the students, listening to their conversations, assessing their understanding, clarifying ideas, and offering support to push them ahead.

Conclusion

Arts integration is one of a range of approaches for differentiating instruction. Similar beliefs about effective learning—active learning, choice, problem-solving, engagement, and relevance—guide both arts integration and differentiated instruction. Both offer sense-making activities and opportunities to create products that help students construct and demonstrate their understandings. Both honor the range of learners that inhabit our classrooms by offering alternative avenues for learning that take into account students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

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Article	Inclusivity for all learners in the classroom	Jordan DeWilde	

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Article	Inclusivity for all learners in the classroom	Jordan DeWilde	

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https://theartofeducation.edu/2019/08/02/inclusivity-for-all-learners-in-the-art-room/

Diversity / Inclusion This article provides insight to the ways art can honor individuality and diversity in the classroom

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Inclusivity for All Learners in the Art Room - The Art of Education University

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As art educators, we not only want students to create art, but we also hope to create a learning environment where every student feels included, valued, and encouraged. The desire to create a positive experience in an inclusive art room helps drive everything we do. Our students know they are valued…

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Website | The Trevor Project

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

The Trevor Project | LGBTQ+ | This website provides educational resources for learning about, supporting, and integrating LGBTQ+ issues into education.

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The Trevor Project | For Young LGBTQ Lives

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The Trevor Project provides 24/7 crisis support services to LGBTQ young people. Text, chat, or call anytime to reach a trained counselor. Free and confidential.

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Website |
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Smithsonian
https://nmaahc.si.edu/

| Culture / Race / Ethnicity | This website provides PD and Educational resources for learning about and integrating the culture of African Americans into education.

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A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Story | National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Website |
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Smithsonian
https://nmaahc.si.edu/

| Culture / Race / Ethnicity | This website provides PD and Educational resources for learning about and integrating the culture of African Americans into education.

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A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Story | National Museum of African American History and Culture

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https://americanindian.si.edu/
Culture / Race / Ethnicity | This website provides PD and Educational resources for learning about and integrating the culture of American Indians into education.

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Home Page | National Museum of the American Indian

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The NMAI fosters a richer shared human experience through a more informed understanding of Native peoples.

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https://americanindian.si.edu/
Culture / Race / Ethnicity | This website provides PD and Educational resources for learning about and integrating the culture of American Indians into education.

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Home Page | National Museum of the American Indian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The NMAI fosters a richer shared human experience through a more informed understanding of Native peoples.

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Culture/ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/ Immigration/LGBTQ+/Race and Ethnicity  

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Culture/ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/ Immigration/LGBTQ+/Race and Ethnicity  

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Mediums are color coded -
Green - Website/Articles
Blue - Video clips
Pink - Podcasts
Yellow - Book

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects’ increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

Detractors of Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series, which debuted this month, claim that casting Black and Asian actors undermines the show's faithfulness to Tolkien's world. Meanwhile, some ostensible fans of Disney's animated Little Mermaid are rejecting the new live-action version for swapping out the titular mermaid's famous blue eyes and red hair for the features of Black actress Halle Bailey.

The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Powerfirst drew widespread anger from fans because it casts Black and Asian actors as characters across the spectrum of fictional Middle Earth races. Fans' chief complaint was that the decision to include nonwhite characters had ruined the authenticity of Tolkien's world, because he had never described his elves, hobbits, men, and dwarves as anything other than white. Then last week, Disney released the first trailer for The Little Mermaid, featuring Bailey singing "Part of Your World." Thousands of YouTube users brigaded, leaving more than 2 million dislikes and countless derogatory comments on the trailer, and creating memes ridiculing the film for casting Bailey and mocking all of its supporters.

To anyone who's paid any attention to geek culture over the past decade or so, these arguments probably feel endless and exhausting. After all, this is the same cycle of backlash that plays out when any beloved story gets rebooted (or, in the case of Tolkien's The Silmarillion, adapted to film for the first time) and makes any changes, big or small. The anger intensifies to a new level when they're big changes that shake the foundations of a story that was originally framed within a white, male worldview. Let's face it: Most of the stories that have been passed down to us throughout the centuries have been created for us by white men.

From a progressive standpoint, stories all could use a good shake-up by varying their points of view through casting, and pop culture is full of narratives ripe for retelling. Taking the detractors at face value, however, you have apantheon of geeks who just want to see their beloved tales left alone. These fans now face repeated battles as they watch one franchise after another fall into the clutches of progressive directors and writers who insist on - gasp - casting women in the lead roles, or - gasp - casting actors of color in roles long reserved for white people.

