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Guide for Racial Justice and Abolitionist Social & Emotional Learning 

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Guide for Racial Justice and Abolitionist Social & Emotional Learning 

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https://abolitionistteachingnetwork.org/

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Anti-Racism and Whiteness

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How to be anti-racist: it’s more than books, quotes and Blackout Tuesday

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The most common...

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AngelaRye.com | Empowermenteur + Advocate + Political Strategist

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Understanding how school discipline policies can contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline is essential for educators and families. Harsh punishments, automatic out-of-class time and police involvement for discipline can push young people out of classrooms and into the criminal legal system. But educators, parents and caregivers can help to change this harmful system by advocating for and implementing practices that prioritize mental health and well-being.

We offer this new resource page that highlights LFJ articles and content to open dialogue, shift practices and foster change to benefit all young people.

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Learning for Justice | Education Resources

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Opinion | You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument (Published 2020)

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The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white people I come from. Who dares to tell me to celebrate them?

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Dr. Love

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Dr. Bettina Love is the William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and the bestselling author of Punished for Dreaming

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Dear white people and non-Black people of color:...

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Dear white people and non-Black people of color:...

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The Daily of the University of Washington

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By now, you've probably seen the BLM chain tag on your Instagram story feed and newly, the "Blackout Tuesday" posts. Well, that's enough activism for the day, right?

Absolutely not.

You've likely read this from all those posts that you quickly tapped through, but I once again need to emphasize that we cannot be silent and that we never should have been silent. I'm here, as a privileged person of color, speaking to the white people and non-Black people of color who need to hear this.

We cannot stay silent or do the bare minimum work regarding the deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, every single day in this country, at the hands of a racist policing system.

The murder of George Floyd occurred in Minneapolis, a liberal city. We cannot discount this, especially as students in Seattle, another largely liberal area. Being liberal does not mean you are automatically anti-racist and being a Democrat does not make you pro-Black. This is especially evident in consideration of the ongoing protests in Seattle .

"On Saturday, Jenny Durkan issued a curfew 15 minutes before it [went] into effect and ordered police to use force and arrest people out on the streets ... on Sunday, police still violently arrested multiple peaceful protestors," sophomore Eddy Castillo said in an email. "I watched as my best friend sat with red swollen eyes because he got caught in the tear gas while we marched down the streets ... police brutality and white supremacy [are] just as dangerous in liberal areas."

A lot of us in Seattle feel like we're exempt from some discussions about race because we live in this woke, always-do-good area. But racism has always been present and alive, no matter how much we try to sweep it under the rug.

We need to be vigilant and constantly aware of the fact that racism is systemic, and white supremacy has been alive for centuries, rather than something that is resurging like many woke, white people seem to be suggesting. In our lifetimes, it has always existed, and it has always been an issue. We have just been afforded the privilege to be silent about it, while Black, brown, and Indigenous people of color suffered the brunt of it.

vigilant

We need to be vigilant and constantly aware of the fact that racism is systemic, and white supremacy has been alive for centuries, rather than something that is resurging like many woke, white people seem to be suggesting.

Over the past week, I've had a lot of friends post and condemn the protests, the violence and looting, and preach for peaceful protest instead. No surprise, but these were all non-Black people.

Sure, peaceful protest is nice and largely, protesters have been peaceful, but I'm also not going to tell Black and brown communities that there is a binary of right or wrong of how to protest and how to express outrage at centuries-old, inherited oppression.

"It hurts to see all the privileged white and white-passing people who have decried the work of the protesters, saying how we instigate the violence," Castillo said. "I have witnessed first-hand many times where police have used excessive force on completely peaceful protestors."

Police brutality and racial violence are intertwined. Many have reacted defensively to those saying " ," with the explanation that there might be some individual cops that are good. And maybe it's true. But it is also true that the U.S. policing system is not set up to protect Black and brown communities .

"Police are sworn to protect laws that have unjustly affected Black and brown communities," Castillo said. "The first police institution created in the [United States] was to chase down slaves who had escaped and prevent slave revolts ."

You can have individual cops that might be "good," but they are still upholding a racist system and are complicit in the deaths of so many in Black and brown communities.

"For one, because I do not have the luxury of second-guessing the internalized 'goodness' of any cop ... that could cost me my life," freshman Omar Fageeri said in an email. "Contributing to a systemically racist institution does not require you to kill, but it is exemplified in the reality that these 'good cops' are working for a system that supports the abuse of Black people being killed."

If you really are a good cop, I would consider resigning.

Thus, it seems like a bit of a spit in the face when so many white and non-Black people adamantly justify their actions with "not all cops" or "what about the good cops." Or, when there's so much more fixation on property damage, rather than the lives of Black people. Or, when we derail in any other way.

Centrists, liberals, and leftists alike keep talking about systemic racism, but some still don't realize what 'systemic' actually means . It means that racism can't be fixed with a bandaid of positivity or by meeting each other in the middle. There are a lot of major changes in our system to be made. It's really easy to believe racism is just about offensive words, as we've been conditioned to believe, when we haven't had those lived experiences of Black, brown, and Indigenous people of color.

"I am so exhausted that I have tried to disengage because the process of having to continuously educate is mentally draining, and while I have zero obligation to educate on evidence that has been available for 300+ years, I have an obligation to my community to educate those turning a blind eye to the harsh realities behind police institutions," Fageeri said.

blm

And most importantly, don't stop addressing this issue as soon as protests end. Black lives will always matter.

We need to do the work to learn, listen, recognize our privileges, and act. Action and allyship must go beyond just posting vague denouncements of racism on Instagram. And, it needs to be in good-faith; there's been a lot of performative white guilt showing whenever critiqued by Black people of color for the white heroism that sometimes shows when talking about these issues.

The important thing is to take the actions that we can and to elevate the voices of Black people. Retweet, don't tweet, and get your rich friends and family to crack open their wallets .

And most importantly, don't stop addressing this issue as soon as protests end. Black lives will always matter.
Reach writer Deborah Kwon at opinion@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @debskwo Like what you're reading? Support high-quality student journalism by donating here.

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Dear white and non-Black people of color: It is our moral duty to speak up

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By now, you've probably seen the BLM chain tag on your Instagram story feed and newly, the "Blackout Tuesday" posts. Well, that's enough activism for the day, right? Absolutely not. You've likely read this from all those posts that you quickly tapped through, but I once again need to emphasize that we cannot be silent and that we never should have been silent.

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#BLM How Can We Win? Kimberly Jones Powerful Speech Video Full Length Black Lives Matter #BLM 2020

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8,083,741 views | Bryan Stevenson • TED2012

In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.

Become a TED Member

Want to hear more great ideas like this one? Sign up for TED Membership to get exclusive access to captivating conversations, engaging events, and more!

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Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

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In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives.

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Bryan Stevenson

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https://abolitionistteachingnetwork.org/

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What We Do

Grants

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

ATN awards grants to educators and community members who strive to disrupt inequalities and injustice within their schools, communities, or both. We will be launching our 3rd annual grant cycle in late October 2023.

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

Explore resources to learn about the Atlanta Public Schools "Cheating Scandal" and support the educators facing prison

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Year round, we host political education, healing justice, and affinity group events for educators, organizers, students, and parents/caregivers. Follow us on socials to stay up to date.

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From our founding guide for racial justice and abolitionist social and emotional learning to a database for queer, trans, and non-binary educators + students, we pride ourselves on being a resource hub for education communities.

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Abolitionist Teaching Network's mission is simple: develop and support educators to fight injustice within their schools and communities. Utilizing the intellectual work and direct action of community organizers, Abolitionist Teachers will organize and take action for educational freedom.

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As educators we (sometimes unknowingly) step into roles of advocate, caretaker, guide, and even mother or father to students. Students pay attention to everything we say and do. They particularly pay attention to our silence.

We may be uncomfortable talking about race, but we can no longer afford to be silent. We have chosen a profession, which-like parenting-requires that our comforts come second to those of children.

Many black and brown students are educated in school systems and classrooms where they, despite making up the racial majority, are taught how to understand a world by a staff comprised of a powerful minority. When their teachers choose to remain silent about moments of racial tension or violence-violence that may well touch students' own communities or families-these children are overtly reminded of their inferior place in society.

Even as a black teacher, I have to set a tone for my students that signals that it's safe to talk about race. Even with me, students of color are afraid to say the word white or to name the blatant racism of slavery and Jim Crow. If that's the case, imagine how much more difficult it is for them to engage in dialogue about mass incarceration rates; the militarism of police; the killing of innocent black men and women; cycles of poverty; the destruction of our bodies, minds and souls; the lack of access to healthy food and quality schools; and gentrification. These are all symptoms of a type of racism that remains deadly to this day because, despite bodies lying in the street, we refuse to talk about it.

White teachers must also broach these topics with white children attending white schools. These students need to learn about the destructive power of racism and brutality that have plagued our country for centuries. They should also understand that Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Trayvon Martin were preceded in death by Emmett Till, Jimmie Lee Jackson and countless others whose stories and deaths we must also teach. Our lack of instruction becomes deadly when we allow fear and discomfort to indirectly allow white students to labor under false, privileged assumptions.

Moreover, the silence on the part of white teachers who teach black and brown children is insulting. Imagine seeing white people, the perceived dominant race, loving and appreciating black culture when it is pretty-enjoying the music, food, culture and beauty of our people-but remaining silent about our oppression and refusing to see how the beauty of our culture was largely born out of necessity. It hurts students when their teachers only acknowledge what black people have done for this country and not what this country has done to them.

But how encouraging is it to know that we stand in a powerful and political position where we can directly influence and break this silence?

Begin by confronting your own biases-about yourself, your students, your fellow educators, the world. This process is essential; if educators don't do this, think about how much damage we could do to the open, vulnerable minds of our students. In particular, examine your feelings about the police. And, regardless of your personal feelings about law enforcement, it is critical to understand that many black and brown students have incredibly negative perceptions about the police. This difficult understanding on the part of teachers can hopefully lead to dialogue and healing in schools.

Once you've done the inner work of evaluating your own comfort levels and examining your biases, start the conversation. You might begin by admitting to students that-like them-you are scared, frustrated, angry, confused, hurt or uncomfortable. Students at any age understand these feelings and will appreciate your humility, compassion and vulnerability, especially black and brown students. This is how you lay the foundation.

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As educators we (sometimes unknowingly) step into roles of advocate, caretaker, guide, and even mother or father to students. Students pay attention to everything we say and do. They particularly pay attention to our silence. We may be uncomfortable talking about race, but we can no longer afford to be silent.

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Dr. Bettina Love: White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy

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Dr. Bettina Love: White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy

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For decades, the lack of representation and information about Native peoples has perpetuated damaging myths and stereotypes. IllumiNative is an initiative, created and led by Natives, to challenge the negative narrative that surrounds Native communities and ensure accurate and authentic portrayals of Native communities are present in pop culture and media.

