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Available as Ebook

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Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as an...

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Available as Ebook

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The content of this book is so disturbing that I had to take a break from reading it for a week or so. I am still trying to absorb and synthesize the information. I will return later to re-read the last chapter. It is a powerful read, well worth the time and emotional energy.
I live in a city where I can bike a few miles, cross a few neighborhoods and see the divides between the rich, middle-class and poor. I live in a city with a stop-and-frisk policy that unfairly targets African-Americans. I...more

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The content of this book is so disturbing that I had to take a break from reading it for a week or so. I am still trying to absorb and synthesize the information. I will return later to re-read the last chapter. It is a powerful read, well worth the time and emotional energy.

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305.8 COA

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Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

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305.896 BRO

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I'm an atheist and found the book to be a great read. It's far more about racial and social justice and discussions of the church fit into that. I actI'm an atheist and found the book to be a great read. It's far more about racial and social justice and discussions of the church fit into that. I actually think atheists should read things like this to understand the importance of churches in peoples lives and why religions can be vehicles for liberation for some people. Even if it's not your thing, I think anyone can get something out of it. ...more (less)

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I'm an atheist and found the book to be a great read. It's far more about racial and social justice and discussions of the church fit into that. I actI'm an atheist and found the book to be a great read. It's far more about racial and social justice and discussions of the church fit into that.

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Available as Ebook

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One Person, No Vote chronicles the insidious practice of voter suppression that has not only shaped shameful parts of our nation's history, but is still in practice today. Hiding behind the fake battle cry of voter fraud, one party leverages strict voter ID requirements, voter roll purging, closing of voting stations, and gerrymandering to systematically diminish the voting power of certain demographics while inflating the influence of its own supporters.

You know, if I were in politics, and I re...more

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One Person, No Vote chronicles the insidious practice of voter suppression that has not only shaped shameful parts of our nation's history, but is still in practice today. Hiding behind the fake battle cry of voter fraud, one party leverages strict voter ID requirements, voter roll purging, closing of voting stations, and gerrymandering to systematically diminish the voting power of certain demographics while inflating the influence of its own supporters.

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Your question is such a part of the problem this country faces that this books addresses. It (racism) is so much a part of American culture at its corYour question is such a part of the problem this country faces that this books addresses. It (racism) is so much a part of American culture at its core that the knee jerk response to even the attempt to mention the subject is often to deny and turn a blind eye and ear to the public policies, language and institutions that exclude and stigmatize groups of people. Dr. Kendi in Stamped ... gives the history and connects the history to present day. A detailed example found in the current day U.S. mass incarceration/prison system (see The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander). Darice Davis...more
If your genealogist friends need further scientific data and exploration on the subject of racism, it can be found in Skin Deep, a new work which addresses the scientific biases that many use to justify exclusionary conduct and policies.(less)

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Your question is such a part of the problem this country faces that this books addresses. It (racism) is so much a part of American culture at its corYour question is such a part of the problem this country faces that this books addresses.

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A remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning for ages 12 and up. A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration ...

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URBAN FIC THO and Ebook

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It is not preachy at all. But then again it is a topic that can stand to be preached about since lots of people seem to miss the point, and are not emIt is not preachy at all. But then again it is a topic that can stand to be preached about since lots of people seem to miss the point, and are not empathetic AT ALL. ...more
This is a wonderfully told story, with lots of different perspectives. Thought provoking. It does not capitalize on the social/political/racial issues. Although, all 3 need attention, because we STILL deal with these issues everyday.(less)

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It is not preachy at all. But then again it is a topic that can stand to be preached about since lots of people seem to miss the point, and are not emIt is not preachy at all.

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616 SKL and EBook

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Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

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URBAN FIC STO, Audio & Ebook

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Read 11.3k reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds an...

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Ebook and Audio

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Jewell Parker Rhodes tackles timely issues (racial bias, bullying, class differences with regard to education and upbringing, gun violence) and introduces young readers to important figures (Emmett Till, Tamir Rice) in this story of a twelve-year-old black boy who is shot and killed after police mistakenly assume his toy gun is a real weapon.

Despite the significance of its subject matter, Ghost Boys is crippled by a frenetic writing style:

He tells her about San Antonio. "Always sun. Never sn
...more

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Jewell Parker Rhodes tackles timely issues (racial bias, bullying, class differences with regard to education and upbringing, gun violence) and introduces young readers to important figures (Emmett Till, Tamir Rice) in this story of a twelve-year-old black boy who is shot and killed after police mistakenly assume his toy gun is a real weapon.

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741.5 CRA, Audio & Ebook

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Discover and share books you love on Goodreads.

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Ebook

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The Undefeated book. Read 1,444 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. This poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It...

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324.6 AND

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Didn't finish.

It's a topic I care about and happy it's written by two Black women. Great hook in the Prologue. However, the prose (caveat: this is the ARC, so not final text!) was of a style I stumbled on (i.e. "going back to strides toward" on the first page of the first chapter), and there are walls of dry facts with little narrative that I know could've been fleshed out to be more accessible via the real drama and interactions that actually happened in the underlying history.

I decided to pass...more

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Didn't finish. It's a topic I care about and happy it's written by two Black women. Great hook in the Prologue. However, the prose (caveat: this is the ARC, so not final text!) was of a style I stumbled on (i.e.

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Conversation  with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds to discuss their book: Stamped

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Conversation  with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds to discuss their book: Stamped

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Teaching kids about the complicated history of racism

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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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This podcast is a place where we share the challenges, complexities and sheer joy of building healthy relationships and doing the heart work for true diverse unity.

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The Shine Brighter Together Podcast is a place where we share the challenges, complexities and sheer joy of building healthy relationships and doing the heart work for true Black liberation.

You can expect to hear solo episodes by Monique Melton who is an anti-racism educator, published author, international speaker and creator of the Shine Brighter Together community, and guest episodes with people from different walks of life sharing diverse perspectives on relationships and Black liberation.

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I have created resources for spiritual & personal growth, embracing diversity, as well as building healthy relationships. I travel the world speaking at conferences and events on topics related to personal growth, healing, diversity, marriage, and relationships.

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The 2020 Webby Award-winning podcast from the Color of Change is centered around ensuring accurate, diverse, empathetic, and human portrayals of Black people in film and television.

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#TellBlackStories - Color Of Change podcast

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tellblackstories #tellblackstories Join Us Join US Read More Read More Apple Spotify Soundcloud Codepen Hear the voices of changemakers, content creators and activists leading the move

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On NPR’s podcast Code Switch, hosts Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby discuss how race impacts everything from politics and pop culture to history and sports.

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What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society - from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.

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A limited four-episode series by Ava DuVernay, When They See Us the story of The Exonerated Five, also known as The Central Park Five. It’s based on a 1989 case where five seventh- and eighth-grade students of color from Harlem were falsely accused of a brutal attack of a white woman in Central Park. They all served time for a crime they didn’t commit. You can watch it on Netflix, and visit Array 101 to download a learning companion for the series.

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Watch When They See Us | Netflix Official Site

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Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story. Watch trailers & learn more.

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Also directed by DuVernay, the documentary 13th analyzes the criminalization of African Americans and the prison boom in the United States. The title is derived from the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for a crime. The film is available to stream on Netflix.

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Slavery. Jim Crow. Criminalization. Links in a chain of racial inequality, forged by political and economic motives. Watch trailers & learn more.

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Based on the book by the same name.

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7 wins & 8 nominations. See more awards "

Storyline

A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson.) One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx,) who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds-and the system-stacked against them. Written by Gregg Brilliant

Taglines:

This is about all of us.

Details

Release Date:

10 January 2020 (USA)

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$107,858, 29 December 2019

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$50,300,069

Company Credits

Technical Specs

See full technical specs "

Did You Know?

Quotes

Walter McMillian : [to Herb] You need to be in a hospital not here
See more "

Connections

References 60 Minutes (1968) See more "

Soundtracks

Don't Wanna Fight
Written by Brittany Howard
Performed by Alabama Shakes
See more "

User Reviews

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7 wins & 8 nominations. See more awards " A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs.

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Based on the book by the same title.

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The Hate U Give (2018) ⭐ 7.5 | Crime, Drama

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(Debate) 1965 Debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley

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(Debate) 1965 Debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley

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James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)

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Netflix documentary following Michelle Obama on her book tour

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Join former first lady Michelle Obama in an intimate documentary looking at her life, hopes and connection with others as she tours with "Becoming." Watch trailers & learn more.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it's an old story.

Why? Where did the notion of "whiteness" come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels ne

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"Many Rivers to cross" - Docuseries narrated by Henry Louise Gates, Jr. [free with Amazon Prime]

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"Many Rivers to cross" - Docuseries narrated by Henry Louise Gates, Jr. [free with Amazon Prime]

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Skip to Main Content

Survey the full sweep of African-American history with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. More More

Close

This series chronicles the full sweep of African American history, from the origins of slavery on the African continent right up to today—when America has a black president, yet remains a nation deeply divided by race.

Support for PBS.org provided by:

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The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross | PBS

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Skip to Main Content Survey the full sweep of African-American history with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. More More Close This series chronicles the full sweep of African American history, from the origins of slavery on the African continent right up to today-when America has a black president, yet remains a nation deeply divided by race.

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City Arts & Lecture - Angela Davis and Ibram X. Kendi

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City Arts & Lecture - Angela Davis and Ibram X. Kendi

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Featuring discoure on intersectionality, the entrenched history of racist thought, and the power of hope.

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Our guests are activist and scholar Angela Davis, and historian Ibram X. Kendi.

Throughout her lifetime, Angela Davis has been a passionate voice for human rights, working from the position that the battles for African American rights, women's rights, gay rights, and prisoners' rights, are interconnected. Dr. Kendi profiled Dr. Davis in his book "Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."

On January 10, 2019, Angela Davis and Ibram X. Kendi came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco, to talk with Jeff Chang about the connections between capitalism, racism and sexism, and ways that activists, and all citizens, can move forward.

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‎City Arts & Lectures: Angela Davis and Ibram X. Kendi on Apple Podcasts

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‎Our guests are activist and scholar Angela Davis, and historian Ibram X. Kendi. Throughout her lifetime, Angela Davis has been a passionate voice for human rights, working from the position that the battles for African American rights, women's rights, gay rights, and prisoners' rights, are interc...

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Black Men and Public Space

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Two incidents separated by twelve hours and twelve hundred miles have taken on the appearance of the control and the variable in a grotesque experiment about race in America. On Monday morning, in New York City's Central Park, a white woman named Amy Cooper called 911 and told the dispatcher that an African-American man was threatening her. The man she was talking about, Christian Cooper, who is no relation, filmed the call on his phone. They were in the Ramble, a part of the park favored by bird-watchers, including Christian Cooper, and he had simply requested that she leash her dog-something that is required in the area. In the video, before making the call, Ms. Cooper warns Mr. Cooper that she is "going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life." Her needless inclusion of the race of the man she fears serves only to summon the ancient impulse to protect white womanhood from the threats posed by black men. For anyone with a long enough memory or a recent enough viewing of the series " When They See Us," the locale of this altercation becomes part of the story: we know what happened to five young black and brown men who were falsely accused of attacking a white woman in Central Park.