The negative attention on The Little Mermaid and The Lord of the Rings has fueled a groundswell of support from other fans who view such anger as founded in racism. Complicating all of these arguments are angry right-wing politicians and influencers like Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, who are using both franchises as an example of Hollywood and liberal " wokeness " run amok.

On the historical accuracy of diverse hobbits and mermaids

On their face, the arguments over Rings of Power and The Little Mermaid are superficially absurd. The "historical inaccuracy" argument falls apart any way you look at it.

For starters, as many fans have noted, hobbits and mermaids aren't real, so it shouldn't matter what race they are. For another thing, even though Tolkien's setting for Middle Earth is based on Europe, people of color lived throughout medieval Europe, so a diverse Middle Earth is historically accurate.

As for Hans Christian Andersen's short story "The Little Mermaid," it was originally a sublimated allegory for a closeted queer man, and its original setting was "far out in the ocean." Seeking historical accuracy from this type of fairy tale seems like grasping at best; but to further put to rest the argument that such characters have to be white, consider that the firstDisney version made Ariel's home a fictional amalgam of Greek and Mediterranean mythology somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic sea. So the idea of strictly Caucasian mermaids from this vicinity is a stretch.

"Well the original little mermai-"

The original The Little Mermaid is a queer man's self-insertion character, longing to be able to be in a relationship with another man, and at the end the mermaid dies.

You don't care about the original, mate.
- Nome (@NomeDaBarbarian) September 12, 2022

Again, all of this is the stuff of fantasy, so really, who cares whether they're played by white or Black actors?

As it turns out, the answer is lots and lots of people.

A key cry among these kinds of fans is that such productions are insisting on what they've dubbed"forced diversity." Detractors claim that the goal isn't really to meaningfully inject realistic representation into the universe, but rather to advance a "woke ideological agenda." This argument has been particularly loud among right-wing politicians and conservative influencers.

The ideal for such fans would be something they tend to describe as "organic diversity" - something that would arise naturally from the canonical descriptions of characters. For instance, one Tolkien scholar complained to CNN that since Tolkien described elves as "fair-faced," anything too tawny would ruin the authenticity of the show.

"This is not something organic that's coming out of Middle Earth," Tolkien expert Louis Markos told CNN. "This is really an agenda that is being imposed upon it."

Framing the mere existence of nonwhite characters in mediaas an inherently political stance is itself an ideological agenda. Moreover, it contradicts the long legacy of fantasy adaptations deviating from canonical descriptions of characters, and fans usually not minding - as long as the casting still reinforces a white, male-centric worldview.

Tyrion Lannister was specifically described as "One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white". There was no outcry when he showed up in the show looking like this pic.twitter.com/6vZnKdAela
- Laura Shortridge-Scott (@DiscordianKitty) September 5, 2022

This brings us to the larger issue at play. This isn't just about hobbits and "fair-faced" elves and redheaded mermaids, but about the existence of real people in our nonfictional world.

Welcome to the culture war, for the 8 millionth time

The endless culture war over increasingly diverse media has famously targeted everything from games to Ghostbusters, and now it has arrived to a fantasy universe near you. See the latest series, or Captain Marvel, or Black Panther, or , or Star Wars again - or pretty much every familiar franchise being adapted or remade these days with women and/or Black protagonists.

Usually, the audience that resists change will decry every reason except racism and misogyny for their hatred of these changes. For example, they might argue that casting actors of color is a cheap aesthetic change that does nothing to deepen the worldview of a story. Or, if the casting does result in a shift in worldview, they might argue that said worldview isn't faithful to the original creator's vision. (This usually makes it clear they never understood the creator's original vision at all, because these narratives nearly always have deeply humanist and optimistic themes that align far more closely with a progressive worldview than with a traditionalist worldview - especially a racist one.)

Diverse casting can come with pitfalls and sometimes can be a shortcut to appearing progressive without actually being progressive. (See: Bridgerton and .) Studios such as Disney are often more invested in rebooting their existing IP rather than taking chances on new and exciting stories from minority creators. Fans argue that this emphasis on simply redoing an old story with a casting facelift has led to a repetitive, tedious emphasis on pointless reboots and tired retreads rather than something truly meaningfully different and expansive.

However, these arguments often drown out the voices of fans of color who are overjoyed when they see themselves reflected in the legacy media they love - like the parents who celebrated the new Little Mermaid trailer by sharing photos and videos of their Black daughters reacting ecstatically.

