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30 Incredible Black Children's Book Illustrators

Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano

Need some fresh inspiration for your summer reading stack? We've got you covered. Below, we're celebrating 30 Black illustrators whose stunning artworks have brought to life hundreds of incredible children's books in a variety of spellbinding styles. From award-winning superstars who've been illustrating for decades (hello, E.B. Lewis and Pat Cummings!), to rising talents in the field (like Christian Robinson and Keturah A. Bobo), we're putting some faces, names, and stories to some of the most vibrant kid-lit artwork around. If these talented folks aren't already mainstays on your child's bookshelf, we're confident you'll discover dozens of soon-to-be-favorites below.
Is an illustrator you love missing from our list? Feel free to let us know in the comments below, as we'll be updating this list regularly!
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30 Amazing Black Childrens Illustrators To Check Out ASAP

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Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano Need some fresh inspiration for your summer reading stack? We've got you covered. Below, we're celebrating 30 Black illustrators whose stunning artworks have brought to life hundreds of incredible children's books in a variety of spellbinding styles. From award-winning superstars who've been illustrating for decades (hello, E.B.

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You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores. | Literary Hub

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Across the country, black-owned bookstores have served as community gathering spaces, support for emerging authors, and educational resources. Those listed below are open and ready for online orders, with the exception of several stores that are only taking orders over the phone, which are noted in parentheses.
*
Order from these independent bookstores:
*To add your store to the following list, please email info@lithub.com
Sacramento, CA
Carol's Books (local phone orders) · Underground Books

Medu Bookstore (launches online bookstore in a month, contact store if you want to be notified) · For Keeps Bookstore · Good Books

The Listening Tree · Brave + Kind Bookshop

Source Booksellers · Detroit Book City

Kansas City, MO
Willa's Books and Vinyl · Bliss Books & Wine

Source of Knowledge Book Store (call 973-824-2556 for local orders)

The Lit. Bar · Cafe con Libros · Sister's Uptown Bookstore · Huemanbooks

Lansdale, PA
The Black Reserve Bookstore (call 267-221-3090 for local orders)
Special thanks to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, Bookshop.org, the African American Literature Book Club, and Jenna Johnson for providing information.

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You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores.

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Across the country, black-owned bookstores have served as community gathering spaces, support for emerging authors, and educational resources. Those listed below are open and ready for online order...

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Build Your Stack

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The King of Kamaahr: a Historical Adventure Novel on Instagram: "This is a post I made for my private Instagram account, but I felt that this information is important to share, so I decided to post it here as well. Over the past few weeks, I have learned more about Black history than I ever learned in school. Unfortunately, the education system often fails at teaching some of the most essential elements of history. It attempts to restrain Black history to one month, forgetting that Black history is United States history. In the slides above, I have included just a few of the things I have learned that were not taught in school. I have listed my sources on each slide, and I have also created a link which lists all of my sources (plus some other recommendations) if you are interested in looking at them yourself: 8facts.carrd.co
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I will continue to post books that I am reading on this journey to educate myself on important matters surrounding race. I also appreciate any suggestions if you have them!
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Edit: I have been advised that the term enslaved people is preferred to slaves, as it doesn't reduce those individuals to the conditions they were forced to live under. Like I said, this is a lifelong process of learning and there is always new information to be found! (Thank you @militant_macabre for this correction!)
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#blackhistory #amplifymelanatedvoices #blm #blacklivesmatter #diversifyyourreading #decolonizeyourbookshelves #readBlackauthors #bipocauthors #amplifyblackauthors #antiracism #antiracistbookclub #alwayslearning #lifelongwork #upliftblackvoices #supportblackauthors"

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64K likes, 619 comments - brandonstubbsauthor on June 17, 2020: "This is a post I made for my private Instagram account, but I felt that this information is important to share, so I decided to post it here as well. Over the past few weeks, I have learned more about Black history than I ever learned in school. Unfortunately, the education system often fails at teaching some of the most essential elements of history. It attempts to restrain Black history to one month, forgetting that Black history is United States history. In the slides above, I have included just a few of the things I have learned that were not taught in school. I have listed my sources on each slide, and I have also created a link which lists all of my sources (plus some other recommendations) if you are interested in looking at them yourself: 8facts.carrd.co
.
I will continue to post books that I am reading on this journey to educate myself on important matters surrounding race. I also appreciate any suggestions if you have them!
.
Edit: I have been advised that the term enslaved people is preferred to slaves, as it doesn't reduce those individuals to the conditions they were forced to live under. Like I said, this is a lifelong process of learning and there is always new information to be found! (Thank you @militant_macabre for this correction!)
.
#blackhistory #amplifymelanatedvoices #blm #blacklivesmatter #diversifyyourreading #decolonizeyourbookshelves #readBlackauthors #bipocauthors #amplifyblackauthors #antiracism #antiracistbookclub #alwayslearning #lifelongwork #upliftblackvoices #supportblackauthors". 

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Questions to consider when checking on Black friends and classmates

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Questions to consider when checking on Black friends and classmates

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"What's your name, where are you from, and what's your funniest arrest or police story?"

In my Master's of Fine Arts Play Rewriting Class at Columbia University last semester, guest speakers were often asked by my professor to pose an ice-breaker to accompany introductions. In prior sessions guests asked questions like, "What is your favorite meal?" or "Who are your playwriting inspirations?" to which I always had a lot to say.

But that question on that day immediately felt different as it echoed throughout my twenty-five-year-old Black male mind.

"Come on! What's your craziest police story? I want to hear the wild ones," posed the white female guest lecturer to our group of nine playwrights.

I am the only Black male playwright of the 2021 graduating year; there is one Black woman, and everyone else is white or white-passing. I wrestled with what to say to this seemingly nice and socially aware individual (the play we studied for her visit examines stereotypes women face in media representation).

Do I talk about how my heart stops every time I see a cop car on the road? I wondered. No. Not entertaining.

Do I talk about the day the police interrogated me, without any sense of compassion, about my grandfather's death as he laid on our living room floor motionless after finally succumbing to stage four lung cancer once my panic-given CPR failed to save his life? Absolutely not. Too traumatic.

I dug deep within the cobwebbed-covered file cabinets of my mind to find a cute interaction with law enforcement, but all I found were tales of police harassment, fear-inducing traffic stops, and discrimination.

However, over the mental ruffling of papers and diary entrees that occurred in my own mind, my ears picked up on the laughter of my classmates. I stopped and listened.

Over the next 20 minutes, I heard my classmates describe stories that I could not fathom ever doing and living to retell as a Black person.

The truth is, life has bombarded me with stories of Black death ad nauseam in recent years.

Over the next 20 minutes, I heard my classmates describe stories that I could not fathom ever doing and living to retell as a Black person. The truth is, life has bombarded me with stories of Black death ad nauseam in recent years.

I watched the world fail to deliver justice to the family of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 after he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, spawning the #BlackLivesMatter Movement in 2013.

I felt the fear of Black mothers everywhere when 12-year-old Tamir Rice 's killing made national news after Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann fatally shot the boy in 2014 because the youth dared to play with a toy gun in a public park.

And I heard Eric Garner 's infamous last words, "I can't breathe," as New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a fatal chokehold in 2014.

By the time I was 20, America had conditioned me to accept that the public display and criminalization of dead Black male bodies at the hands of white authority, whether police or vigilante, remained mainstream and almost always unpunishable seven decades after the murder of Emmett Till in 1955.

As I sat and listened to my classmates' "hilarious" stories, I could not help but wonder if Martin, Rice, Garner, and Till would be alive today if they had skin that resembled my classmates instead of the skin that I see when I look in the mirror. But I already knew the answer to that question.

Finally, the time had come and it was my turn to answer the ice-breaker.

"I've never interacted with the police alone," I said.

I did not have the energy to talk about how triggering the question was or how tone-deaf the resulting conversation had become. I just laughed it off, hoping that we could move on together.

No one cared that the question sent me into a deep mental spiral. No one checked-in on me after class or during the weeks that followed. I was not surprised, for my entire Columbia experience had already been filled with microaggressions and silencing.

Fast forward eight months and a large portion of my Columbia peers in the School of the Arts are now posting daily about the 2020 killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. People who have spoken over me in class, outright called me aggressive, and vilified me in their "all-white group texts," now "care" for Black people, along with the rest of mainstream America, as the biggest companies in the world scramble to craft brand statements in response to #BlackLivesMatter.

With that sudden burst of care, (which, I am not suggesting is artificial, but I do believe is convenient) has also come "the check-in" spurred by memes like, "Have you checked-in on your Black friends today?" and "white people ― text your Black friends, we are hurting."

In short, "check-ins," at their purest, are attempts to make sure a person is okay mentally, which honestly, hold the potential to be great. However, such outreach does not automatically erase the history that white students have built with their Black classmates over the past semester, months, or years.

As a Black student who attended both the Historical Black College and University (HBCU) Morehouse College, is a current student at Columbia, an Ivy League institution, co-founded "Zoomfest: The Theatrical Podcast," (along with Latinx Producing Student Sean Chia), which celebrates POC, queer, and femme stories, and a panelist for Black and Ivy, a panel discussion series on the Black Ivy League experience founded by Kristen Spencer, the black female playwright in my year, I have encountered white oppression, analyzed its trappings, and uplifted the voices of people who have been stifled by it.

Therefore, I present three questions I think white students should ask themselves before reaching out to their Black classmates in response to the headlines of racial injustice that have dominated the news cycle in recent weeks. I hope you will answer honestly and critically.
1. Have you ever had a conversation with your Black classmate about America's history of anti-blackness before the killing of George Floyd?
"This is not America," is a common response to the mainstream coverage of police brutality that I've heard in response to the spotlight on high-profile cases like Sandra Bland (2015), Philando Castile (2016), and Renisha McBride (2013) over the years. The assertion that America is not a place where countless numbers of Black lives can be taken without just cause and with no accountability is an assertion of the privileged. America is the powerhouse she is today because of her marriage to Black exploitation and indigenous genocide in her formative years. Black students have wrestled with America's anti-blackness since our childhoods, so while this may be a new topic for you, know that it is the first hurdle of our mornings every day as we prepare to leave our homes. With this, it is important to accept that your allyship may be too late in the minds of some of your classmates and your check-in may be viewed as opportunistic and an act inspired by white-guilt.
2. Have you ever witnessed your Black classmate experience possible racism/micro-aggressions in the classroom, and if so, what did you do to stop it?
Allyship is bigger than sending a text during quarantine. Part of the reason why the dozens upon dozens of Black students I know have trouble believing the sincerity of many of their white classmates' check-ins stems from the fact that they are coming from people who have watched them be maligned in person, to which no objections were made. More often than not, from the testimonies of my Black peers and my own personal experience, white people rarely stand up for us in the classroom. Interrogate yourself about your allyship. Is it new or do you regularly stand up for the Black people around you? Know that your previous instances of silence may be a source of distrust or resentment held by your Black classmates and hearing from you right now could twice-traumatize them.
3. Does your Black classmate like you?
The hardest question of all requires you, as a white person, to relinquish the power Western society and beyond has given you since birth over Black bodies. For a moment, stop thinking of your Black classmate as a part of a collective that tragedies happen to and recognize that they still are an individual with hopes, dreams, opinions and a mind of their own. Honestly ask yourself if your Black classmate likes you or if you have any kind of personal relationship with them. Have they texted you about good news in their life? Have they invited you out for person-to-person conversations in which you discussed your favorite foods, bands, or books? Do you know about their family life? Are you aware of how COVID-19 may have impacted their communities? Have they spent any time with you, alone, outside of the classroom ever? If not, then I would like you to truly consider if your classmate would want you in their texts, life, and mind during a time like this. The world may be crumbling in your Black classmates' mind, so hearing from and feeling the need to respond to a person they don't care for could add an additional level of stress.

I would like you to truly consider if your classmate would want you in their texts, life, and mind during a time like this. The world may be crumbling in your Black classmates' mind, so hearing from and feeling the need to respond to a person they don't care for could add an additional level of stress.

The world is at war with its history at the moment. We, as members of the global community, are experiencing a consistent cycle of traumas that replicates the traumas our eldest ancestors have felt. Pandemics are not new. Wars among leaders are not new. Unfortunately, Black death is not new either.

I encourage you to consider what the true needs of your Black classmates are at this moment. Are you truly needed in their space via text? If you still think so after answering my questions, please check-in on them. Let them know that they do not have to respond in your message, but provide an open channel of communication. Be prepared for any response possible, whether it be anger, frustration, or silence. Do not center yourself in your message. Put them first in the check-in ― and for the rest of your life.

And to those of you that may now realize that your presence might not be needed by your Black classmates right now, thank you. It is a step in the right direction for true allyship in the quest for Black agency.

I encourage you to take these questions with you for the rest of your life and let them be the foundation on which you occupy space with Black people. Do not let your care, concern, and commitment to marginalized communities be reactive. Be proactive going forward and never again wait for social media to tell you when to stand up.
Devon Kidd is a current MFA Playwright of Columba University ('21) based in New York, with aspirations of establishing his voice in various entertainment mediums including playwriting, television, and film. With a passion for writing both surrealist and realist works in fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, and drama, Devon possesses the ability to succeed in numerous genres while maintaining an artistic lens informed by the Black American experience. Before attending Columbia, Devon worked in a plethora of fields including politics, law, marketing, and community outreach, which has greatly influenced the breadth of his creative voice. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2016 from the HBCU Morehouse College with a Bachelor's Degree in English.
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3 Questions White Students Should Ask Themselves Before Checking In On Black Classmates

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"What's your name, where are you from, and what's your funniest arrest or police story?" In my Master's of Fine Arts Play Rewriting Class at Columbia University last semester, guest speakers were often asked by my professor to pose an ice-breaker to accompany introductions. In prior sessions guests asked questions like, "What is your favorite meal?"

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NOEL KING, HOST:

At this point, given what's happening in our country, a lot of parents want to talk to their kids about racism. Some admit they don't know how. For thoughts on where to start, I talked to anti-racism scholar Ibram Kendi and children's author Renee Watson. I started by asking Ibram about a distinction that he often makes. Should parents teach their kids to be not racist or to be anti-racist?

IBRAM KENDI: From my understanding, when parents desire for their kids to be not racist, they typically do not talk to their kids about race. They avoid conversations about race or even explaining the racial inequities and dynamics in their community. As a result, typically, those kids are taught to be racist by society.

And so by contrast, when you're essentially raising a kid to be anti-racist, you're deliberately encouraging them to talk about race and Racism. You're deliberately teaching them that all the racial groups are equals. You're deliberately showing them, yes, there are different colors and there are different cultures. And we should value them all equally.

KING: Renee, Ibram is saying that if parents don't talk openly to their kids about racism, they will go out into the world and society will make them racist. Do you agree with that?

RENEE WATSON: Absolutely. I think that it's important for parents and for educators to be intentional about preparing our young people for the world that they are inheriting and living in. To not talk about it is a disservice to all young people. So not just black students who need to learn about their blackness and their history, but white students as well and nonblack people of color need to know our country's history and talk explicitly about it.

KING: There's research now that shows kids can internalize racial bias between the ages of 2 and 4. How should adults talk to such young children about racism?

KENDI: You can use books as a conversation-starter. What I find with my 4-year-old daughter is when I'm reading her books, she asks questions about those books. And so use tools like books. And then the child will potentially guide the conversation. I also think you can turn on the demonstrations on TV or go to the demonstrations. And I suspect even the 3 year olds will ask, what is going on? Again, it gives you the opportunity to talk about race and racism.

KING: May I ask - 4-year-olds often will ask you to read the same book over and over and over again.

KENDI: (Laughter).

KING: Is there a particular book that you read to your daughter where you think, OK, as I read this to her, I see her young mind getting it?

KENDI: Oh, well, she loved "Hair Love" and I think partly because I have locks. And she just saw me in the book and certainly saw herself.

KING: Renee, how do you talk to the young people in your life?

WATSON: Especially for the little ones, bringing them books that give historical context, like biographies. There's so many picture books that are biographies of black activists, artists, people who paved the way for us to be here. And then, I also think - I want to go back to "Hair Love." I think it's important to bring in books that allow readers to see black people living their everyday lives.

We don't want to teach children that black pain and struggle is the only part of black life. But I also think it's important to just let young people see that black people live lives. And they do their hair. And they play outside. And they have fun and that that is an important part of the conversation, too.

KING: Ibram, when you talk to your daughter about how to talk to other kids - if they hear something racist or something racist is said to them, these are young kids we're dealing with, what should their response be?

KENDI: If it's a black child, if it's a child of color, it's critically important for the parents of black children to, even long before they go and experience another child telling them their hair is ugly, to be constantly sharing with them and telling them that their hair is beautiful because when they receive that type of racist idea from another young child, they may not internalize it. They may not see themselves as the problem. They may see what the child said as the problem.

And then, simultaneously, I always encourage Imani (ph), who is - our daughter's name, to, if something happens to her, for her to have the ability to speak up about it. One thing I want to emphasize, though, is parents, caretakers, you know, anyone who loves young children, are typically teaching them how to be kind - why? - because we recognize that we should raise kind children.

It's the same thing when it comes to being anti-racist. We can teach these concepts before the children can fully understand them just as we teach many different values. And as they grow, they're going to understand it more just as we're growing, hopefully, we're understanding it more.

KING: In this country and around the world, we're seeing a period of immense turmoil and unrest with racial injustice at the center of it. What are you each telling the children in your lives about this particular moment?

WATSON: I've been having conversations about the historical context of it all. This isn't just happening. You know what I mean? We can go back just a few years. And then we can go back and encourage them to learn about activists who fought for our civil rights, who fought for our freedom. People have stood up before and that you've inherited that, too.

It's not just the pain that's been passed down, but it's also the resilience and the wherewithal to fight back and to stand up. So what are you going to do? How are you going to raise your voice? And I particularly talk about poets and artists a lot because I think that that's a way young people, especially, can lend their voices to the cause.

KING: And, Ibram, how about you?

KENDI: When George Floyd's daughter was on television and expressed, of course, how sad she was that he was no longer there and Imani saw that. And so she asked us, you know, about it. And ultimately, where we sort of landed on was me explaining that there was nothing wrong with black people.

If one day she is rejected because of the color of her skin and she doesn't have awareness of racism, who is she going to blame? Herself. And there's nothing worse for a very young child to be struggling with their own sense of self and their own confidence in themselves. And so I actually see this literature and these conversations as protective.

KING: Renee Watson and Ibram Kendi, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

WATSON: Thank you.

KENDI: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF KEEM THE CIPHER'S "TRANSCEND.")

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How Can Parents Make Their Kids Understand How To Be Anti-Racist?

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NOEL KING, HOST: At this point, given what's happening in our country, a lot of parents want to talk to their kids about racism. Some admit they don't know how. For thoughts on where to start, I talked to anti-racism scholar Ibram Kendi and children's author Renee Watson.

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Listen in or watch as Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia talk about two upcoming virtual #IREL20 institutes focused on centering racial equity in our literacy practices. ⁠

Click the image below to download the #IREL20 brochure! VIRTUAL #IREL20 INSTITUTE 1: JULY 13-17, 2020
Understanding Systemic Racism: Society, Schools, and Classrooms ⁠

⁠ VIRTUAL #IREL20 INSTITUTE 2: JULY 27-31, 2020
Interrogating Internalized Racism in Ourselves and in Our Practice ⁠

These institutes were developed in collaboration with Heinemann PD Services. Each #IREL20 multi-day institute is a full week of interactive, self-paced multi-media engagement and content, punctuated with a central day of synchronous live online sessions. All activities will be hosted within the event's dedicated online PD platform.

***

The following links are to articles and resources that Sonja and Tricia mention during the talk. They are listed in order of mention:

***

View the recording of the June 15, 2020 Facebook LIVE session with Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia.

Teaching Interpretation. Sonja Cherry-Paul, Ed.D., has taught middle school English for twenty years. Sonja's research and work stem from an unyielding commitment to anti-bias and anti-racist pedagogy and practices. Sonja developed curriculum that centered the work of racial literacy in K-12 schools. She co-founded the Race Matters Committee in the school district in order to spotlight and center issues related to race and racism and provide faculty and staff with the language and tools to facilitate conversations with students about race.

Sonja is the co-founder and co-facilitator of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy. She is an author, consultant, and senior research associate at TCRWP. Sonja is the co-facilitator of the Heinemann Fellows. She is the coauthor, with Dana Johansen, of the titles Breathing New Life into Book Clubs, Flip Your Writing Workshop, and

To learn more visit sonjacherrypaul.com or follow Sonja or on Twitter @SonjaCherryPaul

Tricia Ebarvia has spent the last 19 years as a classroom educator with a student-driven approach to teaching reading and writing. Through her career, Tricia has applied the philosophy of the teacher-as-researcher while applying best practices to "cultivate independent learners" through independent reading and student choice. "For better or worse, "well enough" doesn't satisfy me. I approach each school year, each course, each unit with fresh eyes." Tricia is an english teacher and department chair at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, PA. Tricia is a Heinemann Fellow from the 2016-2018 cohort.

To learn more visit triciaebarvia.org or follow Tricia on Twitter @triciaebarvia

Tricia is working on a new book that will be published by Heinemann in Spring 2021.

Below is a full transcript of the podcast. This transcript has been machine generated.

Sonja: Hi, everyone. Hello, hello. I'm Sonja Cherry-Paul. I am an activist, an educator and an author from New York. I've been teaching middle school ... I was a middle school teacher for about 20 years. And I'm here today with the full force of all of my blackness, and the history, and the richness of my racialized identity, and I'm bringing that here today to talk to you about this moment in our nation, IREL 20, and liberation.

Tricia: Hi, everyone. My name is Tricia Ebarvia, and I have been a high school English teacher since 2001. I teach in a public school just outside of Philadelphia. I am so excited to be here tonight with Sonja to talk about liberation and how we can get there, and especially how our literacy practices can take us there. Since this is a conversation that centers race and racism, I also want to say that I am a second generation Filipino American. My parents immigrated here in the 1970s. My racial autobiography informs a lot of my instruction in some ways. I've been unpacking that over the years, and I will share that throughout this conversation.

Tricia: But Sonja and I ... I don't remember exactly when Sonja and I met, I just feel like we've just known each other forever. We founded last year together the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy. We had found that there were a lot of conversations around equity, and there were a lot of conversations around literacy, but the intersections of those were something that we found weren't really happening in a lot of conversations. And so we decided to come together, and we had an opportunity to do a summer institute last year, and we are very excited to be able to bring that Institute to you this summer. Not in person as we had hoped because, of course, of our global pandemic, but at least online. This webinar, we hope is a way to kick off that conversation. So whether you are able to sign up for our institute or not, we hope that this conversation over the next few minutes or so is going to provoke some thinking and some conversation for ... within yourself and with your colleagues. So keep it going.

Sonja: Right. So, Tricia, I just want to say a few words, maybe a little more than a few words, about the fierce urgency of now, and us evoking the words of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Which we know these ... Hopefully we know these words come from his "I Have a Dream" speech. And Tricia knows one of my great sources of frustration is the way in which Dr. King's life and legacy has been whitewashed and reduced to these canned narratives. So I think it's extremely relevant that we both frame this discussion with these words, as well as talk about the ways that his work, the work, has been co-opted, particularly now as the country is finally beginning to discuss the racial data around COVID-19, respond to it by opening up the country, almost as fast as we can, now that we understand who it's killing. And as we see continued police brutality, and are beginning to discuss re-imagining what school will look like when we go back in the fall.

Sonja: It was 1963 when Dr. King gave this speech, and within the first two pages, he's calling attention to the political, the economic and social conditions, plaguing black Americans. And these same conditions are plaguing black Americans today, right now. We must call out the way Dr. King, during that time in America, was fiercely hated by white America. His life was threatened. His family was threatened. The government wiretapped his house. His house was set on fire. He was assassinated. Because his activism was not simply about demonstrating peacefully. It was about equality and it was about change. There's a legacy in this country of violence against black people who dare to speak up and claim their humanity.

Sonja: So our country often cherry picks the words and actions of Dr. King. They cherry pick the parts that they feel most comfortable with, foregoing the others. And so as we frame this conversation right from the start about the fierce urgency of now, we need to be centering the lives of an experience as a black man and brown people in our thinking around what you're hearing. Now is the time for audacious demands for justice, and for those who are serious about advancing the work of equity to make those demands unabashedly. So as we're having this conversation with protests and unrest happening around not only the nation, but the world, about the death of George Floyd, and all of the black men and women that have come before him, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, yet another black man, Rayshard Brooks, was murdered by police in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend.

Sonja: So as we frame this discussion with the fierce urgency of now, refusing to center white comfort and wishes to return to normal, it's important that we think about his other words, too, in that speech, which are often up scored. In particular, I'm thinking about, "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness, like a mighty stream." So, Trisha, when you think about what has this moment revealed for you, what's coming to mind for you?

Tricia: Well, I think exactly what you said in many ways. As I've been watching the protest being covered by the media, and being covered by social media, including people on various social media networks, I've seen a lot of memes. Dr. King linking arms, like this is what peaceful demonstration looks like, as a way to criticize the uprisings that are happening right now. And again, it's this very selective memory that I think white America mostly has around Dr. King and his legacy. I worry about the ways in which this moment will again be co-opted. When you were speaking, Sonja, I was thinking ... The word that came to mind was gentrification of civil rights, and what civil rights actually means, and what protest actually means. What does that look like, and what does direct action mean? It is about creating discomfort. That's how you bring people to the table.

Tricia: So this moment is revealing to me a lot of the narrative around this moment. How is this being narrated? How is it being covered? What is the media saying versus what are people on the ground saying? Whose voices are being heard? Whose voices are being excluded? Who are the people in positions of power who are going to make decisions? All of these things come to mind. And then I think, too, again, about how this is affecting our kids. Because the way that this is going to get narrated for posterity is also the way that our children, your grandchildren, my grandchildren, they're going to learn about this in school, and what will they learn is the question. Fifty years from now, what is going to be the legacy of this moment?

Tricia: Is it going to be the way we look at Dr. King today? And I would be severely ... I would be disappointed if that's what our textbooks told us about this moment. So I have that urgency right now to think about how can we ... How can we face this moment honestly? I've used the word and heard the word a lot around my colleagues, this idea of the word reckoning, that there needs to be a reckoning. It's past time that there's a reckoning. And part of a reckoning means really looking in the mirror, and you're not going to like what you see. I think this pandemic has revealed what systemic inequities have always existed. And so yeah, I think that it's going to be hard, but it's work that must be done. Otherwise you're going to be caught in a loop. We're just going to be continuing to do this forever. What about you, Sonja? Anything else about this moment right now for you?
Sonja: Yeah, no, everything that you just said. The selective memory of this country, this willful amnesia that has just been perpetuated over and over again. When we look and we see the folks that are in the streets and they are just refusing to die down, they are not there to placate. They are there to disturb you, to jumpstart the collective consciousness of this country in order to create change. So, yeah. Yeah.
Tricia: I think, too, what heartened ... what I feel a little bit hopeful about, it's a lot of youth, just like it was in the 1960s and 70s. Youth. The youth will lead us if we're willing to listen to them.

Sonja: That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Tricia: So I think when we think again about this moment right now, and Dr. King said the fierce urgency of now in 1963, when will now be ... When will we actually pay attention to now? What will it take to disturb us enough to actually make a difference? And so when we look at what's happening right now, I think that our pandemic, I think the uprisings, the civil rights uprisings that are happening today ... I always think about, again, another one of those memes on social media, if you ever wondered what you would have done during civil rights, you can just look at what you're doing right now.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: You don't need to wonder. You can just ask yourself, well, what am I doing right now? And understanding, of course, we are in a global pandemic, and there are restrictions in place for the collective good, understandably. But there are things that we can do. And one of those is to reckon with our role in how our system has played out, especially our role as educators. So yeah, thinking about right now, systems, inequities in our healthcare system. Sonja mentioned who is getting sick, who are ... who's considered essential? Sometimes I can't help but hear when I hear the word essential, sometimes I hear the word disposable.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: The racial health disparities, economic injustices. And of course, schools. Schools is a system. I think these last three months teaching through a distance learning model has been very revealing as far as what our kids need and don't need. When we think about what is essential learning, it's interesting how so many state tests, of course, have been canceled. That's interesting that state tests have been canceled. Suddenly those aren't necessary. It makes me wonder, well, have they ever been? Yeah. So all these things right now are ... The current pandemic and our crises right now are really revealing.
Sonja: Yes. And I love that you said what's revealing is who is considered disposable. It is a hard word to reckon with, but it is the word. Who is considered disposable? And I feel like what has been revealed in these months is a collision. All of the institutes, healthcare, education, economic, policing, colliding together in ways that are finally visible to some who have willfully or unintentionally not seen what has been happening in this nation, and the consequences of this emerging from the wreckage and flames. Time and time again are black and brown bodies treated as disposable.
Tricia: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep. And in our schooling, too. When I think about the disparities that are going to come out as far as the learning-

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: We need to be ready when we see that. And we shouldn't be surprised by that data, either.

Sonja: We should not. And we should be prepared to start seeing a flurry of the usage of the gap word again, the academic gap, which is a racist term, and folks are ready to just pull that right out of their back pockets to justify the kinds of solutions they're going to come up with for how we educate kids in the post COVID-19 ... era of post COVID. So we all should be prepared for this.

Tricia: Yeah. Without recognizing that any quote, unquote, gap that we're seeing is really by design.

Sonja: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tricia: Right? That there is not anything inherently wrong or deficient about children, but everything in our systems.

Sonja: That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Tricia: So again, crises reveal character. So we have to think about ... I think in moments of crises, we tend to fall back to our biases. That's what research has shown over and over again. It's almost a survival instinct, and we can't get rid of our biases. They're baked into us. That's how we've been socialized. And so the question becomes, when we think about the purpose and function of schools ... and our audience right now is a lot of teachers. Think about the last few months. To what extent did you spend time really thinking about the purpose and function of schools, and then your role in it? And in thinking about the actions ... And again, I understand that this is an emergency remote learning situation. This is not something that any of us signed up for. This is just how things ... These are the cards that we were dealt. But how many decisions were made, and who was centered in these decisions? When we're thinking about falling back on what we know is good for kids, or what was comfortable for us.

Sonja: Yeah.

Tricia: That's the question.

Sonja: And I think what you're saying is so true, this willingness to just really think that through and interrogate it, because certainly in times of uncertainty, as you said, and also times of stress, we revert to this default ... these default ways of knowing and being in the world. We can see that in the history of healthcare. Doctors who don't interrogate their biases and assumptions, continuing to ignore black pain, to treat black and brown people as if they have higher thresholds for pain and trauma. Left unchecked, this becomes the default. There's a history of medical institutions using African-Americans unwillingly for their research that extends beyond Tuskegee, beyond Henrietta Lacks, that absolutely shaped the way that doctors right now are treating black and brown people today.

Sonja: I say all this to say, when we think about schooling, another institution, and folks say they're so anxious to return, what is the normal that they are so anxious to return to? Because that normal is grounded in whiteness and committing educational violence against black and brown students. This has been happening since the beginning. To evoke Dr. Ibram Kendi's words, it's been stamped into schooling from the moment black and brown children stepped foot through the doors. So yeah. Where do we go from here?
Tricia: Yeah. It's interesting to think about when people are ... I understand it, but that phrase. I just want to get back to normal. I want everything to reopen. I want ... That urge to go back to what was comfortable. And I think a lot of people are looking around, myself included, I think ours included, that what ... I don't want to go back to normal. And I'll be very honest speaking from my own experience. This is not ideal. This is not an ideal learning environment in my house, and it's not an ideal teaching environment. And I have three children, and I'm not sure how much academic learning that they've done. They've done some. I'm fortunate that they tend to do school well according to those measures. But I also know that I've ... This time has also been a gift in other ways. I think about the ways in which they've been able to bond.

Tricia: Right. I think about the ways in which they've been able to bond. I think about the ways in which they have learned other lessons about what it means to be a human being, how they have been not under the grind of competitiveness that they see and feel in schools, going from one class period to the next, to the next, to the next. The flexibility that they've been able to experience right now. So, there are lots of things about right now, as terrible as it is in most ways, that I think we can learn from. So that we don't just go back to the grind that was wearing us all down, and that has been designed to systematically have a negative impact on black and brown children.
Tricia: So, thinking about how have our schools been normed? They've been normed according to the people who have had power, which in this country, have traditionally been white men. Right? And so, we have to think about those, unearth and unpack those values that are really the underpinning of our public school system.

Sonja: I agree with you. I think that unearthing an unpacking of the underpinnings of school is exactly where we must go immediately, because schools are the most critical site for change for me in our institutions, among our institutions, because it's here where kids are indoctrinated in these kind of belief statements that have brought us to where we are right now in this moment. And oftentimes I'll hear from folks, educators will say about kids, "Oh, well, they must have learned that at home." And what we need to do is shift the conversation to, they must have learned that at school. They learned it through silences around race and racism, and this unyielding devotion to whiteness, from what kids are asked to read, to how they are asked to write, they are swimming in whiteness.

Sonja: And for black and brown kids in particular, they're drowning in it. They're drowning in it because our educational system again, and again, tells them that something about them is fundamentally wrong. I think about your boys being home with you Tricia, and how under these unfortunate circumstances, how that bubble you've created for them... Just, it's so nurturing and powerful for them to not have to face that message constantly when they walk through school, that who they are and what their beliefs are, there's something inherently wrong with that. So, we have to be willing to, in terms of where we go from here, we have to be willing to recognize the steady spirit killing intentions of our curriculum and instruction on black and brown children, and then dramatically, not gradually, make substantive changes.

Tricia: Yeah. And I think again, if schools are a mirror of society, ask yourself, well, what does society look like right now? Right? And so when we think about what's going on right now, and what our children, all of our children are seeing in the news, they might see this, right? They might see people who in April were out protesting. And these protests were of course all about individual freedom, right? Freedom to open up businesses. And I do want to say, I'm very empathetic towards people who want businesses to open because their livelihoods depend on it. Right? That is a real issue. I get that. At the same time, I can't help but wonder, what if our society was one that there was a safety net for crises, like a global pandemic, so that people wouldn't have to choose between putting food on the table and their health, and the collective health of people in their community.

Tricia: Maybe we need to imagine a little bit beyond that. And so Dr.Kendi here, he wrote this essay for The Atlantic. And I just love the way that he frames this, that some Americans are, right now, want to live in a society that frees them as individuals by subjugating the community. That was the psyche of the slave holder who believed he was free, only if the community was enslaved. And I think about that idea of individualism and how much individualism is so baked into our school systems. Kids are measured, they are their success. Quote, unquote, success is quantified. They are ranked, they are tested. They are... Think about the level of competition, right?

Tricia: I remember when this pandemic began, there were discussions among many teachers in my school and other schools and other teachers I've talked to, teachers were like, "Well, how are we going to grade? We can't really... How do we do these?" And these are good conversations. And some people expressed this nervousness that kids weren't going to do the work that we assigned or provided, if they weren't getting grades for it. That tells you a lot.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: If kids are only doing things because there's a number attached to it, then that's feedback for us. They don't see that there's something there. I think about the way that individualism is part of that grind that I was talking about.
Sonja: Yeah. I think you're so right, Tricia. America loves to tout its individual freedoms and to take great pride in them. And lest I be accused of being unpatriotic, I'm not. But I also need to point to this ideology, because it has absolutely everything to do, in terms of leading us to where we are, to this moment right now. This idea that we don't need to care about anyone but ourselves and we can stand at the sidelines and watch the terror inflicted on communities, as a result of that stance. This rush to open the country is absolutely a form of racial terror. It's the nation, again, saying loudly and proudly exactly who is, I'm going to come back to that word that you used, disposable.

Sonja: And folks expressing gratitude for being able to get a haircut, and dining in restaurants. And we've got armed men storming the State Capitol. White men, I should say, storming the State Capitol. The story, we know, would absolutely be differently if these were hundreds of black men storming a State Capitol armed, to demand their freedoms in response to these stay at home orders.

Sonja: So, we're going to have to get to the point where we talk about morals and our core values, and we have to name this. And we have to face it in order for things to truly change. We have to recognize that these citizens are the students in the seats of our classrooms, have been shaped and encouraged to think this way, throughout our educational practices, as a result of our educational practices.

Tricia: Yeah. I think about... I mean, it's not on the slide here, but I go back to Charlottesville. And I go back to Charlottesville in 2017. And I think about those young men with their torches, polos and khaki pants, and I could not help but think to myself that these are kids in our classrooms.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: And it horrified me. I remember that moment thinking... I mean, I understand. I hear what people are thinking right now. Well, it comes from their parents, all those things. Yes, you're right. Parents are... And community members and family, they are a powerful socializing force in our young children, as they should be. Schools also play a role. And to be very honest, schools for some kids are a place where they can be exposed to ideas that are also outside of their family, so they can test and tease. This is not about indoctrination, it is about getting the full sense of what our, I think our... A collective society could be and could look like. And yeah, I just can't help but think about the role that teachers and schools play here.

Sonja: And I'm glad you brought up Charlottesville, because I remember that August, Tricia. And I remember walking back into school and it was superintendent's conference day, and all the faculty had come together for the first time since we're getting ready to launch the school year. And I remember not one person talked about it. It was the same year as the... What was the ice bucket challenge? Do you remember that?

Tricia: Yep.

Sonja: I can't remember what it was, but it was the ice bucket challenge and everyone was posting their ice bucket pourings on each other and having fun. And it was coming up on the slides in the auditorium of my school, as it was being shown to all of us to sort of welcome us back in. At no point did Charlottesville come up.
Sonja: So, we can continue to talk about kids learning stuff at home. But as I said, we have to talk about, no, they are absolutely learning this in school. They're learning this in school. And yeah, when we think about our collective freedoms, we can be thinking about how do we move toward a focus on community and the collective? How can we understand that such a focus does not take away from the individual? And I think as an African American woman, what has been a core value in my upbringing, is to think about the collective. I was taught that my actions mattered not simply on my own, but as a part of the whole, and to have a sense of humility, right?

Sonja: Too often, this is not what we see valued in schools. As you said, you're taught to compete against your peer. Your focus is on yourself and not on others. We have to acknowledge that that has been what's driven schooling, this idea of who is the best, and determining that by quantitative data.

Tricia: Yeah. I think about the ways in which we look at test scores and we think about, what does high performing mean? And high achieving? And rankings and ratings and all these things. And I think we have to ask ourselves, what is the metric? And I think if we change the metric for what is a good person? What is a responsible citizen? Like, if we had a report card on those kinds of things. If we had, let's say for example, the teaching tolerance, social justice standards. If those were our standards, I think a lot of places that are considered high performing would not be so high performing. Maybe even failing, according to those different metrics. And so, I want us to think about, again, this idea of collective freedom. And Dr. Kendi here, "I want to live in a society that frees me as an individual, by freeing my community. That was the psyche of the enslaved knew she was enslaved, only because her community was enslaved."

Tricia: This idea, what is freedom? Right? Freedom is one of those words that's tossed around. And we can't really talk about freedom if we don't talk about individual versus collective, or really, not just individual versus collective, but individual and collective, individual and community. I think right now, when you look at these pictures here, you can see there is a moment of a kind of reckoning, or a kind of moment of truth here. What is going to be more important? And I think that the pandemic, as far as our collective health... I can say, "Well, I'm just going to do my own thing, and Sonja's going to do her own thing." Except that we can't, we've agreed to a social contract, where we live with one another.
Tricia: And what I do, whether I choose to wear my mask or not, whether I choose to teach this book or not, it does affect Sonja. And it does reflect how her children are going to move in the world. Right? And we have to think in the ways that we are all part of the larger tapestry, right? And similar to Sonja, I think black and brown communities, many black and brown communities and indigenous communities, there's an ethos of community, collectivism, of cooperation, that is not just about the individual. Growing up, my parents, it was very clear to me that I, when I stepped out into the world, I wasn't just me. But I was also representing my family, I was representing my community. Not so much that I was a spokesperson, but that... Not that I spoke for, but I was a reflection of, right? And so that I moved in the world thinking about that, and then thinking about how then I could always be in community with other people. Right? That was constantly the way that I was thinking about things.

Tricia: And I think that there's a wisdom there, right? Like Dr. Kim Parker and I, some of you might know, we organized a 31 days IBPoC, which is 31 days of writing from indigenous black and educators of color, in the month of May. And one of the central messages or takeaways from that, is the collective wisdom and excellence. This is a time where we're looking for solutions, where people are looking around thinking, what are we going to do? Right? In any crisis, people look around and say, "What are we going to do?" Whether it's a crisis like climate change, whether it's a crisis like gun violence, whether it's a crisis like right now with the pandemic, what are we going to do?

Tricia: And I think we have answers. There are answers. And those answers have largely been ignored. And those answers oftentimes are in the wisdom and excellence of brown and black communities, if we're willing to hear. It's time to hear.

Sonja: And that ethos of care and collective good, that are part of the wisdom of indigenous black people of color that you and Dr. Kim Parker were thinking about, in 31 days, it is that ethos that is violated when our kids go to school, right? It's another example of educational violence, by essentially schools working to break that, to force indigenous black people of color and our students to succumb to these white ways of being and knowing in the world.

Sonja: And I think about everything that you're saying, like the solutions, the solutions and how the message is heard. And yes, indigenous people in particular have been telling us and telling us and telling us and telling us forever and ever, and we can't hear the message about, for example, the environment until Leonardo DiCaprio says it? I mean, I don't understand. It's just this dismissing of collective knowledge and care that is, again, it's a violence. In my community, you're a part of the village. You've heard it, right? You're a part of the village. And yes, you matter individually, but it is collectively that we work together, and the village is here for you and you work for the village. So, I do think that dipping into that richness, into that well of collective good, is essential in terms of where we go from here.

Tricia: Yeah. So again, thinking again, we started this thinking about what are your beliefs about the purpose and function of schools in our society? Do you think that schools are simply a mirror of our society, or do you believe as I do, that they can be transformative? That schools don't have to be a place where kids are inflicted with the kind of social, emotional, intellectual violence, right? That schools can be a place for liberation. That we can actually be free. I think about the ways in which, growing up... And I did go to predominantly white schools. I think about the ways in which parts of my own identity, I knew I had to cut them off when I walked through the school door.

Tricia: I mean, to some extent that is true for every child, right? Because you show one part of you in one context and another. So, I don't want to like, all students this. But I will say that there is a specific kind of contortion that brown and black children have to learn when they go to school, because they learn very quickly that the parts that nurtured them, and held them tight, and really developed core sense of who they were at home, that those things have to be tucked away in a box the minute they go into school. And that message is received over and over again, by not just the ways of being that they have to be in school, but also when we think about how they are represented in curriculum, or really not represented in curriculum, right?

Tricia: ... or are really not represented in curriculum, right? So again, if you're a teacher who's thinking... Recently there's been a lot of teachers, they've acknowledged that racism has existed, but I think recent events have really clarified for them. I think the extent to which it continues to damage kids, especially with the pandemic, I think also, has really shone a light on these inequities. But I think if you're surprised and disturbed, that's a moment to reflect on yourself and ask, "Why am I disturbed?" Because the system is working exactly as designed.

Sonja: That's right.

Tricia: All the inequities that we have seen that have come out because of school closures and distance learning, every system that we see where there are racial inequities, that's how they were designed. They are the logical consequence of practices, policies, or lack of policies that have led to our moment right now.

Tricia: If you've really been paying attention. And so if you haven't been and were surprised and disturbed, and I'm sometimes surprised that I'm still surprised. I constantly think about "I can't believe this". And I think, "Well, why didn't I believe this?" And I have to unpack my own privilege and my own like sense of "Why didn't I know that?" And then I have to ask myself "How come I wasn't taught this", too. So again, it's like a kind of reckoning with understanding systemically how all this has been working and also my role in it. And then my role moving forward.

Sonja: That's right. Racism in education, it's not coincidental. As you said, it's designed this way. It's functioning efficiently so it's not coincidental. It's not isolated, it is endemic. It is stamped into the foundation of schooling. And when I think about the beliefs and purposes and function of schools in our society, this draws me back to really learning and implementing anti-racist critical race theory, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies, not as a list of practices that we can just check off occasionally and throughout the year, but as part of the blueprint that we design and the foundation that we build.
Sonja: So anti-racism education is not about repairing cracks in the foundations. It's about our realization, reckoning if we will, evoke that word again, that we need to tear down the foundation and rebuild it in ways that does not silence everything that we've been talking about. And to see this work as not exclusive from the curriculum, it is the curriculum. It's the bedrock upon which we build so that students understand the larger social and historical context of racism. If we are to really have this transformative approach to education that we're looking for.

Tricia: Yep. And again, I think as we're looking for what, where, how are we going to get back to normal? And you know, this is a piece by Kelly Wickham Hurst that Sonja and I both love so much that she posted when school closures started and this idea that, what if quarantine homeschooling is bad for black children, right? What if, like when I shared with you, I kind of knew, and maybe this is what you accept as a person of color when you walk into school is that there are parts of you that you just have to like cut off when you go into the door, you'd have to cross those parts of your identity off, imagine the excellence that we could all achieve and benefit from, if kids could come to school whole.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: You know, and I think about, there was a line in this piece where she wrote, and it's not only just black children, but I mean, thinking about the racism around COVID-19 against Asian people, the spike in racism, against Asian people, there are kids right now who because they've been forced to stay home and Asian children, they have not had to go to school and to contend with the microaggressions and really outright aggressions that they might be facing otherwise. And so we have to think about again, like where, and in what ways, were our schools like being in the actual building, being damaging for some of our kids and how do we, when we go back, how do we make sure that, that's not part of the normal that we go back to and that whole transforming model that Sonja was talking about?

Sonja: Yeah. Yeah.

Tricia: Sonja, did you want to talk, you had such a great piece here. I just wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about this.

Sonja: Yeah. So yeah, for 31 days, indigenous black people of color and this amazing movement that you and Dr. Kim Parker have started. I wrote this piece Becoming the Architect of School, Architects of School Building for Liberation, to just sort of very quickly without being too dense, trace the legacy of racism across the history of this country. So that we can see again, that there are no accidents. It's not coincidental what we're seeing in our practices and in our curriculum. This has always been the plan. And so, as we are beginning to reimagine school, I want us to think about all the times that folks have reimagined school, what has been steady is to oppress black and brown children, to commit acts of educational violence against them. And so, as we move into this moment of reimagining school, in the wake of COVID-19, it's going to take the collective of us who are anti-racist educators coming together and demanding change and creating a new blueprint so that we can achieve liberation.

Tricia: And as you were speaking, Sonia, I was just thinking about people who might be sitting here thinking, or maybe not people sitting here tuning into this, but maybe your colleagues who aren't here, maybe thinking like, "Why can't we just go back to normal?" "I don't understand why do we have to change everything?" Why throw the baby out with the bath water kind of thing, like things were working. And I think if you're still in that place, I think that's an invitation to reflect on why you're in that place, right? Like why don't you see, what are you not seeing because black and brown people have been saying this forever, right? And I think that we know the system hasn't been working, right? We know that we have data to prove it. And so like, this is an opportunity if we're going to build something new to build something that takes into account the damage that has been done from the past.

Sonja: Yes.
Tricia: Yeah.
Sonja: Yes

Tricia: So one thing that has been encouraging is been... Dr. Kendi actually posted on social media about how never in his lifetime, has he ever seen so many books about anti-racism or racism in general, on the New York times bestseller list. I believe White Fragility is sold out his book, "How to be an Anti-racist, is sold out. And I think that's... And I have to say, I am heartened by that. And I have to say that, that education, and it's what I have done myself, right? I have had to unlearn and relearn our own history, our real history. I have had to do a lot of self-work as far as critical race theory and so on and so forth. And that all has a place, all of that is good, right? I have been in book clubs where we just like look and study and all of that is important. But I think one of the things that these two articles just recently brought attention to is this idea that what's going to happen after the book club?

Sonja: Yes. Trisha when Trey Johnson wrote, When Black People are in Pain, White People Just Join Book Clubs. I was sitting in my backyard, minding my own black business and this came up and I started reading and my closest friends know that I'm a humming woman. And I just left up out of my seat and just started to hum because listen, years ago I was part of a book club meeting with mostly white educators to discuss one of the most popular books out there that white people in particular have flocked to that you mentioned before. In order to understand and search for answers, or I don't know, about racism and I may or may not have had a cocktail or two at the cocktail hour before entering into this book club. Just want to put that out there.

Sonja: But one of the things that I was really asserting for during that gathering don't know how eloquent it was, was one of the things I was really asserting was that this gathering seems to be a demonstration of performative allyship, which is when the book itself becomes the performance. Because if you're unable to name how the book is going to translate into action and to substantive changes in your practices and in your ways of being in the world and then demonstrate those actions, it's a performance. And so when Trey Johnson wrote this article last week and talked about being caught in this perpetual loop of media cycle, display of racism, folks running to like gather and book club a book, and then nothing. And then media cycle of this loop, this perpetual loop, it just really struck a chord for me.

Tricia: And I think related to that, it's also a lot of the equity PD from people who've never been interested in equity before. I think we're also seeing some of that. And again, I think, the book can't be the means and ends like, it can't because then that's like what you said, then it becomes a performance. It's what you do afterwards, right? Because I read this and I was like, "Okay, well those are all the things that I did." I've done, you know me, I do all the reading but it's what we do with that reading. Do we allow it to change us? Do we connect it to our practices? Do we sit and think, "Okay, well I'm now I'm reading about this theory. How does that look in my everyday life?" How does that look in my classroom? How does that look in the decisions I'm making about curriculum? I have to really think about those things. How does that affect my relationship with kids and what actions can I then take?

Sonja: Yeah.

Tricia: Yeah, and I think, again, I think for some teachers too, with this other meme that I've seen circulating, since removing racist statues, we are removing racist statues, which books are we taking out of our curriculum? And of course this is referring to the removal of Confederate statues. Probably the long overdue removal of some, not probably, definitely the long overdue removal.

Tricia: And I think about years ago, a few years ago, I listened to this podcast with Aisha Taylor on Slate and she was talking about the... It was some anniversary I'm not even really sure, but it was a conversation in which she was discussing the removal and comparing the removal of Confederate statues, like Robert E. Lee to Gone with the Wind, the movie and the book and how... Oh, I know what it was, there was some anniversary in Gone with the Wind is usually playing at a theater. And like in the moment with Charlottesville, I think it was right after Charlottesville. It seems strange to play Gone with the Wind at this movie theater. Imagine, right? And so this idea that like, what is a Confederate like, it's this nostalgia for the past, it's, I guess an honoring of bravery courage, it's all white centered, right?

Tricia: It's definitely from a perspective that is, meant to build sympathy, right, for Robert Lee. And she was comparing it to, Gone with the Wind, that Gone with the Wind in many ways it's the stereotypes and the perspectives there. And I was thinking how many of our books, like I immediately went to how many of our books are also like that? How many do we see them as these kinds of fixed statues that we cannot remove? And I could not help but make that connection then to the number one book that PBS All-American reads lists, which was To Kill a Mockingbird. And can't help but wonder like, what is the connection here?

Sonja: Right.

Tricia: Because there's always one, as you know, in my work with disrupt texts with that is one that is almost always defended in the same way with the same fervor that these statues are sometimes defended.

Sonja: Yes. And so with the removal of these flags and statues, I'm wondering what will be the transfer to schools and our curriculum. Will we start to remove these relics of the curriculum that are doing exactly what you're saying? They're steeped in whiteness, they're glorifying whiteness and are another form of educational violence against black and brown students.

Tricia: Yep.

Sonja: And not only that, but we need to be changing the names of schools who are named after folks who committed terror against black and brown people. And now kids are being forced to go to a school every day named after this person, again, educational violence. I'm going to keep using that phrase because when we say violence, people again, want to think about physical harm and isolated acts. And these are continuous acts of terror that are committed against black and brown children. So yes, we will see if these relics of the curriculum are removed.

Tricia: Yeah. A couple of things here again, I am heartened by the fact that people are... I've seen, I'm on social media, a lot in Facebook groups and Twitter and Instagram. And I can't tell you how many of the requests for quote, unquote, diverse texts there have been, like this moment has awakened people's... And again, I think that's good. I think it's good that this moment is asking us to reflect and realize, you know what? I really don't have any voices from black people in my curriculum. I need to think about that. And now I need to seek recommendations. But as you were seeking those recommendations, I would ask you to think about like, why didn't you already have those in your back pocket? Why didn't you already have those lists? What reading were you not already doing that required you to go ask others about these books and these texts? Right?

Tricia: So this always brings to me, I think, Chad Everett has said that there is no diverse book. Because when you think about diversity and what a diverse book is, who is centered in that, whose perspective, right, is that from right? It's a white centered perspective, right? That white is normal and everything that is not white is diverse.

Sonja: That's right.

Tricia: If I were to look at it from the perspective of like black and brown people, like diversity is different, right? And so thinking about that and then thinking again about adding a book by a person of color, it does not constitute an anti-racist curriculum and definitely not anti-racist instruction. You can teach a book like The Hate You Give, in a way that is damaging. If you do not also understand the historical underpinnings, the context of that text, all the nuance that Angie Thomas is doing in that book, around code switching. If you don't have that kind of facility of knowledge and nuance, then you will potentially do damage to kids, not just the kids of color in the room, but also white children who are in the room who are looking to you as the person to lead them through these conversations.

Tricia: And that's the other thing that I want to point out too, which is that I think that there's a whole breadth and depth of black and brown excellence and talent and literacy and discourses that have not been taught in schools, that even myself as a teacher have not necessarily been taught. And so I have to recognize that that is a deficiency in me that I need to fix. That when I look at for example, I know that there is art that I have not...

Tricia: ... I look at, for example, I know that there is art that I don't have training to understand by black and brown people that I need to learn how to read. And that just because I don't know, I don't have access to those discourses doesn't mean that I can't, but I have to do the work to do it. And I simply can't dismiss those texts as not rigorous. Because, again, that word rigorous thrown around a lot. But when you do a critical reading of many texts, there are ways of unpacking that again, I don't think that many teachers are versed or practiced in doing yeah.

Sonja: Well, about 84% of teachers in the nation are white teachers. And certainly schooling in this country means that we haven't been taught to do that. To understand how to center the lives of anyone else other than white people. And to then learn about other ways of knowing and to recognize the brilliance of black and brown people. We have not been taught to do that. And I worry now that this effort to rush to books, to rush to diverse books, just sprinkling them in in our curriculum becomes the answer for some teachers. If I just get this book and put it in my curriculum, then I've done something. I'm not going to change, the curriculum isn't even going to change, and the instruction isn't going to change, but I'm just going to add in this book. And it absolutely, as you said, Trisha can cause more harm.

Sonja: And, and for all the reasons that you said, not understanding the nuance, not being able to recognize and teach the nuances of a book like the Hate You Give. And also, because there can be this, I don't know, this sort of like, "Let me just grab, brown folks on the cover and put them in." Not thinking about whether or not we are as Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas says, providing racialized mirrors and windows for kids. And not not thinking about the wide range of stories, the fullness of the humanity of black and brown people. And making sure that's represented in the literature that's brought into the classroom. So if you don't have a consciousness around that, then you absolutely can be harming kids in a multitude of ways.

Tricia: Yeah. And I know that seems overwhelming. You hear that, you're like, "Oh, well, I just can't do anything now." And that's not our message, our message is, this work is hard. You have to be willing to invest in doing that hard work. If you, if you're here feeling defensive and you're thinking, "Oh, well, I guess I just won't do anything. Or I guess now I can't do anything right." Part of the work is making mistakes. And you know what? Educators love to talk about resilience and grit. This is a time for teachers to build up their grit or resilience when it comes to anti-racist education. This is a time that where you're going to make mistakes and where I've made mistakes. And I think, "You know what, I screwed that up. I'm going to repair now." And that's part of the work. That's how we get better. That's what we'd expect of our kids.

Sonja: Yes.

Tricia: So when Sonja and I were talking and we kind of came to this conclusion, this whole conversation I think has been like the why. And I hope that in this conversation, you're thinking maybe, this is why we need to do this work. This moment, the history that has led up to this moment is why we need anti-racist instruction and racial equity and literacy. But thinking about it from the teacher's perspective, as a teacher, I have lots of tools. I have a tool in my 20 years now, almost of teaching. I have a tool for when a student is looking out the window and I know they're not paying attention to me, so I walk over them to kind of gently invite them back into the conversation.

Tricia: I have a tool for when a student is struggling with voice, knowing exactly the [inaudible 00:58:17] I need to give them, I have a tool for when kids they're struggling with their sentences. Sentence study is the tool. I have many tools. And so I guess the question is that what struck me is in all these requests for diverse texts and such. Is that it's clear that then when this moment happens and now all of a sudden, not all of a sudden, but with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Arbery and these events in the news. And then you're feeling perhaps as an educator needing to talk about these things. Because silence is not really an option here, it's just not. It's a form of gaslighting actually, when you just don't talk about what's happening in the world.

Tricia: Because it's coming into the classroom. And you think to yourself, "Okay, well, I want to do this stuff." And then you look in your toolbox and what strategies and tools do you have for this moment? And that's a question that each individual teacher is going to have to ask themselves. What is in my toolbox? If it feels uncomfortable to talk about race, that's a question, that means that you don't have tools in your toolbox. It means that the tools that you have for X, Y, or Z, the things that I mentioned about mentor texts and all of these things. Those are insufficient in this moment right now. And again, it was a moment and an opportunity for us to reflect on why that is and how then we can change this.
Sonja: Yeah. I mean, what I want educators to reckon with is this, when you, as you said, open the toolbox to advance the work of equity, particularly racial justice in this case, and you find the toolbox empty. You must be willing to ask yourself, where are my tools? Why don't I have them? What stopped me from developing any tools? And as you said, what's causing me to reach for them now? Because after the news cycle dies and we've seen this time and time again. Is the tendency to return to business as usual. So what will you do, educators, when this urge hits you? How will you resist and fight against this? Because what we're seeing right now in the world is not some sort of seismic shift in how the country operates in terms of race, not at all.

Sonja: We can't simply remove some Confederate monuments and flags and call ourselves done. We're not done until power systems shift and institutions change. And that won't happen, it won't happen in a whisper, and it won't happen with insufficient tools. So for example, the narrative around the protests right now, and all the rioting and the property and the da, da, da. What tools do you have? It could be the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, "A riot is the language of the unheard." It could be the tool of Tony Morrison who talked about after the Los Angeles riots. How, what surprised her was how patient folks were, they waited and waited for justice and it didn't come. That's a tool, the tool of Ibram Kennedy's words about what a riot is and what a protest is. So your tools need to be sufficient. And if we don't fill our toolbox with them and make large sweeping, loud thunderous noises with those tools now, then we're not changing.

Tricia: If not now, then when? Which is a question that Dr. King asked in 1963.

Sonja: Yep.

Tricia: And so with that said, we want to invite you to participate this summer in the two institutes that Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul and I are offering humbly. We have [inaudible 01:02:58] July 13th and all verbal, we tend to do some changing around. So if you were interested in these before, when we were meeting in person back when we released this information in March, and you've been waiting patiently, thank you for your patience. But these two institutes will really be about those tools. And so the first theme is going to be about understanding systemic racism society, schools, and classrooms. And this is really going to be a systems approach. Looking, touching on some of the things that we talked about today. How have schools been really systems of racism in our country? And then looking then closely at our classrooms as systems and how we can start to disrupt and build our toolbox. We're disrupting the systemic racism that may be perpetuated in our ways of being in our classroom, or just for us to unpack some of those things. And Sonja, do you want to talk about session two?

Sonja: Yeah. Session two, we're going to be interrogating internalized racism in ourselves and in our practice. Just really being steeped in the knowledge that no one is unaffected by racists. As Dr. Kindie says, there is no such thing as not racist. And as Angela Davis says, "What we need now is not this idea of not racist. We need anti-racist practices." So by identifying our own personal relationship with race and racism, we are then better able to disrupt and dismantle the ways that our literacy practices may harm students and work towards this liberatory stance. And I think Tricia and I strongly believe that literacy instruction is a powerful tool for change, for racial justice. Just imagine how indigenous, black, and brown children and white children would show up right now in their lives and in their futures, having access to these tools that we hope to build with you at, at IREL 20, so that we can fill our toolboxes and get to work.
Tricia: Yeah. So we invite you to come if you can, if you are able. These two sessions are complementary in the sense that they complement one another. So not one is not required before you take the other. So you can just do one, you can just do the other, you can do both. But we invite you and hope that this conversation was a start. If you aren't able to come, we will be putting out things on Twitter and things like that. But registration, if it's not already open, it will be open. I believe it's open today. So you'll be able to go to the Heinemann website to register for that. You will also see that we have several wonderful facilitator presenters who are going to be with us during that week, because this is a partnership between Sonja and I, but honestly, we could not do this again, community and collaboration.

Sonja: Collective. That's right.

Tricia: So we haven't facilitators. We also have some guest speakers. We will have people from BARWE, which is the Building Anti-Racist White Educator Group. We have Randy Ribeye, who is going to speak also at one of the institutes. So we have these things lined up and we hope that you'll be able to join us in these conversations. Again, we just want to reiterate, beliefs matter and actions speak. What are our beliefs and what are the actions that we're going to take? So our two institutes will really be focused around these claims. That our current state of schooling is unacceptable in literacy, racial literacy, especially. The level of racial literacy that's developed in kids right now is unacceptable, which will require a fundamental re-imagining. And that the personal and professional are not separate. They are inseparable. Who you are as a person comes with you into the classroom.
Tricia: You cannot compartmentalize who you are. You just can't. And I think we can see that even, because I think when you see these social media posts of people who are saying obviously racist things, and you find out later that person's a teacher and you're like horrified. And then you're thinking, "Well, how has that been showing up?" I'm telling you that person has not been able to hide that in their classroom, it comes across. But that together teachers, students, and communities can come to be together as architects of this new system. And that again, if you think about the way our two institutes are working, we're thinking about what's the connection between the individual and the internal work and the community and systems work that we need to do? Because they inform each other. And so we need to unpack how that happens.

Tricia: And since we're out of time, we'll put a link to this video. Some of you may have already seen it. This is a wonderful video here. I don't want to spoil it for you, but I will tell you the one quote at the end that will come from this "When you know your why your what becomes more impactful because you're walking towards or in your purpose." And so when we think about our why, when it comes to anti racist work, anti-racist pedagogy, do we have the what's, the tools, the how's that we are going to be able to enact a new way of learning, thinking, and being in the world?

Sonja: Absolutely.

Tricia: So thank you. Thanks Sonja, for being here.

Sonja: Always great to chat with you. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon. Rolling up our sleeves together and engaging in this work.

Tricia: We will promise it'll be a week of hard thinking. And I think if you're not feeling uncomfortable, you're not working hard enough. So we'll leave you with that thought and hope to see you at the institutes. And if not at the institutes in any other way as we are both available on social media and our work is in many other places. So thanks everyone for joining us tonight.

Sonja: Thank you.

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On The Podcast: Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul and Tricia Ebarvia on the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy

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Listen in or watch as Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia talk about two upcoming virtual #IREL20 institutes focused on centering racial equity in our literacy practices. ⁠ Click the image below to download the #IREL20 brochure!

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Register now for The Author Village's event on Crowdcast, scheduled to go live on Wednesday June 17, 2020 at 3:00 am PHT.

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Anti-Racism Education Resources - Wakelet

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Anti-Racism Education Resources - Wakelet

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Since the murder of George Floyd, Twitter has become a vast repository of resources to help educators become better prepared to carry out teaching anti-racism, social justice, and tolerance. Here are some resources shared by educators across Twitter that you may find useful. I will continue to update as new resources are discovered and shared.

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The 13th

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

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21-Day Racial Equity Challenge — America & Moore

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In 1996, America & MOORE, LLC was established to provide comprehensive diversity and leadership trainings, workshops, keynotes and consultation for schools, businesses, colleges and universities. After 20 years, our list of challenging and action-oriented sessions includes, but is not limited to White Women Teaching Black Boys, The N!gga(er) Word, America Is Changing: Are You Ready?, The Personal Achievement Gap, #Zero2Hero: An Addiction and Success Story, White Privilege 101, Diversity, Power, Leadership & Moore. Founder, Dr. Moore is recognized as one of the nation’s top motivational speakers, educators and consultants, especially for his work with students K-16.
Dr. Moore is co-founder of the on-line journal Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, co-editor of Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories and the forthcoming book, A White Women’s Guide to Teaching Black Boys. Dr. Moore received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Education Leadership. His PhD research is on Black Football Players at D3 Schools in the Midwest. (T): @eddieknowsmoore | (IG): eddiemoorejr

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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"Ideological racism includes strongly positive images of the white self as well as strongly negative images of racial “others” (Feagin, 2000, p. 33). This self-image engenders a self-perpetuating sense of entitlement because many whites believe their financial and professional successes are the result of their own efforts while ignoring the fact of white privilege." -Robin DiAngelo

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Robin DiAngelo On Racism and Whiteness SD

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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A Message from City Librarian John F. Szabo

Black Lives Matter. Always and in all ways. That feels like the absolute baseline, but it is important that we say it-and that we acknowledge the need to say it. Black Lives Matter.

These are unprecedented times, and because of COVID-19, the world-and our city-has seemed unrecognizable. In the past week, we have added more agony to the pain we feel as a result of the pandemic.

This is a time for listening and learning, and it is a time to speak up. I know we can fear that we won't get it right, or that we won't express ourselves as eloquently as we would like, but that can't keep us quiet.

At this moment, we must channel our collective anger, ache and frustration and condemn the horrifying injustice and violence experienced by African Americans in this country. We continue to grieve not only George Floyd, but the far too many who have tragically gone before him.

As a library, we support African Americans who are enduring such pain, trauma and sheer exhaustion, and who are protesting against this oppression. But the responsibility to do the necessary work of diversity, inclusion and equity belongs to all of us, and it is essential to the mission of the Los Angeles Public Library.

We all need to challenge ourselves and each other to meet the moral imperative of dismantling systemic racism. As an organization, we will look inward and examine our practices and identify where and how we can do better and be better. And we will reach out to our diverse communities to see how we can be of greater service-and take action.

As the cornerstone of democracy, libraries have a long history of being agents of social change, and we will continue that work. We believe in enlightenment through education, and we value lifelong learning. Through our inclusive resources, programs and staff, we will continue to shine a light on the path to justice, equality and reform.

In solidarity,

John F. Szabo

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Black Lives Matter | Los Angeles Public Library

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A Message from City Librarian John F. Szabo Leer en español Black Lives Matter. Always and in all ways. That feels like the absolute baseline, but it is important that we say it-and that we acknowledge the need to say it. Black Lives Matter.

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A home for white people working for justice - SURJ

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A home for white people working for justice Join SURJ Support When we fight racism, we all win.We want you on our team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25F8qz8hKBg Find a Chapter Get Updates Learn More Current Campaigns Monthly Racial Justice Action Hours Ready to get off the sidelines and into action to support campaigns to close detention centers and ...

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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Listen to the 8 min interview prior to reading the article

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For white people who have just recently recognized their own complicity in America's racist systems and are looking to "fix" that - it's not going to happen overnight.

"It's a little bit like saying 'I want to be in shape tomorrow' ..." says author Robin DiAngelo. "This is going to be a process."

DiAngelo is the author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. The book came out in 2018 and is back on the bestseller lists as streets fill with protesters calling for an end to police violence against black people.

The status quo in the United States is racism, DiAngelo says, and "it is comfortable for me, as a white person, to live in a racist society."

To sustain the momentum of these protests, DiAngelo says, it must become uncomfortable for white people to continue to benefit from racist systems.

"We've got to start making it uncomfortable and figuring out what supports we're going to put in place to help us continue to be uncomfortable," she says. "Because the forces of comfort are quite seductive."

Interview Highlights
On encouraging white people to reflect on how race has shaped their lives
This [work] will be lifelong: really thinking deeply about what it means to be white, how your race shapes your life. We live in a society that turns race over to people of color. They have a race. We're just people. And so we see ourselves as outside of race. And that's problematic for many reasons. But there's so much potentially rich insight that we can gain from deeply reflecting on our own racial experiences.
On how white people can be complicit in racist systems without recognizing their own racism

Nice, white people who really aren't doing anything other than being nice people are racist. We are complicit with that system. There is no neutral place.

Racism is what happens when you back one group's racial bias with legal authority and institutional control. ... When you back one group's collective bias with that kind of power, it is transformed into a far-reaching system. It becomes the default. It's automatic. It's not dependent on your agreement or belief or approval. It's circulating 24/7, 365.

Racism is the foundation of the society we are in. And to simply carry on with absolutely no active interruption of that system is to be complicit with it. And in that way, we can say that nice, white people who really aren't doing anything other than being nice people are racist. We are complicit with that system. There is no neutral place.
On challenging definitions
We've been taught to think about a racist as someone who consciously and intentionally seeks to hurt people based on race. And if that's what you think it means to be racist, then of course it's offensive that I would say you were racist. That's not what I mean by that. ... All of the racism I've perpetrated in my life was neither conscious nor intentional, but harmful to other people nonetheless.
On suggesting that white people ask how - rather than if - they have been shaped by race and racism
When you change your understanding of what it means to be racist, you will no longer be defensive. ... Who among your listeners right now would ever say they're consciously, intentionally mean across race? I think that definition [of racism as individual, conscious, malintent across race] is the root of most of the defensiveness.

When you change your definition, it's actually liberating. ... It's transformative. You know, you can stop defending, deflecting, denying, explaining away, giving all the evidence for why you are different and couldn't possibly have been impacted by the society you live in.

And you can start getting to work actually trying to identify: All right. It was inevitable that I was socialized into this system. It's inevitable that I will have blind spots. ... And so I'm going to focus my energy on how I've been shaped by the system, but not if.

We have to change our question. If our question is if I've been shaped, the answer will be an easy no. And then what further action is required of us? Nothing.

When the answer is how, well, that sets you on a lifelong process.
On specific steps white people can take
I would start with some very deep reflection on what it means to be white: How your own race shapes your life. ... Our voices, our part in this has been missing for all too long.

But again, we're never going to understand this if we don't listen to black, Indigenous and other peoples of color. So start reading what they're writing, listening to their videos, attending their talks and educating yourself.

There are two really excellent resources. ... One is Dr. Eddie Moore's 21-Day Racial Equity [Habit] Building Challenge - it'll walk you through a daily practice. And Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy Workbook. That's a book you do rather than read. That will start us on what is a process - not a moment or an instant.
On asking white people to have humility
I've never met a white person who didn't have an opinion on racism. ... That doesn't make it informed. It's so complicated and nuanced and layered. ... So be willing to consider that maybe your opinions are not as informed as you think they are. ...

Most white people live segregated lives. Most of us don't really even know black people. Most of us go cradle to grave with few, if any, authentic, sustained cross-racial relationships and no real sense of loss about that. And yet, we have these opinions that we feel are equal to people who have, you know, studied and struggled and worked on these issues for decades. And so it's a little bit like saying, well, I've been to the Epcot Center, therefore I'm qualified to wade in on a debate with Neil deGrasse Tyson on whether Pluto is a planet.
On the two questions she hears most frequently
There are two top questions I get when I give a talk ... The first one is: What do I do? And when I get that question, I offer one back: ... How have you managed not to know? How have you managed to be a full-functioning, likely educated adult in 2020 and not know the answer to that question? And that's meant to challenge that person that, that's on you. The information's everywhere. Why haven't you sought it out up until this moment? What did it take to get you to ask that question?

So that's meant to be a challenge, but it's also a sincere question. Take out a piece of paper and jot down your answer to why you don't know what to do, or how to get started. And there will be your map. Everything you write on that piece of paper can be addressed. None of it will be quick or easy. But begin with that list.

The second top question that I get is: How do I tell or talk to other white people about racism? ... You notice that that question assumes that it's not us. We're good to go. We're down now. Let's go out and change the world.

It is us. We can never take ourselves out of that equation. And I think actually, the more we work on our own conditioning, the more effective we will be at helping others see theirs.
On maintaining momentum
We've seen these moments before. We thought we were post-racial after the civil rights movement. We thought we were post-racial after Obama's presidency. We are so not post-racial and we have never been. I do see these protests being sustained and different kinds of demands coming out of them. That is hopeful.

But the key is: What will happen when those cameras go away and when it's no longer - for lack of a better word, for white people, anyway - "exciting" or "righteous" to go down and protest? In some ways, that's the easier kinds of actions. What are we going to do to sustain it when we no longer have that kind of pressure, when we're back into our racial comfort zone?
Mallory Yu and Sarah Handel produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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For white people who have just recently recognized their own complicity in America's racist systems and are looking to "fix" that - it's not going to happen overnight. "It's a little bit like saying 'I want to be in shape tomorrow' ..." says author Robin DiAngelo. "This is going to be a process."

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Kawania Wooten's voice tightens when she describes the struggle she's having at the school her son attends. When his class created a timeline of civilization, Wooten saw the Greeks, the Romans and the Incas. But nothing was said about Africa, even though the class has several African American students.

Wooten, who is black, spoke to the school's director, a white woman - who insisted that the omission wasn't racially biased.

"Her first comment was, 'you know, we've just been following the curriculum. We're not talking about whether people are white or black,'" recalls Wooten, who lives in Bowie, Md. "I said that the children have eyes and they can see. And I'd like them to see that our culture was a strong, viable culture."

That kind of story brings a groan from Mark Benn, a psychologist and adjunct professor at Colorado State University. He hears similar tales whenever he delivers lectures about race relations.

Such incidents are examples of racial "colorblindness" - the idea that ignoring or overlooking racial and ethnic differences promotes racial harmony.

Trainers and facilitators say colorblindness does just the opposite: folks who enjoy racial privilege are closing their eyes to the experiences of others.

"It benefits me not to pay attention," says Benn, who is white. "I never have to question whether or not my race is being held in question when I apply for a job. It benefits me not to question that (because) it makes it look like I got here on my own."

Paying attention to the cultural experience of students is becoming increasingly important, given the differences between the demographics of American students and their teachers.

According to reports from the National Center for Education Statistics, roughly 80 percent of American teachers are white, while children of color make up more than 40 percent of the student body.

As the nation's demographics shift, the sight of a white teacher leaning over the desk of a brown or black student is likely become more and more common. In order to be effective, teachers will have to learn about the cultural experiences of their students, while using these experiences as a foundation for teaching. The approach is called culturally relevant pedagogy.

But that is hard to do if a teacher doesn't see differences as valuable. That means the blinders have to come off, says Randy Ross, a senior equity specialist at the New England Equity Assistance Center, a program of Brown University's Education Alliance. Ross facilitates workshops on racism and culturally responsive teaching. And in her experience, white people have the hardest time opening their eyes.

"I have never heard a teacher of color say 'I don't see color," Ross says. "There may be issues of cultural competence [among teachers of color], but colorblindness is not one of them. The core of 'I don't see color,' is 'I don't see my own color, I don't see difference because my race and culture is the center of the universe.'"

Such tunnel vision is the reason a teacher can omit Africa from a timeline of world civilizations, Ross says. Still, she cautions, the flaws of the colorblind approach run deeper than curriculum.

Failure to see and acknowledge racial differences makes it difficult to recognize the unconscious biases everyone has. Those biases can taint a teacher's expectations of a student's ability and negatively influence a student's performance. Study after study has shown that low teacher expectations are harmful to students from socially stigmatized groups.

In her article "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for the Nineties and Beyond", Ana Maria Villegas pointed out that ignorance of cultural differences could lead teachers to "underestimate the true academic potential" of minority students.

"Teachers' judgments on students' potential have profound and long-lasting effects on students' lives," Villegas wrote. "For minority children in particular, such judgments or misjudgments may prove costly...

"The evidence is overwhelming. When compared to their 'high-ability' peers, 'low-ability' students are called on less often in class, given less time to respond, praised less frequently...and prompted less often in the case of incorrect responses."

Ross says a teacher who professes to be "colorblind" is not going to understand how unconscious biases can influence expectations, actions, and even the way a teacher addresses students of color.

After talking to her son's teacher, Kawania Wooten wondered whether her son was being harmed in just that way.

She'd asked for advice on helping the youngster complete a difficult project. Instead, the teacher immediately offered to give him easier work. Just as quickly, Wooten refused. Then she explained the racial subtext of the exchange: the white teacher doubted the intelligence of an African American child.

"I heard that expectations of my son were low," Wooten says.

Such misunderstandings could be avoided, she believes, if the teacher learned some things about African American culture.

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Kawania Wooten's voice tightens when she describes the struggle she's having at the school her son attends. When his class created a timeline of civilization, Wooten saw the Greeks, the Romans and the Incas. But nothing was said about Africa, even though the class has several African American students.

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Just an intro to the book and how to have discussions

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About US is an initiative by The Washington Post to explore issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter.

As the Black Lives Matter movement has gained more acceptance with the public and mainstream institutions, a new slogan from activists has emerged that is now drawing scrutiny: "Defund the police." D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, looking to send a message to President Trump, approved a giant mural painted in the street near the White House. Activists were unimpressed, calling on the mayor to make a statement by instead making major changes in city's police department budget. They painted "Defund the Police" beside her mural. And during the past week, the phrase has become a part of the national political debate. Trump has used it to attack Democrats, and members of Congress are debating it as they work on legislation to address police brutality and racial profiling.

About US spoke with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history, race and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, about the context behind the new rallying cry.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

What does "defund the police" entail?

It's an evolving set of ideas and demands that are being spurred by activists and movement leaders rather than coming from academic research. What activists are demanding is shifting resources away from police agencies toward public goods that would enhance the health, safety, efficacy, sense of belonging and citizenship within communities. And that means starting with a list of things that police officers do that they should not be doing - and in many ways they never should have been doing - as activists and certainly some of the research like my own historically suggests.

This includes dealing with people having a mental health crisis. There is no one else in our public health sector that is available for such calls. Wellness checks that police officers have been doing can lead to terrible outcomes. If police officers have been trained to minimize the risk to their own lives by using force as their first, and in many cases only, tool, then people end up dead. Like Deborah Danner did in New York City. She was a woman who had schizophrenia that had written an open letter saying that she thought one day if she ever was off her medication, she might get killed by the police. And that's exactly what happened to her when the police showed up and she had a break.

Defund is, in the broadest sense, a way of having a conversation about what starting over would look like. People should be thinking about defunding the police as both a process and an outcome. The process is empowering local communities to come to the table with city council members to create a process for redefining what the police do, which leads to an outcome, which is they do less of what they've been doing.

There are a lot of reform-minded police chiefs who have been saying for a long time that the police do too much. What they've expressed is that when they're ready to do these things, they not only have to deal with the skepticism and the resistance within the ranks, but they also have to deal with the unions. And so asking all of that, all of those elements - the rank and file, the unions and the leaders, the police leaders themselves - to all be synced up around doing this on their own has proved insufficient. This has to come from the outside. This has to come from the legislative bodies that govern police agencies.

Many people have concerns about how crime would be dealt with in a post-defund era. How would that be addressed?

"Defund the police" is a slogan that is new. The calls for a reduction in police activity in black communities around low-level policing is not new. Neither are calls for replacing police officers through various forms of what's called violence interruption. For 20 years, organizations like Cure Violence have been doing the training of how to empower community members to do conflict resolution. And the model that Cure Violence has been doing essentially removes police and law enforcement from the equation, other than to ask that they not surveil or harass or show some kind of negative attitude toward the Cure Violence worker. They essentially see violence as a disease that is contagious and that if it happens and people are exposed to it, other people will engage. Practically, that means that someone hurt someone and then that person is going to seek retaliation, or their friends or their crew or their gang or their family members, et cetera.

Cure Violence has many names in many different cities because most of the work happens at the community level where a nonprofit is trained to do violence interruption. And it has had incredible results that have been evaluated by researchers. In parts of New York City where Cure Violence has been operating, there hasn't been a shooting in years. So even the thing that police officers claim to be most important at dealing with, violent crime, there is another way that is as good or better in many instances.

One of the problems for the public health approach in violence interruption is that local elected officials have for 20 years mostly ignored the impact of public health or violence interruption approaches and credited police officers as responsible for low violence rates. The entire political class of elected officials will generally say if crime is going up, it's because the police don't have enough resources. If crime is going down, police officers are doing a great job. But when all that work is happening behind the scenes, nobody measures it in terms of local law enforcement. It's not in their interests. And when it should be in their interest, because it makes their job safer, there's often a political incentive for them not to give credit where credit is due.

How do you think the defund police movement will play out in the political arena?

Well, so far, the political elites are following the familiar pattern that we've seen for the last 50 years. Republicans are framing the idea of systemic police reform and limiting police power around a number of issues as an attack on police that should require a law-and-order response. Trump ran on it in 2016 and is doubling down on it. And the Republican Party has fallen in line.

On the Democratic side, I think there's a lot of energy at the local and state level from mayors to governors and city council members. But I also think that [presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe] Biden is showing some serious reluctance to accept that police in America should be doing less of what they're doing as a way of addressing the systemic racism within policing. He's still operating under the bad apples theory, and he's still assuming that the good people of police agencies can reform themselves. Which again, I think is as unhelpful and unlikely as asking fossil fuel industry leaders to solve the climate change crisis. It's just not going to work.

Is defund a clarification or a culmination of the initial changes protesters wanted to see?

I think that defund is a clarification for movement leaders who are not obvious to us because they are decentralized and represent people who are in these communities and doing this work every single day. The organizations that represent those ideas, like Movement for Black Lives, which represents 50 different organizations, put together their ideas and a policy platform four or five years ago. So to make the obvious point, they're clarifying in this moment what is required to move forward. To shift the attention away from simply getting justice for George Floyd by the proper conviction and judicial process that would lead to real punishment for the four directly involved in his death. While that certainly drove a lot of the initial support, a lot of that community is thinking: We're going to get justice for George, but this is the political moment to leverage, yet again, the fact that black people can be killed with impunity. And so then they say, okay, do we want to keep doing the same thing, getting justice for individuals, or do we want to change the way the system works?

How do you think that defund will be considered by black residents who are not activists, who may feel like they need some level of policing?

I think that there's going to be resistance from those folks. ... My guess is that it'll be about a third of the community that will resist defunding.

The academic community has never had solid research on how to disaggregate the African American community's position on this. When it comes to these kinds of reforms in particular, we tend to look across political party affiliation and across racial divides, but not within the community itself. And so I'm going to give you an example that I think is a proxy for this. Throughout the stop-and-frisk decade, roughly between 2004 and 2013, Quinnipiac would regularly poll New Yorkers on stop-and-frisk. What they generally noted was that there was about 30 percent support within the black community for stop-and-frisk. By contrast, for example, there was about 60 percent support for stop-and-frisk by the white community. So while we tend to take away the 30 percent gap between white and black, with a majority of whites in New York supporting stop-and-frisk and a tiny minority of blacks supporting it, that becomes the headline. But that 30 percent is telling us something.

Those are the people that [former New York City police commissioner] Ray Kelly and [former New York mayor] Michael Bloomberg would often put in front of a camera or reference when they said black community members want this. There is a real constituency for punitive responses, people who want police to come in and get the bad guys. But they are not the majority.

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Analysis | What 'defund the police' might look like

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About US is an initiative by The Washington Post to explore issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter . As the Black Lives Matter movement has gained more acceptance with the public and mainstream institutions, a new slogan from activists has emerged that is now drawing scrutiny: "Defund the police."

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Education is an avenue for change. So please learn about what’s going on. Look up statistics. I am here to hold calm conversations with those who feel they don’t understand the BLM movement. I’ve...

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Black Lives Matter--interesting  perspective from comedian

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Black Lives Matter--interesting  perspective from comedian

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Pedro A. Noguera on Eliminating Inequity  Among Students

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AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education

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As a white, privileged, cisgender, heterosexual male, I can walk into most situations with people of my own race, or with mixed race, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status groups, and not have to be on my guard. I do not have to worry if others think I legitimately belong there because of course I do. Nobody wonders how I got my job, and my input is most often given credibility. I do not spend excess energy in the form of stress hormones, which affect the body and emotions in a myriad of negative ways, worrying about any of that, nor do I have to deflect little, perpetrator-unaware "digs" at me based on skin color, culture, socio-economic status, or sexual orientation. I can go through life fairly oblivious, assuming others experience interactions, privileges, freedoms, and status as I do.

This leads to deeply hurtful things, of course, dismissed or furthered by me and my kind, including a very real "blindness" to what others suffer through every day and sometimes hourly. And here I claim to be a conscientious educator. Hmm.

Becoming keenly aware of the microaggressions students and colleagues suffer daily, and committing ourselves to reducing and ending them, is a good use of conversation and extended action. It is not political correctness run amok, though most claims of such are the lament of those who don't realize that society is maturing and trying to be more respectful of others for our collective good. For whites, males, and heterosexuals, try driving, shopping, banking, jogging, investing, renting, managing, traveling, dating, or practicing religious faith while Black, Asian, Hispanic, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, a woman, homosexual, transgender, or any other kind of perceived other: It's sobering.

Defining Microaggression

Let's explore what we mean by the term, microaggression:

We demonstrate surprise when a boy has good handwriting or prefers theater to sports, or when a girl is good at calculus and engineering.

We express confusion when a group of students of Asian descent aren't good at math.

We tell obese students that they lack self-discipline or don't care enough to make better meal choices.

We scoff at an overwhelmed new teacher in the first week of school who has not yet read the classic novels she will be teaching this year.

We assign a project that requires the purchase of supplies, though some families do not have the money to spend.

We fake-smile (it doesn't reach our eyes) in the company of a student, but our body language says we'd rather be somewhere else.

We don't try to pronounce a student's name correctly as it is from a culture with which we are not familiar. Instead, we decide to call him, "Sam," because it's just easier to remember.

We use a derogatory term for Native Americans for the name of a sports team, or revere statues of military leaders who led the fight to oppress a race of people. (Okay, some of these aren't so micro.)

We schedule debates and field trips on days that are major holidays for some students.

We require students to complete online modules after school hours, assuming all students have access to the Internet at home.

Our required reading list for each grade level is made of books focusing only on white protagonists or is devoid of authors of color.

Our classrooms, school publications, and teacher trainings use pictures of students from one race, and none show children with varying disabilities and genders.

We use an incorrect pronoun to refer to a transgender or gender-fluid student, even after being told by which pronoun he/she/they identify.

We vent in the teacher's lounge about how hard it is to discern between students' cultures, declaring, "Muslim, Hindu - They're all the same."

We state that a students' parents can't volunteer because they don't speak English very well.

In a room full of students only half of which practice a Christian faith, an administrator leads a non-denominational prayer before a celebration, but ends with, "We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior."

The University of Denver Center for Multicultural Excellence provided further examples in their publication, Microaggressions in the Classroom (http://otl.du.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MicroAggressionsInClassroom-DUCME.pdf):

Setting low expectations for students from particular groups or neighborhoods.

Calling on and engaging one gender, class, or race of students while ignoring other students.

Anticipating students' emotional responses based on gender, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity.

Using inappropriate humor in class that degrades students from different groups.

Using the term "illegals" to reference undocumented students.

Denying the experiences of students by questioning the credibility and validity of their stories.

Using sexist language.

Though we claim to be non-racist and unbiased, we can perpetuate diminishing, hurtful microaggressions and outright bias with and without meaning it. Here are a few I've heard from teachers and colleagues while in the teaching field:

"They may be a little late to our meeting - They are on Mexican time, if you know what I mean.""Would you please get your kind of people to join in more?" (said by a white American administrator referring to Korean colleagues)"Well, Jews are good with money, you know.""They're just having babies to get on welfare and not have to work.""He plays for the other team, if you know what I mean." (accompanied by knowing smirk)"He's a gamer, no social skills there.""This gender switching thing is just a phase.""Speak English. This is America.""I wasn't being racist. That's just how they interpreted it. I can't help that.""So, it was off-color a bit. Learn to take a joke.""So many of our students are white, I don't think an African American principal would understand our needs and do very well here."

According to Dr. Derald Wing Sue of Columbia University who popularized the awareness of microaggressions,

"Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership ... [T]hese hidden messages may invalidate the group identity or experiential reality of target persons, demean them on a personal or group level, communicate they are lesser human beings, suggest they do not belong with the majority group, threaten and intimidate, or relegate them to inferior status and treatment ... microaggressions are active manifestations ... of our worldviews of inclusion/exclusion, superiority/inferiority, normality/abnormality, and desirability/undesirability.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/
microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201011/
microaggressions-more-just-race

Consider that last line again, that microaggressions express our unspoken, maybe unaware, views of who and what are preferred or normal and who and what are not. Remember the deeply offensive, slightly pink crayon in the crayon box identified as "flesh"? It's as if we're saying, "Your food/church/culture/hairstyle/clothing/customs/skin color are not my own, and mine is the dominant culture, so yours are not normal or worthy of my full respect. You don't belong." It reminds me of the oft-said line by comedian, Larry, the Cable Guy, "I don't care who you are, that there is funny." Sometimes, it's not.

Dr. Sue claims that the most troublesome element of microaggressions is that we are unaware we are making them;

The most detrimental forms of microaggressions are usually delivered by well-intentioned individuals who are unaware that they have engaged in harmful conduct toward a socially devalued group ... [N]one of us are immune from inheriting the racial, gender, and sexual orientation biases of our society. We have been socialized into racist, sexist and heterosexist attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Much of this is outside the level of conscious awareness, thus we engage in actions that unintentionally oppress and discriminate against others.

On February 28, 2018, USAToday ran a piece by Alia E. Dastagir describing microaggressions occurring in our communities daily (https://tinyurl.com/y4pgv3g6). Among other examples, Dastagir included such actions as "complimenting" a gay person by saying, "but you're not gay gay"; mistaking a female physician for a nurse; a Conservative Political Action Conference speaker, "declaring that Michael Steele only became Republican National Committee chairman in 2009, 'because he was a black guy,'" and, "a New York Times editor tweeting, 'Immigrants: they get the job done,' with a video of Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu, who was born in California."

In the same article, Dastagir connects the dots for us educators cogently:

A lot of people hear "microaggressions" and they think, "Oh, it's just the little things that hurt people's feelings," said Roberto Montenegro, a chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital. He studies the biological effects of discrimination. "It isn't about having your feelings hurt. It's about how being repeatedly dismissed and alienated and insulted and invalidated reinforces the differences in power and privilege, and how this perpetuates racism and discrimination."

In her highly recommended book, So You Want to Talk about Race (Seal Press, 2018), Ijeoma Oluo, makes these aggressions real and jarring:

[B]eing a person of color in white dominated society is like being in an abusive relationship with the world. Every day is a new little hurt, a new little dehumanization. We walk around flinching, still in pain from the last hurt and dreading the next. But when we say, "this is hurting us," a spotlight is shown on the freshest hurt, the bruise just forming. "Look at how small it is ... Why are you making such a big deal about it? Everyone gets hurt from time to time" - while the world ignores that the rest of our bodies are covered in scars ... [R]acial oppression is even harder to see than the abuse of a loved one, because the abuser is not one person, the abuser is the world around you, and the person inflicting pain in an individual instance may themselves have the best of intentions...Imagine if you were walking down the street and every few minutes someone would punch you in the arm. You don't know who will be punching you, and you don't know why. You are hurt and wary and weary. You are trying to protect yourself, but you can't get off this street. Then imagine somebody walks by, maybe gesticulating wildly in interesting conversation, and they punch you in the arm on accident. Now imagine this is the last straw, that this is where you scream. That person may not have meant to punch you in the arm, but the issue for you still is the fact that people keep punching you in the arm.
Regardless of why that last person punched you, there's a pattern that needs to be addressed, and your sore arm is testimony to that. But what often happens instead is that people demand that you prove that each person who punched you in the arm in the past meant to punch you in the arm before they'll acknowledge that too many people are punching you in the arm. -(Oluo, p. 19)

In The Culture Code (Bantam, 2018), Daniel Coyle reminds us of the 1965, "Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition" research by Harvard psychologist, Robert Rosenthal in which researchers identified the names of students who were special; they, " ... possessed 'unusual potential for intellectual growth.' (Students were not informed of the test results.)" (p. 164) These students did much better academically, were tenacious in their learning, and were enjoyed by their teachers to a higher degree. The test was bogus, of course, and the students were randomly assigned categories of special versus not-special, yet why did the students identified as special do better in almost all elements?

Coyle says the success was due to, "tiny behaviors over the school year," clarifying,

Each time the student did something ambiguous, the teacher gave the student the benefit of the doubt ... Each time the student made a mistake, the teacher presumed that the student needed better feedback ... Together, they created a virtuous spiral that helped the student thrive in ways that exceeded their so-called limits. -(Coyle, p. 185-186)

It's the little, interpersonal, systemic actions and words filtered through the lens through which the teacher sees the world that build up over time that harm or, in the bogus Harvard Test case, develop students and colleagues, not so much one overt, traumatic act. It's death by a thousand cuts.

The American Psychological Association has several articles on microaggressions, including "Unmasking 'racial micro aggressions'" by Tori DeAngelis (https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/02/microaggression). She opens the piece with a real example of a white flight attendant asking two passengers at the front of the plane-one Asian-American and one African American-to move to the rear of the plane for weight and balance measures before take-off. There are several white men sitting in front of these two passengers, but she asks them to be the ones to move to the back of the plane. The two passengers are offended by the request to, "move to the back of the bus," seeing it as racist, and they complain.

Researcher Dr. Sue, who was mentioned earlier, was the actual Asian-American in this incident. DeAngelis summarizes his insights:

[T]he onus falls on the flight attendant. In his view, she was guilty of a "racial microaggression"-one of the "everyday insults, indignities and demeaning messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned white people who are unaware of the hidden messages being sent to them," in Sue's definition. In other words, she was acting with bias-she just didn't know it, he says. It's a monumental task to get white people to realize that they are delivering microaggressions, because it's scary to them," he contends. "It assails their self-image of being good, moral, decent human beings to realize that maybe at an unconscious level they have biased thoughts, attitudes and feelings that harm people of color ... Microaggressions hold their power because they are invisible, and therefore they don't allow us to see that our actions and attitudes may be discriminatory."

What Can Educators Do

Over time, serial microaggressions become macro-hostilities, and they drain everyone. They are education pathogens, so tiny that we become aware of them only after they have colonized and begun cumulative effect, and our ego-driven "immune" systems are ill-equipped to deal with them without powerful interventions. So, what can we do in schools?

First, get up to speed. Put it on the radar, reading multiple pieces on microaggressions, implicit bias, equity challenges, racism, sexism, classism, and similar material. Not only will we become more aware, we also develop the vocabulary to talk about microaggressions more effectively with one another, and thereby, affect change. Microaggressions in Everyday Life (2010) by Derald Wing Sue is a good place to start, as are these videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgvjnxr6OCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahtlxW2CIQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_85JVcniE_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJL2P0JsAS4

Second, remaining attentive to microaggressions means looking for it in our instructional practice with students and in relationships with colleagues and students' parents. So, let's actively audit our daily practices and interactions, looking for, and even logging, incidents perceived as microaggressions, either identified by us or identified in us by others. If we feel comfortable, we can invite students and colleagues to share anything they perceive as a microaggression from us. Even better, we can conduct ourselves in such a manner as to be not just open to, but inviting of, correction. This way, we become aware of the limited nature of our self-perceptions, and we learn to express gratitude when others care enough to help us become the people we want to be.

Third, let's develop as much empathy as we can for those not in our identified groups. If we're a seasoned education veteran, for example, we spend time remembering what it was like to be a first-year teacher (and we care for them accordingly). If we're a supporter of one particular political party, we spend time in discussion with individuals from other political parties. If we're white and that is the predominant group with most perceived power in the community, we actively seek what it's like to be non-white. If we're heterosexual, we spend time and energy trying to understand what it's like to keep secret something so basic to our nature and to receive daily messages that this thing we find natural and an important part of our identity makes us targets in society and unworthy of some basic rights as citizens.

Fourth, let's purposefully suspend our defensive stance when confronted with a personal or categorical slight we committed. If someone indicates that we have offended them or expressed a microaggression or hurtful bias toward another, we stop and listen, giving it real thought. We accept such statements and the hurt we've caused as legitimate, regardless of what we intended, and we make amends.

Finally, let's be a worthy ally to those suffering microaggressions daily. It's hard to summon professionalism, friendliness, creativity, and hope, let alone keep up the fiction that all is well, when we bear by ourselves the burden of others' complicit silence in the presence of clear evidence of a hurtful worldview that we don't belong. In addition to comforting those experiencing the ceaseless "cuts" from unaware individuals, we speak up about microaggressions, even when it is not politically expedient. And yes, we, too, may have a rocky time of it when we do, alienating friends and colleagues for a period of time, but the alternative, letting such things continue, is not acceptable: It diminishes our humanity and undermines our whole enterprise: education for all.

Our whole effort in teaching is to help others cultivate meaningful lives, and each one of those lives is legitimate and valuable, even those for whom our own life experience has not found familiar. We can't help anyone, however, if we ceaselessly communicate that students and colleagues are somehow, "less than." In opening ourselves to others and reining in the unintentional afflictions we create, we become bigger than our egos, and communities evolve. The positive changes that come for all students and colleagues, not just those in our particular groups, are worth it.

Rick Wormeli is a long-time teacher, consultant, and author living in Herndon, Virginia. His book, The Collected Writings (So Far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy, Good Stuff I Learned about Teaching Along the Way, is available from www.amle.org/store. His new book, Fair Isn't Always Equal (second edition) (Stenhouse Publishers), was released in 2018, and his other new book, Summarization in any Subject: 60 Innovative, Tech-Infused Strategies for Deeper Student Learning, (second edition) (ASCD), co-authored with Dedra Stafford, was just released.
rick@rickwormeli.onmicrosoft.com
@rickwormeli2
www.rickwormeli.com

Published in AMLE Magazine, Octobe 2019.

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As a white, privileged, cisgender, heterosexual male, I can walk into most situations with people of my own race, or with mixed race, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status groups, and not have to be on my guard. I do not have to worry if others think I legitimately belong there because of course I do.

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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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Among the many things young people have to do to succeed in school is learn to respect procedures they haven't created or approved. Just think: A teenager sitting in class follows a lesson formulated by her teacher and a curriculum written by distant policymakers. On the walls, posters she didn't choose inform her of her school's goals and values. Throughout the day, she eats, talks, and even dresses according to rules determined by her principal. Her day begins and ends at times the school board and superintendent established.

That's just the way it is, right? Not so right, says Gretchen Brion-Meisels, a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. When schools find ways to welcome student opinions - to partner with students "as stakeholders in their own learning," especially at the secondary level - they do more than equip students with tools for lifelong success. They also wind up creating programs and policies that are more effective at meeting the schools' own goals for supporting young people in their healthy development.

"It means recognizing that young people have a perspective on the world that adults can't share, and that their perspective should be welcomed alongside the wisdom that adult perspectives bring."

As in other partnerships, collaborating with students requires a willingness to listen, share authority, and generate goals together - all of which can make adults wary. But "listening to young people doesn't mean unilaterally considering their perspective," Brion-Meisels says. Instead, "it means recognizing that young people have a perspective on the world that adults can't share, and that their perspective should be welcomed alongside the wisdom that adult perspectives bring."

Five Ways to Welcome Student Input

To begin incorporating youth voices, educators should think beyond the student council, welcoming a range of student opinions in decisions about academic content, discipline, school culture, free time, the physical space of the school, and family partnerships. They should even consider an individual student's wishes about which adults in the building will best teach and counsel him.

Brion-Meisels offers five ways schools can integrate student voices:

1. Regularly solicit student feedback. Educators can use surveys and other research methods to routinely gather data or ask students what's happening in the hallways and bathrooms, how they feel about the content and structure of classes, and for suggestions on school policies, culture, and climate.
2. Engage students in studying and assessing their school. Beyond asking for feedback on questions created by adults, schools can train students in collecting and analyzing data. These youth researchers can then create their own research questions and use observations and feedback from peers to draw conclusions about what's going right, what could be improved, and how to help.

Beyond asking for feedback on questions created by adults, schools can train students to ask their own questions, then collect and analyze the data.

3. Include authentic student representation on leadership teams. Principals should leave space for students on school leadership teams, improvement teams, or equity and diversity teams. In meetings, participants should treat students as full members of the team, not just observers.
4. Invite students to any discussion related to their own learning. Individual students need to be included in parent-teacher conferences, IEP meetings, student support meetings, discipline hearings - any discussion in which they are the main topic.
5. More broadly, consider young people as stakeholders and partners in their schools. When school leaders set new goals or make a major decision, they should expect students to contribute. At the same time, educators should be willing to help students as they shape and achieve their own aspirations for their learning.

To make this work, schools need to equip students with the tools to provide nuanced, constructive suggestions. According to Brion-Meisels, this means building a school culture that:

exposes students to different ways of learning and approaching problems;

normalizes the giving and receiving of feedback;

gives students the time, space, and power to construct and test their own ideas.

Student Voice - and Organizational Success

When schools give students the agency and the tools to speak out, the effects can resonate across students' lives. The process of becoming engaged as active partners can give young people a set of strategies they can use to create positive change in future classrooms or communities. And when they form authentic partnerships with teachers and school administrators, it can set the stage for lasting bonds and important mentoring relationships.

Schools benefit, too. Reforms initiated with student input are likely to improve the learning environment for all students, not just those involved in the reforms. And students who feel appreciated and supported typically feel more connected to their school community. "The evidence is pretty clear that when organizations, including schools, give young people agency and voice, and integrate their perspectives into decision-making processes, those organizations are more effective in the work they're trying to do," says Brion-Meisels.

Additional Resources

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Among the many things young people have to do to succeed in school is learn to respect procedures they haven't created or approved. Just think: A teenager sitting in class follows a lesson formulated by her teacher and a curriculum written by distant policymakers.