On Monday evening, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a forty-six-year-old black man named George Floyd died in a way that highlighted the implications that calls such as the one Amy Cooper placed can have; George Floyd is who Christian Cooper might have been. (The police made no arrests and filed no summons in Central Park. Amy Cooper has apologized for her actions; she was also fired from her job.) Police responding to a call from a shopkeeper, about someone trying to pass a potentially counterfeit bill, arrested Floyd. Surveillance video shows a compliant man being led away in handcuffs. But cellphone video later shows a white police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for seven minutes, despite protests from onlookers that his life is in jeopardy. In an echo of the police killing of Eric Garner, in 2014, Floyd repeatedly says, "I can't breathe," and then, "I'm about to die." When the officer eventually removes his knee, Floyd's body is limp and unresponsive. A person nearby can be heard saying, "They just killed him." Floyd was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A police statement said that Floyd appeared to be in "medical distress," but made no mention of his being pinned to the ground with the weight of a police officer compressing his airway.

The video of Floyd's death is horrific but not surprising; terrible but not unusual, depicting a kind of incident that is periodically reënacted in the United States. It's both necessary and, at this point, pedestrian to observe that policing in this country is mediated by race. On Tuesday, in Minneapolis, hundreds of protesters, many wearing face masks to guard against COVID-19, braved the pandemic to protest at the spot where Floyd died. Outside a nearby precinct house, police cars were pelted with rocks, and officers responded by firing tear gas. But, within twenty-four hours of the video coming to light, the Minneapolis Police Department fired the officer who had knelt on Floyd and three others who had been at the scene. Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted that the firings were "the right call," but here, too, context matters.

In November, 2015, police responding to calls of a dispute between a man and a woman in north Minneapolis fatally shot a twenty-four-year-old African-American man named Jamar Clark. Police and paramedics on the scene claimed that Clark had resisted arrest and had attempted to grab an officer's gun; bystanders claimed that he was handcuffed and on the ground when the shot was fired. Clark's death was followed by more than two weeks of demonstrations outside the Fourth Police Precinct in Minneapolis, led by Black Lives Matter; an attempt to disrupt holiday shopping at the Mall of America, in protest; and cascading contempt from black residents that, two years later, factored into Mayor Betsy Hodges losing her reëlection bid. In light of that history, Frey has been unequivocal about police culpability in Floyd's death. "Being black in America should not be a death sentence," he said on Tuesday.

The larger question, however, is whether the officers involved will face any legal consequences. The Twin Cities area has been an outsized part of the dialogue about the police use of force. The year after Clark's death, Philando Castile was fatally shot in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, by a police officer who was alarmed because Castile had a gun in his car, even though he had identified himself as a licensed gun owner. (Castile's girlfriend recorded the aftermath of the shooting on her phone.) In 2017, Justine Damond was fatally shot by a police officer who was responding to her own call about a possible assault taking place behind her Minneapolis home. No charges were brought against officers in Clark's death. Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who killed Castile, was fired from the department, but was acquitted of second-degree-manslaughter charges. Mohamed Noor, the officer who shot Damond, was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison. The Damond case was atypical, both in that it involved the fatal shooting of a white woman by a black officer of Somali descent, and that Damond was an Australian citizen, which generated international pressure for a conviction in the case. No charges were brought against Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, on Staten Island, whose arrest was also recorded on video by a bystander, and has been widely referenced since Floyd's death. (He was fired from the department in 2019.) By odd coincidence," American Trial," a film that features a mock trial of Pantaleo for murder, was just released.

The investigation into Floyd's death also exists in the context of an ongoing investigation into the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a twenty-five-year-old African-American who was shot in southeast Georgia when two men attempted to enact a citizen's arrest while a third recorded a video of the incident. There is yet another investigation of fatal police force in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old African-American E.M.T., was shot to death in her apartment by officers who were conducting a drug raid at what her family said was the wrong address.

There is more to be said about the burgeoning genre of videos capturing the deaths of black Americans, and the complex combination of revulsion and compulsion that accompanies their viewing. They are the macabre documentary of current events, but the question remains about whether they do more to humanize or to objectify the unwilling figures at the center of their narratives. Death is too intimate a phenomenon to not be distorted by a mass audience. Yesterday, very few of us knew who George Floyd was, what he cared about, how he lived his life. Today, we know him no better save for the grim way in which that life met its end.

Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests

The civil-rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson examines the frustration and despair behind the protests.

Who, David Remnick asks, is the true agitator behind the racial unrest?

A sociologist examines the so-called pillars of whiteness that prevent white Americans from confronting racism.

The Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi on what it would mean to defund police departments, and what comes next.

The quest to transform the United States cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police.

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Two incidents separated by twelve hours and twelve hundred miles have taken on the appearance of the control and the variable in a grotesque experiment about race in America. On Monday morning, in New York City's Central Park, a white woman named Amy Cooper called 911 and told the dispatcher that an African-American man was threatening her.

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The collapse of politics and governance leaves no other option.

A protester in Minneapolis. Credit... Kerem Yucel/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Ready or not, life is returning to some sort of normal in the United States, and normal inevitably includes police officers killing an unarmed black man in their custody, followed by street protests. The country is working its way back into its familiar groove.

This time it's Minneapolis. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the killing of George Floyd by a police officer who pressed his knee into Mr. Floyd's neck for a breathtaking eight minutes as he lay pinned on the ground in handcuffs. Mr. Floyd's pleas for help - repeating that he couldn't breathe, calling out for his dead mother - were ignored. The three other police officers who watched seemed uninterested in the life they were violently snuffing out in front of a crowd gathered in disgust.

Elected officials from Minnesota denounced the brutality. Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, said, "Being black in America should not be a death sentence." Others, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who hopes to emerge as Joe Biden's running mate, expressed a range of public emotions that have become commonplace: shock, horror, promises of investigation and pleas for calm. In a rare rebuke, the four officers involved have been fired.

But the fact that Mr. Floyd was even arrested, let alone killed, for the inconsequential "crime" of forgery amid a pandemic that has taken the life of one out of every 2,000 African-Americans is a chilling affirmation that black lives still do not matter in the United States.

It is easy to understand the response of multiracial protesters in Minneapolis. (If you look closely, hundreds of white people are participating; the intersecting injustices are also apparent to them.) This spring season has bloomed at least 23,000 Covid-19-related deaths in black America. The coronavirus has scythed its way through black communities, highlighting and accelerating the ingrained social inequities that have made African-Americans the most vulnerable to the disease.

This unbelievable loss of life has taken place while restrictions were at their tightest and social distancing at its most extreme. What will happen when the country fully reopens, even as the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow? As mostly white public officials try to get things back to normal as fast as possible, the discussions about the pandemic's devastating consequences to black people melt into the background, consequences which become accepted as a "new normal" we will have to live or die with. If there were ever questions about whether poor and working-class African-Americans were disposable, there can be none now. It's clear that state violence is not solely the preserve of the police.

It's not just the higher rates of death that fuel this anger, but also publicized cases where African-Americans have been denied health care because nurses or doctors didn't believe their complaints about their symptoms. Just as maddening is the assumption that African-Americans bear personal responsibility for dying in disproportionate numbers.

Instead of using this monumental crisis to change the conditions feeding the rapid rate of black deaths, the armed agents of the state continue their petty, insouciant policing. Even seemingly innocuous instructions for social distancing become new excuses for the police to harass African-Americans. In New York, blacks made up a staggering 93 percent of coronavirus-related arrests. There are similar racial disparities in Chicago. At a time when police departments have pledged to arrest fewer people to stem the spread of the virus in local jails and in the name of preserving public health, African-Americans remain in their cross hairs. After all, why were the police arresting George Floyd for forgery, a "crime" of poverty committed by desperate low-wage workers, in the first place?

When white protesters, armed to the teeth in Michigan and elsewhere, make threats against elected officials, the president praises them as " very good people" and they are largely left alone. They are certainly not suffocated to death on the street. In contrast, after Minnesota's governor activated the National Guard on Thursday evening, the president suggested that those who protest police brutality could be shot. Protesters in Minneapolis are met with tear gas and projectiles launched by police officers, even as many other public officials claim to sympathize with their anger. These double standards are part of what roils Minneapolis and also why the potential for this kind of eruption exists in every city.

The anger exploding on the streets runs much deeper than the obvious hypocrisies in the disparate treatment of white, conservative protesters and a multiracial crowd of people objecting to police brutality. Over the last several weeks, there has been the taped murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, the vicious shooting of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville police and the killing of Tony McDade, a black trans man, by police officers in Tallahassee. These cases were ignored until public outcry forced the nation to pay attention, even as the public has been riveted to the news because of stay-at-home orders. Meanwhile, there is the highly publicized case of a white woman in Central Park calling the police on a black man when he asked her to put her dog on a leash. The potential consequences of that call were made clear by the killing of George Floyd.

But what is also unmistakable in the bitter protests in Minneapolis and around the country is the sense that the state is either complicit or incapable of effecting substantive change.

As the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee jokes that African-Americans who don't vote for him are not black, the crisis in black communities seems most acute and overlaps with almost daily incidents of police violence or some other oppressive expression of state power. It was a joke that Joe Biden thought would show his "insider" status with black voters. Instead, it made him look arrogant in assuming he has standing among young or working-class African-Americans. He sounded like any other well-heeled politician who has failed to grasp the enormity of the challenges.

This simultaneous collapse of politics and governance has forced people to take to the streets - to the detriment of their health and the health of others - to demand the most basic necessities of life, including the right to be free of police harassment or murder.

What are the alternatives to protest when the state cannot perform its basic tasks and when lawless police officers rarely get even a slap on the wrist for crimes that would result in years of prison for regular citizens? If you cannot attain justice by engaging the system, then you must seek other means of changing it. That's not a wish; it's a premonition.

The convergence of these tragic events - a pandemic disproportionately killing black people, the failure of the state to protect black people and the preying on black people by the police - has confirmed what most of us already know: If we and those who stand with us do not mobilize in our own defense, then no official entity ever will. Young black people must endure the contusions caused by rubber bullets or the acrid burn of tear gas because government has abandoned us. Black Lives Matter only because we will make it so.

This is not new in our history. After World War II, city-dwelling African-Americans saw the contradictions in a society that put a man on the moon, while allowing rats to maul black children in their cribs at night. The federal government underwrote the substandard housing that African-Americans were consigned to because of residential segregation. Everywhere African-Americans looked, the state was not only impervious to their suffering but an accessory to the crime.

This was the source of the black urban uprisings that swept cities around the country in the 1960s, the same era as the civil rights movement in the South. The failure of the state to deliver anything African-Americans demanded left hundreds of thousands to take things into their own hands. It didn't matter then, as it doesn't matter now, whether white society approves or disapproves; what mattered was that formal mechanisms for social change failed to function, compelling African-Americans to act on their own behalf.

Six years ago, the protests in Ferguson, Mo., set the stage for the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is rooted in similar kinds of social incongruities. It was paradoxical that this new movement emerged in the shadow of the country's first African-American president and the presence of more African-Americans in Congress than at any other point in history. And yet the amassing of that black political power could not stop the quotidian police brutality. Just as it couldn't stop the collapse of black homeownership, the expansion of the racial wealth gap or the avalanche of student loan debt yoked to the credit reports of black millennials.

It did not matter if the expectations were too grandiose for what a black president could accomplish. What mattered was that when government failed to make a substantive difference in people's lives, African-Americans protested to make black lives matter.
This essay has been updated to reflect news developments.

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Opinion | Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People.