What's more, when high-powered studios like Disney do take such chances on new original work, the resulting wonderful work often also draws tremendous amounts of inflamed backlash. Pixar's sleeper hit Turning Red became a surprise culture war target because of its culturally unique place and subject, as well as its characters.

This all suggests that the arguments for less diversity are just as shallow and political, just as racist and sexist, as they sound. Journalist and period drama expert Amanda-Rae Prescott learned this lesson well when she began tracking the fandom for the cult PBS series Sanditon. The series, an adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel, features one character of color - hardly the racially diverse cast of much more high-profile period dramas such as Bridgerton and The Gilded Age. As Prescott observed, despite many fans wanting more characters of color to also have more screentime, the majority of the show's white fandom was committed to "maintaining Sanditon as the anti- Bridgerton " - in other words, to preserving its mainly white cast.

Prescott next saw a similar form of racist gatekeeping around the recent Netflix adaptation of Austen's Persuasion, with white Austen fans masking racism behind other critiques of the movie as well as ostensibly lighthearted memes making fun of the film in oblique ways.

Both types of racist objections have attached to these new adaptations. The Little Mermaid trailer comments are currently wall-to-wall with haters making fun of people who like the trailer, using a variant of a copy/paste meme to mock the idea of liking the movie at all. The meme, like so many politically motivated memes, masks the real racist agenda behind it.

The repetitive nature of all these forms of discourse, Prescott points out, is part of the system.

"The same people who were angry about a Black Queen and a South Asian Viscountess on Bridgerton are the same people who are now angry about BIPOC elves, witches, and mermaids," Prescott told me in an email. "You can copy and paste racist comments about diverse period dramas onto the racist comments about these fantasy franchises. There are people in period drama fandom who watch these series because they don't want to see Black or POC characters, and it's the same trend in speculative fiction."

Prescott said she believes a driving theme of these campaigns is obfuscation - the use of some other argument to mask the real one. With historical dramas, it's the argument for "historical accuracy." With fantasy and science fiction adaptations, it's the argument for preserving whatever version of the franchise you grew up with. "Racists weaponize childhood nostalgia to oppose diverse casting in these sci-fi/fantasy series because they cannot rely on whitewashed history to oppose diverse casting," Prescott wrote.

Here, again, though, these arguments prove facile and flimsy. After all, generations of Disney fans who grew up with the beloved 1997 version of Cinderella, a.k.a. " the Brandy Cinderella," didn't subsequently have meltdowns over later adaptations that cast Cinderella as white. Instead, last year's Cinderella saw Billy Porter's genderless fairy godmother facing - sigh - transphobic backlash, because if there's one thing fairies are famous for, it's their rigid gender binary.

In other words, the backlash only ever works in one direction, and it only ever has one ultimate aim: erasing and threatening difference and deviance.

Prescott doesn't have much hope that it will stop anytime soon.

"I believe racists are going to attack ANY series that they believe should have been 100% white," Prescott wrote. "Racists are going to get mad at the next superhero or horror show that racebends a character, and they'll be outraged over whatever the next Bridgerton is. Their goal is to stop all efforts to diversify Hollywood."
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The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predictable

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

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Article | Iranian women have been protesting mandatory hijab for decades | Mona Tajali  | Both outside and within Iran’s government, women have been strategizing to protest the wearing of the hijab.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/03/iran-protests-hijab-women-mahsa-amini/

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Demonstrators opposed to the Iranian regime hold a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to those who have died protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was killed in police custody after allegedly violating the country's hijab rules, outside the White House on Saturday. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

Loud chants for "women, life, and liberty" have shaken Iran's streets for the past weeks. They're part of the popular protests that erupted after young Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody, after being detained for allegedly violating Iran's conservative hijab laws.

The chant came before the protests, from pro-Kurdish rights movements across the region. That's because women have been key in organizing those protests. But this is the first time Iranian protesters more generally have taken it up.

While these protests started over women's freedom of dress, Iranians have joined across lines of age, gender, ethnicity and class. Collectively, they're expressing their anger and loss of patience with the theocratic state. As in the past, Iran's security forces have cracked down hard.

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A longer history of Iranian women's protests
These protests against gender discrimination and mandatory veiling grow from a long history. In my research on women's rights movements and activism in Iran for the past decades, I've found that Iranian women's rights movements have long demanded equal access to the public sphere - the street, parks, city councils, the parliament and more.