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How the US Stole Thousands of Native American Children 

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How the US Stole Thousands of Native American Children 

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How the US stole thousands of Native American children

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african-americans - united states - public opinion

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african-americans - united states - social conditions

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ethnic & regional / african american & black

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biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

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social science / discrimination & race relations

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united states history (specific aspects)

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race in america; american history; history of slavery; race relations; racism; diversity; memoir; fathers and sons; african americans; race; national book award; police brutality; autobiography; memoirs; current affairs; black lives matter; national book award winners; discrimination; race relations in america; african american; political books; african american history; biography; politics; national book award winner; african american authors; history books; history; civil war; autobiographies; social justice; books for dad

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ethnic & regional / african american & black

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biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

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social science / discrimination & race relations

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united states history (specific aspects)

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Buy Between the World and Me: Read Books Reviews - Amazon.com

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TED Talk by Chimimanda Adichie

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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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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Dr. Bettina Love: White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy

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Dr. Bettina Love: White Teachers Need Anti-Racist Therapy

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Tree of Contemplative Practices

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August 3: A racial self-care session designed to recharge and reconnect BIPOC abolitionist teachers and community members

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August 3: A racial self-care session designed to recharge and reconnect BIPOC abolitionist teachers and community members

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black joy is resistance: pleasure recipes for the soul (workshop for bipoc)

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black joy is resistance: pleasure recipes for the soul (workshop for bipoc) tickets

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Black Joy is Resistance: Pleasure Recipes for the Soul (Workshop for BIPOC)

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Eventbrite - Black Joy is Resistance: Pleasure Recipes for the Soul (Workshop for BIPOC) - Monday, August 10, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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August 3: A session on developing a practice of co-conspiratorship for White abolitionist teachers and community members

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August 3: A session on developing a practice of co-conspiratorship for White abolitionist teachers and community members

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cultivating co-conspirators (workshop for white folx)

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cultivating co-conspirators (workshop for white folx) tickets

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Cultivating Co-Conspirators (Workshop for White Folx)

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Join Brandelyn Tosolt for a session on developing a practice of co-conspiratorship for White abolitionist teachers and community members

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August 15: Healing for Boys of Color (ages 10-14)

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August 15: Healing for Boys of Color (ages 10-14)

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healing for boys of color: equipping the next generation to thrive (10-14)

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healing for boys of color: equipping the next generation to thrive (10-14) tickets

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Healing for Boys of Color: Equipping the Next Generation to Thrive (10-14)

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Eventbrite - Abolitionist Teaching Network presents Healing for Boys of Color: Equipping the Next Generation to Thrive (10-14) - Saturday, August 15, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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August 15: Healing for Boys of Color (ages 15-18)

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August 15: Healing for Boys of Color (ages 15-18)

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healing for boys of color: equipping the next generation to thrive (15-18)

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healing for boys of color: equipping the next generation to thrive (15-18) tickets

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Healing for Boys of Color: Equipping the Next Generation to Thrive (15-18)

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Eventbrite - Abolitionist Teaching Network presents Healing for Boys of Color: Equipping the Next Generation to Thrive (15-18) - Saturday, August 15, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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August 22: Radical Vulnerability for Girls of Color (ages 10-14)

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August 22: Radical Vulnerability for Girls of Color (ages 10-14)

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radical vulnerability: girls of color alchemists breathe (10-14)

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radical vulnerability: girls of color alchemists breathe (10-14) tickets

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Radical Vulnerability: Girls of Color Alchemists Breathe (10-14)

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Eventbrite - Abolitionist Teaching Network presents Radical Vulnerability: Girls of Color Alchemists Breathe (10-14) - Saturday, August 22, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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August 22: Radical Vulnerability for Girls of Color (ages 15-18)

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August 22: Radical Vulnerability for Girls of Color (ages 15-18)

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radical vulnerability: girls of color alchemists breathe (15-18)

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radical vulnerability: girls of color alchemists breathe (15-18) tickets

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Radical Vulnerability: Girls of Color Alchemists Breathe (15-18)

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Eventbrite - Abolitionist Teaching Network presents Radical Vulnerability: Girls of Color Alchemists Breathe (15-18) - Saturday, August 22, 2020 - Find event and ticket information.

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SEE Learning: Educating the heart and mind

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SEE Learning: Educating the heart and mind

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Resources

We are making these resources available for all. If you take the SEE 101 course, it will unlock your access to the full curriculum and many other valuable resources.

Educator Resources

English German

Video Resources

Please visit our YouTube channel to view these videos and those from SEE Learning educators from around the world.

PR/Marketing Resources

Research

We are excited to begin the development of our primary research program in SEE Learning. The curriculum, educator trainings, and framework are all informed by state-of-the-art research on trauma and resilience, compassion science, the science of systems learning, and development studies in social and emotional learning. For our program to continue evolving as an evidence-based program, we aim to focus our research goals around the following areas:

Program Evaluation

Monitoring program delivery is an essential part of program evaluation. We are working with partners to develop strategies for assessing the quality of educator training, and for monitoring the delivery-fidelity of the learning experiences to students at designated sites. We are also interested in evaluating the effectiveness of the learning experiences in improving student outcomes. Finally, we are developing strategies to respond to the outcomes of program monitoring and evaluation for future editions of the educator trainings and the curriculum.

Global Research Partnerships

We are interested in partnering with schools, regions, and educational communities to study the effectiveness of diverse implementation strategies. There is no single "right" way to bring SEE Learning to your community. We are interested in partnering with you to learn what works best foryou while maintaining effectiveness.

Concept Development Projects

We continue to deepen our conceptual understanding of compassion within the context of education, human development, and cultural variation at the personal, interpersonal, and systems levels of experiences. We have ongoing conceptual development projects around topics include social justice, equity, ethical intelligence, resilience, and many more.

If you have any questions or are interested in partnering with us please contact us at email: seelearning@emory.edu

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We are making these resources available for all. If you take the SEE 101 course, it will unlock your access to the full curriculum and many other valuable resources. English German Please visit our YouTube channel to view these videos and those from SEE Learning educators from around the world.

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Black Minds Matter: Interrupting school practices that disregard the mental health of Black youth

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Black Minds Matter: Interrupting school practices that disregard the mental health of Black youth

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McKenzie Adams and Maddie Whitsett should still be here with us today. But after being tormented at their respective schools last year, the two girls, both 9 years old, died by suicide. According to the girls' families, McKenzie was the victim of racist bullying, and Maddie was taunted because she had ADHD.

These two children represent the human faces behind a disturbing study published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2018: Although the overall suicide rate for Black youth is about 42 percent lower than for white youth, that number represents all young people under 17. While Black teens between the ages of 13 and 17 are 50 percent less likely to die by suicide than white teens, the suicide rate for Black children between the ages of 5 and 12 is about twice as high as that of their white peers.

The study, which analyzed data from 2001 through 2015, does not describe reasons for the disparity, but it points to the need for culturally informed interventions. In a 2015 study published in JAMA Pediatrics, which analyzed data from 1993 through 2012, researchers came to a troubling conclusion: Because there was no significant change in the overall suicide rate among youth, the fact that the suicide rate had decreased among white children but increased among Black children had been obscured.

While youth advocates note that these statistics are disturbing, they welcome the much-needed and long-overdue conversation about the well-being of Black children. This awareness of suicidality among Black youth is why the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) established an emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health in April 2019. It aims to determine the reasons for the significant increase in suicide, recommend ways to improve Black children's access to mental health care and create solutions to better protect and support them.

Black people, including youth, are less likely to receive adequate care for mental health issues for a number of reasons: disparities in access to care, stigma about mental illness and lack of culturally competent mental health practitioners. According to a study published in the International Journal of Health Services, Black children are about half as likely as white children to get mental health treatment. As the CBC task force, mental health experts and policy makers mull over ideas to address this gap, it's also crucial that schools devote significant attention and space to mental health literacy and provide mental health services in the form of counselors and psychologists.

Schools Must Fill the Gap

Because the racial disparities in mental health access and treatment affect children, schools necessarily play a major role in helping to mitigate those disparities. This inequity "perfectly underscores schools as the de facto providers of mental health services to students," says Charles Barrett, a school psychologist and multicultural committee chair for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). "Because systemic issues related to race and poverty disproportionately affect Black children and families, schools, due to having access to large numbers of children, are a practical way to meet a significant need."

Advocates agree that school administrators and educators must be part of this work. School faculty and staff are likely to notice signs and symptoms that something is amiss and refer students to the help they need. But schools often fail in this effort when it comes to Black students-and sometimes cause even more harm.

When Black students exhibit negative behaviors or become withdrawn, educators often label them as problems and subject them to reactionary, zero-tolerance policies and other practices that disproportionately affect Black students but don't address the root causes of such behavior.

This harm manifests in a number of ways: adopting curriculum that isn't culturally responsive, lowering academic expectations, tracking Black students into remedial or special education classes and seeing Black youth as older and less innocent than their white peers-a bias known as adultification.

"Kids who don't feel safe, engaged or supported cannot show up in schools and demonstrate what they know and have learned," says David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black LGBTQ and same-gender-loving communities. "In particular, those who have been terrorized by [educators'] indifference and our ignorance-and the hate that is often birthed from that-suffer and are suffocated."

We see this suffering play out regularly in news reports of egregious assaults on Black children's dignity at school: A Black student is humiliated when made to clean feces off a bathroom wall; a teacher rips the braids from a Black girl's head; groups of Black kids are forced to act as enslaved people while their white classmates pretend to trade them as property; Black students are turned away from school because they have dreadlocks or some other "unacceptable" hairstyle.

These stressors are serious. And sometimes they rob children of their lives, especially if they're compounded by underlying mental health issues.

"I'm acknowledging that the world often doesn't allow Black people to simply be," Johns says. "But it's incredibly important for parents, family members and educators to protect the ability for our babies just to be babies-to laugh, to make mistakes, to color outside of the lines, to create things with blocks that don't make sense to those of us who have forgotten how to dream. Too often we snatch them from Black kids in ways that are unfair and undeserved."

Johns leads a policy committee for a working group commissioned by the CBC's task force. He leverages his experience as a former kindergarten and third-grade teacher into policy work and activism. He spent a decade crafting federal policy, from serving as a congressional fellow to directing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans under President Barack Obama. His work has focused on education and health care issues as they relate to children and families.

In his postgraduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University, Johns describes how schools themselves are sources of trauma for kids who are not white, cisgender or heterosexual.

Too often, he says, academic researchers and policymakers approach conversations about issues Black youth face with a deficit mindset-treating Black students, their families and communities as perpetually problem-ridden despite the fact that these conditions were forced on them. "We need to invert that. Black feminists a long time ago talked about the reality that there are signs, symbols and systems that work to make white privilege real and work to preserve it and often make it invisible," Johns emphasizes.

Johns notes that there is urgency in the establishment of the CBC task force, which is expected to produce a report with recommendations by the end of the year.

"The emergency in this context also signals that it's not designed to be permanent," he explains. "This isn't going to be a standing caucus. We are working through the first quarter of next year to accomplish as much as we can and to plant seeds that will continue to bloom."

"We're Still Healing"

Gabriel Bryant, coordinator for Engaging Males of Color, a Philadelphia youth initiative, sees firsthand how under- or undiagnosed mental health issues can add to the challenges Black students might have at school.

"Oftentimes, there are added stressors for young people when they don't feel that they have an outlet with which to cope, with which to manage the grief, the loss, the anger, the sadness," Bryant says. "And what happens is that it's compounded when that young person recognizes that they also have just a whole host of social determinants to navigate. That can be overwhelming."

He argues that these added stressors-the causes of that grief, loss, anger and sadness-must be addressed before there can be real change. Such stressors include the effects of poverty, environmental issues, living in a food desert and having disabilities.

The growing awareness of mental health concerns for Black children doesn't mean something new is happening. Educators and mental health advocates note that perhaps the increase in Black youth suicidality may be coming to light now because previously there wasn't a collection of such data specific to Black children.

"And in particular," David Johns points out, "we have a lot of work to do to overcome the stigma that's still associated with mental health, which is still seen in too many communities as a 'white people thing.'"

Charles Barrett encourages school psychologists and school counselors to help Black families understand how depression and anxiety look in children, which may be different from adults.

"Relatedly, school-based mental health professionals need to assist Black families with accessing culturally responsive community-based resources-for example, counseling and therapy," Barrett says. "And although it's improving, school-based mental health professionals can also work with Black families to reduce the stigma that is associated with mental health in the Black community."

Trust has to be built, though.

"Whenever possible-and it's not always feasible-I think identifying other Black providers for families could be very helpful," Barrett says. "I think sometimes I've shared the same message that they've heard from others, and it's received better from someone who looks like you."

Another aspect of that lack of trust has to do with Black communities' historical and ongoing struggles for equal rights. On top of that, some communities must also tackle issues that are exacerbated by these inequities, such as violence, poverty and substance abuse. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, an associate professor of English education with Teachers College, Columbia University, says Black people are often left out of critical conversations about these problems that plague families of any race.

"As Black people, we're still healing," she says. "We've been ignored for so long. The issues that have been in other communities-let's say issues of abuse or incest or whatever-always seems to get public media attention when it happens to white families. Some of these same ills have always been happening in our community and probably more so because of the vestiges of enslavement and captivity in this country."

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McKenzie Adams and Maddie Whitsett should still be here with us today. But after being tormented at their respective schools last year, the two girls, both 9 years old, died by suicide. According to the girls' families, McKenzie was the victim of racist bullying, and Maddie was taunted because she had ADHD.

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IIjeoma Oluo Chapter 8: School-to-Prison Pipeline 

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IIjeoma Oluo Chapter 8: School-to-Prison Pipeline 

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Daniel-Tatum chapter on talking about race Ch 10 

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Daniel-Tatum chapter on talking about race Ch 10 

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Since our nation's founding, discriminatory policies and laws have created an unequal system in which Black communities have had their civil rights and liberties denied and have been systemically locked out of opportunities in education, housing, employment, and more.

Through our Systemic Equality agenda, we will use nationwide litigation, advocacy, and public education to advance laws and policies rooted in racial equity and end discriminatory policies, laws, and practices that have an outsized impact on Black communities.

Help us in our fight to ensure all people have equal access to housing, voting rights, education, and more by learning more, pledging your support, or donating. When we have full and equal access to education, jobs, housing, voting rights and more, better futures are possible.

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The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union - beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.

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What We Do

Grants

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

ATN awards grants to educators and community members who strive to disrupt inequalities and injustice within their schools, communities, or both. We will be launching our 3rd annual grant cycle in late October 2023.

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

APS Teacher Campaign

Explore resources to learn about the Atlanta Public Schools "Cheating Scandal" and support the educators facing prison

Programming

Programming

Programming

Year round, we host political education, healing justice, and affinity group events for educators, organizers, students, and parents/caregivers. Follow us on socials to stay up to date.

Resources

Programming

Programming

From our founding guide for racial justice and abolitionist social and emotional learning to a database for queer, trans, and non-binary educators + students, we pride ourselves on being a resource hub for education communities.

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Abolitionist Teaching Network's mission is simple: develop and support educators to fight injustice within their schools and communities. Utilizing the intellectual work and direct action of community organizers, Abolitionist Teachers will organize and take action for educational freedom.

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From police brutality to COVID-19 to voter suppression, Black communities are under attack. We work to disrupt inequality, dismantle racism, and accelerate change in key areas including criminal justice, health care, education, climate, and the economy. When it comes to civil rights and social justice, we have the unique ability to secure more wins than anyone else. Help make racial equity a reality.
Join the NAACP

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From police brutality to COVID-19 to voter suppression, Black communities are under attack. We work to disrupt inequality, dismantle racism, and accelerate change in key areas including criminal justice, health care, education, climate, and the economy. When it comes to civil rights and social justice, we have the unique ability to secure more wins than anyone else.

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Last Saturday, Niah and Anjali led more than three dozen teachers through their training activities during the annual Educators for Social Justice conference." Carolina Hidalgo, St. Louis Public Radio
March 2nd, 2018 "When Anjali Adhikari and Niah Ester teamed up for a class project last summer, they had one goal - to teach educators at Northeast Middle School all about microaggressions.
​" Click here to continue reading.

ESJ launches Podcast on iTunes!

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Last Saturday, Niah and Anjali led more than three dozen teachers through their training activities during the annual Educators for Social Justice conference." Carolina Hidalgo, St. Louis Public Radio March 2nd, 2018 "When Anjali Adhikari and Niah Ester teamed up for a class project last summer, they had one goal - to teach educators at Northeast Middle School all about microaggressions.​" Click here to continue reading.

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Not everything...

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The true focus...

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Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this…

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Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who won an Emmy for the PBS documentary The Murder of Emmett Till, three Emmys for Freedom Riders, and made an acclaimed film about Marcus Garvey, has for years aimed his probing but fair-minded lens on civil rights history. Along the way he realized he hadn't really seen a film that covered the full and fascinating complexities of the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization that operated from the late '60s into the early '80s. In his new film, Nelson gives voice to the Panthers who were there to tell their often misrepresented story.

"Like any good work of history," writes A.O. Scott in The New York Times, " The Black Panthers sticks close to the facts, plotting complex events into a packed, fast-moving timeline and leaving to the viewers the work of drawing lessons and analogies for our own time."

The vibrant chronicle The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which was named by the NY Times as one of the top 15 films of 2015 and won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary,premieres on Independent Lens on PBS Tuesday, February 16 at 9 pm [ check local listings].
When did you first become aware of the Black Panthers? And in making the film did you yourself have some misperceptions about them - or what did you learn that surprised you?
I was 15 when the Panthers began in 1966. As a 15-year-old teenager living in New York it could be said that I was part of their target audience. I was instantly fascinated by them. And I was surprised at how young the majority of the Panthers were, and that they quickly became over 50 percent women.
And why did you then want to make a film about their story? How did you approach the telling of that story?
Seven years ago, I set out to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, a little known history that had never been told in its entirety. There is so much we think we know about the Party, but I wanted to go beyond the oversimplified narrative of the Panthers as prone to violence and consumed with anger, and explore why so many people joined, what they accomplished, and why it fell apart.

I felt that the Panther story would make a film that was very relevant to today. I also thought that those times were important and needed to be put on the screen. Plus I felt there were great storytellers, great footage, great music that could be used.
What were some of the main challenges in making this film? There's a lot of research and archival and so on - that must have made it tricky and time-consuming.
The archival footage and still pictures are very time-consuming to gather (and ultimately very expensive) but because I have made other historical documentaries it is something I know how to do and am comfortable doing. The biggest challenge was to make the film without a narrator. But I think it allows the audience to have a more direct connection to the film.
What are some other films and filmmakers that were influential on you?
I saw The Murder of Fred Hampton when I was about 20 years old and it had a profound effect on me, I think because it was a political film that had its own point-of-view. Up until that point I didn't think this was allowed under the "rules" of documentary filmmaking.
What was the importance/influence of music on the Black Panther movement and how did it shape the film's score?
I think the music of the time was very important, it was the soundtrack of people's lives. In the film I wanted to use the music to take people back there. I also wanted to let people hear the music of the day, much of which was very political. [Editor's note: listen to our Black Panthers mixtape.]
You didn't set out to make a film that was about this, but of course the film has become even more relevant lately with all the incidents involving police and African American people in places like Ferguson, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. In your research for Black Panthers and just knowing about all these tragedies today what do you think this newer movement can learn from the older movement?
I hope that the story of the Panthers can be an inspiration to the movements of today. The story of the Panthers is the story of a group who made mistakes but at the heart were trying to make positive change. I also think it can be a cautionary tale, because in many ways the Panthers were not ready for the FBI's infiltration and let themselves be destroyed from within. There also was too much dependence on its leaders which hurt the Panthers in the long run.
So what conversations would you like people to be inspired to have after watching The Black Panthers?
I hope that the film will start discussions on each individual's role in making change in our society.
Can you tell us about any projects you're working on next?
The Black Panthers is actually part of a three-part series for Independent Lens entitled "America Revisited." The second film is the history of historic Black colleges and universities, titled Tell Them We Are Rising , that is currently in production and will finish this fall. The third film is a look at the Atlantic slave trade.

More from Stanley Nelson via PBS Newshour.

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Stanley Nelson Reveals the Real Black Panther Party | The Black Panthers | Independent Lens | PBS

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Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who won an Emmy for the PBS documentary The Murder of Emmett Till, three Emmys for Freedom Riders, and made an acclaimed film about Marcus Garvey, has for years aimed his probing but fair-minded lens on civil rights history.

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The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution 

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The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution 

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In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored - cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. MORE

Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the diverse group of voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, Ericka Huggins, and dozens of others, as well as archival footage of the late Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution tells the story of a pivotal movement that gave rise to a new revolutionary culture in America. Their causes, with slogans like "power to the people" and "creating a better world" are relevant again in an era that has seen the rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement and tense relations between African American communities and the police. The Black Panthers condemnations of injustice, oppression and brutality in the late '60s and early '70s reverberate again in one city after another.

Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama in August 2014. Nelson has directed and produced numerous acclaimed films, including Freedom Summer, Freedom Riders, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple and The Murder of Emmett Till . He is also co-founder and executive director of Firelight Media, which provides support to emerging documentarians. Currently in production is Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities , the second in a series of three films Nelson will direct as part of a new multiplatform PBS series entitled America Revisited . LESS

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The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution | Documentary about Black Panther Party | Independent Lens | PBS

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In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored - cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system.

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Elaine Massacre: The bloodiest racial conflict in U.S. history | Dark History | New York Post

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Harvard University: Making Caring Common Project: Lessons/activities around race, ethnicity and culture

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Harvard University: Making Caring Common Project: Lessons/activities around race, ethnicity and culture

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The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing. My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Ore.

Your support is needed to help more students learn people's history. 100% of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Donate today.

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

From voter ID laws to voter-roll purges, gerrymandering to poll closures to the deadly in-person voting conditions during a pandemic, the right to vote is under attack and the stakes are high. It is critical that students learn about the fight for voting rights, past and present.

Nov. 30, 1924: Shirley Chisholm Born...

Teaching About the Violence in Palestine and Israel...

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.

-Howard Zinn

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Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

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The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.

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Sports Reaction to Social Justice Movement

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Sports Reaction to Social Justice Movement

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Bakari Sellers talk about How LeBron and other athletes are using platform to promote social justice

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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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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction The achievement gap remains a stubborn problem for educators ...

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Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out

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Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out

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Mindful of Race Understanding and Transforming Habits of Harm

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In a moment of racial tension, have you ever tried to simply "shrug off?" your outrage? Or put on a pleasant face so that others wouldn't...

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The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness 

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The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness 

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Not going to star review this one because I am conflicted. If you are looking for mindful and somatic approaches to unlearning racism, I totally recommend starting with My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem. This book, focused on mindfulness methods for racial justice, felt like a useful addition to other books, and less like a stand-alone place to begin.

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Not going to star review this one because I am conflicted. If you are looking for mindful and somatic approaches to unlearning racism, I totally recommend starting with My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem. This book, focused on mindfulness methods for racial justice, felt like a useful addition to other books, and less like a stand-alone place to begin.

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Crimes for which others are not charged. Public interference by standing on a sidewalk. Supreme Court Judge Robert Jackson said in 1940: Federal Laws Crimes for which others are not charged. Public interference by standing on a sidewalk. Supreme Court Judge Robert Jackson said in 1940: Federal Laws are so voluminous and unfathomable that prosecutors can easily pick the man and find the crime rather than vice versa. And so they do until we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Driving while black is another. Jacqueline Hendricks...more (less)

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Crimes for which others are not charged. Public interference by standing on a sidewalk. Supreme Court Judge Robert Jackson said in 1940: Federal Laws Crimes for which others are not charged. Public interference by standing on a sidewalk.

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Dr. Du Gruy Leary

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. How Is It Different From PTSD?  | AJ+ Opinion

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Post Traumatic Slave Disorder (full video)

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Post Traumatic Slave Disorder (full video)

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Dr. Du Gruy Leary

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Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary: Post Traumatic Slave Disorder

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Click any post below to view connected and related links.

June 1st - Indefinite
This is a Call to Action!! We need one month of solidarity in America - when Not One of us spends a dollar outside of the Black Community!
We have 3.9 Trillion Dollars in economic spending power. That's $10,684,931,506.80, per day, it will cost the next time one of us is shot!
This is What They Fear!

SHARE! SHARE! SHARE!
Short Links: bit.ly/BlackOutMonth2020
bit.ly/JuneteenthBlackout

http://BlackOut2020.community/

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Click any post below to view connected and related links. SHARE! SHARE! SHARE!Short Links: bit.ly/BlackOutMonth2020bit.ly/JuneteenthBlackout http://BlackOut2020.community/

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New York Times

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As part of a series of videos about race, we are featuring personal stories that reflect the breadth of experiences in the United States.

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Let's Get to the Root of Racial Injustice

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Let's Get to the Root of Racial Injustice

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Let's get to the root of racial injustice | Megan Ming Francis | TEDxRainier

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Miss Buchanan's Period Of Adjustment: Brown vs. Board of Education

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Miss Buchanan's Period Of Adjustment: Brown vs. Board of Education

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Michael Gladwell

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Skip to Main Content

Join Pushkin+

Gain access to ad-free versions of 20+ podcasts from the Pushkin library along with exclusive bonus episodes and other member benefits.

Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell's journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood. Every episode re-examines something from the past - an event, a person, an idea, even a song - and asks whether we got it right the first time. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance.

You can now stream episodes and watch bonus video content on Malcolm Gladwell's YouTube channel!

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Malcolm tells the story of how his parents and their friends sponsored three Vietnamese refugees, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. And wonders: do we underestimate the value of...

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Malcolm Gladwell is president and co-founder of Pushkin Industries. He is a journalist, a speaker, and the author of six New York Times bestsellers including The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers,...

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Revisionist History | Pushkin Industries

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Skip to Main Content Gain access to ad-free versions of 20+ podcasts from the Pushkin library along with exclusive bonus episodes and other member benefits. Revisionist History is Malcolm Gladwell's journey through the overlooked and the misunderstood.

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Listen to ‘1619,’ a Podcast From The New York Times (Published 2020)

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An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

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Racism. It is a word that elicits strong emotion, and often even stronger opinions. Taking the step to engage in anti-racism work may seem intimidating, or maybe you already feel confident in your knowledge of racial justice and in your allyship. Regardless of where you sit on that spectrum, this training is one that can have benefit for everyone.

Whether you are a social service or mental health professional pursuing a unique and impactful continuing education experience, a student, or anyone regardless of profession who is seeking to learn and grow in anti-racist allyship, this virtual training experience will challenge you, and expose you to knowledge and skills to gain better understanding of racial justice and allyship. This is a virtual training, with 3 modules (approximately 2 hours of content in each module). The training is asynchronous, designed for participants to be able to take breaks as they need to, and to work at their own pace.

The videos within this training include Open Captions in English. For other accessibility needs or accommodations, contact driep.help@borderlandrainbow.org

Learn about historical events, ideologies, and social structures, and how they inform modern day beliefs, bias, and perception.

Analyze concepts of racial identity, bias, privilege, and prejudice

Reflect on their own identity, bias, privilege, and prejudice

Identify strategies to engage in difficult conversations

Reflect on ways to integrate anti-racism work into their daily lives

Facilitated by Ashley Heidebrecht, LMSW

Ashley has worked in the field of social services for over a decade. Ashley worked at a Kansas non-profit for 8 years, providing individual and group community-based services to children, adults, and families diagnosed with a severe emotional disturbance, and creating and facilitating multiple workshops and parenting classes, and the last 6 years at that agency served as a supervisor of 80 staff with a client base of over 200 children and families. Since leaving that agency in 2015, Ashley has provided case management and trauma support for families recovering from homelessness, and has become active in community organizing and advocacy, particularly surrounding migrant child detention, LGBTQ rights, racial equity, and reproductive rights, and has completed her Master of Social Work degree.

Most recently, Ashley has served LGBTQ youth and adults in group and individual settings, engaged in casework with the Deaf community, and focused on immigrant rights and fighting against family separation and child detention. Ashley now serves as the Education and Content Manager for the Diversity and Resiliency Institute of El Paso, creating and facilitating training and continuing education rooted in social justice.

Ashley focuses heavily on advocacy and education, providing educational opportunities to improve community awareness and allyship, and engaging in regional and national initiatives to fight discrimination. Ashley is also working to mobilize social workers across the Nation to become more engaged in social justice initiatives.

Learn: Anti-Racism Training Module 1 Reflect: Anti-Racism Training Module 2 Evolve: Anti-Racism Training Module 3
What does it mean to be anti-racist?
Module 1 of Anti-Racism Training will explore that question, and will unpack the relationship between historical events, institutional frameworks, the ideology of white supremacy, and how those things come together to construct the social norms, stereotypes, and bias which inform our perception and behavior.

Identity, personal bias, white privilege, colorism, and prejudice. ​These are concepts that are not easy to talk about, and often bring up strong feelings, including anger, guilt, and denial. In Module 2 of Anti-Racism Training, we are going to unpack them, reflect on how they impact you, and give you the tools to start making changes.

Becoming an Anti-Racist Ally is a big step, and it is not a one-time decision. Being an ally means making decisions every day about whether you will stand up, or stay silent.
In Module 3 of Anti-Racism Training​ we will discuss how to be an ally, tone policing, emotional labor, how to have difficult conversations, and how your decisions to become an anti-racist ally can impact your outlook on the world and your relationships.

**Special notice, we will be conducting a pre- and post-test for this training. The data collected from these surveys will be utilized to assess the impact of the training, identify demographics, inform research concerning training methodology, and may be utilized in future trainings and publications. Your name and contact information will not be shared.**

The Diversity and Resiliency Institute of El Paso is a project of the Borderland Rainbow Center. The Borderland Rainbow Center under sponsor number 7798 has been approved by the Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners to offer continuing education contact hours to social workers.

Approval-NASWKY#061720 This activity will provide 6 CEU hours of continuing education units (CEU). NASW-KY is an approved provider for social work credits through the KY Board of Social Work.

If you hold a license in another State or discipline, it is not guaranteed that our content will meet your requirements. We recommend that you check with your licensing body for any requirements and allowances.

To request a refund contact driep.help@gmail.com Refund requests must be sent within 72 hours of purchase. Any refund approved will be initiated within 48 hours of acknowledgement of your request. If you have already completed the training and request a refund, or if you request a refund after 72 hours from you purchase, we are not obligated to fulfill that request.

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Racism. It is a word that elicits strong emotion, and often even stronger opinions. Taking the step to engage in anti-racism work may seem intimidating, or maybe you already feel confident in your knowledge of racial justice and in your allyship. Regardless of where you sit on that spectrum, this training is one that can have benefit for everyone.

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author, professor, activist

Hope and Healing in Urban Education proposes a new movement of healing justice to repair the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from around the country, this book chronicles how teacher activists employ healing strategies in stressed schools and community organizations, and work to reverse negative impacts on academic achievement and civic engagement, supporting their students to become powerful civic actors. The book argues that healing a community is a form of political action, and emphasizes the need to place healing and hope at the center of our educational and political strategies. At once a bold, revealing, and nuanced look at troubled urban communities as well as the teacher activists and community members working to reverse the damage done by generations of oppression, Hope and Healing in Urban Education examines how social change can be enacted from within to restore a sense of hope to besieged communities and counteract the effects of poverty, violence, and hopelessness.

*ISBN-13: 978-1-13-879757-4 * Edition Description: 1ST * Publisher: Routledge (August 15, 2015)

Brilliant, shocking, tender, full of poetic fury, Black Youth Rising probes deep into the tender, aching hearts of Urban America's neglected young people. This book offers clear, detailed, and effective strategies for easing their dream-crushing pain and recovering a struggling generation. Shawn Ginwright's eye-opening work shows why he is one of the nation's most provocative, insightful, and healing voices.'' ''For those who are tired of reading about the problems and pathologies facing Black youth, Shawn Ginwright has provided us with an alternative analysis and a source of hope. Black Youth Rising shows us that despite the broad array of hardships facing Black youth, young people supported by caring adults can be organized and empowered to confront these challenges and to take control of their lives. Read this book if you're ready to do more than lament how bad things are and are ready to take action for change.''-- Pedro A. Noguera, Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University -- Susan L. Taylor, Editor-in-chief Emeritus, Essence Magazine
Black Youth Rising is a book that restores hope and possibility to the lives of urban black youth. In this pathbreaking account, author Shawn Ginwright details the powerful positive impact that community-based organizations can have in rebuilding the lives of urban black youth, in a process he calls radical healing. Readers can see how caring adults in a community setting are able to create safe spaces for youth to turn away from neighborhood violence and their own traumatic pasts. Together, young people build a refuge within their own community that allows them to turn away from the common dangers of street life and toward building healthy identities and a productive future for themselves and others.

Combining a theoretically grounded framework with practical strategies, Black Youth Rising offers a new model for understanding what African American youth need in order to succeed in school and in life. This book is essential reading for educators, social workers, community organizers, after-school coordinators, and all who work with inner-city adolescents.

* ISBN-13: 978-0807750216 * Edition Description: 1ST * Publisher: Teachers College Press (November 1, 2009)

BUY IT NOW [/column]

Over the past decade, urban communities have experienced unprecedented social, economic, and political transformation. Globalization and de-industrialization have contributed to the exodus of jobs, produced higher levels of inequality, and consequent, furthered marginalization of the urban poor. Urban youth have been particularly affected by this transformation. The failure of urban school districts and the lack of jobs, health services and effective prevention and intervention programs have placed large numbers of low-income urban youth at risk. In the absence of policies and institutions that respond to the needs of youth, a climate of fear focused particularly on responding to fears of youth crime has also shaped a national consciousness about urban communities and the youth within them.

Urban Youth and Community Change brings together work by leading scholars who study urban youth and who have a grounded knowledge of the issues they face. A commitment to social justice and equity is a unifying theme for this volume, and each of the authors examines to varying degrees how such values and commitments can be incorporated into public policy. The goal of this edited volume is to draw on the knowledge and expertise of these scholars from various academic disciplines and to share with policymakers and the general public insights into the impact of punitive/zero tolerance policies on young people's educational experience and well being. These chapters also offer new ideas about how to support youth placed at risk by deteriorating circumstances in urban areas and offers recommendations on how to create more humane and responsive youth policies at the local, state and federal level.

* ISBN-13: 9780415952514 * Edition Description: 1ST * Edition Number: 1 * Pub. Date: April 2006 * Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.

BUY IT NOW [/column]

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[column width="3/4" last="yes"] "Without pulling any punches, Shawn Ginwright presents his analysis with a degree of candor and honesty that is rare among scholars who write on this topic. For those who are serious about improving urban schools and insuring that the students who attend them receive the education they deserve, this book will be a tremendous resource." - Pedro Noguera, Professor, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University

What are the limits of Afrocentric reform for African American students whose schools and communities are ravaged by poverty? How can an understanding of poverty improve Afrocentric reform efforts? This probing book turns an analytical lens on an urban high school's attempt to improve academic performance with an Afrocentric curriculum. The author's detailed examination provides a comprehensive look at the limits and possibilities for identity reform in poor urban schools.

* ISBN-13: 9780807744314 * Edition Description: New Edition * Edition Number: 1 * Pub. Date: June 2004 * Publisher: Teachers College Press

BUY IT NOW [/column]

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author, professor, activist Hope and Healing in Urban Education proposes a new movement of healing justice to repair the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities.

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We're a global movement of Black women leveraging the historic legacy of walking and the power of self-care as a pathway to heal and transform our lives. We believe walking 30 minutes a day is a radical act of self-love and the root of a cultural revolution.

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T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison: The trauma of systematic racism is killing Black women. A first step toward change...

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T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, founders of the health nonprofit GirlTrek, are on a mission to reduce the leading causes of preventable death among Black women -- and build communities in the process. How? By getting one million women and girls to prioritize their self-care, lacing up their shoes and walking in the direction of their healthiest, most fulfilled lives.

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Dr. Henry Lewis Gates

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Black History in Two Minutes (or so) is the new way to immerse yourself in Black History. The digital video series features dozens of short, engaging and factually accurate videos about important historical events or people who have shaped American history. Like never before, people of all ages, backgrounds and educational levels can learn more about the African American experience.

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Home | Black History in Two Minutes (or so)

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Black History in Two Minutes (or so) is the new way to immerse yourself in Black History. The digital video series features dozens of short, engaging and factually accurate videos about important historical events or people who have shaped American history.

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Teen Vogue

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6 Misconceptions About Native American People | Teen Vogue

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Native American Girls Describe the REAL History Behind Thanksgiving | Teen Vogue

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Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Redlined, A Legacy of Housing Discrimination

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Description:

In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story. "1619" is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

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In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the...

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Keedron Bryant

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Keedron Bryant - I JUST WANNA LIVE [Official Music Video]

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Lil Baby

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Lil Baby - The Bigger Picture (Clean - Lyrics)

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Anderson Paak

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Beyonce

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Bob Marley

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RWJF- Applying an Equity Lens to SEL .pdf

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Guiding Questions for Educators: Promote Equity using SEL

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Guiding Questions for Educators: Promote Equity using SEL

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By Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
This is NOT a history book.
This is a book about the here and now.
A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.
A book about race.
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas-and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

Jason Reynolds is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including W hen I Was the Greatest, Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely), As Brave as You, For Every One, the Track series ( Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Long Way Down, and Look Both Ways. He is a National Book Award finalist; the recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and multiple Coretta Scott King Honors; and the winner of a Kirkus Prize, two Walter Dean Myers Awards, and an NAACP Image Award, among other honors. He lives in Washington, D.C and invites you to visit him online at JasonWritesBooks.com.

﻿Ibram X. Kendi is the New York Times bestselling author of Stamped from the Beginning, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, The Black Campus Movement, which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and How to be an Antiracist. He is a professor of history and international relations and the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. One of America's leading antiracist voices and a frequent public speaker, Dr. Kendi is also a columnist at The Atlantic. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C. He invites you to visit him online at IbramXKendi.com.

Book Club & Educator Guides

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Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi * NOVL

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This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence.

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books

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Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.*
Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, and disability). The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children's affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities, and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children's books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible. Consequently, carefully choosing quality children's books is an indispensable educational and child-rearing task.

It is important to offer young children a range of books about people like them and their family - as well as about people who are different from them and their family. All of the books should be accurate and appealing to young children. Fortunately, there are some good anti-bias children's books, which are available as a result of the ongoing activism of many individuals and groups over many years. However, while choices have improved over past decades, the lack of quality multicultural kid's books currently being published has frustrated many communities. The number of children of color in the United States continues to rise, but the number of books published by or about people of color stays the same or even decreases.

Check the Illustrations

Look for Stereotypes: A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a particular identity group (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability), which usually carries derogatory, inaccurate messages and applies them to ALL people in the group. Stereotypes dehumanize people. So, too, does misinformation. ( See Box 1 below for a list of common, harmful stereotypes).

Unfortunately, all of us absorb socially prevailing stereotypes about a range of people, even if we do not consciously subscribe to them. To alert you to stereotypes in children's books, as well as other media, it is useful to list all the stereotypes you know about various groups of people as precondition for critically reviewing children's books. The books you choose should depict people compassionately and as real human beings. Also consider if images depict all people as genuine individuals with distinctive (rather than stereotypical) features. Books containing stereotypes require you to engage children in critical thinking, but should probably be eliminated from your collection.

BOX 1: Common Harmful/Undermining Stereotypes

Strong, independent girls and women are "manlike"

Book-loving or nonathletic boys and men are "effeminate"

Latino men talk funny, are lazy, gang members, or wear oversize sombreros

Latina women are earth mothers or subservient

African American men are gang members, oversexed, or underemployed

African American women are too independent, oversexed, or "welfare moms"

Arab and/or Muslim men are terrorists

Arab and/or Muslim women are voiceless and passive

All Muslims are Arab / All Arabs are Muslim

American Indians live in teepees, carry bows and arrows, or are half-naked in winter

American Indians were only significant in the past (read)

Disabled people are not independent or are to be pitied

Disabled people must "overcome" their disabilities rather than just live with their disabilities

LGBTQ+ people are invisible

Poor people are invisible

Poor people are depicted as passively needing help from others

AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) are depicted as the "model minority"

AAPI are exotic or their food is exotic/abnormal

All AAPI know martial arts or are meek and compliant

AAPI are portrayed with slanted eyes or just lines to represent eyes

Jewish people are all Zionists (read)

Jewish people are wealthy and yield undue influence in the financial and political world

Look for Tokenism: This is the "one only" message. Regularly seeing only "one" person of any group in a book teaches young children about who is more or less important. Examples of tokenism include books with only one African American child among many white children or having only one book about children with disabilities among many other books. Tokenism also becomes stereotypical. It only allows children to see one view of a group of people, rather than the diversity that exists among all groups.

Look for Invisibility: What children do not see in their books also teaches them about who matters and who doesn't in our society. Invisibility in their storybooks - as well as in textbooks as they get older - undermines children's affirmative sense of themselves and reinforces prejudiced ideas about people who are not seen (See Box 2 for examples of groups who tend to be invisible). The booklists on this website include a great variety of books with groups who are often excluded. (The titles are vetted by Teaching for Change.)

BOX 2: Examples of Groups of People Who Are Often Invisible in Children's Books or Mainstream Media

Families who live in rural areas

Blue-collar workers

Musicians, artists, and writers

Families with two dads or two moms

Single mothers or fathers

Homeless families

Families with an incarcerated parent

People of Middle Eastern descent

Families who practice Islam

Transgender adults and children

Check the Story Line and the Relationships Between People

Even if a book shows visual diversity, the story line may carry biases related to how it handles power relationships among people of various identities. Are whites or male characters the central figures with people of color or female characters in essentially supporting roles? To gain acceptance and/or approval does a child of color, a girl, or child with a disability have to exhibit extraordinary qualities or be the one to understand, forgive, or change? Are the achievements of girls and women based on their own initiative and intelligence, or are they due to their looks or relationship with boys/men?

Are people of color, women, low-income families, or people with disabilities depicted as needing help or in passive roles, while whites, men, and "able-bodied" people are in leadership and action roles? How are problems presented, conceived, and resolved? Who typically causes a problem and who resolves it? Your book collection needs a balance of different people in "doer" roles.

Look at Messages About Different Lifestyles

Do the lives of people of color or people living in poverty in the story contrast unfavorably with the norm of white, middle-class suburban life? Are negative value judgments implied about ways of life that differ from the dominant culture or economic class (e.g., people are to be pitied, or the story is about one person who "gets out" of the less desirable way of life)? Do images and information go beyond oversimplification and offer genuine insights into the lifestyle of the characters in the story? Does the setting reflect current life - or past assumptions about life? Does your book collection depict diversity among people within a specific racial/ethnic group, such as a range of family structures, living environments, socioeconomic conditions and types of work, and male/female roles within the family? (Remember that every racial/ethnic group has diversity, including people who self-identify as white).

Consider the Effects on Children's Self and Social Identities

In addition to specific books, also examine your book collection. Do your books reinforce or counteract messages that teach children to feel inferior or superior because of their skin color, gender, family income, able-bodiedness, or type of family structure? At school, will all of the children you serve see themselves and their family's way of life reflected in your book collection? Will all children of color, including those with mixed heritage, girls, and children from the many types of family structures, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities see one or more characters with whom they can readily and positively identify? If they are visible in your book collection, are the illustrations and information accurate and respectful? Does your overall collection balance the backgrounds of all the children in your program? Does it also show diversity within the social indentity groups to which the children belong (e.g., a range of ways to be female and male, families reflecting different kinds of jobs within a racial/ethnic group). Does your book collection also include a balance between diversity within your classroom and beyond your classroom?

At home, does your book collection reflect diversity among the groups to which your family belongs? Does it have stories about people like you who have contributed to creating a more just world? Does it also include a range of books showing diversity beyond your family and neighborhood?

Look for Books About Children and Adults Engaging in Actions for Change

To fully develop a strong sense of self and a disposition toward cooperation and fairness, children need to know how to stand up for themselves and others when faced with unfairness. They also need to know about people from all social identity groups who have - and are currently - working for justice for all. In addition to previous criteria, here are more items to consider: The story line should be about children and adults working together, rather than perpetrating the myth that change happens because of special, individual people who do it by themselves. Does your book collection include a balance of people who have made important and honored contributions to American life as well as the world community - and not just the traditional white, male "heroes?" Do some of your books about important people include struggles for justice? Do they show people who were/are poor or from racial/ethnic groups of color? Are people with disabilities engaged in these struggles for justice?

Consider the Author's or Illustrator's Background and Perspective

All authors write from a cultural as well as from a personal context. In the past, most children's books were by authors and illustrators who were white and members of the middle class. As a result, a single cultural and class perspective dominated children's literature. There are now excellent books by people of color from a range of backgrounds - although not nearly enough. Consider the biographical material on the jacket flap or back of the book. What qualifies the author or illustrator to deal with the subject? If the book is not about people or events similar to the author or illustrator's background, what specifically recommends them as creators of the book? What is the author's attitude toward her/his story characters? Are the images accurate and do the illustrators respectfully render the people in the story? Do you have books reflecting a balanced range of author and illustrator identities and experiences?

Watch for Loaded Words

A word is loaded when it in any way demeans or makes people invisible because of any of their identities. One example is the generic use of the word "man" to stand for women as well as men (although the opposite never occurs). This traditional terminology is now questioned by many because of its sexist implications. Here are some examples of ways to avoid sexist language: community instead of brotherhood; firefighters inserted of firemen; human family instead of family of man; ancestors instead of forefathers; chairperson instead of chairman. Examples of adjectives applied to people of color that carry racist messages include: "savage," "primitive," "superstitious," "backward," "inscrutable" and "treacherous." Always consider the context in which a word is used and to whom it applies.

Look at the Copyright Date

Copyright dates indicate the publication year, not the time of its writing, which might be two to three years before the copyright date. Although a recent copyright date is no guarantee of a book's relevance or sensitivity, copyright dates are useful information. More children's books began to reflect the reality of a pluralistic society and nonsexist and non-ableist perspectives in the 1970s. Since then, the range of accurate, respectful, and caring books reflecting diversity has increased significantly (unfortunately the diversity of books published in the United States still does not accurately reflect the actual diversity of the people living here). When considering new books for your collection, begin with most recently published ones and then continue with descending copyright dates.

Assess the Appeal of the Story and Illustrations to Young Children

Although these guidelines focus on the messages about diversity and equality reflected in children's books, it is also important to take quality into account. Be sure the book is a "good read." If children find the story or illustrations boring, a book will not hold their attention, even if the book adds a specific kind of diversity you need. Check for active, interesting story lines where different kinds of people are integral to the people in the story, not the main topic. For example, in A Chair for My Mother, a young child tries to save money to get a comfortable chair for her waitress mother. Although the book shows a single parent, working-class family, and a resourceful girl, it is not didactic. Also look for illustrations that are colorful and recognizable to young children. Although they enjoy a range of styles, illustrations that are too subdued or abstract may not hold their attention.

Check for age appropriateness. Most booksellers list any picture book as appropriate for early childhood even if the story line is really for primary grade children. Sometimes a book for older children will work if you simplify the story or "tell" the story rather than read it. In some cases, this is the only way to get books that present specific groups of children (e.g., stories with Cambodian children or children with learning disabilities). Some additional issues to consider:

Many children's books use animal characters instead of people and there are some excellent books that explore diversity with animal characters (e.g., And Tango Makes Three or A Coyote Solstice Tale). Children enjoy these. However, such books are not a substitute for exploring issues of diversity and anti-bias fairness with people as the main characters.

Some early childhood teachers wonder if it is necessary for every book in their collection to show diversity. Every book needs to be accurate, caring, and respectful. However, you will want individual books about specific kinds of people (e.g., a biracial family or a family with adopted children). Diversity becomes essential in the balance of your book collection, where you want to avoid invisibility or tokenism of any group.

Folk and fairy tales have long been a mainstay of children's literature. In the cultures from which they come, folk and fairy tales were used to teach important lessons and values related to their culture of origin. Children love them in their original versions - not their commercially sanitized adaptations. However, folk and fairy tales also carry messages that convey sexism, classism, and racism and must be used thoughtfully as part of introducing young children to diversity and anti-bias values of quality and fairness.

Overuse of folk tales to "teach" about a specific ethnic/cultural group leads to misinformation and confusion. They are about animals and occasionally people from a mythical past and are designed to teach core values and beliefs in their culture of origin. They are not about how people actually live in contemporary society - and that is what young children need to understand. Information and images about how people really live now is what enables young children to build connections to people who are from different cultures while countering stereotypes that children have already absorbed (e.g., how American Indians really live).

Finally there is the somewhat sensitive issue of what to do about "classic" or "well-beloved" children's books. Many of these are wonderful as children's literature, but unfortunately they often convey values of sexism, racism, ableism, or even colonialism. People who love the books that pose this dilemma argue that it is OK to use them because they "reflect their times," which they imply somehow excuses their biased messages. For example, I adored the Babar series of books as a young child and was unpleasantly shocked to realize as an adult how much the images and story lines reflected messages of European colonialism in Africa. I chose not to use them with my own children, wanting them to learn accurate information about how people in Africa really live. Not sharing childhood favorites may sadden some, but it is far better than the harm caused by reinforcing messages of racism and colonialism.
In a nutshell - as you choose books or critically examine your current book selection, always keep in mind the power of books - their words and their images - to nurture or, conversely, to undermine a child's sense of self, positive attitude toward others, and motivation to act for fairness.
Additional Resources

Louise Derman-Sparks is an internationally respected anti-bias educator and author (along with Julie Olsen Edwards) of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. She has co-authored several additional books with Dr. Carol Brunson Day (Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism), the ABC Task Force ( Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children), Dr. Patricia Ramsey (What If All the Kids Are White?), and Dr. John Nimmo and Debbie Leekeenan ( Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change). She speaks throughout the United States and abroad, and served on the NAEYC Governing Board from 1998 to 2001. Louise has a lifelong commitment to building a more just society for all people. Her children Douglass and Holly, now grown, were her inspiration. A Pacific Oaks College faculty member for 33 years - when its mission and pedagogy reflected anti-bias education principles - Louise is now retired.
*In 1980, the Council on Interracial Books for Children published the book Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks. A shorter version of the book in pamphlet form, "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," followed. One of the first guides written for teachers and families, it became an invaluable tool for hundreds of thousands of people. Both the book and pamphlet have been out of print for several years. Rethinking Schools published their adaptation of the original Guidelines in 1994.

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Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books - Social Justice Books

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By Louise Derman-Sparks Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.* Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, [...]

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Parents and other caregivers are seeking resources to help them hold children through the current, terrible wave of racialized violence, which is exacerbated by the tensions and vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As scholars, writers, and parents who use books to connect with our children and spark conversations with them, we've developed this book list to help engage the broad range of emotions and needs of diverse children in our multiracial society. In some cases, we've highlighted worthy, albeit lesser-known titles. Some are older books, some are newer, and a few will publish later this year but are available for pre-order now. This list skews heavily towards #ownvoices books and is arranged alphabetically by title.

Please use these books to help you do the work of making the world a safer, more equitable place for all children.

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20 Picture Books for 2020: Readings to Embrace Race, Provide Solace &...

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As scholars, writers, and parents who use books to connect with our children and spark conversations with them, we've developed this book list to help engage the broad range of emotions and needs of diverse children in our multiracial society.

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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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A preview of the book

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Lupita Nyong'o is a Kenyan actress and producer. Her first feature film role was in the film 12 Years a Slave, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as multiple accolades, including the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Critics' Choice Award, the Independent Spirit Award, and the NAACP Award. She has since starred in Mira Nair's Queen of Katwe, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ryan Coogler's record-breaking box office hit Black Panther, and most recently in Jordan's Peele's critically acclaimed horror film Us. Nyong'o earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in Danai Gurira's play Eclipsed. She lives in Brooklyn.

Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, is an artist, author, and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film and video from California Institute of the Arts, where she snuck into animation and illustration classes to learn from Disney and DreamWorks legends. There she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Now she uses her love for both film and illustration to craft beautiful stories for children.

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A New York Times bestseller! Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices! Recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award Recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children's Literary Work From Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within.Sulwe has skin the color of midnight.

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BOOKS TO TEACH WHITE CHILDREN AND TEENS HOW TO UNDO RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY

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BOOKS TO TEACH WHITE CHILDREN AND TEENS HOW TO UNDO RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY

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Time and again we read that white children are not taught about race and racial injustice with the same frequency or at the same early age as their peers of color. Parents of white children often struggle to work conversations about race "naturally" into the flow of the day, believing that race, like sexuality or body development is a topic that necessitates a "big talk" in a time carved out from the flow of normal life. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have books around that prompt conversation and answer questions. Reading "diverse" books and cross-culturally is a great place to start. We also believe that one of the best ways to raise healthy, race-concious white children is to talk to them early and often about racial injustice and racial difference in the course of your daily family life. We recommend the following books for all families, but especially for parents of white children who may be struggling to talk about racial injustice with their kids and teens. We intentionally only featured a handful of "history" books and did not include the many wonderful biographies and histories of movement leaders because, though we carry those books in our store, too often discussions of racial justice and racism focus on the past, on the Civil Rights Movement in isolation or on individual heroes. Change begins now, with white people, in this present moment. We hope this gives you a few ideas for starting places. As always, we encourage you to browse our store in person at 1189 Euclid Ave. NE Atlanta, GA 30307 or buy online at www.charisbooksandmore.com.

Availability: Backordered

Published: Dottir Press - September 4th, 2018

An honest explanation about how power and privilege factor into the lives of white children, at the expense of other groups, and how they can help seek justice. --THE NEW YORK TIMES **A WHITE RAVEN 2019 SELECTION**
NAMED ONE OF SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL'S BEST BOOKS OF 2018

Availability: Backordered

Published: Triangle Square - November 19th, 2013

"Reading it is almost like reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, but for two-year olds-full of pictures and rhymes and a little cat to find on every page that will delight the curious toddler and parents alike."-Occupy Wall Street

Racial discrimination is cruel, and especially so to younger children. The Skin I'm In encourages kids to accept and be comfortable with differences of skin color and other racial characteristics among their friends and in themselves.

"This wonderful book should be a first choice for all collections and is strongly recommended as a springboard for discussions about differences." -School Library Journal (starred review)

A positive and affirming look at skin color, from an artist's perspective.

Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades.

A little mouse innocently plucks a flower from an old wall when a brick comes loose, and he can see through it for the first time. He and the other animals gradually and resolutely remove more and more bricks, until at last they can see another group of animals. Together they use the bricks that once divided them to construct a bridge to join their islands.

Availability: Special Order

Published: Redleaf Press - February 11th, 2014

The essential resource for 20 years

With the ease and simplicity of a nursery rhyme, this lively story delivers an important message of social acceptance to young readers. Themes associated with child development and social harmony, such as friendship, acceptance, self-esteem, and diversity are promoted in simple and straightforward prose.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Holiday House - June 1st, 2010

Cocoa, tan, rose, and almond-people come in lots of shades, even in the same family.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Dial Books - September 2nd, 1991

Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace's high-flying imagination.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Candlewick - March 22nd, 2016

New York Times best-selling author Robie H. Harris helps preschoolers understand what makes us who we are - from our height to our hair, from the shade of our skin to our eyesight.

Availability: Out of Print

Published: Frances Lincoln Children's Books - October 25th, 2011

Now in a mini edition! The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on 10th December 1948. It was compiled after World War Two to declare and protect the rights of all people from all countries.

Availability: Backordered

Published: Arthur A. Levine Books - January 27th, 2015

For most children these days it would come as a great shock to know that before 1967, they could not marry a person of a race different from their own. That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.

Availability: Backordered

Published: HMH Books for Young Readers - May 3rd, 2004

2005 Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms.

Black Lives Matter covers the shootings that touched off passionate protests, the work of activists to bring about a more just legal system, and the tensions in US society that these events have brought to light. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Availability: Backordered

Published: Magination Press - March 1st, 2018

Something Happened in Our Town follows two families -- one White, one Black -- as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.

Layla, the new girl in first grade, is hesitant to participate in school-day activities because she is afraid that her head scarf makes her look too different from her classmates. But as the day progresses, and the curious first graders learn more about Layla's culture, they help to make her feel more comfortable in her new school.

The Wedding Portrait is an essential book for kids about standing up for what's right. Here are stories of direct action from around the world that are bookended by the author's wedding story. He and his bride led their wedding party to a protest, and were captured in a photo by the local newspaper kissing in front of a line of police just before being arrested.

Self-Care for Kids This is not your usual kid's book This book is a call to BE, to step forward and LOVE yourself, LOVE your community, know your history and your powerful place in it and strengthen your own creative power This book is a tool to use. I created it because I know you are an important part of our world and your strength matters.

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Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy

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Time and again we read that white children are not taught about race and racial injustice with the same frequency or at the same early age as their peers of color.

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Afro-Latinx Stories: Latin America and the Caribbean

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Afro-Latinx Stories: Latin America and the Caribbean

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These stories shine a spotlight on Black immigrants, national heroes, and historic figures who hail from Latin America or the Caribbean. Many of the stories address the prejudices that celebrated figures such as Martín de Porres, Roberto Clemente, and Celia Cruz had to overcome throughout their lifetime. Others depict the special traditions and memories that immigrants remember with nostalgia.

To see related resources, take a look at the following:

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Afro-Latinx Stories: Latin America and the Caribbean

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These stories shine a spotlight on Black immigrants, national heroes, and historic figures who hail from Latin America or the Caribbean. Many of the stories address the prejudices that celebrated figures such as Martín de Porres, Roberto Clemente, and Celia Cruz had to overcome throughout their lifetime.

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A Pre-k Teachers Favorite Children's Books On Racism

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A Pre-k Teachers Favorite Children's Books On Racism

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If you love a kid, these books are for them.

Brittany Smith, 27, is an inclusive pre-kindergarten teacher from New Jersey.

On Monday, Brittany tweeted a thread of great children's books that discuss race and racism, and it quickly went viral, with nearly 200,000 retweets.

Brittany added, "Given today's climate and our fight for justice, I want parents, teachers, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and anyone who regularly comes in contact with children to be aware there are resources that can help start the conversations of race and racism. There's a misconception that they're too young and don't understand, but they do! They just don't always have the tools to express it."

Here are the books Brittany recommended:

Brittany added, "These are not the only books available to us! There are so many others out there!" Many people added other terrific books - like Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry - in the replies.

this discusses our community and relationship with hair. Idk how I forgot to post this because I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Thank you to whoever added this in a comment, I can't find your handle, I'm sorry! 😭

Do you have a favorite book for kids or teenagers that discusses race or racism that isn't mentioned here? Let us know in the comments!

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This Teacher's List Of Children's Books That Discuss Race And Racism Has Gone Viral

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If you love a kid, these books are for them. Brittany Smith, 27, is an inclusive pre-kindergarten teacher from New Jersey. On Monday, Brittany tweeted a thread of great children's books that discuss race and racism, and it quickly went viral, with nearly 200,000 retweets.

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American Indian/Native American own voice book list for all ages

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American Indian/Native American own voice book list for all ages

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American Indian/Native American Books for Kids of All Ages - Multicultural Children's Book Day

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American Indian/Native American Books for Kids of All Ages PragmaticMom: Top 10 Best Native American Books for Kids Read Your World Book Jam 2019: #OwnVoices Young Adult Novels About Native Teens Imagination Soup: Picture Books About Present Day Indigenous Families The Barefoot Mommy: Seventeen #OwnVoices Books About Native Americans and First Nations Canadians PragmaticMom: [...]

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Tony Weaver

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Want comics? Check out The UnCommons: In the face of a disaster centuries in the making, five unlikely outsiders must save each other to save the world. READ FREE Are you an educator? Learn how comics can can improve social emotional learning, literacy, and digital citizenship with our program Get Media L.I.T.!

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Tony Weaver, Jr. is an award winning writer and educator creating diverse stories that make young people feel seen and valued. After seeing the impact that media stereotypes had on students in his community, Tony embarked on a journey to create new media narratives that would challenge the status quo. What started as a school project became a national platform that's landed him on the Ted Stage, in the presence of world leaders, and gained him recognition from the likes of Taraji P. Henson, Lebron James, and Lena Waithe at the age of 25.

He is the CEO of Weird Enough Productions, where he developed a program that uses comics and superheroes for literacy and social emotional learning in elementary, middle, and high schools. Through Weird Enough, Tony, developed The UnCommons, an award winning webcomic that engages over 40,000 young people monthly. In 2018, Tony made history as the first comic writer to ever be selected for the Forbes "30 Under 30." He was named a History Shaker by Coca Cola, a Global Barrier Breaker by Marriott International, and awarded the Aspire Award from AT&T. Tony has also worked with brands like Facebook, Instagram, and American Express. By being open and vulnerable about his childhood experiences, and telling new stories that uplift underrepresented voices, Tony hopes to show everyone that as long as you pursue your truth you're never too weird, you're just Weird Enough.

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Tony Weaver, Jr. is an award winning writer and educator creating diverse stories that make young people feel seen and valued. After seeing the impact that media stereotypes had on students in his community, Tony embarked on a journey to create new media narratives that would challenge the status quo.

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How Educational Inequality in America Could be Impacted by the Homeschool Frenzy

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How Educational Inequality in America Could be Impacted by the Homeschool Frenzy

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Forbes

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Art by Bette Yozell

As the new school year approaches and Coronavirus cases are surging across the US, decisions about what education will look like in the fall are becoming paramount. Solutions that provide peace of mind and feasibility to parents have yet to come from national or state governments. The White House administration is pressuring schools to resume in-person teaching this fall, and they have blocked the Center for Disease Control from testifying on the reopening of schools. The options being announced by school districts across the country are far from optimal: models that involve classroom education pose greater health risks; online learning is particularly difficult for working parents and did not work well for many children this spring; and the school districts that are still undecided present the extra burden of not being able to plan or prepare.

With parents feeling the unease of an unpredictable and unsurmountable school year ahead, a new movement has arisen seemingly overnight: self-organized "pods" or micro-schools, in which families bring five to ten children together to learn, socialize and be cared for. These groups range from co-op-style, where parents take turns watching and teaching the children, to pooling resources to pay for teachers, tutors and caregivers. There are vibrant Facebook groups consisting of thousands of parents that have popped up across the country over the last few weeks. These parents are suddenly scrambling to find pods of similarly-aged children and to hire educators.

While self-organizing around schooling pods makes sense as a way of taking control and optimizing for several difficult factors, this trend can have highly inequitable results. There are several forms of marginalization that can result from this model.
Classism
One of the biggest concerns around this model is that, without intentional effort, these pod schooling groups will benefit economically advantaged families and will leave less-affluent families worse off, further widening the socioeconomic divide in the US. I spoke to Tyrek Laing, CEO and Executive Director of Educators for Justice -an organization committed to creating a positive, inclusive, and empowering educational experience for students, educators and parents of all individual intersections, ethnic backgrounds, and socio-economic statuses. Laing shared: "This would create a less equitable education for kids that are not part of the upper-middle class, who are not part of the 1%. What would school pods look like for children who live in public housing, for parents who are not able to work from home or who don't have the budget to hire teachers?"

Those that are able to hire teachers, tutors and childcare will not only fare better, but they will potentially be taking resources away from the families that need them most. As families unenroll from public schools, those schools risk losing funding. When pods are able to offer public school teachers a higher salary taking care of fewer children, those teachers will not be available to the remaining public school students. And when parents are able to afford homeschool resources for their children, they are more able to focus on work and less likely to risk their source of income. Not only are pods less accessible for lower-income families, but many of those families also rely on public schools for meals and services, making micro-schools less feasible for them as well.
Racism
Even though school segregation legally ended in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education, the effects of redlining and historical segregation have resulted in more than half of American schoolchildren attending racially concentrated districts. There is also a direct correlation between race and income, with Hispanic families earning 73% and Black families earning 59% of the median household income that White families earn.

Families that are inclined to form homeschool pods are more likely to do so with other families in their school or district, and those families that are able to afford more schooling resources-and spend the time connecting and coordinating these pods-are less likely to be Black or Brown. Without intentionally working against these probabilities, Laing speculated: "If school pods are formed at a mass level, it will increase the number of schools that are segregated. An anti-racist approach needs to be taken now in education."
Ableism
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 14% of all public school students received special education services in the 2019-20 school year, and of those, 33% had specific learning disabilities. As families form learning pods, there is the risk of leaving these students behind without the support they need. Remote learning can be more difficult for children with special education needs. There are often additional services these students need-such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, and tutoring-and students with physical limitations, such as limited vision, hearing and mobility might not have the support they need in a family-organized learning pod.
Sexism
Even before this pandemic, mothers were doing 2.6 times the unpaid care and domestic work that men do. When schooling went online in the spring, 97% of mothers reported doing the majority of the work to support it. Looking at the homeschool pod conversations online, it is clear that the majority of these self-organizers are mothers-and it's not a stretch to assume that they will be the ones handling most of the logistics and shared teaching as the pods form. All of this additional work risks furthering the pay gap between working mothers and fathers, as mothers have less time and mental space for their paid work.

What Can Be Done?

Clearly, there are many risks of furthering already-existing inequities within our educational system as more parents take education into their own hands. But there are also ways to help mitigate these risks.
Advocacy
Parents who have the time and energy to organize pod schools can also be spending effort on advocating for better solutions from governments and school boards. I spoke with Shauna Causey, the founder of WEEKDAYS -a company that provides support for starting in-home child care with the goal of bringing communities together to support each other and creating economic empowerment for women-about ways that families can make pod schooling more equitable. She explained: "Subsidies do exist in the form of childcare vouchers that could be used towards micro-schools, but there is nowhere near enough money to meet the demand from parents. We desperately need more subsidies and government funds." Parents can also work with school boards and PTAs to encourage creative educational solutions-such as outdoor classrooms and school-organized pods-that optimize more for the health and learning of all children.
Hiring Decisions
The hiring choices that families make around educational professionals for their school pods can be done with an equity lens. As Causey suggests: "Look at who you are hiring for micro-schools. A lot of women and educators of color have left the childcare and teaching profession because it didn't pay them a living wage. Teaching small groups of children is something they can do to get paid." Laing agrees: "Parents should be intentional to make sure they are hiring teachers who may not look like them or aren't from the same backgrounds as them. Hiring graduate students of color who want to teach would be an excellent expression of solidarity on their journey to higher education."
Support Public Schools
Many public schools are funded based on Average Daily Attendance. This means that as more families unenroll students from public school, those schools can receive less funding, which hurts the students that are still enrolled there. Parents can think about keeping their children enrolled in public school, and using schooling pods as a way for students to work through the online curriculum together. And parents should be cognizant of not hiring teachers out of the public school system. Causey encouragingly shared: "We haven't seen very many of our micro-school teachers come from the public school, and 85% of our K-12 teachers are interested in using the public school curriculum."
Subsidies
Families that are forming school pods can make the decision to have all families pay a sliding-scale rate based on what they can afford, or can all pitch in to subsidize one family entirely. Causey has seen that "A lot of our micro-school groups have one subsidized spot available, and oftentimes the teachers already know someone that would be able to fill that spot." As Laing points out, "If you really want to educate your kids, you need to educate them about service. You can do that by connecting with families of lesser financial means, who don't look like you, and finding ways to be of service to them."
Employer Assistance
The ability to create more equitable educational outcomes doesn't only fall on families and governments. Companies can provide childcare perks for employees in the forms of partial childcare subsidies, backup childcare and help finding micro-school teachers. "Childcare and schooling is truly the backbone of the US economy. Without it, millions of parents can't work. This should be the biggest thing companies are thinking about right now," Causey shares.

Laing recognizes that "People have the right to educate their kids how they feel is needed. But on the mass level, schooling pods could make it difficult for kids of lower incomes, from Black and Brown communities, to keep up." The current pandemic, and the measures taken to reopen the economy without having education solved for, is leaving families in a position of having to optimize between several difficult parameters. This is hard on everyone - especially families that are marginalized by classism, racism, ablism and sexim - and as such we need to create solutions with equity in mind.

... Read More

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How Educational Inequality In America Could Be Impacted By The Homeschooling Pod Frenzy

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With parents feeling the unease of an unpredictable school year ahead, a new movement has arisen: homeschooling "pods" or micro-schools. While self-organizing around schooling makes sense as a way of optimizing for several difficult factors, this trend can have highly inequitable results.

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"Inquiry Into Race"

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Let's Get Real : Martha Caldwell,Oman Frame

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This new book is a vital resource for any teacher or administrator to help students tackle issues of race, class, gender, religion, and cultural background. Authors Martha Caldwell and Oman Frame, both lifelong educators, offer a series of teaching strategies designed to encourage conversation and personal reflection, enabling students to think creatively, rather than stereotypically, about difference.

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Affinity Groups

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"You really shouldn't be having tests on a major holiday. We can communicate this up to the teachers and the administration," math teacher and affinity group leader Jeannie Rumsey told the students. "We can find another time for you to make that up, but this is a major holiday for you and you should be able to celebrate it." After organizing and communicating with their administration, the group succeeded in adding the major Muslim holy days to the following year's school calendar. The dates were given the same treatment as the Christian and Jewish holidays: no tests.

This example of collective action is one of the purposes of affinity groups in schools: They allow students who share an identity-usually a marginalized identity-to gather, talk in a safe space about issues related to that identity, and transfer that discussion into action that makes for a more equitable experience at school.

Dylan Posos, a student at John F. Kennedy High School in San Antonio, Texas, attests to the power of affinity groups to create safer learning environments. Dylan joined Kennedy's LGBT club in November 2014 after being disturbed by anti-LGBT bullying happening at school. He had not yet come out as transgender and was nervous about being judged. With the LGBT club, though, he found he could just be himself.

"The club motivated me to email my teachers. I came out with all my teachers, and now all my teachers call me Dylan," he says. "I'm more comfortable in school instead of being uncomfortable, not paying attention. It's like a weight off my back. The club gave that to me. It makes learning easier, really. It just gives me more confidence."

Having confidence in their identities is not always a given for students. Schools, like other institutions, are spaces in which those outside the dominant culture can feel disregarded, whether the disregard is intentional or not. Trying to negotiate and learn in such spaces makes the process of going to school stressful. Students of color, for example, may be dealing with what education professor Howard Stevenson calls racial stress: anxiety or fear that stems from racial encounters with individuals who are unaware or uncaring about the experiences of people of color. This kind of stress can contribute to feelings of loneliness and being "unseen" at school.

Darnell Fine, a seventh-grade English teacher and middle school diversity coordinator, speaks to the predispositions of many schools to overlook the needs of students outside the dominant group. "I think [school] can be a place that relegates students, especially students of color, especially students of marginalized groups, to silence," he explained. "It strips them of their voice. The students aren't voiceless, but due to the parameters of schools and how schools can marginalize students, they are at times not a place ... where students can express themselves."

Students need to be able to be themselves at school-and that's where affinity groups come in. A group of students who share an identity are going to relate to each other in ways they can't with peers who can't or don't understand their experience. It's about safety and, in some cases, about fundamental issues of injustice.

"The reason why affinity groups exist in the first place isn't because students want to segregate themselves from the rest of the population," Fine points out, "but because the population is excluding them to begin with." Gathering in safe spaces around shared identity allows students to engage in conversations about how they can subvert the structures that push them to the margins. In turn, these conversations "push the school to be more social-activist-oriented and less assimilationist-oriented," says Fine.

First Things First

Before a school can become more social-activist-oriented through affinity groups, someone has to get the ball rolling. Mike Ackerman, a counselor and affinity groups coordinator at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, Massachusetts, suggests starting by assembling a task force to get the initiative off the ground; this group should absolutely include students. Early collaboration can also involve soliciting the experience of other schools that have gone through the process of launching affinity groups, Rumsey noted.

In the idea-generation stage, an important step is to assess the attitudes and needs of the school. Fine recommends an anonymous diversity or multicultural survey of students, parents and school staff. Learning about concerns within the school community provides a springboard. "Let's say students of color don't feel comfortable going to their teachers," Fine illustrates. "You need to create a safe space for those students to voice those concerns and to start to organize."

Getting backing from the school's administration is also key, says Rumsey. "If your administration isn't in support of [forming affinity groups], it's not going to be successful. And, for that matter, the group's impact on your students will be severely limited," she says.

"I needed to have my principal and my admin on board with this because the conversations that we were having [in the affinity group] were very hard conversations. They were conversations that threatened the power structure," Fine says. "I knew my principal and the dean of students had my back. I wasn't tip-toeing around the conversation. I was allowing kids to voice their concerns and then propose initiatives to effect change in the school."

Launching a Successful Affinity Group

Once the higher-ups are on board, the task force can begin determining (based on the needs assessment) what groups are most necessary and finding facilitators. Another survey can be useful here, this time to find out how the adults in the school identify and what groups they'd be interested in leading. Rumsey and her team were careful to look for facilitators whose identities fit with the groups in question. Otherwise, the authenticity of the group's work could be in jeopardy. Fine puts it this way: "I can be an all-out advocate for my female students. It still doesn't erase the male privilege that I'm bringing into that affinity group."

But sometimes students need a group for which there is no appropriate adult leader. In that case, ask the students what they want to do. At Rumsey's school, Muslim students showed strong interest in having an affinity group for a couple of years, but no adults in the school identified as Muslim. She asked the students if they wanted to look for someone from the wider community or if they wanted her to lead it; they were comfortable with her and chose her.

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.