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The collapse of politics and governance leaves no other option. Ready or not, life is returning to some sort of normal in the United States, and normal inevitably includes police officers killing an unarmed black man in their custody, followed by street protests. The country is working its way back into its familiar groove.

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this is how loved ones want us to remember george floyd - cnn

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This is how loved ones want us to remember George Floyd

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George Floyd moved to Minnesota for a fresh start - an opportunity to better himself and to be a better father. And while so many now know the Houston native by his full name, those who knew him best called him Floyd.

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America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One (Published 2019)

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Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. For generations, black Americans have fought to make them true.

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American slavery began 400 years ago this month. This is referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country’s true origin.

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My child, I'd like to tell you, from my lips, the truth about our racial history - about whiteness and about being a member of the white tribe. Years ago, our ancestors did a horrific deed against the human race. They owned black people as slaves and treated them with utter disrespect. Beatings, rape, torture, lynching, ongoing terror; we sold their children to the highest bidders and owned them as chattel. And we relied on them to grow our food and take care of our children - your ancestors. Yes, our people did this - white people. Not only did we do this to blacks; we also did hateful things to people who we felt were substandard, like Indigenous Indians, Mexicans, Jews, Japanese, Chinese, and poorer people than we were. It's true that the greatness of this country, to a large extent, is due to the slave labor of blacks, and we owe them a huge debt. We have, as a white race, disenfranchised them and systematically organized to keep them from participating in and benefiting from the wealthiest country in the world. Our success, however big or small, and the many privileges we enjoy as a family are rooted in this stained and denied history. Even to this day, our people benefit from the institutional practices that intentionally and systematically oppress black and other dark bodies. Many poor white people feel that they are better than black people - even better than the first black president of the United States. Being ashamed about this is not as helpful as understanding that we have a lot of work to do to begin to respect blacks and dark lives, to release and share the wealth and privileges we have for all they have given to us as white people. Blacks and other POC are rightfully angry toward us because of the centuries of hatred and disrespect we have shown them. We have continued as a collective to build prisons to hide and erase them, instead of facing the years of hatred toward them and shame toward ourselves that have resulted in destroyed hearts, minds, and communities. Most important, we have died inside as a result of making hatred normal as a white race. We have become numb, dismembered, crude, and unloving toward our own race, because we cannot access the depth of love as a collective with such a stained and unfinished and unhealed history of disrespect and hatred toward others, especially black people. What this means to you and me is that we must wake up to this history and own that we walk with great ease in this country on their still sore backs - backs we whipped into submission. What we witness today in the black collective expression is the result of generations of blacks who have witnessed their parents and grandparents killed, lynched, raped by our men, and hated and disrespected by us. They were helpless against it - we made sure of that. You need to understand, my child, that while we have other fears, we tend to walk without racial fear, and they don't. This world is not safe for them and other people like them - dark people - and it is because of our history, our whiteness; our supremacy. To this day we have better schools and access, and we still are the central race in all aspects of respectable society, work, and leadership. Black communities are largely poor, and their schools are disenfranchised because we have kept them at a disadvantage. Many blacks are considered criminals, even though they are not doing anything more than we do in our communities. Yet they are imprisoned and used again as slave labor. Many whites want to maintain white supremacy, and there continues to be white nationalist rallies and terror attacks on other races near and far, currently emboldened by senior members of the White House. We have done horrible things as a white race, unspeakable things, yet we have not spoken or been honest with each other or ourselves as a white race. While you and I may not have done these things personally, this is our history and our inheritance. Our challenge is to do everything humanly possible to recognize and interrupt any act of disrespect and unearned privilege and to use our voices, our bodies, and our hearts to make this wrong right. We need this in order to be free. This does not mean kissing up to blacks or anyone else, although it may seem that way. Rather it means a willingness to face into the pain they carry because we've been so cavalier, numb, and blind to the role we have played in the past and present horrors of their lives. Our job now and for a long time is to own up to it, apologize, and recognize that their expressed pain is not directed to you or me as an individual but to us as a white race and as the institutional power that continues to oppress them, often through our ignorance, greed, comfort, righteousness, and indifference. I tell you this because you may well receive much disdain from black people. When they see you, they are also seeing our unclaimed and terrorizing history; they see you as someone who, like our forefathers, hated them, and they see our ignorance, the way we casually delight in a disowned and forgotten history - a history where we considered them as less than human, as possessions, as chattel. This history wasn't that long ago. They are and should be hurt and angry by our utter neglect and generational hatred. There is much to be done. There is no time for guilt and shame. We must forgive ourselves and correct this wrong. We must become advocates for all of humanity, especially black and dark-skinned bodies. Enough said for now, but we will speak of this again and again and again.

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Excerpt from Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out, by Ruth King Dear White People: You must teach your children about racism, not from a distance, but from your own wise heart. Imagine telling your children (regardless of age) some version of the following story with such regularity that they remember and tell ...

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Research shows that many people feel they do not have the information needed to discuss race in a way that is candid, safe and respectful of other viewpoints and experiences.

"The portal offers a wealth of resources to inform and guide discussions-videos, role-playing exercises, targeted questions and more, said Crew." "We hope that people will use this site to become more comfortable about engaging in honest dialogue and self-reflection."

Talking About Race builds upon decades of work by the museum's educators. It is the result of extensive research, studies, consultations, and educational resources from these fields: history, education, psychology and human development. It includes published research from leading experts, activists, historians, and thought leaders on race, equity, and inclusion, including Brené Brown, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Robin DiAngelo, Julie Olsen Edwards, Jerry Kang, Ibram X Kendi, Enid Lee, Audre Lorde, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Tim Wise.

Phase one of the portal features eight foundational subjects including:

Being Anti-Racist: a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily.

Bias: the inclination or prejudice toward or against something or someone.

Community Building: connecting and engaging with others doing anti-racism work and exploring issues of race.

Historical Foundations of Race: how race, white privilege, and anti-blackness are woven into the very fabric of American society.

Race and Racial Identity: how societies use race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression.

Self-Care: caring for one's mental, emotional, and physical health to sustain the work of dismantling racism.

Social Identities and Systems of Oppression: systems built around the ideology that some groups are superior to others.

Whiteness: an ideology that reinforces power at the expense of others.

Explore Talking About Race at nmaahc.si.edu/talkingaboutrace. The portal is free and does not require a registration or sign-up to use. Talking About Race is generously supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies.
Download Images for Media Use Social Media Toolkit
About the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Since opening September 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has welcomed more than 7 million visitors. Occupying a prominent location next to the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the nearly 400,000 square-foot museum is the nation's largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. For more information about the museum, visit, follow @NMAAHC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or call Smithsonian information at (202) 633-1000.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture Releases "Talking About Race" Web Portal

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The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.

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Advice for how to talk to children about racial bias

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Advice for how to talk to children about racial bias

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​​​By: Ashaunta Anderson, MD, MPH, MSHS, FAAP & Jacqueline Dougé, MD, MPH, FAAP

Given the tragic and racially-charged current events, many parents are wrestling with their own feelings, the hopes they have for their children, and the difficulty of helping those children thrive in a world full of racial bias.

Parents may better face today's challenges with an understanding of how racial bias works in children, as well as strategies to help them deal with and react to racial differences.

How Do Children Learn Racial Bias?

Children learn about racial differences and racial bias from an early age and learn from their first teachers-their parents-how to deal with and react to these differences.

The process of learning racial bias is a lot like learning a new language (e.g., a child raised bilingual vs. a child who starts learning Spanish in junior high). Biology determines a critical early learning period as well as a later window where learning is much harder.

As early as 6 months, a baby's brain can notice race-based differences.

By ages 2 to 4, children can internalize racial bias.

By age 12, many children become set in their beliefs-giving parents a decade to mold the learning process, so that it decreases racial bias and improves cultural understanding.

But like language immersion, children exposed to society will gain fluency in racial bias even if their parents do nothing.

Strategies to Help Children Deal with Racial Bias

There are three strategies that parents can use to help their children deal with racial bias:

Talk to your children and acknowledge that racial differences and bias exist.

Confront your own bias and model how you want your children to respond to others who may be different than them.

Encourage your children to challenge racial stereotypes and racial bias by being kind and compassionate when interacting with people of all racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.

How Parents Can Confront Their Own Racial Bias

Parents must first confront their own biases, so that their example is consistent with messages of racial and ethnic tolerance.

Be a role model. Identify and correct your own racially biased thoughts, feelings, and actions. If you want your children to believe what you preach, you have to exhibit those behaviors as well. Your everyday comments and actions will say more than anything else.

Travel and expose your children to other communities. This can help them understand that there is diversity in the world that might not be represented in the community that you live in.

Do not reverse stereotype police officers and other groups or talk about law enforcement in a negative way.

Get involved in your child's school, your place of worship, and politics. Parents who are involved in this way are better able to advocate for fair treatment of racially marginalized groups and raise awareness of race issues in other groups.

Tips for Talking About Racial Differences & Racism

For preschoolers: At this age, your child may begin to notice and point out differences in the people around you (i.e., at the grocery store, at the park, etc.). If your child asks about someone's skin tone, you might say, "Isn't it wonderful that we are all so different!" You can even hold your arm against theirs to show the differences in skin tones in your family.

For gradeschoolers: This is the age that is important to have open talks with your child about race, diversity, and racism. Discussing these topics will help your child see you as a trusted source of information on the topic, and he or she can come to you with any questions. Point out stereotypes and racial bias in media and books such as villains or "bad guys" in movies.

I f your child makes comments or asks you questions about race based on school incidents or something they read or watched: Further the discussion with questions such as,"How do you feel about that?" and "Why do you think that?" This is also helpful if your child heard something insensitive or if your child experienced racial bias themselves. Before responding to his or her statement or question, figure out where it came from and what it means from his or her perspective. See Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events for more information.

Talking about race is not racist. It's OK-and important. From a young age, children may have questions about racial differences and parents must be prepared to answer them. But, it's important to keep your child's developmental readiness in mind.

These conversations begin to lay the groundwork for your child to accept and respect everyone's differences and similarities. As children mature, the answers to questions will become more complex. These are moments to learn what your child understands or is struggling to understand about racial bias.

Remember:

To create a culture of inclusiveness, we all must look at and acknowledge our biases, so we can do something about the ones that are unfair or cause harm to others-like racial bias. Understanding the way people feel about and behave toward those outside their own group can help communities heal after a tragedy, as well as prevent future ones.

Additional Resources to Help Parents Address Racism & Discrimination:

About Dr. Anderson:

Ashaunta Anderson, MD, MPH, MSHS, FAAP is an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine and a health policy researcher at RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on the impact of race and racism on child health. She is also a pediatrician and a published author of 50 Studies Every Pediatrician Should Know, a guide to the scientific evidence underlying everyday pediatric practice.

About Dr. Dougé:

Jacqueline Dougé, MD, MPH, FAAP is the Child Health Medical Director at the Howard County Health Department. Her interests are health disparities, media, school health and the interaction of public health and pediatrics. Within the American Academy of Pediatrics, she co-chairs the Council on Community Pediatrics' Prevention and Public Health Special Interest Group. Her blog site is drjacquelinedouge.com.

Ashaunta Anderson, MD, MPH, MSHS, FAAP & Jacqueline Dougé, MD, MPH, FAAP

American Academy of Pediatrics (Copyright © 2019)

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racial bias~ biases~ racism~ crime~ violence~ black~ police officer~ law enforcement~ racial issues~ skin color~ resiliency~ peace~ gun violence~ guns~ news~ tragedies~ current events~ violence in the media~ violence in movies~ explaining race~ difference

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​​​By: Ashaunta Anderson, MD, MPH, MSHS, FAAP & Jacqueline Dougé, MD, MPH, FAAP Given the tragic and racially-charged current events, many parents are wrestling with their own feelings, the hopes they have for their children, and the difficulty of helping those children thrive in a world full of racial bias.

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Antiracism reading list from an Indie, Black owned bookstore

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Antiracism reading list from an Indie, Black owned bookstore

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Reading list from Loyalty Booksellers and trusted fellow book nerds on becoming an Antiracist, the history of Antiracist thought, and works of fiction and memoir that explore the reality of racism in America and show Antiracist work.

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Reading list from Loyalty Booksellers and trusted fellow book nerds on becoming an Antiracist, the history of Antiracist thought, and works of fiction and memoir that explore the reality of racism in America and show Antiracist work.

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Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Reading List (Published 2019)

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Ibram X. Kendi on books to help America transcend its racist heritage.

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Wondering if your kids are too young to talk about race? The answer is "NO." Here's why.

Click on the lists below to find titles that are available as digital audiobooks NOW, including many otherwise backordered titles.

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Wondering if your kids are too young to talk about race? The answer is "NO." Here's why. Click on the lists below to find titles that are available as digital audiobooks NOW, including many otherwise backordered titles.

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Culturally Responsive Leadership - Joe Truss

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Ok, so you want to start a book club and you want to talk about race. And it's a pandemic so you have plenty of time. But which books do you read? And how do you make sure you aren't falling victim to white fragility? Check out these 24 books for anti-racist educators!

Inspired by White Fragility

I was inspired by a recent teacher book list (there are so many), that was supposed to "change your life." But that shit was whiter than the Andy Griffith show.

Sorry, but that will NOT change your world.

Lots of books will make you feel comfortable with your whiteness and whiteness in general, even for people of color. Authors have been sparing your feelings and treating you like porcelain, but it's time to let the bull loose in the proverbial china shop. White fragility needs to take a back seat. Fall back Karen. It's time to talk about dismantling white supremacy culture and bringing folks of color (the global majority) to the center.

Check out my next training on dismantling White Supremacy Culture - June 27th-28th

Culturally responsive leaders, we are trying to change your mindset, so your actions change. If that happens, we might actually change the world for students of color and finally close the opportunity gap.

With hate crimes on the rise, police murders of black people, and Karen's on the attack, not to mention mass shootings and our current conservative politics, there is NO time to waste.

Scholar Chris Emdin, in his dope book For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, writes, "The work for white folks who teach in urban schools, then, is to unpack their privilege and excavate the institutional, societal, and personal histories they bring with them when they come to the Hood." People of Color have to decolonize their minds as well, because we have been socialized to dehumanize as well. Change starts with the right books.

Check these out!

40 AntiRacist Books for Educators

1. We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love

2. Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond (here's what I learned about leading CRT)

3. Born Out Of Struggle by David Stovall

4. How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

5. How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi

6. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (here's my 4 part review)

7. Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates

Reflection Questions

Regardless of what you read, there are some critical questions to consider while you read and as you think about taking action:

What does this have to do with me?

How could I explain these concepts to my students?

What emotions are conjured up as I ready? What's that about?

What can I change about my practice, curricula, relationships, policies?

How can I use this to center my teaching on my most marginalized students?

How do I take this past the grad school pontification and theorizing?

How does this connect with last things that I've learned?

How much more is there to learn?

Who can I share this with?

Can I form a racial affinity group?

How can I lead my colleagues in taking up this work?

Conclusions - Book Clubs are Like Free Grad School

Educators want to be treated as professionals, up to date with the latest research. We want to be in control of our continued learning, and we want to connect with others. This is why book clubs are so powerful. By the way, leaders, they can and should be teacher-led. It helps to have someone who is remotely familiar with the topic, but you can get by if everyone is exploring too.

Book Clubs are collaborative, help to co-construct knowledge, and build community.

Oxytocin, collectivism, and lots of chew time.

Sounds like they are culturally responsive teaching too. It's good practice for kids too! The groups can be big or small. Teacher Librarians are great at spearheading these. Your districts might even give educators extra hours for attending a book club. The point of the book club is to talk, and you can either make it comfortable or be comfortable with discomfort. You will need some norms, protocols, and some sort of an agenda.

Good luck culturally responsive (anti-racist) leaders!

Other Lists:

Here's my list from last last summer and my leadership starter list.

Ibram Kendi's Book List Cult of Pedagogy List
(Visited 71,564 times, 318 visits today)

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40+ Books for AntiRacist Teachers - White Fragiles Beware! (summer 2020 update) | Culturally Responsive Leadership - Joe Truss

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Ok, so you want to start a book club and you want to talk about race. And it's a pandemic so you have plenty of time. But which books do you read? And how do you make sure you aren't falling victim to white fragility? Check out these 24 books for anti-racist educators!

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Your Kids Aren't Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup - Pretty Good

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Your kids aren't too young to talk about race. Here are a few resources to get your started.

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8 Podcasts About Civics and U.S. History | Kidcasts

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This playlist offers windows into key documents, people, and cultural factors that shaped U.S. history.

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they are also on instagram

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Tweets by ProjectLITComm

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Teaching About Race, Racism and Police Violence

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In 2014, the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, Tamir Rice in Cleveland and too many others caused waves of nationwide protest and appeals for stronger protections against police brutality. These events—along with the lack of accountability for the police officers wh…

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Author Ijeoma Oluo. Photos: Libby Lewis Photography

Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, spoke with SLJ about what educators, and specifically librarians, can do to better serve their students of color and start to change the institutional bias and systemic racism in the U.S. educational system. Oluo calls herself a "writer, speaker, and Internet yeller." She has focused her professional life on the issues of race and identity, feminism, and social justice.

When it comes to the American education system, the mother of two school-age sons is not short on ideas. But first she often must convince people there is a problem.

"I encounter more resistance from educators than just about any other sector when it comes to talking about race," Oluo says. "I don't think teachers want to be a part of the problem. Teachers are underappreciated, often very selfless people working very, very hard for children. To then have someone say, 'You know you're probably perpetuating some racist things in your classrooms? Do you know you're also probably contributing to the oppression of students of color?' That doesn't sit well with people who genuinely love children."

When faced with denial or defensiveness, Oluo presents the facts, citing statistics such as the racial gap in test scores, the rate of suspensions of black preschoolers, and the number of arrests of students of color in high school which are not correlated to the amount of violence, drugs or truancy in schools but to the number of black and brown students in schools, she says.

So You Want to Talk About Race (Seal Press, Jan. 2018) includes a chapter on the school-to-prison pipeline and other educational issues. We discussed the need for diverse books and the first steps all educators must take to be part of the needed change, including looking at those statistics and the individual and institutional response to them.

"The numbers don't lie. If we don't engage with those numbers and decide to actively be a part of the solution, we are saying some fairly racist things about where these numbers come from. ...You either believe that black families are four times more dysfunctional than white families, that black students are twice as unmotivated in school as white students, that they are three times more criminal than white students, or you believe there's a systemic problem. Those are kind of the only options you have. ...

I really need people to look that in the face and say, 'OK, we're doing something wrong, no matter what our intentions are. I'm not going to believe that the black kids in my school are broken. I have to believe the system is broken,' she says. That's part of loving your kids. That's part of being an educator. Then you have to engage it and think, 'Ok, if I didn't' realize that, I probably haven't been able to magically do the right things. It's not instinctual. I need some help.' Then you start looking for resources and start reading up on what you can do to proactively shift what's been happening in our schools since our inception. ...

A lot of times teachers will ask me, 'What's one thing I can do to help my students of color?' I need educators to be less afraid of acknowledging race. You start by acknowledging the students of color. [For example], even if you don't have Asian students, but especially if you have Asian students, you need to be looking at your lessons and finding examples of Asian Americans doing great things in society. Then you need to say, 'This was an Asian American.' And the look of shock on their face-'Wait a minute, you want me to just say Asian American? '

Yes, actually say it. They're stunned. In fact, a college professor actually guffawed at me the other day when I said he needed to acknowledge great black people in his field when talking to students. 'You want me to just say black? I would get written up. I would get in trouble.'

Because white people think noting someone's race is racist.
Yes. But what people, especially teachers, don't realize is white is the default in this country. Just because you don't have to say white, doesn't mean you're not saying white....We have to understand when we're teaching our students and we're not acknowledging race, we're saying white all the time.

To challenge that, you have to actually start acknowledging race. Start to specifically look for examples of people of color and say it. Recognize your students of color, let them know you see them. They feel invisible. Just because you're uncomfortable with it doesn't give you an excuse to continue to disserve your students that way.

And white students need to know that students of color can be absolutely anything when they grow up, and they won't know that if they don't see examples. We really do police what people of color can be in our society and our kids learn it young. We learn it because we never hear of people of color doing different things. We hear of them playing basketball. We know they can be musicians. And that's kind of where it ends. That really sets up what our peers expect of us. Then they become the people who hire for jobs, and they become future teachers. It becomes a real problem.

What about libraries and the movement for more diverse books? Is that a part of the solution for the bigger systemic issue?
When you look in a library, it's going to be mostly white subjects, white authors, it doesn't even matter what you're looking for. For young people trying to formulate what they can do in life, I don't think we realize the message that sends.

We talk about the beauty of imagination and books, right? You can imagine yourself being anything. But that sentiment usually comes from people who always see some sort of representation of themselves in the books. But if [people in books] never look like you, that sends a message too. That actually activates your imagination in a negative way-that you never see a black scientist, you never see an Asian politician. These things limit. The amount of imagination we're asking of our young people of color is astounding.

But it also affects white students, because it limits what they think their classmates of color can do. This has a real impact on how we see the world, how we support our systems. The young people are the carriers of our systems. They're going to inherit it all, and we need them to imagine something better, something more inclusive. We nurture that by showing diverse voices, showing diverse histories, and really giving them a new idea.

It's something I see some librarians take incredibly seriously. I'm incredibly grateful for how supportive many librarians have been and how hard they've fought to get copies of my books in schools, universities, and public libraries, because it matters. There are a lot of other amazing books out there-fiction, science, and all genres-written by people of color with protagonists of color that need to be really advocated for.

There's a norm that has been set. People are comfortable with what they always see. That means you have to put forth a deliberate effort to change that norm. That shift is actually fairly easy to make but only if you do something deliberately.

A Seattle-based writer and speaker, Oluo (right) travels the country talking about issues surrounding race, identity, feminism, and social justice.

What does that deliberate action look like? What should librarians do?
It's really important for librarians to regularly familiarize themselves with what's out there, what's new and getting good reviews from writers of color with protagonists of color, so they have things they can regularly recommend. They need to be ready and willing to start proactively recommending these books not just have them on the shelf. They need to talk to the teachers about these books as well-a lot of times teachers have a lot of influence as to what students go and pick up.

It's also really important to make sure they're keeping enough copies. Some of these books have the potential to be incredibly popular, but there's one copy and no one can get it. Having enough also sends a message to the kids that this is something they might want to read.

Schools, public libraries, and corporations are bringing in diversity training workshops for staff. Are they helpful in general, and are they worthwhile if not run by a person of color?
It can be very useful. There are some white speakers who do really well on this, especially white speakers who focus on whiteness. Because there's two parts of this, right? Race is not just people and people of color. White is a race and it has a function in society, so white speakers come in with that, knowing they're white and have functioned as white. Talking to other white people about these issues with that perspective in mind can be incredibly effective. But oftentimes it doesn't quite work that way. Often, you have white speakers who are just parroting-with less urgency and less authenticity-what they hear black speakers say.

You have to realize that racism is built into the bones of pretty much every organization, every structure in society, which means you have to build anti-racism into the bones if you want to fix it. No matter how talented the speaker, no workshop, be it two hours or two weeks, is enough. I do believe these can be helpful in activating people to sign on to longer-term work. But if you aren't allocating the long-term resources you would for any other major systemic problem that is stopping you from serving your populace the way you're supposed to, then you're just giving it lip service and it's really just a waste of time.

Teachers, and public library staff, are often white.* Can a systemic change be made without more teachers of color?
Not well, but progress has to happen. If you're in it, you're not exempt. Any teacher, regardless of race, needs to realize they have an opportunity to be a part of the solution.

The change needs to start to happen now and part of that change needs to be in outreach and support for black and brown students who want to be teachers. We absolutely need more teachers of color. As a whole, academia needs to understand that they are doing a disservice to all of their students by not having a diverse teaching body. Part of the problem is teachers themselves are a product of these systems.

My sister is getting her master's degree in education. Even going for her master's, every professor she had was white and everything she learned was from a white viewpoint. It's no wonder we don't have more black, brown, and Asian teachers. They're in the same system. It's just as hostile to them as they're trying to get their teaching certification as it is to when they're trying to get out of fifth grade.

Kara Yorio is SLJ 's news editor.

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Educators and Race: A Conversation with Author Ijeoma Oluo on Tackling Systemic Racism in U.S. Education

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Author Ijeoma Oluo. Photos: Libby Lewis Photography Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, spoke with SLJ about what educators, and specifically librarians, can do to better serve their students of color and start to change the institutional bias and systemic racism in the U.S. educational system.

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The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys

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The Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys

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Checking your own biases - implicit and otherwise - is a key part of the work.

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Empower black boys to dream, believe, achieve

Schools that routinely fail Black boys are not extraordinary. In fact, they are all-too ordinary. If we are to succeed in positively shifting outcomes for Black boys and young men, we must first change the way school is "done." That's where the eight in ten teachers who are White women fit in . . . and this urgently needed resource is written specifically for them as a way to help them understand, respect and connect with all of their students.

As Eddie likes to say, "This is what it looks like after the book is published! But in writing it, we had some blood sweat and tears." How could we expect that it would be otherwise? We are talking about one of the most persistent questions of our times, and we are coming at it from polar opposite perspectives-those of a Black man and White women. As an editorial team, we are clear that our relationships with one another, and the polarity of our differences, is absolutely a manifestation of the same energy that runs through this book. It is an energy that comes from our love and respect for one another, from the electrical current that our differences spark. It is an energy generated by the coexistence of seemingly contradictory answers that together lead to complex, multifaceted solutions. We hope that when it is hard, when teachers face disagreement and difference, that they remember that energy and magnetism come from opposing forces. We recognize that without each other we could not even ask these questions, much less answer them.

‍

Other links:

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Empower black boys to dream, believe, achieve Schools that routinely fail Black boys are not extraordinary. In fact, they are all-too ordinary. If we are to succeed in positively shifting outcomes for Black boys and young men, we must first change the way school is "done."

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A professional development opportunity. I highly recommend it. You get a chance to work in affinity groups which I think is an important part of being able to speak openly and honestly and thereby illuminate and confront bias.

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This provides specific strategies on teaching literacy via a multicultural framework. it also lifts up the strong tradition of black literacy circles and the importance of literacy in the movement.

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NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Scholastic announced the release of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, a new professional title created to help K-12 educators ensure all students succeed. The book, authored by Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad, Georgia State University associate professor of language and literacy, and director of the Georgia State Urban Literacy Collaborative and Clinic, unpacks the critical need for honoring students' identities to help them grow academically and personally during a time when educators nationwide are searching for ways to improve literacy achievement.

Scholastic releases a new professional title from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad that unpacks the critical need for honoring students' identities to help them grow academically and personally: Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

Cultivating Genius is now available for order online at: http://scholastic.com/CultivatingGenius

Dr. Muhammad's equity framework draws from her research on 19th-century Black literary societies, which promoted literacy as a conduit for lifelong learning while also countering racism and oppression. The four pursuits, or learning goals, which are part of Dr. Muhammad's Historically Responsive Literacy Framework for Teaching and Learning, include:

Identity - defining self and making sense of one's values and beliefs

Skills - achieving proficiencies through reading and writing meaningful content

Intellect - gaining knowledge and learning to think deeply

Criticality - developing the ability to read texts to understand power, authority, and oppression

As educators strive to learn and respond to the social and cultural lives of their students, Dr. Muhammad calls for a shift to honest, bold, and unapologetic pedagogy that is responsive to the social times. She shares new goals for literacy education that are inclusive and incorporate diverse and enriching texts to elevate education for all kids across grade levels and content areas. The book provides specific supports for educators teaching students of color-who are often marginalized by learning standards, school policies, and classroom practices-including self-reflective questions, culturally responsive text recommendations, and sample lesson plans.

"The Historically Responsive Literacy Framework is a universal teaching and learning model that helps teachers cultivate the genius within students and within themselves and teach in ways that create spaces for mutual empowerment, confidence, and self-reliance," said Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State University.

"We are honored to publish Cultivating Genius from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, whose extensive knowledge of culturally and historically responsive literacy within Black communities, coupled with her equity framework, creates intellectually invigorating education for all students," said Dr. Lois Bridges, Vice President & Publisher, Scholastic Education. "This powerful title is the guidebook for rich and meaningful reading and writing, propelling our students toward a lifetime of learning."

For more information about Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children's publishing, education, and media company, visit the Company's media room at: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com

SOURCE Scholastic

Related Links

http://www.scholastic.com

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Cultivating Genius: A New Book from Scholastic Focuses on the Need for Historically and Culturally Responsive Education

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NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Scholastic announced the release of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy , a new professional title created to help K-12 educators ensure all students succeed.

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Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic book award, and voted one of Teacher Magazine's "great books," Other People's Children has sold over 150,000 copies since its original publication. This anniversary edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as new framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.

In a radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award-winning author Lisa Delpit develops ideas about ways teachers can be better "cultural transmitters" in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers and "other people's children" struggle with the imbalance of power and the dynamics plaguing our system.

A new classic among educators, Other People's Children is a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America's education system.

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Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic book award, and voted one of Teacher Magazine's "great books," Other People's Children has sold over 150,000 copies since its original publication. This anniversary edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as new framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.

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Black Lives Matter - 2020 Curriculum Resource Guide

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Black Lives Matter - 2020 Curriculum Resource Guide

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The Dreamkeepers - Gloria Ladson-Billings

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The Dreamkeepers - Gloria Ladson-Billings

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Download Product Flyer

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Description

In the second edition of her critically acclaimed book The Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings revisits the eight teachers who were profiled in the first edition and introduces us to new teachers who are current exemplars of good teaching. She shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style. What matters most is a teacher's efforts to work with the unique strengths a child brings to the classroom. A brilliant mixture of scholarship and storytelling, The Dreamkeepers challenges us to envision intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of not just African American students, but all children. This new edition also includes questions for reflection

About the Author

Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Previously, she served on the faculty of Santa Clara University and worked as a teacher and consultant in the Phila-delphia public school system. She is the former president of the American Educational Research Association, and was elected to the National Academy of Education. Dr. Ladson-Billings is the author and editor of numerous articles and books, including The Dreamkeepers, Crossing Over to Canaan, and Beyond the Big House.

Table of contents

Foreword to the New Edition.

Preface.

The Author.

1. A Dream Deferred.

2. Does Culture Matter?

3. Seeing Color, Seeing Culture.

4. We Are Family.

5. The Tree of Knowledge.

6. Culturally Relevant Teaching.

7. Making Dreams into Reality.

Afterword.

Appendix A: Methodology.

Appendix B: Context.

Notes.

Index.

Discussion Questions.

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The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, 2nd Edition

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In the second edition of her critically acclaimed book The Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings revisits the eight teachers who were profiled in the first edition and introduces us to new teachers who are current exemplars of good teaching. She shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style.

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On order for fall

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There's 55 pages of text removed. I read the adult version earlier this year and have less than 100 pages to read in the YA book. I find it moves moreThere's 55 pages of text removed. I read the adult version earlier this year and have less than 100 pages to read in the YA book. I find it moves more quickly and is less dense, leaving out background details that are less likely to interest teens. Both are very well written. The YA version is an easier read but doesn't leave anything essential out of the book. ...more (less)

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There's 55 pages of text removed. I read the adult version earlier this year and have less than 100 pages to read in the YA book. I find it moves moreThere's 55 pages of text removed. I read the adult version earlier this year and have less than 100 pages to read in the YA book.

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92 WOO & Ebook

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I've never read anything quite like this before - the telling of a life in such a unique way. The writing is lovely , the way it is told - memories in free style poetry. I don't know what I can say to do justice to what Woodson has accomplished here. Is it a memoir, a novel, a book of poetry? No matter how it is categorized, it is clear that this is precisely what Woodson says about it in her author's note "And that's what this book is - my past, my people, my memories, my story."

This is perhaps...more

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I've never read anything quite like this before - the telling of a life in such a unique way. The writing is lovely , the way it is told - memories in free style poetry. I don't know what I can say to do justice to what Woodson has accomplished here.

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URBAN FIC MYE & Ebook

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It's really up to the reader to decide what Steve means, However, I perceived it as how the criminals and accused ended up in their individual situatiIt's really up to the reader to decide what Steve means, However, I perceived it as how the criminals and accused ended up in their individual situations.How they landed in jail, got involved in a crime, etc. But also how they tell themselves, "Its going to be alright", when in truth, it never is and never was. ...more (less)

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It's really up to the reader to decide what Steve means, However, I perceived it as how the criminals and accused ended up in their individual situatiIt's really up to the reader to decide what Steve means, However, I perceived it as how the criminals and accused ended up in their individual situations.How they landed in jail, got involved in a crime, etc.

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REALISTIC FIC GAR

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So, I'm not a Young Adult, but I'm an adult young at heart, so that's my reasoning on choosing a YA book sometimes that catch my eye.

Simone has two dads.
She's adopted.
She also has HIV.

With HIV she has had a troubled life, hospital care visits, stigma, diversity problems and a best friend revealing her status on HIV to an entire bunch of school pupils with results of her having to find a new placement in another school.

Is it happening again?
She and Miles strike up a good relationship. She needs...more

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So, I'm not a Young Adult, but I'm an adult young at heart, so that's my reasoning on choosing a YA book sometimes that catch my eye. Simone has two dads. She's adopted.She also has HIV.

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On order for fall

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Black Card book. Read 50 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. With dark humor, Chris L. Terry's Black Card is an uncompromising examin...

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On order for fall

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There will never be a time we don't need more books tackling racism and the oppression of the justice system, and this one sounds like it'll be especially good. Also, the cover is beautiful!

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There will never be a time we don't need more books tackling racism and the oppression of the justice system, and this one sounds like it'll be especially good. Also, the cover is beautiful!

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On order for fall

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Having loved The Skin I'm In, I sort of knew what to expect. As a teacher I used to teach a short story called "Revolt of the Evil Fairies" by Ted PosHaving loved The Skin I'm In, I sort of knew what to expect. As a teacher I used to teach a short story called "Revolt of the Evil Fairies" by Ted Poston. It showed the bias in a segregation era black school based on skin tone of the students. Lighter kids were given "good" parts, but darker kids were given "evil" parts. ...more

This book wasn't so much hard to read with the anger and bias as it was heartbreaking. It's rare to find a book for the middle grades written with such passion and depth.
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Having loved The Skin I'm In, I sort of knew what to expect. As a teacher I used to teach a short story called "Revolt of the Evil Fairies" by Ted PosHaving loved The Skin I'm In, I sort of knew what to expect.

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REALISTIC FIC RAM & Ebook

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The main inspiration was my experiences in junior high and how those were mirrored so hard when my daughter started junior high. It seems like the timThe main inspiration was my experiences in junior high and how those were mirrored so hard when my daughter started junior high. It seems like the time in many people's lives where race starts to matter. ...more (less)

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The main inspiration was my experiences in junior high and how those were mirrored so hard when my daughter started junior high. It seems like the timThe main inspiration was my experiences in junior high and how those were mirrored so hard when my daughter started junior high.

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URBAN FIC DRA

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"But you know what, the best gift of all is the laughter. We never have enough laughter..."

A beautiful book about tears, struggles, hardships and loss. This book is also about laughter, hope, family and above all, the blessings!

Set in Bumblebee (never knew there was a place by that name), North Carolina, and in the year 1932, this story is narrated by a 11-year-old young storyteller, Stella Mills.

Rich, Compelling and Creative.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper is highly recommended!

Ain't ...more

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"But you know what, the best gift of all is the laughter. We never have enough laughter..." A beautiful book about tears, struggles, hardships and loss. This book is also about laughter, hope, family and above all, the blessings!

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Ebook

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Ways to Make Sunshine book. Read 109 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Ryan Hart loves to spend time with her friends, loves to inv...

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On order for fall

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The Only Black Girls in Town book. Read 113 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Award-winning YA author Brandy Colbert's debut middle...

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REALISTIC FIC WAT & Ebook

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This would be an EXCELLENT book for middle school and high school book clubs! I'd give it ten stars if it were possible. The characters were well writThis would be an EXCELLENT book for middle school and high school book clubs! I'd give it ten stars if it were possible. The characters were well written and developed and there'd would be some GREAT discussions. This is one of the best books I've read this year. Juli Hoffman...more

*Bonus, this book is a "clean read," and yet the writing feels incredibly realistic. It deals with a lot of complicated issues in a positive, character-growing way.(less)

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This would be an EXCELLENT book for middle school and high school book clubs! I'd give it ten stars if it were possible. The characters were well writThis would be an EXCELLENT book for middle school and high school book clubs! I'd give it ten stars if it were possible.

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On order for fall

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My name is L.

I have a problem.

I read YA fiction and I love the state I'm in.

But, YA doesn't tend to love some of its readers back.

However, sometimes I find what's offered in this "subgenre" (as it's not a genre, but rather a geared audience) anemic and offering little variation in plot, characters, and even book aesthetic. When I find a true gem, I must shout. This Side of Home offers a story many desire, but few see.

Pros:
1. A strong and relatable female protagonist. She's not perfect. She pos...more

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My name is L. I have a problem. I read YA fiction and I love the state I'm in. But, YA doesn't tend to love some of its readers back. However, sometimes I find what's offered in this "subgenre" (as it's not a genre, but rather a geared audience) anemic and offering little variation in plot, characters, and even book aesthetic.

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Ebook

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Published September 4th 2018 by Crown Books for Young Readers
Biographies, Multicultural literature, Poetry
Diversity lesson. Important activists, artists, and other voices bring their experiences, thoughts, art, ideas, and opinions on today's issues and creating a just society.
SO many important lessons in this story. This read-aloud would practice mindfulness for my small beings of society.

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Published September 4th 2018 by Crown Books for Young ReadersBiographies, Multicultural literature, PoetryDiversity lesson. Important activists, artists, and other voices bring their experiences, thoughts, art, ideas, and opinions on today's issues and creating a just society. SO many important lessons in this story. This read-aloud would practice mindfulness for my small beings of society.

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URBAN FIC REY & Ebook

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I am pretty sure that ¨All American Boys¨ is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. This book really made me think about how people think ab I am pretty sure that ¨All American Boys¨ is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. This book really made me think about how people think about others by their looks and how jumping to conclusions can lead to many bad things. ...more
On page 21-23 it shows that Rashad, one of the main characters getting beat up by a police officer after getting accused for stealing on Friday afternoon. When other people around the fight were recording, the police officer was punching and kicking Rashad, the police officer also refers to Rashad as a "thug". The police officer called him that because Rashad was black and his pants were sagging, giving the police officer the impression the Rashad was a thug. Another thing that made the police officer keep punching and kicking at Rashad was the fact that Rashad was moving around when the police officer was arresting him. The police officer thought that Rashad was trying to resist, but really he was just reacting to the pain. Afterwards, when
Rashad was at the hospital recovering from broken ribs and a broken nose, His dad asked him this question after he woke up," Were your pants sagging?". Rashad was startled by that question because he always wore sagging pants and his dad never said anything about it before. Everyone in Rashad's neighborhood also knew that he was a good kid considering the fact that he is in ROTC. ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps which is for the pre-military. Since he was in this program, many people didn't think that he would just change randomly and start stealing. Throughout the book, more and more people see the video of him getting beat up by the police officer that was recorded on that Friday afternoon. At the end of the book, where the people of Springfield started a march to the police department, they all started chanting,¨Springfield PD, we don't want brutality!¨. Eventually Rashad comes out of the hospital in the middle of this march and joins in.
Jumping to conclusions in real life can end up good or bad. I this book though, jumping to conclusions goes to a completely new level. Just because the police officer saw that Rashad's pants were sagging and that he was black, he automatically assumed that Rashad was trying to steal the chips. In the book, while Rashad was picking up his chips, the woman behind him tripped and knocked him over while he was looking for his phone in his backpack. When he fell over he dropped the chips next to his backpack. When the police officer saw that Rashad's backpack was open and that the chips were next to his backpack, the police officer thought that Rashad was trying to steal the chips. This relates to jumping to conclusions because the police officer did jump to conclusions when he started punching and kicking Rashad. I think that the police officer should have waited by the door and see if Rashad was going to pay or not. If Rashad did pay for the chips, the police officer would see him then just let him go out. If Rashad did just start trying to run out the door, the police officer would be there to stop him. "I reached into my pocket to grab the dollar I had designated to pay for those stupid chips. But before I could get my fingers on the money, the cop had me knotted in a submission hold...", that is what Rashad was thinking when the cop first saw him and was heading towards him.
This book taught me very important lessons. I read this book because of my book club choice, but I don't regret picking "All American Boys" because I ended up liking this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction and anyone who likes books who are written in the 1st person. (less)

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I am pretty sure that ¨All American Boys¨ is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. This book really made me think about how people think ab I am pretty sure that ¨All American Boys¨ is one of my favorite books that I have ever read.

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On order for fall

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For educators and teachers, Milner gives specific recommendations on how the institution of K-12 education can improve educational and other outcomes for students, particularly Students of Color and those from impoverished backgrounds.

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For educators and teachers, Milner gives specific recommendations on how the institution of K-12 education can improve educational and other outcomes for students, particularly Students of Color and those from impoverished backgrounds.

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On order for fall

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I consulted this book and read it to help me (and my fellow members of our university's Diversity Council) as we continue to re-imagine and strategize for the future of our diversity and inclusive excellence efforts. It's very readable (focused, short, and accessible) and provides both some strong summaries of key theories to frame this work and a number of useful and more practical ways to approach developing ourselves as faculty who want to promote transformative education for all our students ...more

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I consulted this book and read it to help me (and my fellow members of our university's Diversity Council) as we continue to re-imagine and strategize for the future of our diversity and inclusive excellence efforts.

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On order for fall

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Though I was a little put off by the tone of chapter one, after that this book was pure joy. Do you remember WHY you wanted to be a teacher? Do you know what you are teaching FOR in these troubled times? Do you want EXAMPLES of what purposeful focused teaching for a greater good might look like in the English classroom?
This is an excellent book,and you just might want to read it.

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Though I was a little put off by the tone of chapter one, after that this book was pure joy. Do you remember WHY you wanted to be a teacher? Do you know what you are teaching FOR in these troubled times?

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On order for fall

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Fresh perspective on teaching in the "hood" or any other lower income areas. The main thesis of the book is that educators ought to celebrate qualities in neo-indigenous people (people of color) that are not normal to mainstream culture, but that don't deter from actual learning. This made me think of how I can incorporate new ways of communication, like instagram, or even slang into my class to deliver it in a more powerful way.

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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too

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Fresh perspective on teaching in the "hood" or any other lower income areas. The main thesis of the book is that educators ought to celebrate qualities in neo-indigenous people (people of color) that are not normal to mainstream culture, but that don't deter from actual learning.

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On order for fall

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Dominique Smith, Nancy Frey,, Ian Pumpian, Douglas Fisher

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Building Equity book. Read 4 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Imagine a school with a diverse student body where every student fee...

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How teachers can read and respond more effectively to disruptive students

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About 10 percent of the school population-9 to 13 million children-struggle with mental health problems. In a typical classroom of 20, chances are good that one or two students are dealing with serious psychosocial stressors relating to poverty, domestic violence, abuse and neglect, trauma, or a psychiatric disorder.

These children represent the most challenging students in our classrooms today.

Their mental health problems make it difficult for them to regulate their emotions and focus on learning. Often they lack basic skills necessary to regulate their behaviors and, sometimes, to even recognize their own actions. They can be inflexible and have outbursts for no apparent reason-disrupting the classroom routine daily. They can disengage socially or be clingy, sleepy, or irritable. They can defy school personnel repeatedly and argue incessantly. They are the students who keep administrators up at night and the ones teachers dread having in their classes. Many of their stories are heartbreaking.

School staff today are under enormous pressure to show progress for every student every year. Yet they are in a bind. One disruptive child can effectively derail an entire lesson. Surveys show that coping with disruptive students is teachers' number one problem.

Our experience working in schools has taught us that to be effective and help each student reach their potential, teachers need a new approach to clearly understand what drives student behavior. Teachers also need a variety of strategies that allow them to intervene effectively before the behavior is entrenched.

Understanding the following critical concepts helps teachers choose how to intervene better with students' problematic behavior:

Misbehavior is a symptom

A student would behave if they could. If the student is displaying problematic, maladaptive behavior, it is a symptom of an underdeveloped skill. When students blow up or act out, it is a sign that they are stuck and can't cope with the situation. Some may be oversensitive to stress and have an overactive fight-or-flight response. Others may lack basic social skills that are needed to navigate an interaction with a peer, the flexibility to follow a demand like "clean up after your snack," or the self-regulation to withstand an anxiety-producing task.

Behavior is communication

Even though students' behavior can look bizarre or disruptive, their actions are purposeful and are their attempt to solve a problem. It is critical to step back and try to decipher what the student is trying to communicate and what the function (or intent) of the behavior is. With practice, teachers can learn to stop and "listen" to the message the behavior is conveying, break the behavior code, and respond in more productive ways.

Behavior is never random or aimless. Individuals would not repeat a behavior unless they were getting something out of it. Usually, it is a response from other people that fuels inappropriate behavior. Whining may work to get a teacher's attention, as does swearing. If a student repeatedly has tantrums and then gets to leave a classroom, they have learned that tantrums further their desire to escape. Teachers first need to figure out what the student is getting from inappropriate behavior, in order to find different ways to respond so as not to inadvertently reinforce the behavior.

Behavior occurs in patterns

When teachers feel they have tried everything with a student but the student is still acting inappropriately, the next step is to investigate in a systematic way. The key to breaking the behavior code is to look for patterns. These patterns can be based on time of day (they always yawn in the morning before snack), activity (they always ask to go to the nurse when math starts), people (they participate more in class when Ms. Irving is there), and many other factors. Once the pattern is discovered, the function or intent of the behavior will often reveal itself: "Oh! They refuse to speak every time an unfamiliar adult enters the room." Every behavior also has bookends: the environmental variables that occur prior to the unwanted behavior (the antecedents) and the response of the teacher and peers after the behavior. When trying to understand behavior, teachers need to notice these bookends. These are what fuel the behavior and allows it to persist.

Behavior can be changed

Although behavior plans are typically thought of as a way to improve students' behavior, good behavior plans are really a guide for helping teachers develop new behaviors so they can interact with challenging students in a more productive and preemptive way.

For some students, when the interventions are spot-on in understanding the function of the student's behavior and teaching underdeveloped skills, the student can show change quickly. If the student has been demonstrating an inappropriate behavior for years and lacks the necessary skills, it may take longer for them to change.

We've had students stop behaving inappropriately in only three weeks, whereas other students have tapered off a behavior over a three-year period. The more intensely the student is taught the underdeveloped skills and the more the environment is changed to encourage appropriate behavior, the faster the student's behavior is likely to change.

Building on an understanding of what drives behavior, we provide a framework for a different kind of behavioral intervention plan that we call the FAIR Plan. FAIR stands for functional hypothesis, accommodations, interaction strategies, and response strategies.

The goal of the FAIR Plan is to change inappropriate behavior to appropriate behavior for the long term, rather than, for example, simply "managing the behavior" until the end of the year. Achieving this type of change requires teachers to take five basic steps that use the fundamental concepts outlined above.

This means minimizing or accommodating things in the environment that tend to set off an incident of inappropriate behavior. By understanding what antecedents are problematic for a student, such as being close to other students or reading aloud, the teacher can intervene effectively and create a classroom environment that is supporting and proactive.

If a student can't tolerate academic demands without an outburst, the teacher may start by asking them to do only 10 minutes of work, reinforce them, and over time build up the student's tolerance. As the student demonstrates small attempts at self-regulation or the use of prosocial skills, the teacher will reinforce and reward them.

The student needs to be taught a replacement behavior-an appropriate behavior the serves the same function as the inappropriate behavior- to be used while they are building the skills needed to behave appropriately without accommodations. For example, instead of banging their fists on the desk when they find reading frustrating, they could be taught to ask politely, "Can I have a break, please?"

Teaching the student underdeveloped skills eventually eliminates the need for the replacement behavior. For example, the fist-banging student may need to work on reading skills, perhaps with additional support.

When prevention goes awry and incidents do occur, the teachers' response needs to reinforce the student's desired behavior, and avoid accidentally reinforcing the undesired behavior.

The Behavior Code is available from Harvard Education Press

How do you handle students with behavior problems?

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Breaking the Behavior Code - Child Mind Institute

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Behavior code: how teachers can better understand, anticipate, and respond to reduce problem behavior and increase learning for everyone.

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' and 'Some Notes for Facilitators' - National SEED Project

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White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Downloadable PDF © 1989 Peggy McIntosh 'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack' first appeared in P...

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(Webinar) What is White Privilege, Really?

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(Webinar) What is White Privilege, Really?

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What is white privilege, anyway? And do we really need to teach about it? Deconstructing white privilege in the classroom requires educators and students to understand the origins of whiteness and how the legacy of white supremacy endures. In our webinar What Is White Privilege, Anyway? educators will learn about all this and more, reaffirming their commitment to anti-racist education and developing practices for inviting students into this work. Join former Teaching and Learning Specialist Stef Bernal-Martinez and anti-racist educator and scholar Ronda Taylor Bullock for this interactive, resource-rich opportunity that can help you create a more racially just classroom and community.
Earn credit: When you complete 95 percent or more of the webinar, a certificate of completion will be available for you to download and print from within the webinar platform. Please note this certificate will not state how long the webinar was or how long you viewed the webinar. Because Learning for Justice is not a credit-granting agency, we encourage you to check with your administration to determine if your participation will count toward continuing education requirements.

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What is white privilege, anyway? And do we really need to teach about it? Join former Teaching and Learning Specialist Stef Bernal-Martinez and anti-racist educator and scholar Ronda Taylor Bullock for this interactive, research-rich opportunity to explore white privilege and help you create a more racially just classroom and community.

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Inequity Outside the Classroom

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Ethan, a college freshman at an elite public university, lives in a private housing development on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. His parents chose this neighborhood primarily for the excellent public school system, though the safe streets and leafy backyards with ample room for a swingset and basketball hoop were an added draw. But for Ethan's parents, learning did not begin and end in the classroom: they also invested significant time, energy, and money in extracurricular sports, clubs, and activities. ¹

Ethan started out in Cub Scouts in kindergarten with five other boys in his neighborhood and achieved the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout by his senior year in high school. His final service project, designed to instill leadership and citizenship, was to build a horse bridge for a farm that offered physical therapy to disabled kids; his uncle, a contractor, helped him with the complex design and arduous construction. When we ask him why he decided to stick with Boy Scouts, Ethan points to his father: "Probably him." While his dad Blake acknowledges that scouting is "tough" because "kids have a lot more distractions" like television and video games, he tried to make it fun through two-week hiking trips to New Mexico where they tracked bears and practiced navigation. Ethan also played soccer, ran track, and participated in orchestra, his father taking on the responsibility of driving the orchestra bus. Ethan's mother, who was making chicken and dumplings when we interviewed him for our study, registered him to vote when he turned eighteen; he speaks passionately about a wide range of political issues like gay marriage and environmental protection, drawing on the knowledge he has picked up through a lifetime of family dinners.

Much of the current debate about the growing inequality in education outcomes has focused on the widening achievement gap between students from high-income and low-income families. But what happens outside the classroom is equally important to children's success. Ethan stood out to the admissions committee at his university not only for his high grades and stellar test scores, but also for this sustained engagement in Scouts, his wide range of interests and achievement, and his commitment to civic engagement. Ethan is lucky: with his parents' flexible work schedules, comfortable financial situation, and commitment to his social and intellectual development, his pathway into a middle-class adult life was almost seamless. But for many other children, the rising costs of sport teams and school clubs, combined with parents' uncertain work schedules and precarious household budgets, have made extracurricular activities a luxury they can't afford.

Struggling with budget cuts and deficits, many school districts have cut back on their funding for drama clubs and music programs and either reduced the number of afterschool sports offered or put a hefty price tag on participation. The end result is that an increasing number of low-income students find themselves left on the sidelines.

While public schools theoretically provide equal access to afterschool activities to all enrolled students, the reality is that access has become increasingly limited to children from middle- and upper-class families. In our recent study, we examined trends in extracurricular participation from the 1970s to today (Snellman et al., forthcoming). Our findings are alarming: while upper-middle-class students have become more active in school clubs and sports teams since the 1970s, working-class students have became increasingly disengaged and disconnected, their participation rates plummeting in the 1990s and remaining low ever since.

Ethan is just one of the 120 young adults we interviewed across the country. While his story illustrates the importance of afterschool activities for life success, other interviews shed light on why working-class students have been left behind, both inside and outside the classroom.

Extracurricular activities: Pathway to success in school and adult life

Nicole, an eighteen-year-old who, like Ethan, lives in Austin, Texas, works in the kitchen at a three-star hotel. In her East Side neighborhood, with its bright flashing lights of police cars on every corner, it was too dangerous to play outside, and many of her afternoons as a child were spent watching TV alone. With both her parents working long hours to keep their family afloat - her father as a garbage collector and her mother as a hotel maid and a waitress - Nicole didn't have much supervision or guidance after school. She had trouble making friends in ninth grade and started taking pills with the other girls to fit in. Her sophomore year, however, Nicole joined the dance team, where she would perform at football games, and her parents sacrificed a lot to pay the $800 a year it cost to buy her uniform and pay for her travel to competitions. She explains that she got her grades up that year because "you had to pass to compete." But the $800 proved too much for the family, and she quit the next year.

Nicole soon met a boy in the neighborhood, and when her parents would leave for work early in the morning, she would sneak over to his mother's apartment to see him. Soon, she was pregnant. She moved in with her boyfriend and his mother, going to high school during the day, then running, even eight months pregnant, to catch the bus to get to work at Pizza Hut for minimum wage until midnight. Nicole, who left her boyfriend when he became abusive, wants to give her daughter a better life and recently borrowed nine thousand dollars for a year-long medical billing course at a for-profit college. But for now, simply buying her daughter food, diapers, and clothes at Goodwill leaves her with nothing left over at the end of the month.

Nicole's story attests to the potential rewards of extracurricular activities: her lone year on the dance team prompted her to earn higher grades and trade taking pills for daily dance practice, and perhaps taught her self-discipline, commitment, and teamwork along the way. But it also attests to the greater challenges she faced, compared with Ethan.

Compared with their middle-class peers, working-class youth are more likely to grow up in families, schools, and neighborhoods like Nicole's where violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and early sexual activity are common (see Figure 1). For adolescents like them, extracurricular activities may be particularly helpful in that they offer supervision, guidance, and future directedness. But for many families, participation fees required upfront at the beginning of each season simply prove to be too costly.

With schools struggling to fund activities inside the classrooms - teachers, books, supplies - should we really care about what happens to debate clubs and tennis teams? Research suggests that we should.

A growing body of research demonstrates that participating in organized activities outside the classroom helps cultivate the skills, habits, connections, and knowledge that prepare children for lifelong success: academic success in school, graduating from high school, going to college, getting a job, and participating in civic life. This is the very logic that fueled the High School Movement, a period of educational reform in the early 1900s that aimed to cultivate skills such as leadership, hard work, civic mindedness, and self-discipline across the class spectrum (Mondale & Patton 2002). Even after controlling for family background and cognitive ability, involvement in extracurricular activities predicts higher grades; higher college aspirations, enrollment, and completion; greater self-discipline, self-esteem, and resilience; lower risky behavior such as drug use, delinquency, and sexual activity; and lower truancy rates (Zaff et al. 2003).

Furthermore, the effects of extracurricular activities appear to extend well beyond college: students who are involved in clubs and sports go on to earn higher wages, advance further in their careers, and even vote and volunteer more frequently than their less-involved peers. There is also evidence that students who hold leadership positions in high school are able to command higher salaries later in life (Kuhn & Weinberger 2005). Middle-class parents know this and groom their children from an early age to excel in competitive afterschool activities like soccer, chess, and dance (Levey Friedman 2013). If we could predict the future, we would not be surprised to see Ethan land a competitive professional job out of college, advance to a high-paying managerial position, and spend his leisure time volunteering in his local community.

Beyond Academics: Soft Skills

For Ethan, hiking trips with his Boy Scouts team taught him more than navigation: they taught him perseverance, teamwork, and resilience in the face of adversity. In building the horse bridge for the farm for disabled kids, he also learned to think creatively and to see a goal through to the end despite the lure of video games and television. These "soft skills" - working with others, leadership, grit, self-discipline, and endurance - are cultivated through participation in extracurricular activities. Scholars have found that these noncognitive traits are at least as important as cognitive abilities in predicting educational attainment and income ten years down the road, even after taking into account family background. Today's employers look for workers who arrive on time, complete their assigned tasks, work well with others, and show initiative - all traits that Ethan learned simply through Boy Scouts.

Psychologists Claire Robertson-Kraft and Angela Duckworth (2014) studied the effects of extracurricular activities on career success. They collected resumes of novice teachers in low-income schools and rated them based on passion and perseverance in college activities. The teachers with highest "grit" scores - those who had been team captains or presidents of clubs - turned out to be the best teachers and stayed in their jobs longer. By contrast, other seemingly important characteristics such as SAT scores and college GPAs turned out to be poor predictors of teachers' retention or effectiveness. Clearly, extracurricular activities instill the skills and values that matter most for upward mobility.

Mentors: The importance of connecting with adults outside the immediate family

Extracurricular activities also help build important connections to mentors such as soccer coaches, bandleaders, and youth group pastors, who can be paramount in a young person's life. Take the example of Carlos, an eighteen-year-old high school senior we met at a community center in Southern California. By middle school, Carlos had already been pulled into a gang in his neighborhood. He was inspired, however, by a woman in the neighborhood who was going to college classes, working, and raising three children; she caught his attention one day when she loudly mocked the clothes the gang members were wearing. After becoming friends with this young woman, Carlos decided to leave the gang and do better in school. When he failed classes, he repeated them in the summer. He also started taking mixed martial arts lessons as an outlet for his anger - while he resisted the lessons for a while because he couldn't get a signature from his dad promising to pay the fees (he didn't even ask, knowing it was too expensive), the coach told him that he could wash his car in exchange for lessons. Carlos's love of martial arts led him to the school wrestling team, where he is one of the top competitors - he has even begun to hope to wrestle in college.

Studies of mentoring programs like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Philadelphia Futures Sponsor-A-Scholar have shown that these programs have broad positive social and academic impacts on adolescents like Carlos. The Big Brothers/Big Sisters program pairs unrelated adult volunteers with youth from single-parent households for the purpose of providing youth with an adult friend. Economists Jean Baldwin Grossman and Joseph Tierney (1998) studied the effects of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program through a comparative study of 959 ten- to sixteen-year-olds who applied to the program in 1992 and 1993. Half of the children were randomly assigned to a treatment group, who all were matched with an adult mentor. The other half were assigned to a waiting list. After eighteen months, both groups were interviewed. The results were nothing but encouraging: the students who had been assigned a mentor were less likely to have initiated drug or alcohol use, to hit someone, to skip class or a day of school, or to lie to their parents; they also had higher average grades and were more likely to feel competent in their school work and to report a better relationship with their parents.

We can see the positive effects of informal mentoring in Carlos's story, as the generosity of his wrestling coach and the positive influence of an adult in the neighborhood inspired him to leave the local gang, focus on wrestling instead of drugs and crime, and even aspire to college. Carlos, unfortunately, is the exception to the rule: many working-class and poor students who need mentors the most don't have them. The 2011 National Survey of Children's Health asked children from middle school through high school about important adult mentors in their lives. Almost one in five low-income children reported not having any mentoring relationships through school, neighborhood, or community. In contrast, only five percent of middle-class children reported not having any important adult connections outside their immediate family.

Furthermore, while Carlos found mentors in his neighbor and his martial arts coach and a possible pathway to serious competitive sports, he faced obstacles that the more-affluent Ethan did not. In the Scouts and in the private housing development, Ethan was in a safe environment surrounded by a range of caring adults who likely mentored him about both college and career. Financial advantage, physical safety, and the social capital that comes from mentors and adult role models gave Ethan critical supports that were far less available to Carlos.

What explains these growing class gaps in the extracurricular involvement?

Given the importance of extracurricular participation to children's future success, it is truly alarming that we see working-class kids increasingly excluded from after-school activities and disconnected from caring adults. Why are working-class students absent from the very activities that would help them climb the economic ladder? Nicole's story offers insights into the tumultuous worlds of working-class students.

Like many public schools, Nicole's high school is facing pressure to tighten its budget, raise test scores, and focus on academic "core competencies." This leaves no room in the budget for seemingly frivolous extras like dance team, so the cost of participation has shifted from the community (through taxes) to the individual parents. While affluent and poor school districts alike have felt this pressure to trim their budgets, they have responded in markedly different ways. Poorer school districts often simply cut their extracurricular offerings. As researchers Elizabeth Stearns and Elizabeth J. Glennie (2010) found in their study of North Carolina public high schools, the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch in the overall student body is negatively associated with the total number of extracurricular activities, sports teams, and service opportunities offered by the school. Affluent parents, on the other hand, have the means to subsidize school activities through private resources, whether fundraising to send the school orchestra to Japan or simply writing a yearly check.

But of most concern is the shift toward "pay to play," which puts more and more of the burden of participation on families whose budgets may already be strained. Many schools are implementing athletic participation fees to cover the cost of school sports. For example, the Arlington school district in Massachusetts charges $500 to join the football team and $480 to wrestle. To play on the tennis team in the Riverside Local school district in Ohio costs students $874. Other school districts have introduced fixed fees for all athletics: the Westerville school district in Ohio charges $240 for every sport and $50 for choir, marching band, and the theater club.

There are no national data that track trends in pay-to-play programs. However, according to a recent survey by the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children's Hospital (2012), 61 percent of middle and high school students nationwide were charged a pay-to-play fee. While the average fee was $93, 21 percent of parents were charged a participation fee of $150 or more - and these numbers do not include the cost of equipment, uniforms, and additional fees like travel, which raise the average cost to $381. These fees disproportionately disadvantage children from families who earn less than $60,000 per year, as 19 percent of these parents reported that their children's participation dropped because of the cost. On the other end of the spectrum, among families earning more than $60,000 per year, only 5 percent reported lower participation due to increased costs.

The dangers of disinvesting in children's futures

The rise of pay-to-play policies and elimination of academic clubs and sports teams are seemingly natural responses to tightening budgets. When schools are furloughing teachers, laying off custodians, and postponing classroom renovations, it may seem frivolous to continue funding chess clubs and cheerleading teams. For some, it may seem fair that students who want to participate should pay for the activities.

But the rising financial barriers to participation have serious consequences, especially for those who need them the most. Extracurricular activities help students like Nicole to keep her grades up; resist the pull of drugs and risky behaviors; and find inspiration and connection in the face of dangerous neighborhoods, financially strapped parents, and besieged schools. As Ethan prepares to graduate from college and pursue a lucrative career in engineering, Nicole is struggling to raise a child on minimum wage. The diverging destinies of these two American young adults serve as a cautionary tale of what happens when we disinvest in children's futures (Silva 2013). Cutting extracurricular activities from the school budget or attaching a hefty price sticker to them not only puts low-income students at a greater disadvantage, but it also robs all of us of the potential contributions that the Nicoles of the world could have made.

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Inequity Outside the Classroom: Growing Class Differences in Participation in Extracurricular Activities

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Ethan, a college freshman at an elite public university, lives in a private housing development on the outskirts of Austin, Texas. His parents chose this neighborhood primarily for the excellent public school system, though the safe streets and leafy backyards with ample room for a swingset and basketball hoop were an added draw.

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Welcome to your go-to conversation on all things wellness, self-care and self-love for women of color, hosted by Black Girl In Om Founder Lauren Ash. This show uplifts, affirms, and informs and features a refreshing line-up of guests-including yogis, holistic lifestylists, clean beauty experts, and a plethora of other movers, shakers, and innovators within the wellness and beauty industries. This buzzworthy show speaks directly from women of color to women of color and strives to inspire women around the world.

Welcome to your go-to conversation on all things wellness, self-care and self-love for women of color, hosted by Black Girl In Om Founder Lauren Ash. This show uplifts, affirms, and informs and features a refreshing line-up of guests-including yogis, holistic lifestylists, clean beauty experts, and a plethora of other movers, shakers, and innovators within the wellness and beauty industries. This buzzworthy show speaks directly from women of color to women of color and strives to inspire women around the world.

Feed my well in Dubai

Thank you Lauren and crew for creating the space for brown girls to cultivate our self-care. Black Girl In Om podcast is my Rx prescription for learning and exploring tools to up-leveling my well-being. As a wellness practitioner, I love listening to Black Girl in Om podcast because it feeds my wellness and allows me to relax, release and relax.
Thank you ladies for falling your calling.

Shani Brinkley, Jersey girl curating wellness in Dubai.

Wow!

Sooooo need this in my life right now. Beautiful. Just beautiful. ❤️

Amazing Work!

I just discovered this podcast and I'm so glad I did. Currently listening to the current episode and I wish I could be there for this event Sunday. This is such important work! I will be making a donation. ❤️

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‎Welcome to your go-to conversation on all things wellness, self­-care and self-­love for women of color, hosted by Black Girl In Om Founder Lauren Ash. This show uplifts, affirms, and informs and features a refreshing line-up of guests-including yogis, holistic lifestylists, clean beauty experts, an...

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Ibram X. Kendi TedTalk about building an anti-racist world

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Ibram X. Kendi TedTalk about building an anti-racist world

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https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_how_to_build_an_antiracist_world?fbclid=IwAR0nWw-gIirsTJ25bpW4tSC90rLMIjjtN_8ZZroygLYpJI29HDMQqmvuNSw

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Ibram X. Kendi: How to build an antiracist world

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There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs.

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Lists a variety of resources on different types of racism

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If your feed looks anything like mine, social media has been a treasure trove lately of resources and tools for educating yourself on Antiracism.

From the curated lists of books and documentaries to those little shareable sliders (seriously, some of those have been real good) we don't have much of an excuse for ignorance.

But, perhaps it feels like drinking from a fire hose. Where do you even get started? Not all these recommendations are made with the same audience in mind. And because racism poisons everything, there are so many different topics to cover.

Others have done the work of putting out good, curated lists. I thought I would help by offering some flowcharts to help you find the right starting point for you. Plus, some of us learn best from books, while others through podcasts, documentaries, even fiction. Hopefully these can help! Here are a few things to know:

⚫️ I chose to sort these into the categories of race, privilege, and bias; faith (mostly Christian); American history; policing & mass incarceration; environment & housing; work & education; the current moment; & Black joy. Had the groups I interact with most on here in mind.

🔴 Black joy (along with Black love and Black excellence) is definitely a dimension of Antiracism. Obviously there's a plethora of great Black art out there, and this is just a small sample. Even though there's fun stuff on there like Into the Spiderverse, they're there deliberately. Not to distract but to capture the imagination.
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🔵 If you see a book on here, you might as well check on the author on Twitter. I tried to condense this list, but some things take multiple forms; a podcast AND a newsletter. A book AND a documentary. And check the final slide to see where each film can be streamed.

Race, Privilege, Bias

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The Beauty of Antiracism - Philippe Lazaro

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If your feed looks anything like mine, social media has been a treasure trove lately of resources and tools for educating yourself on Antiracism. From the curated lists of books and documentaries to those little shareable sliders (seriously, some of those have been real good) we don't have much of