In fact, just weeks after Iran established its theocratic regime, on March 8, 1979, women took to the streets of Tehran to protest after rumors spread that the government would enforce mandatory veiling. As a result, the regime could only insist on hijab in steps, and couldn't fully enforce mandatory compliance until 1981.

Since then, as I outline in my recently published book, Iranian women have been strategizing on how to challenge gender discrimination in Iranian politics and society, from both outside and within government structures.

Outside formal state institutions, women have for decades been relentlessly agitating for gender equality and greater access to the public sphere. Initially, women's rights activists and self-identified feminists were the ones who demanded reform of discriminatory rulings, including on forced hijab.

But particularly within the past decade, young women who lack formal ties to feminist movements have joined into such activism, feeling powerful enough to non-violently protest such gendered restrictions. For instance, the Girls of Revolution Street protests began in 2017 when Vida Movahed, a 31-year-old mother, removed her headscarf and waved it in the air on top of a platform on Revolution Street in central Tehran. Many other women followed suit despite the threat of arrest and harassment, removing their headscarves in nonviolent protest. Their images and videos spread quickly through social media. Many men showed their support by posting either selfies showing them donning the hijab themselves, or by appearing in social media expressing their support for their unveiled family members.

Some women within the government took notice of such widespread popular opposition, led by grass-roots women. In 2018 women members of the parliament, most of who had entered the parliament thanks to women's support of the reformist List of Hope, arranged to have Iran's Parliamentary Research Center (PRC) study public opinion on the hijab - the first time a formal state institution conducted such a study. The research found that more than half ( at least 55 percent) of Iranians disagreed with state's religious rulings forcing rules on women's dress. The study also blamed the Islamic regime's failure in hijab enforcement on violence and arrests by morality police. Former President Hassan Rouhani's repeated statements that "culture cannot be made with vans and soldiers."

Iran's security forces have little incentive to ease up on protesters
A conservative takeover
Many women activists whom I interviewed welcomed the nationwide discussions that followed Iranian women and girls' peaceful protests against mandatory veiling. They also supported the responses of some bold women parliamentarians, themselves products of the Islamic regime, who expressed, often in coded terms, the need to respect women's dignity and basic rights.

Those debates worried many ultraconservative elites. While preparing for the 2020 parliamentary elections, these conservatives either banned these outspoken women from running or opened judicial cases against them to discourage them to stand for elections.

Given that crackdown, many women activists pushed to boycott the 2020 parliamentary elections, alongside other opposition activists dismayed by the mostly conservative candidate slates. As a result, only 42 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in that election, the lowest turnout since the 1979 revolution. Nearly all incumbent women MPs were replaced with conservative women who have poor records on women's rights. The regime doubled down on that approach in the 2021 presidential election, which the state-favored hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi won. Since then, the morality police and other security forces have once again been enabled to crack down on Iranians' civil rights with impunity.

How Iran's hijab protests differ from past protest waves
Will the continued protests matter?
Iranians have lost patience with the regime. That's in part because of the conservative takeover and in part because the sanctions are pressuring them economically and socially. They've repeatedly protested those economic pressures over the past few years.

But this protest is different. Women are leading this time, for the first time in years. Mahsa's killing has brought many into the streets to utter their grievances. Various identity groups are joining as they haven't before: ethnic minorities, youth, women, the unemployed, workers' unions and more. The women's demands are becoming part of wholesale challenges to the Islamic Republic itself, making mandatory hijab a symbol of the repressive regime more broadly.

These protests may not force major concessions; escalating government violence and repression may shut them down or force them to change form. But they reveal that Iranian women's continuing protests are closely tied up with broader movements for democracy and rule of law.
Professors, check out TMC's new and improved classroom topic guides. Mona Tajali (@MonaTajali) is an associate professor of international relations and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Agnes Scott College, an executive board member of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) and author most recently of Women's Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table (Edinburgh University Press 2022).

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Analysis | Iranian women have been protesting mandatory hijab for decades

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Loud chants for "women, life, and liberty" have shaken Iran's streets for the past weeks. They're part of the popular protests that erupted after young Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody, after being detained for allegedly violating Iran's conservative hijab laws. The chant came before the protests, from pro-Kurdish rights movements across the region.

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Website - Video/The Danger of a Single Story featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	           	

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Website - Video/The Danger of a Single Story featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	           	

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https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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Learning for Justice is a community education program of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that centers civic and political action education for everyone.

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals