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A documentary bout Father Groppi and the local civil rights movement. This was mentioned during Employee Development Day, July 2020

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When Hell Freezes Over: The Story of Father James Groppi  (Trailer)

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VIDEO: "The Kid, The Cop, and the Knife"

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VIDEO: "The Kid, The Cop, and the Knife"

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This *60 Minutes* segment presents the case of the murder of 22 year old Black man and a subsequent cover up by a police officer. This is the video that was played by Reggie Jackson during Employee Development Day, July 2020.

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1980 – Ex cop: Milwaukee police covered-up the murder of a black man

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This is the National Museum of African American History & Culture's portal with links to a plethora of resources.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.

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SCALE / TOOL: "Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization"

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SCALE / TOOL: "Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization"

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Colleges vary in terms of their commitment to anti-racism. This document theories six stages of commitment.

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WEBINAR: "Racism as Trauma" - July 14, 2020 at 3pm

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WEBINAR: "Racism as Trauma" - July 14, 2020 at 3pm

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Presented by Reggie Jackson, Dr Fran Kaplan, and licensed social worker Sonya Thorn, this webinar is designed for front-line workers and leadership in helping professions like child and family welfare, behavioral/mental health, education, criminal justice, and healthcare. This program addresses the 400-year history and impacts of the USA’s racial hierarchy, its implications for all Americans, and what helping professionals can do to make a difference. The cost of the webinar is $35

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Designed for front-line workers and leadership in helping professions like child and family welfare, behavioral/mental health, education, criminal justice, and healthcare. This program addresses the 400-year history and impacts of the USA's racial hierarchy, its implications for all Americans, and what helping professionals can do to make a difference.

ATTEND TRAINING WITH
Family Nurturing Center of Texas & Nurturing Diversity Partners
Presented by Reggie Jackson, Dr. Fran Kaplan, and Sonya M. Thorn MSOL, LCSW

In collaboration with the Nurturing Diversity Partners

Dates: July 14, 2020

3:00pm-5:30pm CST

Contact: Sonya Thorn, 512.757.0087 or 512.216.6012
or sonya@texasnurturingcenter.org

Cost: $35.00 per participant
Presentation Platform: ZOOM video conferencing LEARN MORE HERE
Space is limited.

Registration

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Designed for front-line workers and leadership in helping professions like child and family welfare, behavioral/mental health, education, criminal justice, and healthcare. This program addresses the 400-year history and impacts of the USA's racial hierarchy, its implications for all Americans, and what helping professionals can do to make a difference.

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RESEARCH PAPER: "Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life"

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RESEARCH PAPER: "Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life"

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Although written to examine the therapist-patient relationship, the ideas here apply easily to teaching and learning. The authors discuss and give examples of three kinds of microaggressions.

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In this CORA primer, you'll learn what racial microaggressions are & how to facilitate success among men of color.

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Professional Development Program on Racial Microaggression

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BOOK: *Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students* by Zaretta Hammond

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BOOK: *Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students* by Zaretta Hammond

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BLOG POST: "Five Teacher Mindsets that Undermine CRT" by Zaretta Hammond

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BLOG POST: "Five Teacher Mindsets that Undermine CRT" by Zaretta Hammond

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In this essay, Hammond points out differences between multicultural teaching and culturally responsive teaching & introduces the idea of being a "warm demander."

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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Well, 2015 was an exciting year. It was so exciting that it's kept me away from this space for a while. I know you thought I'd gone on some walkabout.

Well, I did, sort of.

This same time last year, my book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain had been out only six weeks. As more and more teachers began reading it, I wanted to find out what was going on in classrooms around CRT. So, I set out to learn what questions, misconceptions, and challenges teachers had related to it.

Over the 10 months that followed, I crisscrossed the country and listened as teachers talked about CRT.

Here are five things I learned about how they think about culturally responsive teaching that might be getting in the way.

1. Teachers still think of CRT as separate from "regular" teaching. On several occasions, a group of teachers would be talking and someone would say, "But when I go back to regular teaching..." When we think of culturally responsive teaching as different from our "regular" instructional routine, we reinforce the mindset that it's an add-on set of strategies. Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings reminds us that culturally responsive teaching is " just good teaching."

2. Leaders still conceive of it as simply about social-emotional learning and not about cognitive development. I was talking with a teacher during a recent workshop. She was very interested in setting up more culturally responsive structures and routines that were focused on reducing stress before the main lesson began. When I asked her why she hadn't, she said that her principal pushed back on the idea. " He said he wants us to focus on getting test scores up, not on relationships or CRT." Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciate that there's been a much needed focus on SEL in schools in the past few years. Yet, not understanding how the CRT and SEL are connected is short sighted.

Unfortunately, there's still not enough effort to connect the dots between what neuroscience tells us about SEL, relational trust, and the student's ability to do higher order thinking or deep learning. These are at the heart of what it means to be culturally responsive. It's not either/or but both/and. If you want more information to help them connect the dots, check out The Social Neuroscience of Education.

3. Teachers still confuse CRT with multicultural education.
Another mindset that keeps teachers from implementing culturally responsive teaching effectively is the fact that they confuse CRT with multicultural education. If we were to do a Venn diagram, I'm sure we'd see some overlap. But the truth is culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education each have very different purposes.

Multicultural education is focused on celebrating the diversity among students. It aims to expose children to different cultural traditions through literature and social experiences. On the other hand, culturally responsive teaching is focused not on celebrating diversity but on using culture as a cognitive scaffold for processing new content during learning.

Remember, each is important, but multicultural education doesn't concern itself with cognitive development and increasing brainpower for culturally and linguistically diverse students like CRT does.

4. Teachers have a limited definition of what it means to be a warm demander.
It's funny how many times I'd hear a teacher say, "Oh, I already do that," when I talk about being a warm demander. Turns out they were usually talking about being a "no non-sense nurturer" as it relates to classroom management. It's a pretty common stance these days thanks to Doug Lemov's "warm/strict" technique made popular in his book, Teach Like a Champion.

But, that's just half the story. In culturally responsive teaching, the warm demander stance isn't about classroom management but about getting the student's permission to push him cognitively into his zone of proximal development (ZPD). The demanding part involves helping students stay focused and persevere through the hard parts of learning with care. (Oh yeah, another SEL connection: Relational trust is the key to getting students' permission to push them).

5. Most teachers can't figure out how to bridge the "knowing-doing" gap.

The last mindset I came across on a regular basis this year was the confusion many teachers have around how to move from understanding culturally responsive teaching conceptually and operationalizing it in their classrooms. To successfully implement CRT we have to consider some of the mundane things that go into effective teaching like time, routines, groupwork, formative assessments, and timely corrective feedback, to name a few.

Developing a CRT growth mindset in 2016.

Think about how these mindsets show up around culturally responsive teaching for you. This year, I'll be spending time thinking about how to support more teachers to implement elements of CRT in their classrooms and how to help them cultivate a growth-oriented mindset toward CRT so it doesn't seem so overwhelming.

Here's to a fruitful 2016.

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Five Teacher Mindsets that Undermine CRT - Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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Well, 2015 was an exciting year. It was so exciting that it's kept me away from this space for a while. I know you thought I'd gone on some walkabout. Well, I did, sort of. This same time last year, my book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain had been out only six weeks.

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This is a playlist of TED Talks which educate on racism and provide actions to eliminate it.

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TEDx Talks to Help Educate on Racism and Actions to eliminate it

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TEDx Talks to Help Educate on Racism and Actions to eliminate it

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OPINION PIECE: "White Academia: Do Better!"

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OPINION PIECE: "White Academia: Do Better!"

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Jasmine Roberts says, "If you are a White academic or higher education professional, there are some tangible actions you can take to support Black faculty, staff, and students." Her article lists 10 things.

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Higher education has a problem. It's called White supremacy.

Photo: Lyu Hu

Over the past couple of weeks, our nation has been confronted with ugly truths and hard history revealing how systemic racism rears its head in almost every space. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down our typical lifestyles, people seem to be listening.

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Over the past couple of weeks, our nation has been confronted with ugly truths and hard history revealing how systemic racism rears its head in almost every space. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down our typical lifestyles, people seem to be listening.

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VIDEO CLIPS:  Being an Antiracist with Dr. Ibram Kendi

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VIDEO CLIPS:  Being an Antiracist with Dr. Ibram Kendi

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Author and historian Ibram X. Kendi claims there’s no such thing as being 'not racist.' He explains that even inaction (simply being ‘not racist’) in the face of racism is, in fact, a form of racism. The idea of an innocent bystander is wishful thinking for Kendi; instead, there’s only racism and antiracism. This site features 5 key take-aways from Kendi's presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

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"The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it - and then dismantle it," writes professor Ibram X. Kendi. That is the essence of antiracism: the action that must follow both emotional and intellectual awareness of racism.

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ARTICLES: Working with Students of Color

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ARTICLES: Working with Students of Color

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This packet contains several very short essays. In his essay "Helping Students of Color Meet High Standards<" Ronald Ferguson discusses high help, high perfectionist pedagogies. In "Providing Supportive Feedback," Geoffrey Cohen presents research that suggests students of color receive feedback on assignments differently, depending on who gives it and how it is stated. Cohen argues that the moment of giving feedback on an assignment can be a key anti-racist moment. He goes on to present a formula for successful feedback.

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This checklist, developed by Cornell University scholars, asks: Are there privileges that you enjoy within the workplace, perhaps without being aware of it?

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CASE STUDIES:  "College Students with Autism"

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CASE STUDIES:  "College Students with Autism"

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Created by the College Autism Network, these case studies can serve as tools to support the professional development of individuals who may encounter college students with autism, or those displaying autism-related characteristics.

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ARTICLE: "The Value of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Distance Learning" 

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ARTICLE: "The Value of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Distance Learning" 

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Renowned expert Zaretta Hammond discusses CRT in an online setting. Link to her webinar is in the article.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

Zaretta Hammond shared practical strategies for fostering students' independence and agency while they are learning at home.

Independence is clearly needed for students working at home, so teachers should foster it very intentionally, said Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. "Culturally responsive instruction doesn't mean you're only mentioning issues of race and implicit bias," Hammond said: By seeking to expand learning capacities of historically marginalized students, "you're also focused on building brainpower by helping students leverage and grow their existing funds of knowledge."

"By giving students more agency, the idea is to disrupt old routines around teaching and learning that make the student dependent on the teacher for receiving knowledge," Major writes.

Hammond offered three suggestions for implementing CRT in the current situation:

1. Use students' background knowledge: The knowledge students have from their families, communities, and lived experiences informs the ways they process and retain new information, and Hammond said educators can guide students to connect what they're learning in classes to that background knowledge.

Hammond encouraged teachers to survey students to find out their interests and then use those as the foundation to help them build more knowledge. Students can take a walk with their parents to find "community curiosities" that spark their interest, for example, or create a list of shows or documentaries that focus on their interests.

Guiding students is about more than curating resources, Hammond said. Provide a framework that shows students how to explore a subject. For example, ask "What was your biggest surprise from this book/show?" Hammond suggested. Asking students to reflect on and share what they observed or learned in a video or audio note can reinforce the knowledge gained.

2. Build routines for the brain: Establishing questions for inquiry is "essential to processing and hardwiring information in the brain," Major writes. Using a regular set of prompts in every send-home assignment builds students' capacity to "begin to think that way even when you're not in the classroom to reinforce that way of thinking." Hammond called this being students' "personal trainer of their cognitive development."

Hammond suggested asking questions that encourage students to draw connections between pieces of information and to relate parts to the whole. For example, a basic question such as "What's the relationship or connection between these things?" gives students a consistent lens for examining new information. While the concepts are simple, the repetition of these questions will help students "internalize these prompts until they become almost instinctual."

3. Boost vocabulary: Creating active student engagement in vocabulary building is an important equity strategy, Major writes. By helping "students engage in wordplay, word consciousness, and word knowledge," educators boost students' understanding of words in a way that is more robust and engaging than a worksheet, she says. Word games and searches "are small, familiar but high-leverage activities because they're fun but also require a high cognitive load."

Poetry activities and word scavenger hunts, for example, can be engaging ways to build interest in new words. "Kids have different interests in words, so find out where their energy is," Hammond suggested: "The idea is to get them actively involved in word consciousness."

As students develop these skills-connecting new information to background knowledge, establishing cognitive routines, and improving vocabulary-they become more independent in their learning. And autonomy is a valuable asset not only for distance learning but for becoming more empowered, engaged learners.

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The Value of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Distance Learning

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Culturally Responsive Teaching Zaretta Hammond shared practical strategies for fostering students' independence and agency while they are learning at home. Independence is clearly needed for students working at home, so teachers should foster it very intentionally, said Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain .

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RESEARCH STUDY: "Neuromyths and Evidence-Based Practices"

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RESEARCH STUDY: "Neuromyths and Evidence-Based Practices"

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Neuromyths are false beliefs, often associated with teaching and learning, that stem from misconceptions or misunderstandings about brain function. This international study focuses on false beliefs, such as about learning styles, that persist in education.

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International Report:

Neuromyths and Evidence-Based Practices in Higher Education

Neuromyths are false beliefs, often associated with teaching and learning, that stem from misconceptions or misunderstandings about brain function. While belief in neuromyths has been established as prevalent among the general public and K-12 teachers, literature about neuromyth belief among higher education professionals (instructors, instructional designers, and administrators) has not been well-researched. This international study examined:

Awareness of neuromyths and general knowledge about the brain among higher education professionals across institutional types, course delivery modes, roles, and a variety of characteristics such as demographics, teaching experience, and level of education;

Awareness of evidence-based practices from the learning sciences and Mind (psychology), Brain (neuroscience), and Education (pedagogy and didactics; MBE) science among higher education professionals;

Predictors of awareness of neuromyths, general knowledge about the brain, and evidence-based practices among higher education professionals; and

Interest among instructors, instructional designers, and administrators in scientific knowledge about the brain and its influence on learning.

This study includes not only answers to important research questions, but practice-oriented information that is useful for pedagogy, course design, and leadership, as well as for further research on this topic.

Download Report

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International Report: Neuromyths and Evidence-Based Practices in Higher Education - OLC

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Neuromyths are false beliefs, often associated with teaching and learning, that stem from misconceptions or misunderstandings about brain function. While belief in neuromyths has been established as prevalent among the general public and K-12 teachers, literature about neuromyth belief Read More >

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LIST: Fifteen Books by Latino and Latin American Authors

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LIST: Fifteen Books by Latino and Latin American Authors

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The list includes authors who write in a variety of genres.

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A new year is here, and with it comes the promise of a fresh crop of fantastic books by Latino authors for you to read. Because of publisher schedules, we mostly know about what's coming in the first half of the year, and we can say that 2020 is already promising to be a fantastic year for Latino and Latin American writers.

From a magical version of Brooklyn and postcolonial love poems to a horrifying dystopia where eating human flesh is legal and an exhausting 6,000-mile run through colonized lands, these books of 2020 will take you on a journey.

"Shadowshaper: Legacy" by Daniel José Older (JANUARY)

Get your Christmas gift cards ready, because the conclusion to Daniel Jose Older's fantastic Shadowshaper trilogy hit shelves the first week of January, and if you haven't already, you'll want to pick it up. Previous books in the series have dealt with topics like gentrification and police violence against Black communities, all in a gorgeously fantasy-laced Brooklyn, New York. Legacy continues protagonist Sierra's journey in finding out how to use her powers responsibly and keep her family safe but delves deeper into shadowshaper lore. If you haven't read the rest of the Shadowshaper books, it's a great way to spend the early months of 2020.

"Postcolonial Love Poem" by Natalie Diaz (MARCH)

Postcolonial Love Poem does what the title says it does: it is a book of poems about love, desire and longing that begins in the body. But it's not just any body. Instead, it's an Indigenous Latina's body. What does it mean to desire when so much of history has been bent on the destruction of your love? What does it look like when we hold other bodies - bodies of water, bodies of mountains, forests and animals - as dear as our own? Postcolonial Love Poem is an ode to existence and against erasure.

"Thresholds" by Laura Mimosa Montes (MAY)

Laura Mimosa Montes is a poet from the Bronx, New York. In Thresholds she returns to the expansive arts scene of the borough in the '70s and '80s, looks at the potential vibrant and artistic future of her neighborhood and questions her own role as a bridge between both. The book delves deep into the forces moving through a neighborhood often seen as peripheral and in an artist living in it: gentrification, loss and a wild hope.

"Tender is the Flesh" by Agustina Bazterrica, trans. Sarah Moses (AUGUST)

It's some indeterminate point in the future, and thanks to widespread animal disease, eating human meat is now legal. Marcos runs a slaughterhouse for humans, and when he's presented with a particularly beautiful woman bred for consumption, he's haunted by her and tempted to overturn the rules of the society in which he lives. It's sure to be an unrelentingly dark, thought-provoking narrative that will stay with you.

latino literature.

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15 Books by Latino & Latin American Authors to Add to Your 2020 Reading List

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A new year is here, and with it comes the promise of a fresh crop of fantastic books by Latino authors for you to read. Because of publisher schedules, we mostly know about what's coming in the first half of the year, and we can say that 2020 is already promising to be a fantastic year for Latino and Latin American writers.

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LIST: Ten Books with South Asian characters

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LIST: Ten Books with South Asian characters

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Young adult books

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10 Must-Read Books With South Asian Characters Coming Out This Year

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From timely novels about elections to stories about Parisian history, 2020 brings a slew of books about the South Asian experience.

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PADLET: The African American  Experience

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PADLET: The African American  Experience

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Link to a padlet which contains resources related to culturally responsive teaching about the African American experience.

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When the president of Ivy Tech Community College saw that single moms did not succeed at the same rate as other students, she convened a Design Lab to redesign her college for single mom success.

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RESEARCH STUDY: "Exploring Bias in Student Evaluations"

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RESEARCH STUDY: "Exploring Bias in Student Evaluations"

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Findings show that instructors who are female and persons of color receive lower scores on ordinal student evaluations than those who are white males.

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PS: Political Science & Politics

Research continues to accumulate showing that in instructor evaluations students are biased against women. This article extends these analyses by examining the dynamics between evaluations and gender and race/ethnicity. In a quasi-experimental design, faculty members teaching identical online courses recorded welcome videos that were presented to students at the course onset, constituting the sole exposure to perceived gender and race/ethnicity. This enables exploration of whether and to what degree the instructors' characteristics influenced student evaluations, even after holding all other course factors constant. Findings show that instructors who are female and persons of color receive lower scores on ordinal student evaluations than those who are white males. Overall, we add further evidence to a growing literature calling for student evaluations of teaching (SETs) reform and extend it to encompass the effects on racial/ethnic minorities in addition to women.

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Exploring Bias in Student Evaluations: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity | PS: Political Science & Politics | Cambridge Core

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PS: Political Science & Politics Research continues to accumulate showing that in instructor evaluations students are biased against women. This article extends these analyses by examining the dynamics between evaluations and gender and race/ethnicity. In a quasi-experimental design, faculty members teaching identical online courses recorded welcome videos that were presented to students at the course onset, constituting the sole exposure to perceived gender and race/ethnicity.

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VIDEOS: "The First Time I Realized I Was Black"

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VIDEOS: "The First Time I Realized I Was Black"

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In *The Souls of Black Folk,* W.E.B. Du Bois talks about the first time he realized his skin color made him different. CNN asked celebrities, CNN anchors and reporters, and others to tell us when they first realized that being black affected how people treated them. This is the collection of video responses.

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Lead video producer: Tawanda Scott Sambou

Craft editor: Janelle Gonzalez

Graphics: Melody Shih, Shane Csontos-Popko, Rob Chriqui, Padraic Driscoll, Jonathan Reyes

Video producers: Claudia Morales, Gabe Ramirez, Jeremy Moorhead, Bryce Urbany, Deb Brunswick, Tsering Bista, Jacqueline Rose

Voice over: Larry Meriweather

Senior video producer: Jacque Smith

Web development: Sean O'Key

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In "The Souls of Black Folk," W.E.B. Du Bois talks about the first time he realized his skin color made him different. We asked celebrities, CNN anchors and reporters, and others to tell us when they first realized that being black affected how people treated them.

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ENGLISH FACULTY ARTICLE: "It's Time to Diversify and Decolonize Our Schools' Reading Lists"

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ENGLISH FACULTY ARTICLE: "It's Time to Diversify and Decolonize Our Schools' Reading Lists"

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Enjeti argues that our course calendars should reflect the diversity we see on our campuses.

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Recently, a Duluth school district in Minnesota decided to drop Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" from its required reading list because of the books' use of the n-word (The books will remain on a list that students have the option of reading). While this is an important step in the right direction, it barely scratches the surface of a more deeply troubling issue. Many white-authored classics are racist and damaging to students of colour, and their usage of racial slurs is merely the tip of the iceberg for why texts such as these should be left off of literature syllabi.

Both "Huck Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" incorporate the common white-saviour/"magical negro or native" trope whereby indigenous, brown and black characters exist as mere devices to help white characters attain moral enlightenment. Jim in "Huck Finn" and Tom Robinson in "To Kill a Mockingbird," like other indigenous, black and brown characters in the predominantly white-authored literary canon, are flat and grossly stereotypical. They lack their own agency, autonomy and humanity, and exist in deplorable conditions only to be pitied by more vividly drawn white characters, victims whose victimhood is the crux of the frequently employed white saviour plot. The more helpless these characters are, the greater, more courageous, more impressive the white saviour's rescue seems.

Some critics argue that the Duluth school district's decision was a mistake because "Huck Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird," teach students about racism. This is only the case, of course, if by "students" we mean white students. Indigenous, brown and black students don't learn anything about racism written from the oppressor's point of view, and the portrayal of such flagrant racism hardly reflects the reality of what many indigenous and students of colour endure in their daily lives.

If people can evolve to become more inclusive and less harmful, shouldn\'t the predominantly white literary canon evolve, too?

Instead, white savior books reinforce the extremely demeaning and derogatory notion that indigenous, black, and brown people exist only to serve the needs, goals and aspirations of white people - which when read could increase students' stress levels, while also negatively impacting their self-esteem and limiting their ability to see themselves as powerful agents of change in the world.

Novels that incorporate the white saviour trope also exemplify poor literary craft. Take "To Kill a Mockingbird". In the book, a white lawyer named Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man, who is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. After his trial and conviction, Tom attempts to escape from prison and is shot and killed.

Tom, as a character, exists only to be saved by Atticus and to attempt to teach the white community of Maycomb, specifically, Atticus' two children Jem and Scout, about racism. "As you grow older," Atticus says, "you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."

In a graduate school creative writing class, I asked students to name some of the characteristics of Atticus Finch. Their adjectives filled an entire dry-erase board. Generous. Intellectual. Forthright. Moral . Diligent . When I asked them to do the same for Tom Robinson, they stumbled a bit before suggesting selfless and kind , for the occasional free labour he did for his accuser, Mayella Ewell. Other than what Tom says on the stand during his trial, where he is playing the role of victim to serve this white saviour plot, we learn little else about him. We know nothing about what kind of father he is, what interests he has. Harper Lee gives Tom little substance or dimension.

The movement to diversify and decolonise reading lists is nothing new. We Need Diverse Books is a grassroots organisation with the goal "to produce and promote books that reflect and honour the lives of all young people." The twitter hashtag #ownvoices demands the publishing industry seek out and publish books written by authors from marginalised communities about characters from their own communities.

Unfortunately, when it comes to reading lists for language arts' curricula, very little has changed . My own high school and middle school children have reading lists almost identical to the lists from my English classes in the 1980s and 90s.

For some people, "Huck Finn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are beloved classics. But nostalgia is not a good reason to keep them on literature syllabi. What we teach students about people from marginalised communities should be authentic; and to be authentic, it should come from marginalised authors and the richly drawn characters they create. Indigenous, black and brown characters shouldn't simply serve as targets of white violence or lessons for white morality. They should play central roles in their own stories, with a full range of emotions and personalities, absent what Toni Morrison has called the "white gaze," the presumption that people of colour's lives "have no meaning, no depth," beyond white people's imagination or interpretation of them.

Thankfully, literature is not rocket science. We don't need and have never needed texts that incorporate racist tropes. Authors of myriad racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds have been writing about their own communities as far back in time as white authors. If Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," or Octavia Butler's "Kindred" replaces "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "To Kill a Mockingbird," students, particularly white students, will not only be reading more rigorous, realistic and layered books about the black community, they will understand bigotry at a deeper, systemic level. The same argument can be made for replacing EM Forester's "A Passage to India," (yet another book about a brown man being accused of raping a White woman) with Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children," dumping John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" in favour of Ana Castillo's " The Mixquiahuala Letters," and replacing Scott O'Dell's " Island of the Blue Dolphins " with Kristiana Kahakauwila's "This is Paradise."

We don't need nor have we ever needed to teach books written by white authors that capitalise on inaccurate stereotypes and vulgar and barbaric tropes about marginalised communities. What's more, we can also teach books about marginalised communities that celebrate joy and love, health and success. Indigenous, black and brown stories don't need to always be about suffering to teach valuable lessons about sociopolitical issues.

In the meantime, it's high time educators realised that our policies about racism in school texts must go far above and beyond a conversation about racial slurs. Indigenous and students of colour deserve to have the same privilege in education that white students have always had - the opportunity to examine and imagine the full extent of their humanity in literature. If people can evolve to become more inclusive and less harmful, shouldn't the predominantly white literary canon evolve, too?
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anjali Enjeti

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It's time to diversify and decolonise our schools' reading lists

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Recently, a Duluth school district in Minnesota decided to drop Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" from its required reading list because of the books' use of the n-word (The books will remain on a list that students have the option of reading).

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Kimberly Tanner provides 21 teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity.

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Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity

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A host of simple teaching strategies—referred to as “equitable teaching strategies” and rooted in research on learning—can support biology instructors in striving for classroom equity and in teaching all their students,…

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ARTICLE: "How to Make You Teaching More Inclusive"

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ARTICLE: "How to Make You Teaching More Inclusive"

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This guide was compiled by *The Chronicle of Higher Education*

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ESSAY: "Teachers Are People, Too: Examining the Racial Bias of Teachers"

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ESSAY: "Teachers Are People, Too: Examining the Racial Bias of Teachers"

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This research article explores implicit bias among teachers as compared to the general population.

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An important tenet of culturally responsive teaching is the belief that students from every culture come to our campuses with certain forms of social capital. This wheel outlines forms of cultural wealth.

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The Center for Urban Education at USC has identified 5 obstacles which stand in the way of racial equity at the system level.

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PDF: "Examples of Welcoming and Unwelcoming Syllabus Language"

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PDF: "Examples of Welcoming and Unwelcoming Syllabus Language"

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Students, particularly first-generation students, develop perceptions about how inclusive and welcoming a class is from reading the syllabus. This document gives examples of how to revise syllabus policies to be more welcoming.

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ESSAY: "Understanding the Challenges Faced by First-Generation College Students"

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ESSAY: "Understanding the Challenges Faced by First-Generation College Students"

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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While there have been competing definitions of what it means to be a first-generation college student, one of the most widely accepted of these comes from the Higher Education Act of 1965. This federal understanding of the term, "first-generation college student," recognizes a student as first-generation if either of the following are true: 1) neither of the student's parents have a four-year college degree or 2) the student only receives support from one parent, who does not have a four-year college degree.

Here, I will discuss some of the challenges facing first-generation college students, and more specifically, the following topics: 1) the lower levels of familial financial support that first-generation college students have access to, 2) the disparities related to the use of on-campus services between first-generation college students and their continuing generation (i.e. not first-generation) peers, and 3) some of the ways in which colleges and universities can begin to better support this student demographic.

The Size and Importance of This Demographic

Prior to discussing some of the challenges facing first-generation college students, it is important to conceptualize how large this student population is becoming across the country. As noted by the Center for First-Generation Student Success, the most recently available data from the U.S. Dept. of Education indicates that approximately "56% of undergraduates nationally were first-generation college students..., and 59% of these students were also the first sibling in their family to go to college."

With that being said, the sheer prevalence of first-generation college students indicates the need for thorough conversations about how to best support this emerging student demographic. However, other aspects of national data also indicates the importance of this, particularly since first-generation college students face distinct challenges in comparison to their continuing generation peers.

Financial Challenges for First-Generation College Students

One such challenge is the lower levels of familial financial support that first generation college students have access to. While continuing generation students reported a median familial income of $90,000, the median for the families of first generation college students was reported at just over $40,000. As such, the financial support system for first generation college students is often more tenuous, and this may result in a series of other challenges, such as not being able to afford course materials and emergency expenses that can arise throughout one's college career.

In addition to the practical realities that such a stark disparity creates, first-generation students also report higher rates of utilizing financial aid resources in comparison to their continuing generation peers. While the need for access to financial aid is not surprising given the median familial income of first-generation college students, research suggests that this student demographic is more likely to lack the financial literacy skills to make fully informed decisions during the process of obtaining a student loan.

Disparities Among the Use of On-Campus Resources

Another major challenge facing first-generation college students is a lower usage rate of on-campus resources, including but not limited to health, advising, and academic support. Regarding health services, 14% of first-generation college students report using said services in comparison to 29% of continuing generation students. Additionally, a similar trend emerges in relation to academic advising services with a nearly 20% difference between the two groups. And finally, there is a marginally smaller percentage of first-generation college students that use academic support services, such as tutoring assistance.

In short, major areas of on-campus support networks are often less utilized by first-generation college students in relation to their peers. Such differences may exist for a number of reasons, like the inability to access the resources (due to other obligations such as a part-time job), lack of awareness of the services, and more.

Considerations to Better Support First-Generation College Students

While these challenges are a reality facing first-generation college students across the country, there are also a number of considerations that faculty and staff can make to ensure that they are better supporting these students.

First and foremost, making sure that your resources and support structures are accessible and visible is key, as this will aid students in learning about and then accessing the services. Additionally, higher education professionals can also work to remove administrative and bureaucratic barriers that might create additional impediments to first-generation college students. And finally, our institutions can, more broadly speaking, provide more training opportunities for faculty and staff to better learn about the realities of being a first-generation college student.

While this short list of considerations is simply a starting point to better responding to the challenges that first-generation college students often face, continued improvement will be necessary, and this will become increasingly important in the coming years, considering the rising enrollment numbers of this student demographic across the country.

Join Timothy R. Bussey, PhD, in a live online seminar on Thursday, March 5 at 1:00 pm Central about Practical Ways to Support First-Generation College Students in the College Classroom.

Bio: Timothy R. Bussey, PhD, is the Assistant Director for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Kenyon College, where he specializes in fostering LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity on campus. During the fall 2019 term, he also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Kenyon College, where he taught the college's first permanent queer studies course. A recent graduate of the University of Connecticut, he has also taught courses for the Dept. of Political Science, the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Rainbow Center at UConn. His research interests are LGBTQ+ politics, queer military history, and LGBTQ+ educational support.
References:
"Use of Student Services among Freshman First-generation College Studentst." 2019. Washington, DC: NASPA. Available at: https://firstgen.naspa.org/files/dmfile/NASPA_FactSheet-03_FIN.pdf

Lee, Jason and John A. Mueller. 2014. "Student Loan Debt Literacy: A Comparison of First-Generation and Continuing-Generation College Students." Journal of College Student Development, vol. 55 no. 7. 714-719.

"First-generation College Students: Demographic Characteristics and Postsecondary Enrollment." 2019. Washington, DC: NASPA. Available at: https://firstgen.naspa.org/files/dmfile/FactSheet-01.pdf

"Higher Education Act of 1965." United States, Congress. Public Law 89-329, as amended through Public Law 116-91. Available at: https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Higher%20Education%20Act%20Of%201965.pdf

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Understanding the Challenges Facing First-Generation College Students | Faculty Focus

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While there have been competing definitions of what it means to be a first-generation college student, one of the most widely accepted of these comes from the Higher Education Act of 1965.

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LIST: 29 Movies and Documentaries on Racial Injustice

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LIST: 29 Movies and Documentaries on Racial Injustice

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Storytelling has played a crucial role in Black American history. Andrea Collier, a Black author and multimedia journalist from Lansing, Michigan, spoke recently on the importance of storytelling within the Black community.

"Stories, including the razor-edged ones of lynchings and segregation, are the ties that bind us. So are the stories of being brought up in segregated neighborhoods, traveling through the South knowing where you could and couldn't go. There is no question that storytelling for black America is a way of saying I am here and I matter," she wrote for UC Berkeley's Greater Good Magazine.

Recounting the stories told by marginalized members of the Black community to get even the smallest glimpse of their historical and present-day struggles is one piece of an infinitely complex puzzle, but it is an imperative one.

Before we can take action, we need to create the space to listen and learn from Black voices. "Not being racist" is simply not enough. It's time to use our voices, be advocates, and serve as allies for change. Those of us who are non-Black will never fully understand the struggles of our friends of the Black community, but we can educate ourselves so that we can stand with them in their continued fight for equality.

We all have a duty to remember their names and remember their stories. Read on for a collection of documentaries and dramas that highlight the stories of Black voices. We vow to remember them and to remind others of their impact. Let's get to work:

Documentaries

Where to stream: Netflix, Amazon Prime

Let It Fall is a documentary that takes a cold, hard look at the time period of 1982 to 1992 in L.A.-a decade of police brutality and racial injustice that led to the Rodney King riots of 1992. Accounts are taken from those who lived through and survived the events as the film traces the underlying domino effect that fueled the Los Angeles uprising.

Where to stream: Netflix, Amazon Prime

This piece follows the police force in Oakland, California in its two-year attempt to rebuild trust and peace amongst their community. Black voices from the film describe an out of control history of police brutality and misconduct against the Black community in their area as the police department works to acknowledge their wrongs, take responsibility for the actions of past officers, and rewrite the script starting from the ground up.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

The Central Park Five exposes the horrifying injustice that was served to five Black and Latino teens (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise) in a 1989 crime. The story follows a weak investigation and police pressure to quickly solve a crime that led to the false conviction of five innocent Harlem teenagers.

Where to stream: Netflix, Youtube

The name of this film refers to the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." This documentary takes a close look at the "loophole" of the "except as a punishment for crime" portion of the statement that has been exploited over the years and has contributed to the mass incarceration of Black persons.

Where to stream: Netflix

This documentary tells the account of the chilling 1992 murder of William Ford, Jr., a 24-year-old Black teacher and brother to Strong Island's director, Yance Ford. William Ford was shot in the chest by 19-year-old white auto shop employee Mark Reilly and the tragic story takes a more than unfortunate turn as Mr. Ford becomes the prime suspect in his own murder. Yance Ford tells his family's story of the biased circumstances that surrounded William Ford's murder while reclaiming his brother's memory.

Where to stream: HBO Max

On November 23 2012, 17-year-old Black male Jordan Davis and his friends pulled into a gas station. Minutes later, 10 shots were fired by a 45-year-old white male by the name of Michael Dunn who was motivated by the teens listening to loud rap music. This documentary highlights the events leading up to the shooting, the trial, the role of media, and subsequent protests that followed Davis's death.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime, Hulu

Whose Streets? is a documentary film about the murder of an unarmed Black man by the name of Michael Brown, and the Ferguson uprising. This film takes you to the front line of protests in Missouri and allows an emotional, behind-the-scenes look as activists tell their stories.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

This 2016 documentary is based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript of Remember This House, which was to be a tribute to late influential civil rights leaders that he considered friends. Baldwin was an eloquent writer who used his artistic talent to tackle racism and racial injustice and, in the film, his words are narrated beautifully by Samuel L. Jackson. The documentary helps to bring light to Baldwin's contributions and directly compares Baldwin's accounts of violence and discrimination to the injustice we still see to this day.

Where to stream: Netflix

What Happened, Miss Simone? is a biographical documentary highlighting the life and work of Nina Simone, a black female musician and activist who rose to fame during the 1960s. Simone's story is a tale of fiercely met oppression-in music, in family life, and in the greater world.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution gives a firsthand look at the Black Panther Party who fearlessly rose in the 1960s to serve to protect members of the Black community in the face of racial injustice. The film showcases the growth of the movement and the group's use of the media to abolish oppression and to ensure protection for Black persons despite pushback from traditional law enforcement and beyond.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

This film is a beautiful biographical documentary highlighting the strong light that is Maya Angelou. Angelou was a writer, dancer, singer, actress, and activist who found her voice after experiencing sexual trauma at seven years old. Her work, including the monumental literary feat I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, has inspired generations around the world.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Dispatches from Cleveland is a film that tells the account of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a Black Cleveland native who was fatally shot in the park by a 26-year old white police officer in 2014 for carrying a toy gun. In the film, residents of Cleveland come together in protest to seek justice amongst the city which boasts a long-standing history of police misconduct and social injustice.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime, HBO Max

This iconic 1994 documentary follows the story of two black, inner-city Chicago teenagers who push past social and physical barriers to work towards their dream of playing in the NBA. The film was shot over the course of five years and is a coming-of-age tale of the two boys as they ambitiously fight for their dreams amongst social, racial, economical, and relational pressures.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Freedom Riders is the tale of Black activists who challenged segregation head-on via the Freedom Rides of 1961. Though nonviolent, the groups were met with an overwhelming amount of police arrests and brutality from white protesters. The movement gained media attention for the Civil Rights Movement and further fueled the fight for freedom for the Black community.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime, HBO Max

Four Little Girls is a documentary that tells the heartbreaking story of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963 that led to the death of four young girls between the ages of 11 and 14: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. The film, directed by Spike Lee, is a heartwrenching account of the events and a memoriam for the four innocent lives lost.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Dark Girls is a documentary that explores bias against Black women in the world, in our nation, and within the Black community. It highlights the experiences of Black women who struggle with colorism and self-esteem and their journey to find acceptance from others and from themselves.

Where to stream: Netflix

This documentary recounts the life and death of Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender Black woman who was a central activist for the LGBT community. When her body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, many who knew and loved her believed that her death was a murder. The film highlights Johnson's impact on her community and beyond, brings present-day volume to her voice, and brings attention to the ongoing fight for Black/Trans justice of past and current generations.

18. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality

Where to stream: HBO Go

True Justice is the story of Bryan Stevenson's fight for equality and the launch of the Equal Justice Initiative. Stevenson is a lawyer who has devoted his life to defending those who the criminal justice system has failed. He advocates for his clients who have been "broken by bias, trauma, and discrimination," fights for justice, and works towards making the dream of a more equitable criminal justice system a reality.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Black 14 features the accounts of 14 Black athletes who played football at the University of Wyoming in 1969. Before a game against the Brigham Young University Cougars (a Mormon-based institution that was receiving attention for racist practices), the group asked their coach if they could stand in solidarity by donning black armbands. With little to no conversation, they were simply dismissed from the team. Black 14 tells the story of the unsung civil rights heroes that sacrificed their dreams of professional football and education for justice and equality.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

If you're looking for insight into the Black Lives Matter movement, this is the place to start. This documentary highlights the rise of the movement in response to the 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by a white male in what the man later claimed to be "self-defense." The film gives detailed accounts by the BLM founders and digs deeply into what it represents.

Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime

KIKI explores the existence of the Kiki scene-a safe haven for LGBTQ Youth of Color to explore their uniqueness through performance and to escape racial rejection and homophobia. The film boasts a feel-good tone and highlights the lives of those finding their voice among social oppression.

Where to stream: Netflix, Amazon Prime

LA 92 provides a moment-by-moment retelling of the Los Angeles riots that occurred in response to the filmed, violent beating of Rodney King in 1991. The police officers in the case were found not guilty, which served as yet another wake-up call for our nation that "freedom was not yet a reality in the United States."

Films and series:

Where to stream: Hulu

The Hate U Give, based on the bestselling novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas,follows Starr Carter, a Black teenager who balances life in her home neighborhood with her prep school life where she plays "Starr version two." When her childhood best friend is shot at the hands of a white police officer, Starr's two worlds collide and her life is shattered. She works to find her voice as she mourns and seeks change in the face of injustice.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Selma showcases the Selma to Montgomery marches by Black activists, lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., in the relentless yet peaceful conquest for equal voting rights. The film is an emotionally powerful portrayal of one of the most influential triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.

Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime

The film Hidden Figures is based on a true story and adapted from the novel Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie tells the untold story of three real-life NASA mathematicians: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, as they work tirelessly to launch a man into space and claim their seat at the table.

Where to stream: Netflix

Mudbound is a film set in Jim Crow Mississippi during WWII. It tells a tale of a white family and a Black family living on the same farmland. The film exposes challenges of the time era which largely include overt and violent racism, sexism, and post-traumatic stress disorder of returning veterans.

Where to stream: Netflix

When They See Us is Netflix's limited series that recounts the story of the Central Park Five. The series is based on the true story in which five Harlem teens are wrongly accused of raping and beating a white female jogger and brings up the issues of coerced, false confessions, racial injustice, and the failings of our criminal justice system.

Where to stream: Netflix, Amazon Prime

Dear White People is the Netflix series spinoff on the film by the same name by Justin Simien. The series is considered a comedy in nature as it follows the accounts of students attending a predominately white Ivy League institution. It brings attention to racism, cultural injustice, and activism in the modern age.

Where to stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime

If Beale Street Could Talk is the emotional drama adapted from James Baldwin's 1974 book by the same name. It follows a young black couple, Tish and Fonny, in 1970s Harlem and the events surrounding the wrongful accusation that Fonny assaulted a white woman. It's a story of injustice, love, and the struggle to prove a man's innocence.

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29 Movies & Documentaries to Watch to Educate Yourself on Racial Injustice

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Storytelling has played a crucial role in Black American history. Andrea Collier, a Black author and multimedia journalist from Lansing, Michigan, spoke recently on the importance of storytelling within the Black community. "Stories, including the razor-edged ones of lynchings and segregation, are the ties that bind us.

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ESSAY:  "So You Think You're an Antiracist?: Ideological Adjustments for Well-Meaning Educators"

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ESSAY:  "So You Think You're an Antiracist?: Ideological Adjustments for Well-Meaning Educators"

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This essay outlines 5 paradigm shifts that educators must make to move from well-meaning to action-oriented.

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Paradigm Shifts for Educational Equity | Equity Literacy Institute

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1. The Potential Inaction of Dialogue Dialogue is an important part of social change. It helps us develop deeper understandings of conditions we're trying to change and provides opportunities for solidarity-building. But developing awareness is not in and of itself racial justice action. It's what prepares us to participate in racial justice action.

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ECONOMICS WEBSITE:  "Teaching Economics as if People Mattered"

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ECONOMICS WEBSITE:  "Teaching Economics as if People Mattered"

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Contains free lesson plans originally designed for high schoolers but adaptable for college.

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Teaching Economics As If People Mattered

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We're pleased to make these high-school economics lesson plans available, free of charge. Each one includes everything you need to get started and all are mapped into NCEE standards.

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WEBSITE:  The Invisible Disability Project

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WEBSITE:  The Invisible Disability Project

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Ableism is a cultural bias that impacts disabled people's everyday lives. The goal of this website is to make people more aware of ableism & provide resources for them to call it out when they see it.

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Flip the Script by Calling Out Ableism First

Invisible Disability Project designed a card, inspired by the work of Adrian Piper, specifically to call out ableism before we talk about diverse bodies and minds as an inconvenience to any given structure or relationship. The card does not engage the fantasies of normal. It engages offensive, discriminatory behavior directly by alerting an individual or group to the presence of ableist attitudes and behaviors. And it goes like this:

"Dear Friend,
That thing you just did - was ableism.

I am sure you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that ableist remark, or behaved in that ableist manner. Like racism, sexism, and elitism, ableism is a cultural bias that impacts disabled peoples' everyday lives. For example, being called a "retard", "lame", or "crazy" is offensive to people like me and my friends. Instead, we need safe and accessible spaces in the absence of ableist assumptions for those with no seemingly obvious disability, like mobility, hearing, visual, or affective impairment or chronic illness. I can't always alert or educate people about my non-visible disability. If I do, it is often considered malingering or controlling, so, instead, I distribute these calling cards to signal when ableist remarks/behaviors arise.

If this card causes you discomfort, imagine how much your ableism is causing me discomfort."

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Call Out Ableism - Invisible Disability Project

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Flip the Script by Calling Out Ableism First Invisible Disability Project designed a card, inspired by the work of Adrian Piper, specifically to call out ableism before we talk about diverse bodies and minds as an inconvenience to any given structure or relationship. The card does not engage the fantasies of normal.

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ARTICLE: "Ten Commitments for Equity Literacy"

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ARTICLE: "Ten Commitments for Equity Literacy"

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If you're wondering how to get started in supporting equity at MATC, this is a good place to begin.

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Ten Commitments for Equitable Educators | Equity Literacy Institute

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Free handout on the ten commitments for educational equity

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OPINION PIECE:  "Are We Really Serious about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?"

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OPINION PIECE:  "Are We Really Serious about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?"

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Dr. George Boggs contends that its time for colleges to go beyond statements of support and to take tangible action to create equity.

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by George R. Boggs

Last year, the Campaign for College Opportunity in California issued a report that revealed a serious lack of progress in diversifying the higher education institutions in the state. Seventy-three percent of the students at the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses and 72% of the students enrolled in California's community colleges (CCC) are students of color.

However, the tenured faculty in all three systems is overwhelmingly White: 69% at UC, 63% at CSU and 62% at CCC. If nontenured faculty are considered as a potential source for future tenured faculty, there will not be much progress as that pipeline is also not racially diverse.

The senior leadership of the institutions in all three segments also lags in measures of diversity. At UC, 71% of the senior leadership is White; at CSU, it is 73% White; and at the community colleges, it is 57% White. The disparities in other states may not be quite as stark as they are in California, which is rapidly diversifying in its general population, but the issue is a serious one in every state. Higher education is not making the progress that it needs to make to have its faculty and senior leadership reflect the diversity of its student body.

While I believe that most faculty members and leaders, no matter their race or ethnicity, value diversity and are committed to the concepts of equity and inclusion - and may even have specific goals to improve diversity - progress is stalled. Actions do not seem to match rhetoric. The question is, are we in higher education truly sincere in what we say about the value of diversity, equity and inclusion?

In a 2016 opinion article in The Washington Post, Professor Marybeth Gasman, argued that the reason higher education institutions don't hire more faculty of color is that they really don't want them. Her major point is that search committees rate candidates based on what they call qualifications. The committees say that the "most qualified" candidate should be hired.

The problem with this criterion is that "most qualified" is ill-defined. Is a candidate with an Ivy League degree more qualified than one with a degree from a state university? Is a candidate with a doctorate more qualified to teach freshman English at a community college than one with a master's degree? Is a candidate with seven years of prior full-time teaching experience more qualified than one who is just starting a teaching career? Is a woman who has a break in her work record to care for children less qualified than a candidate who has no gap in his work history?

It is pretty easy to see that use of the ill-defined term "most qualified" can be used to discriminate against women and candidates of color. Instead, leaders need to change selection criteria from wanting to employ "the most qualified candidate" to wanting to hire "the candidate who best meets the needs of the institution." Even more specific language might be considered, such as wanting to hire the candidate who would be the best department chair or dean to improve student success rates - or wanting to hire the candidate who would be the best faculty member to promote the success of students of color and women in STEM disciplines.

Senior leaders need to change hiring procedures to require adequate diversity in the applicant, interview and finalist pools. They need to lead or effectively participate in selection processes rather than delegating these important hiring decisions. Programs should be formally established to identify and mentor women and students of color who show promise for academic careers. Upsetting the status quo will likely not be popular, but leaders need to have the courage to take the necessary steps to increase the diversity of the faculty and leadership in American higher education. Higher education is not going to make the progress that we need to increase diversity in our colleges and to close student achievement gaps unless we take visionary, courageous and often difficult actions.

After the hiring decisions are made, institutions need to provide adequate onboarding and support that goes beyond a simple orientation process. A mentor or coach should be assigned to each new faculty member and administrator, someone who can help the new employee learn the culture, where the "landmines" are, and where to go to get answers and resources. All employees should
be provided with opportunities for professional development that includes information about diversity, equity and inclusion. Employees should be encouraged and supported in their efforts to further their own education.

Faculty and administrators of color should be provided with opportunities to serve on the most significant institutional committees and governance bodies. As an example, the Campaign for College Opportunity documented that the academic senates of all three California higher education segments are not racially diverse. The Academic Senate at UC is 80% White; at CSU, it is 73% White; and the academic senates at the California community colleges are 71% White.

Colleges and universities need to move beyond statements of support for diversity, equity and inclusion to implement policies, make data-informed decisions and take bold actions that advance the cause of social justice on campuses. Higher education is slow to change, but it will never change without dedicated and committed leadership at all levels.
Dr. George R. Boggs is the president & CEO emeritus of the American Association of Community Colleges and superintendent/president emeritus at Palomar College in California. He is chair of the board of the Phi Beta Kappa International Honor Society and a professor of practice in the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University. The Roueche Center Forum is co-edited by Drs. John E. Roueche and Margaretta B. Mathis of the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership, Department of Educational Leadership, College of Education, Kansas State University. This article originally appeared in the May 14, 2020 edition of Diverse. You can find it here.

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campaign for college opportunity in california

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Roueche Center Forum: Are We Really Serious About Diversity...

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While I believe that most faculty members and leaders, no matter their race or ethnicity, value diversity and are committed to the concepts of equity and inclusion - and may even have specific goals to improve diversity - progress is stalled. Actions do not seem to match rhetoric. The question...

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The Wisconsin Technical College System introduces definitions for diversity, inclusion, and equity.

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WTCS Prioritizes Diversity Equity Inclusion

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Gorski heads the Equity Literacy Institute. Best viewed if you start at the 9:00 minute mark.

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Provides resources for parents of children with disabilities.

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial. Motivational interviewing is a form of therapy that creates a safe, non-judgmental environment for teens to establish their own goals and values and see how changing unhealthy behaviors can benefit them in the long run.

This series of articles comes from the Child Mind Institute, with most available in English and Spanish. Why might teens be resistant to therapy and how can parents and others to help them get the treatment they need? The articles explain how motivational interviewing can help teens gain the self-confidence to make important behavioral changes. To read more about motivational interviewing, and to connect with the articles in both English and Spanish, please visit CPIR's abstract.

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Center for Parent Information and Resources | Your Central Hub for Parent Centers Serving Families of Children With Disabilities

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Finding the motivation to make positive lifestyle changes can be hard for anyone. For teenagers, it can be especially difficult when parents are the ones telling them to do it. But if they've fallen into unhealthy habits like vaping or alcohol abuse, change can be beneficial.

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The National Resources for Advocacy, Independence, Self-determination and Employment (RAISE) Technical Assistance Center works with the seven Parent Training & Information Centers to develop and disseminate information and resources that increase their capacity to serve youth and young adults with disabilities and their families.

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6th Annual RAISE Transition Summit

"From Surviving to Thriving in our New Virtual Reality"

This event took place on Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Topics:

· Virtual and compensatory programming for transition and vocational training during Covid-19
· Building resilience in an ever-changing world
· Policy Updates

Continue Reading RAISE Transition Summit 2020

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6th Annual RAISE Transition Summit "From Surviving to Thriving in our New Virtual Reality" This event took place on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Topics: · Virtual and compensatory programming for transition and vocational training during Covid-19 · Building resilience in an ever-changing world · Policy Updates Continue Reading RAISE Transition Summit 2020

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This drawing by Sherrill Knezel is from the conversation between Brene Brown and Clear the Air

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Promoting equity can mean becoming a racism interrupter, meaning that when you hear something racially offensive, you speak up. This Google doc created from a Facebook post provides diplomatic responses one can use to interrupt racism.

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WORKSHOP:  Diversity Forum 2020 - October 27 & 28, 2020

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WORKSHOP:  Diversity Forum 2020 - October 27 & 28, 2020

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Hosted by UW-Madison, the 2020 Diversity Forum will feature a keynote address by Robin DiAngelo, PhD, author of the widely acclaimed bestseller *White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.*

A New York Times bestseller, *White Fragility* explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

Learn more about the UW–Madison Diversity Forum and the work of Dr. DiAngelo at https://diversity.wisc.edu/diversity-forum.

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For the past 20 years, the UW-Madison Diversity Forum has been the university's premier all-campus and community platform to discuss, share and learn about contemporary issues on diversity and inclusion.

Hosted by the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement (DDEEA), the Diversity Forum is a two-day, conference-style event that is free and open to the public. Each fall the Forum attracts more than 1,000 participants from the campus and greater community.

The goal of the Diversity Forum is to

update attendees with the latest knowledge and research in the diversity and inclusion fields,

educate them about perspectives and best practices for equity and social justice, and

activate attendees so they go on to make positive changes in the world.

Attendees get the chance to hear from authors, community organizers, activists, researchers and others working in the areas of diversity, equity, social justice and inclusion, as well as participate in engaging workshops and small group discussions to further their personal and professional growth and development and find new ways to make a positive impact on the world around them.

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For the past 20 years, the UW-Madison Diversity Forum has been the university's premier all-campus and community platform to discuss, share and learn about contemporary issues on diversity and inclusion. Hosted by the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement (DDEEA), the Diversity Forum is a two-day, conference-style event that is free and open to...

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NEWS:  Two Liberty University Football Players Transfer Because of "Racial Insensitivity" and Cultural Incompetence by Teachers and Leaders

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NEWS:  Two Liberty University Football Players Transfer Because of "Racial Insensitivity" and Cultural Incompetence by Teachers and Leaders

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Lack of inclusivity and cultural responsiveness not only hurts students but also harms the college.

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Two Liberty University football players announced Monday they're leaving the team and transferring schools due to "racial insensitivity" and "cultural incompetence." Both Black players made their decisions public over social media.

Cornerback Tayvion Land wrote on Twitter that the university's leadership was at fault.

"Unfortunately, due to the racial insensitivity displayed by leadership at Liberty University, I have decided to enter my name into the transfer portal and no longer be a student-athlete at Liberty University," he wrote. "I pray that I am able to be provided with (an) opportunity at a new school that respects my culture and provides a comfortable environment."

Cornerback Tre Clark wrote on Twitter that his decision to transfer was "simply bigger than football."

Clark wrote: "Due to the cultural (incompetence) within multiple levels of leadership, it does not line up with my code of ethics. So therefore I had to do what I felt like was right in my heart, and I pray that you support me and pray for me as I find a new home to further my education and football career."

A four-star prospect in the class of 2019, Land was the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with Liberty. He chose the program over offers from several schools in the SEC. Land and Clark held key roles on the 2019 defense and both were expected to start in 2020.

Earlier this month Liberty women's basketball player Asia Todd chose to transfer, citing similar reasons related to racial insensitivity.
Paul Myerberg contributed to this report.

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Two Liberty football players to transfer, citing 'racial insensitivity' and 'cultural' incompetence

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Two Liberty University football players announced Monday they're leaving the team and transferring schools due to "racial insensitivity" and "cultural incompetence." Both Black players made their decisions public over social media. Cornerback Tayvion Land wrote on Twitter that the university's leadership was at fault.

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AUDIO: "The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases"

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AUDIO: "The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases"

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In this 50-minute audio lesson from National Public Radio, they discuss the mind of the village, patterns of thinking, and how biases affect judges.

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Where do our minds live? A simple, scientific response would be to say our minds live in our brains. But Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says we should not think of our minds as being solitary.

"The individual mind sits in society. And the connection between mind and society is an extremely important one that should not be forgotten."

Banaji is one of the creators of the Implicit Association Test, a widely-used tool for measuring a person's implicit biases. She says it's important to acknowledge that problems rooted in prejudice cannot be solved by finger pointing.

"One of the difficulties we've had in the past is that we have looked at individual people and blamed individual people. We've said if we can remove these 10 bad police officers from this force, we'll be fine. And we know as social scientists - and I believe firmly - that that is no way to change anything."

This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we examine research about the mind of the village. We'll begin with a focus on police shootings of unarmed black men. Later in the show, we look at how biases affect judges in the U.S.
Additional Resources:
This episode includes references to research by Mahzarin Banaji, Eric Hehman, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Joshua Correll, and Maya Sen. You'll also hear from Philip Tetlock.

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The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases

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Where do our minds live? A simple, scientific response would be to say our minds live in our brains. But Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says we should not think of our minds as being solitary. "The individual mind sits in society. And the connection between mind and society is an extremely important one that should not be forgotten."

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Compiled by The New York Times

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The scene is a simple family discussion around the living room TV, but for one minute and 30 seconds, Anthony Anderson transforms it into a profoundly moving meditation on police violence, the hope Barack Obama’s election represented, and the reality of being black in America.

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The "Black-ish" clip that every American should see

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ESSAY: "Psychology's Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn't Up to the Job" by Jesse Singal

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ESSAY: "Psychology's Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn't Up to the Job" by Jesse Singal

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Singal points out problems with validity and reliability in Harvard's Implicit Bias Test and invites us to use critical thinking in exploring the many resources out there.

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Psychology’s Favorite Tool for Measuring Racism Isn’t Up to the Job

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Almost two decades after its introduction, the implicit association test has failed to deliver on its lofty promises.

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TED TALK: "The Danger of a Single Story"

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TED TALK: "The Danger of a Single Story"

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

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

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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

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ESSAY: "A Look at Implicit Bias and Microaggressions: A primer on the impact of implicit biases in schools and how they can be expressed by students and faculty."

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ESSAY: "A Look at Implicit Bias and Microaggressions: A primer on the impact of implicit biases in schools and how they can be expressed by students and faculty."

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Presents Wing Sue's taxonomy along with definitions and examples of the three kinds of microaggressions.

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A Look at Implicit Bias and Microaggressions

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A primer on the impact of implicit biases in schools and how they can be expressed by students and faculty.

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BOOK: Can We Talk about Race And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation

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BOOK: Can We Talk about Race And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation

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In this book, Tatum examines some of the most resonant issues in American education and race relations.

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Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)

"What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. Her latest book does that beautifully, asking touch questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers."- Boston Globe

"Ten years ago, Tatum's book asked the question, ' Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?' Her latest book follows up with a broader question about the nation's readiness to talk honestly about the forces that continue to make race such a thorny issue . . . A probing and ambitious start to a series of books to prod national discussion on issues of race, education, and democracy."-Vanessa Bush, Booklist

"Four research-rich, concisely written essays on race and education, including examinations of the 'resegregation of our schools,' the need for educational curricula and staff that respect the diverse communities they serve, [and] the challenges of interracial friendships . . . What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. Her latest book does that beautifully, asking tough questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers."-Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

"Another thoughtful, personal and provocative book that will encourage discussion about many of the difficult issues still surrounding race in America-in and out of the classroom."-Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

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Can We Talk about Race? by Beverly Tatum: 9780807032855 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Major new reflections on race and schools-by the best-selling author of "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" A Simmons College/Beacon Press Race, Education,...

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These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia by Kiki Petrosino (Sarabande)
"In this deeply felt fourth collection, Petrosino investigates her family tree-especially its roots in Virginia-and reports back on this exploration and its gaps.... This is an important and remarkable exploration of heritage."

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These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

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PODCAST: "Essential Listening: Podcasts on Race and Racism"

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PODCAST: "Essential Listening: Podcasts on Race and Racism"

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Looking to educate yourself on racial injustice? Start with these recommended audio roundups.

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This links to a padlet which was created by a librarian at the University of South Carolina.

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GUIDEBOOK: "Delivering High Quality Instruction Online"

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GUIDEBOOK: "Delivering High Quality Instruction Online"

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This 55-page manual presents concrete strategies for designing online courses for equity.

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To have an effective conversation about race, one must listen appropriately.

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BLOG POST: "If You Really Want to Make a Difference in Black Lives, Change How You Teach White Kids" by  Nahliah Webber

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BLOG POST: "If You Really Want to Make a Difference in Black Lives, Change How You Teach White Kids" by  Nahliah Webber

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Webber contends, "There's a George Floyd in every school where Black children learn."

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Nahliah Webber, the Executive Director of the Orleans Public Education Network, is dedicated to disrupting education practices that negatively impact Black students and their intersections in the US and beyond. She holds double bachelor's degrees, Magna Cum Laude, from Sweet Briar College and a master's from Teacher's College, Columbia University, where she focused on racialized school policies and practices. Full profile →

The latest episodes of police murdering Black people have my chest burning like a building set ablaze. My heart is hot, my stomach churns. My head filled with black smoke. I am exhausted.

My body is weak from seeing, hearing, reading and crying over people who look like my father and brothers getting choked out on video ... again. My body hurts not seeing anything happen when people who look like my mother or me are killed by violent White men. The silence when Black trans- men and women are killed by police violently bangs in my eardrum. I'm sore from the hashtags marking yet another Black death gone viral. Physically, emotionally, mentally, I'm hurt. Professionally I'm tired.

I work in education advocacy and I focus on the protection, advancement and dignity of Black children and Black life. Black death is a threat to everything I work and live for, so when it happens I can't help but relate what I see, experience and feel to my work. When anything goes down with Black people I think about education and schools and whether I am a part of something that is preserving Black life or failing it.

As I saw the system choke the life out of George Floyd I became enraged because I knew the focus would be on the systems that produced this end result and not the ones that groomed both George Floyd and the cop who killed him for that moment. That the conversations would be about prosecution and police training, but not changing the places that socialize Americans for White violence and Black death.

The system that killed George Floyd and the system that raised and educated the cop who killed him are the same. And in the same way that folks are tired of the viral Black death-protest-fake trial-acquittal-rinse and repeat cycle, I am tired of folks acting like there's no direct connection between the schools where White children sit and the street corners where they choke out Black life.

There's a George Floyd in every school where Black children learn. Black children are screamed at, berated, surveilled and searched in schools. Black children are slammed and dragged, kicked and prodded in classrooms. Black children are denied an education and disrespected because of their culture. Black children are groomed for containment. We've got children walking on tape with hands over their mouths like prisoners in training.

Black children are suspended, detained, "demerited" and isolated in schools for trivial things every day. And there's a killer cop sitting in every school where White children learn. They hear the litany of bad statistics and stereotypes about "scary" Black people in their classes and on the news. They gleefully soak in their White-washed history that downplays the holocaust of Indigenous, Native peoples and Africans in the Americas. They happily believe their all-White spaces exist as a matter of personal effort and willingly use violence against Black bodies to keep those spaces white.

Yet whenever we talk about what's wrong with the systems that train and socialize young minds to become violent and depraved adults who, say choose to choke people out as part of their jobs, all we ever hear is that Black children, Black families, Black communities, Black-NESS are "behind" and stuck in gaps. Conservatives, liberals and progressives alike grow their careers and feed their families off of myths about Black deficiency.

If you let them tell it, Black kids are in terrible shape while White children are doing gloriously. But how can White kids be doing okay when they're growing up to be police officers, district attorneys, mayors, judges, media, mothers, fathers and presidents who take away Black life and call it justified? As Black bodies drop like flies around us from physical, medical, economic, and material deprivation and violence at White hands, how can we in any of our minds or metrics conclude that the Whites are alright? What kind of warped standards are these?

Because let me tell you something ...

And any school or culture that produces children to grow up like this is failing.

White children are left unchecked and unbothered in their schools, homes and communities to join, advance and protect systems that take away Black life. We never talk about this moral and human failing in White culture as something that needs to get fixed now. Instead, we pour millions of dollars into discussions, conferences, professional development, curriculum and consultancies that talk about fixing Black people. And I'm tired.

I'm tired of White people reveling in their state-sanctioned depravity, snuffing out Black life with no consequences and then having the nerve to tell Black children that they are "behind" and need to work harder.

I'm tired of White people telling Black kids that they need to be held "accountable," yet killer cops go free when they take Black life and White teachers go free when they miseducate Black kids.

I'm tired of White people taking their violent culture, standards and metrics into Black spaces and telling Black children that they don't measure up. Because who is really failing here?

Where's the urgency for school reform for White kids being indoctrinated in Black death and protected from the consequences?

Where are the government-sponsored reports looking into how White mothers are raising culturally deprived children who think Black death is okay?

Where are the national conferences, white papers and policy positions on the pathology of Whiteness in schools and how it leaves White children behind as adults?

Why isn't Bill Gates throwing billions into school programs teaching White kids how not to grow up racist and choke out Black life?

The federal government needs to commission studies on White neighborhoods that produce and insulate anti-Black physical, economic and political violence. City councils and state legislatures should redline those places and determine them to be "high risk" and unfit for life. School reformers need to lobby, plot and plan on how to disrupt school systems that produce, protect and reward White violence.

Go get Walmart and the Koch brothers to fund tens of thousands of recent White college graduates trained in anti-racism and dispatch them to the disadvantaged all-White school districts across the country full of future killer cops. Take your six weeks of training and be an anti-racist teacher in classrooms full of families that hoard resources, separate their school districts and fund the police to keep their knees on Black necks.

Simply, this time after you take off your Black Lives Matter t-shirt and recycle your protest signs, don't go back into Black spaces with your usual bullshit. This time if you really want to make a difference in a Black lives-and not have to protest this shit again -go reform white kids.

Because that's where the problem is-with White children being raised from infancy to violate Black bodies with no remorse or accountability. That cop didn't just learn how to snuff out George Floyd's life in a police training or on the job. He spent a lifetime preparing for that moment with his parents and family, teachers, coaches, neighborhoods and churches.

Eventually, the fires will burn out and the aftermath of the latest uprisings will clear. The heat in my chest may subside a little, but the grief will still be there for the next time. And unfortunately, there will be a next time because I've seen this episode before. We all have. Today we scream for justice but on Monday we'll call for better police training and a guilty verdict that will only leave the system-all the systems-intact. And we'll feel better about ourselves as we return to business as usual, preparing children for White violence and Black death, again.

I'm tired.

Photo by Sean Simmers.

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If You Really Want to Make a Difference in Black Lives, Change How You Teach White Kids

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Nahliah Webber, the Executive Director of the Orleans Public Education Network, is dedicated to disrupting education practices that negatively impact Black students and their intersections in the US and beyond. She holds double bachelor's degrees, Magna Cum Laude, from Sweet Briar College and a master's from Teacher's College, Columbia University, where she focused on racialized school policies and practices.

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LIST: Social Justice Topics for the Sciences

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LIST: Social Justice Topics for the Sciences

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A list of 20+ topics related to social justice and the sciences

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BOOK: *So You Want to Talk About Race* by Ifeoma Oluo

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BOOK: *So You Want to Talk About Race* by Ifeoma Oluo

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In this breakout book, Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today's racial landscape--from white privilege and police brutality to systemic discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement--offering straightforward clarity that readers need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide

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"Every time we fail to interrogate our White syllabi, we perpetuate the 'Othering' of our fellows."

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BLOG POST: "Decolonizing the Classroom: Step 1" by Michael Seward

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BLOG POST: "Decolonizing the Classroom: Step 1" by Michael Seward

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Seward argues that America has been shaped by colonization and power divided along racial lines. Teachers should recognize that the classroom is also political. The post ends with suggested reading.

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From the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship
This post was written by NCTE member Michael Seward, a member of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship.

"You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside . . ." Ariel Dorfman

As a member of NCTE's Standing Committee on Global Citizenship, I am concerned with the legacy of pervasive and lasting pain and inequity left by colonization: across the globe, within the US, within schools, and in my own classroom.

Colonization's legacy is about power: who has it, and who is denied it? Power has to do with material existence and lived experience: access to and use of resources (money, housing, transportation, energy, healthy food, clean water), knowledge, influence, self-determination and economic potential and clout.

Power is political. In a world profoundly shaped by colonization, because, globally, power has been divided along racial lines, politics become inherently racial-even in the classroom.

The classroom is a political space: power is exerted, resisted and yielded to in every classroom; every classroom is situated within an institution, state, and nation-all locations in which resources, knowledge, and access must be negotiated. Justin Simien , director of Dear White People , reminds us that "[r] acism is systemic: It's oppression that's built into the laws, legislation, into the way neighborhoods are policed, and into job opportunities and health care and education" (emphasis added).

Thus, those interested in decolonizing the classroom must take a first, crucial step: a personal commitment to political change. To deny the racial nature of politics (and power)-both inside of and surrounding the classroom-is to perpetuate the inequities created by colonization.

In an attempt to decolonize the classroom, one can make many changes:

diversify materials and content

teach to learning outcomes that address power and social justice;

design assessments that allow diverse students to demonstrate mastery in diverse ways;

involve students in the creation of knowledge, content, and curriculum;

embrace diverse language usage in interactions, writing and tests;

involve oneself at the institutional, local, state and national levels to advocate for equity.

Yet the first change must be to become politically conscious. In order to speak truth to power, one must first enable oneself to see the truth, the truth of the profoundly damaging legacy of colonization.

Anyone who teaches English outside of England is part of the colonial project, particularly if the teaching takes place within a sanctioned institution and if the English being taught is a standardized, "official" English. One need only contemplate the role of language and schooling in European colonization of the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia to grasp the central function of teaching (particularly teaching English) in colonization.

A politically conscious teacher acknowledges that one cannot claim to be purely (and innocently) against racism while acting as a functionary for a colonial and racist system (especially when benefitting materially while doing so (i.e., receiving a paycheck)). To build on Napoleon's observation, "among those who dislike oppression are many who" enjoy the privileges the oppressive system offers.

I have been teaching for over 30 years; I have yet to encounter a teacher who openly espouses racism. Everyone claims to be against racism. Everyone wants to empower students. Yet to begin to ameliorate the deep damage caused by colonization and racism (systems of power) means to be actively and overtly political. To decolonize the classroom, one must examine oneself and one's beliefs:

Let go of the disingenuous notion of objectivity in the classroom, of maintaining political neutrality, of seeing all sides and positions as having equal impact on marginalized groups.

Learn to live in the discomfort of having to take a stand.

Acknowledge that your role as teacher has been historically problematic: that by teaching English you are inherently complicit with forces that damage marginalized students.

See and address the trauma that colonization, poverty, sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of oppression can and do cause for marginalized students.

Resist seeing yourself as the "good guy," fighting the good fight.

Avoid perpetuating the myth of boot-strapping and the belief that by helping individual students you are effecting social change.

Understand that by promoting notions of a standard, correct and preferred language, you are perpetuating colonization, ensuring that future students will suffer the same marginalization.

Act to effect systemic changes that address the forces that damage groups of students, those groups that have been historically traumatized by colonization and racism.

Along with delivering required content, understand your job as providing students with the means of grasping that their difficulties and struggles stem from an inherently inequitable system and culture, as well as ways of resisting and subverting such systems.

See yourself, your curriculum, your content and your classroom as existing within a historical context of racism, subjugation, and control.

Challenge systemic oppression and acknowledge the collective experiences of marginalized groups.

Even those who are made uncomfortable by the status quo may be unwilling to take on the system, for global colonialization has traditionally wrapped itself in the mantles of religion and patriotism, and, as Luis Bunuel reminds us, " God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression " (170). What English teacher wants to take on God and country? And, really, what need is there to challenge the system, when one can still envision oneself as doing good without having to take the risk of being targeted for calling attention to the fact that the pain and suffering of marginalized groups are inherent to and necessary for the functioning of the system.

Florynce Kennedy notes, " When a system of oppression has become institutionalized it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive " (439). Thus, teachers are taught in their training to envision themselves as doing good, even as they reinforce and perpetuate the colonization and racism that damage students. Like missionaries, foreign aid, and global capitalism, we English teachers are part of the "[c] olonialism [that] subdues in many dulcet guises. It conquered under the pretext of spreading Christianity, civilization, law and order, to make the world safe for democracy" ( F. Sionil Jose ). Instead of seeing themselves as generous and helpful, politically conscious teachers must perpetually struggle with the problematic nature of their role. Leila Janah warns us of the dangers of helpfulness:

"[P]art of the problem with charity is that it tends to make us view people as helpless victims. I think in the future, we'll look back on charity in the same way that we look back on colonialism today: as a very paternalistic system that doesn't fully recognise the full spectrum of humanity. "

Instead of envisioning students as individuals in need of the tools required for self-improvement ( as the teacher, I am the one who, by providing you the benefits of the curriculum, helps you succeed ), politically conscious teachers understand that the suffering of marginalized students is a result of an inequitable system.

Politically conscious teachers shift the focus away from the individual as needing change to the system as needing change, a shift that is made very difficult within the American context with its cult of individualism.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali says, "The liberal psyche wants to protect minorities, to apologize for imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and the appalling treatment of black people during the civil rights movement. At the same time, they want to continue to defend the rights of individuals." By focusing our energies on individuals, we avoid dismantling systems of power that privilege some while damaging many others.

To e mpower students (or anyone) on the margins means much more than guiding individuals to a sanctioned academic success; individuals are empowered when systems are altered to shift power toward the groups to which they belong. To empower people from marginalized groups means to disrupt the current balance of power, something the powerful invariably resist. Politically conscious teachers prepare themselves and their students to confront, resist, and withstand such a backlash.

In addition to works by those quoted in this blog, interested educators might find works by the following authors helpful:

In addition to the above resources, interested educators may want to consider participating in the workshop that my colleague Kylowna Moton and I will lead at the 2019 NCTE Convention in Baltimore. "Decolonizing the English Classroom: Why and How?" will be held Thursday, 11/21, 11:30-3:30. We invite concerned educators to join us for a generative session and challenging conversation on decolonizing the classroom.

I'd like to close with the full quotation from Ariel Dorfman , which speaks to us directly as teachers of language: "You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside, look sideways, look at the hidden violence of language. Never forget that language is where the other, parallel violence, the cruelty exercised on the body, originates."
For over 30 years Michael Seward has been teaching a variety of subjects at various levels, from eighth grade to post-graduate. He has been involved in global education in a number of capacities (including two Fulbright teaching exchanges) and countries (including England, Germany, Slovakia, Costa Rica and Poland). Currently he teaches English and serves as an Assessment Coordinator at Minneapolis College.
"The Standing Committee on Global Citizenship works to identify and address issues of broad concern to NCTE members interested in promoting global citizenship and connections across global contexts within the Council and within members' teaching contexts."

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Decolonizing the Classroom: Step 1 - NCTE

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From the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship This post was written by NCTE member Michael Seward, a member of the NCTE Standing Committee on Global Citizenship. "You want to free the world, free humanity, from oppression? Look inside . . ."

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This interactive time-lapse map shows how the US took more than 1.5 billion acres from Native Americans. Created by historian Claudio Saunt

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This interactive map, produced by University of Georgia historian Claudio Saunt to accompany his new book West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, offers a time-lapse vision of the transfer of Indian land between 1776 and 1887. As blue "Indian homelands" disappear, small red areas appear, indicating the establishment of reservations. (Above is a GIF of the map's time-lapse display; visit the map's page to play with its features.)

The project's source data is a set of maps produced in 1899 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. The B.A.E. was a research unit of the Smithsonian that published and collected anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic research on the culture of North American Indians, as the nineteenth century drew to a close.

While the time-lapse function is the most visually impressive aspect of this interactive, the "source map" option (available on the map's site) offers a deep level of detail. By selecting a source map, and then zooming in to the state you've selected, you can see details of the map used to generate that section of the interactive. A pop-up box tells you which Native nation was resident on the land, and the date of the treaty or executive order that transferred the area to the government, as well as offering external links to descriptions of the treaty and of the tract of land.

In the site's "About" section (reachable by clicking on the question mark), Saunt is careful to point out that the westward-moving boundaries could sometimes be vague. Asked for an example, he pointed me to the 1791 treaty with the Cherokee that ceded the land where present-day Knoxville, Tenn. stands. The treaty's language pointed to landmarks like "the mouth of Duck river," a broad approach that left a lot of room for creative implementation. When dealing with semi-nomadic tribes, Saunt added, negotiators sometimes designated a small reservation, "rather than spelling out the boundaries of the cession."

This vagueness benefited the government's purposes in crafting treaties and executive orders. "Greater legality and more precision," Saunt argues, "would have made it impossible to seize so much land in so short a time."

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Interactive Time-Lapse Map Shows How the U.S. Took More Than 1.5 Billion Acres From Native Americans

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This interactive map, produced by University of Georgia historian Claudio Saunt to accompany his new book West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 , offers a time-lapse vision of the transfer of Indian land between 1776 and 1887. As blue "Indian homelands" disappear, small red areas appear, indicating the establishment of reservations.

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ESSAY: "Show Don't Tell: Decolonize Your Classroom, Syllabus, Rules, and Practices" by Yvette DeChavez

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ESSAY: "Show Don't Tell: Decolonize Your Classroom, Syllabus, Rules, and Practices" by Yvette DeChavez

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This essay offers tips for teachers who want to be intentionally socially just.

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You say you are trying to be socially just? How? Does your classroom, curriculum, rules, and actions match your words? What are you doing to be intentionally socially just? It's not enough to talk a good game. Actions speak louder than words and we must be intentional by focusing on what we want as opposed to what we don't want.

Too often, we tell students what not to do, but what if instead, we helped them deliberately create what they wanted. Let students become active and invested partners in their learning process.
Here are couple of ideas to be intentional about social justice:

Instead of writing rules that tell students what not to do, have them co-create the space that helps them focus on what to do instead of what not to do.

Instead of saying don't do this or don't do that, what if we asked what they wanted to create and helped them backwards plan a roadmap to their treasure?

What if you flipped the script and every piece of literature you taught was by someone from marginalized group and you discussed their background and the importance of diverse contributions?

What if in math and science you:

discussed how different cultures played a role in what we do and know in the field; and

presented "hidden figures" of people of color and other marginalized groups who have made amazing contributions in the field?

What if every image on the walls accurately represented people of color as the majority of people in the world, and women as a little over 50% of the population?

What if you discussed how social movements like Black Lives Matter and the Ferguson uprising are connected to student lives and connect and embody the spirit of past civil rights movements?

What if every speaker you brought in was a speaker from a marginalized population-Black, Brown, Asian, Latinx, *dis/abled, speaks English as a second language, one who identifies as LGBTQIA, and etc who are not only experts in the field but who champion social justice as a part of their work.

What if you cited Black women?

If you say you are for social justice, don't tell me, show me.
How will you be intentional about being socially just this school year? Artwork created by Yvette DeChavez - See more about Yvette here.
*As asserted by Dr. Subini Ancy Annamma in her book, The Pedagogy of Pathologization: Dis/abled Girls of Color in the School-Prison Nexus, the slash in dis/abled (and its forms such as dis/ability) is "included to address the ways dis/ability is not a thing to find and fix, but a process. That is, to be dis/abled is about the ways an environment is constructed and maintained in ways that support or hinder access. Being disabled is not simply a fact that people carry with them, but a fluid process dependent upon social context" (7).

Updated: August 2019

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Show Don't Tell: Decolonize your classroom, syllabus, rules, and practices - Liberated Genius

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You say you are trying to be socially just? How? Does your classroom, curriculum, rules, and actions match your words? What are you doing to be intentionally socially just? It's not enough to talk a good game. Actions speak louder than words and we must be intentional by focusing on what we want as opposed to what we don't want.

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INTERVIEW: "Decolonizing Your Syllabus: An Interview with Yvette DeChavez"

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INTERVIEW: "Decolonizing Your Syllabus: An Interview with Yvette DeChavez"

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DeChavez argues that decolonizing a syllabus is a more radical form of inclusion which involves making the voices of indigenous & people of color the dominant ones in the classroom.

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Yvette DeChavez, PhD, is a writer, artist, and scholar that hails from San Antonio, Texas. She is a first generation college graduate and studied Indigenous Americans and People of Color. In addition to her contributions within academia and media, Yvette DeChavez advocates for mental health.

In 2018, Yvette DeChavez utilized her platform to call attention to the lack of representation in college level English classes. In an article published by the Los Angeles Times, DeChavez demanded college campuses, universities, and individuals nationwide to:

Decolonize Your Syllabus!

In this current climate, many voices and experiences are silenced. Unfortunately, that extends to spaces that were once deemed as safe. How is academia changing? How has that affected your role as an educator?

When I returned to the classroom two days after the (2016) election, the tension was palpable. I was TAing for an American Lit class at the time, and I could tell that the professor (a liberal white guy) was uncomfortable and unsure of how to address the elephant in the room. On one hand, there were students who'd voted for Trump. On the other, we had queer students, undocumented students, students wearing "Fuck Trump" shirts, all of whom were seething with anger. I knew things were going to be intense after that, and that I would have to decide how I was going to approach this as an educator-would I stay quiet so as to not ruffle feathers, or would I stand up for what I believe in, which is that aligning yourself with Trump is aligning yourself with the denial of basic human rights and dignity? I knew that if I chose the path of least resistance, I'd be doing a disservice to the students whose lives and voices were at risk. I choose to teach resistance. Not everyone is doing the same thing, but there are plenty of us who are out there doing this work and doing it loud.

In what ways do you think, students, faculty, and administration alike, can contribute to an inclusive and equitable environment with education?

I think the entire institution sees white as the default, because the institution itself is largely made up of white people. The higher you go, the whiter it gets. (Hey, they don't call it the Ivory Tower for nothing.) I think it would require a process of unlearning, rethinking, and listening to BIPOCs as they try to explain why things feel so unwelcoming and hostile. I think faculty and administration are in a position of power, which means it's up to them to do the work of making themselves better, of holding themselves accountable. Read books! Read the internet! The tools are everywhere and absolutely available-it's up to them to make use of them. Additionally, there are tons of academics of color who are doing the work of decolonizing and diversifying. Hire us! Hire us for teaching positions, hire us to speak to faculty and administration, hire us to host workshops.

How have you used your platform to challenge prejudice and discrimination within academia?

As a literature instructor, one of the most important aspects of my job is teaching critical thinking skills. Critical thinking and challenging prejudice and discrimination go hand-in-hand. So basically, it's my job to use my platform in this way. Obviously, not everyone sees it this way, but I do.

What situation sparked the #DecolonizeYourSyllabus initiative? What conversations and actions do you hope to spark because of this initiative?

Last year I held a postdoc position and, just before classes began, I received an email from a professor with some power in the department who decided that the reading list for my American Novel class was too "ethnic" and that I needed to add white men to the syllabus, particularly because it was an American Lit class and not an "Ethnic American" lit class, as they phrased it. They also added that it would make me look better on the job market.

I was, of course, pretty upset about the entire thing. But I also knew that my postdoc was only a year long, and that after it I planned to take a break from academia and reconsider whether or not I even belonged there. So, to be quite honest, I thought "To hell with this, I'm going to teach what I want," because I wasn't sure I'd ever get the opportunity to do so again. I removed the only novel by a cishet white woman on the list and replaced it with a text by another WOC, and I made it a point to begin the semester by explaining to my students that the list in front of them was one I chose on purpose, with intention.

It's no secret that most of us spend our years in higher education reading text after text by white men, and look at where that's gotten us. It becomes the only perspective we're given and it starts to feel like the only one that matters. I believe that this is detrimental to students: white students never have to consider the perspectives of indigenous and POC Americans; indigenous and POC students feel like their perspectives aren't important. The cycle goes on and on and on-we reinforce and perpetuate the system.

I also want to add-and this is really important to point out-this is a radical call for change. I'm not saying "DIVERSIFY your syllabus," I'm saying "DECOLONIZE." And that's the part that upsets a lot of people. Yes, I actually mean that, in order to truly shake shit up, you should primarily teach indigenous and POC texts. I'm not calling for people to sprinkle in more works by indigenous and POC writers; I'm calling for them to make these voices the dominant ones in their classroom.

Some people try to say things like "Well, you know it's impossible to change things from inside the institution, right?" And sure, I get that. But at the same time, shouldn't we try? What is the alternative when right now this is the system under which we operate? For me, decolonizing your syllabus is a step towards something good, something better. I hope that it shakes shit up and allows students and professors to push against whiteness as the default, whiteness as the norm.

Eventually, I also hope that it means we move entirely away from Western and colonial ways of thinking.

How can the English Department across universities nationwide create a literary canon that represents the students they teach?

The canon is a funky thing, right? I mean it's constantly evolving and the concept itself is feels a little outdated to me, particularly given the way the internet is changing how we access works. I'm not sure how I feel about the concept of the canon anymore. I mean, I do think Toni Morrison is One of the Greats, but have you ever read Kiese Laymon? How about Yesika Salgado, who really got her career going thanks to social media? Their work is changing people's lives, and I doubt most would consider them canonical. The thing is, I can pretty much guarantee you that what I consider canonical will be quite different than what my white male advisors would include, or even what someone who shares my interests might believe.

Am I saying fuck the canon? I don't know-maybe. Probably. Yeah, I think so. If anything, I think we should really be thinking about how white professors are going to do the work of finding materials by indigenous and POC writers rather than insisting we all read The Old Man and the Sea. I can't tell you how many times I've had white instructors be like "Hey Yvette, I'm teaching Mexican American literature this semester. Can you give me some books to put on my syllabus?" Hold up-you want me to just give you all the work I've put all my time into finding? Pay me, dude. And that's just it: Pay us for our extra labor. Everyone wants to diversify but no one wants to put in the work or pay people to do the work for them.

Also, for the record, I've never read Moby Dick, and I have no shame admitting that.

Do you have any literature or poetry recommendations for our readers? How have these works influenced you?

Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones: This book hurts. It's about Esch Batiste, a pregnant fifteen-year-old girl who is growing up without her mother in Mississippi. The bulk of the novel takes place in the days before Hurricane Katrina hits, as Esch and father and brothers prepare for the storm and Esch comes to face the fact that she will be a mother. I've read this book four? five? times (I wrote about it for my dissertation), and it gets more painful every time. But damn, it's something you have to read.

Kiese Laymon's Long Division: This one is about a smart-ass kid named Citoyen, who is also growing up in Mississippi. It's a trippy book that's part sci-fi, part coming-of-age, part Afrofuturism, and it totally changed the way I think about time and anti-Blackness in America.

See also: Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks, Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras's Fruit of the Drunken Tree

Yvette DeChavez is a Latinx writer, artist, and activist from San Antonio, Texas. She earned a PhD in Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where she also taught classes in contemporary American literature and Mexican American culture. Her work focuses on centering the voices, narratives, and performances of BIPOC. She is also a mental health advocate who speaks openly about her experiences with depression and anxiety in hopes of normalizing such conversations. Before earning a PhD in literature, she worked for the Macondo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that brings together writers committed to social change. You can find her on Instagram @yvettedontlie. For "Decolonize Your Syllabus" shirts, visit her website: www.yvettedechavez.com.

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Decolonize Your Syllabus: An Interview with Yvette DeChavez

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Yvette DeChavez, PhD, is a writer, artist, and scholar that hails from San Antonio, Texas. She is a first generation college graduate and studied Indigenous Americans and People of Color. In addition to her contributions within academia and media, Yvette DeChavez advocates for mental health.

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ESSAY: "Little House, Big Problem: What To Do with 'Classic' Books That Are Also Racist"

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ESSAY: "Little House, Big Problem: What To Do with 'Classic' Books That Are Also Racist"

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This website provides ways to create a culturally inclusive course calendar for science/environmental history classes. Contains over 500 diverse sources.

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The Syllabus Project: Decolonizing the Environmental History Syllabus

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Has anyone else noticed how often environmental history syllabi largely omit women and scholars of color? Let's all work to diversify our syllabi--it will strengthen our teaching, our scholarship, and our field. After a lively twitter discussion, several participants collated the numerous excellent suggestions offered by our fellow twitterstorians and created a group Zotero library.

Please feel free to use the excellent suggestions in this group library to enrich your syllabus and scholarship.

And help us gather more citations--you can add them directly to the Zotero library if you're a member of Zotero (click on the + icon). If you don't want to join Zotero, use the form here and we'll add it for you. Thanks!

We'll propose a roundtable at the ASEH 2019 conference in Ohio to help spread the word.​

What's Zotero? It's a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. You can view the group library without joining Zotero--but to collaborate and really use the library, you will need to join Zotero. It's an amazing open source tool, created by digital humanists, that serves as an excellent PDF manager and bibliographic software. I can't imagine doing research without it. To register for a free account, click here. To learn more about Zotero, visit their home page. Harvard has a good library guide to using Zotero here. If you do join Zotero, I'd strongly suggest installing it in your browser or downloading the standalone app. Both are free, and both work very well to manage citation databases. For example, adding each citation to the Zotero group with the standalone app took me about 10 seconds per citation.

We will soon post a call for syllabi to share--stay tuned!

This project was sparked by Dolly Jorgensen's comment on a twitter discussion about EH syllabi. Nancy Langston created the website and the Zotero group, and Davey Fousey collated the many suggestions in the twitter link. On the suggestions page, you can find Nancy and Davey's emails if you wish to email us.

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Creating Diverse Environmental History Syllabi

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Has anyone else noticed how often environmental history syllabi largely omit women and scholars of color? Let's all work to diversify our syllabi--it will strengthen our teaching, our scholarship, and our field. After a lively twitter discussion, several participants collated the numerous excellent suggestions offered by our fellow twitterstorians and created a group Zotero library.

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LIST: "Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List"

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LIST: "Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List"

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From the Harvard Business Review

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Executive Summary

In this moment of American reckoning, business leaders have a historic opportunity to effect real change - on both a personal and a systemic level. Seizing this opportunity will require sustained reflection, commitment, and organization. We hope these HBR articles will help leaders consider the role systemic racism plays inside and outside of their companies and that they'll provide actionable steps that could bring us closer to a more just and equitable future.

Lyubov Ivanova/Getty Images

Companies must confront racism at a systemic level - addressing everything from the structural and social mechanics of their own organizations to the role they play in the economy at large. We know that diversity programs have historically failed, but there are proven ways to improve hiring programs, interrupt bias at the team level, interrogate supposedly "color-blind" analytics, and support employees of color - especially Black employees.

There's much work to do on a personal level, too. White leaders and employees must learn to really listen to their colleagues, to recognize their own biases, histories, and everyday actions in a new light. They must understand that being vocal about race, diversity, and inclusion is their own responsibility - not the job of their Black or brown colleagues.

We hope that this collection of articles provides a starting place for companies and business leaders to take on this work together.

Even at "Inclusive" Companies, Women of Color Don't Feel Supported
This can prevent employees from connecting across ethnic and racial differences. (August 2019)

"Numbers Only Take Us So Far"
Facebook's global director of diversity explains why stats alone won't solve the problem of organizational bias. (November 2017)

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Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List

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Executive Summary In this moment of American reckoning, business leaders have a historic opportunity to effect real change - on both a personal and a systemic level. Seizing this opportunity will require sustained reflection, commitment, and organization.

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ESSAY: "How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams" by Joan Williams and Sky Mihaylo

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ESSAY: "How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams" by Joan Williams and Sky Mihaylo

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We all have biases, so it would be impossible to eliminate bias, but we can interrupt it. This essay, published in the Harvard Business Review, provides specific strategies managers can use to counter bias.

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Executive Summary

Companies spend millions on antibias training each year in hopes of creating more-inclusive-and thereby innovative and effective-workforces. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups perform better and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and excel at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias-prevention programs rarely deliver. So what can you, as an individual leader, do to ensure that your team is including and making the most of diverse voices? How can one person fix what an entire organization can't?

Although bias itself is devilishly hard to change, it is not as difficult to interrupt. The authors have identified several practices that managers can use to counter bias (and avoid its negative effects) without spending a lot of time or political capital. In hiring, leaders should insist on a diverse pool, precommit to objective criteria, limit referral hiring, and structure interviews around skills-based questions. Day to day, they should ensure that high- and low-value work is assigned evenly and run meetings in a way that guarantees all voices are heard. In evaluating and developing people, they should clarify criteria for positive reviews and promotions, stick to those rules, and separate potential from performance and personality from skill sets.

Lars Leetaru

Companies spend millions on antibias training each year. The goal is to create workforces that are more inclusive, and thereby more innovative and more effective. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups outperform homogeneous ones and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and are better at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias prevention programs rarely deliver. And some companies don't invest in them at all. So how can you, as an individual leader, make sure your team is including and making the most of diverse voices? Can one person fix what an entire organization can't?

Although bias itself is devilishly hard to eliminate, it is not as difficult to interrupt. In the decades we've spent researching and advising people on how to build and manage diverse work groups, we've identified ways that managers can counter bias without spending a lot of time-or political capital.

The first step is to understand the four distinct ways bias plays out in everyday work interactions: (1) Prove it again: Some groups have to prove themselves more than others do. (2) Tightrope: A narrower range of behaviors is accepted from some groups than from others. (3) Maternal wall: Women with children see their commitment and competence questioned or face disapproval for being too career focused. (4) Tug-of-war: Disadvantaged groups find themselves pitted against one another because of differing strategies for assimilating-or refusing to do so.

The second step is to recognize when and where these forms of bias arise day-to-day. In the absence of an organizational directive, it's easy to let them go unaddressed. That's a mistake. You can't be a great manager without becoming a bias interrupter. Here's how to do it.

Picking Your People

Bias in hiring has been extensively documented. In one study, "Jamal" needed eight more years of experience than "Greg" to be seen as equally qualified. Another found that men from elite backgrounds were called back for interviews more than 12 times as often as identical candidates from non-elite backgrounds. Other studies have found that women, LGBT+ candidates, people with disabilities, women in headscarves, and older people are less likely to be hired than their peers.

Fairness in hiring is only the first step toward achieving diversity, but it's an important one. Here are four simple actions that will yield the best candidates by eliminating artificial advantages:

1. Insist on a diverse pool.

Whether you're working with recruiters or doing the hiring yourself, make it clear from the outset that you want true diversity, not just one female or minority candidate. Research shows that the odds of hiring a woman are 79 times as great if at least two women are in the finalist pool, while the odds of hiring a nonwhite candidate are 194 times as great with at least two finalist minority applicants. For example, when Kori Carew launched the Shook Scholars Institute at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, she designed it to bring a diverse mix of students into the law firm and offered career development and mentoring that prompted many of them to apply for summer associate positions.

2. Establish objective criteria, define "culture fit," and demand accountability.

Implicit biases around culture fit often lead to homogeneity. Too often it comes down to shared backgrounds and interests that out-groups, especially first-generation professionals, won't have. That's why it's important to clarify objective criteria for any open role and to rate all applicants using the same rubric. When one insurance company began hiring in this way, it ended up offering jobs to 46% more minority candidates than before. Even if your organization doesn't mandate this approach, ensure that everyone on your team takes it. Write down the specific qualifications required for a particular position so that everyone can focus on them when reviewing résumés and conducting interviews. For example, when Alicia Powell was managing chief counsel at PNC Bank, she made a point of listing the qualities that would make new team members successful in their roles: proactive in managing risk, self-disciplined, patient, customer focused, and independent. Powell shared this information with the rest of her team and candidates, ensuring that everyone was on the same page. You should hold people accountable in the same way. Waive criteria rarely, and require an explanation for those exceptions; then keep track of long-term waiving trends. Research shows that objective rules tend to be applied rigorously to out-groups but leniently to in-groups.

3. Limit referral hiring.

If your organization is homogeneous, hiring from within or from employees' social networks will only perpetuate that. So reach out to women and minority groups. Google partners with historically black colleges such as Spelman and Florida A&M University and with Hispanic-serving institutions such as New Mexico State and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. As an individual leader, you can work with the same organizations or recruit from similar ones in your industry or local community.

4. Structure interviews with skills-based questions.

Ask every person interviewed the same questions and make sure that each question directly relates to the desired knowledge and skills you've outlined. Rate the answers immediately-that will allow you to compare candidates fairly on a preestablished rubric and prevent favoritism. You should also use skills assessments: Rather than ask "How comfortable are you with Excel?" say "Here's a data set. How would you find out X?" For more-complex skills, such as project management, pose a problem or a task that candidates are likely to encounter on the job and ask them to describe in detail how they would handle it.

Managing Day-to-Day

Even good leaders sometimes fall into bad habits when it comes to the daily management of their teams. Women report doing about 20% more "office housework." on average, than their white male counterparts, whether it's literal housework (arranging for lunch or cleaning up after a meeting), administrative tasks (finding a place to meet or prepping a PowerPoint), emotional labor ("He's upset-can you fix it?"), or undervalued work (mentoring summer interns). This is especially true in high-status, high-stakes workplaces. Women engineers report a "worker bee" expectation at higher rates than white men do, and women of color report it at higher rates than white women do. Meanwhile, glamour work that leads to networking and promotion opportunities, such as project leadership and presentations, goes disproportionately to white men. When the consultancy GapJumpers analyzed the performance reviews of a tech company client, it found that women employees were 42% more likely than their male colleagues to be limited to lower-impact projects; as a result, far fewer of them rose to more-senior roles.

Meetings are another problem area. Research shows that men are more likely than women to dominate the conversation, and that whereas men with expertise tend to be more influential, women with expertise tend to be less so. Our study of lawyers found that half of women report being interrupted in meetings at a higher rate than their male peers are. Another study found that in meetings that included more men than women (a common scenario), women typically participated about 25% less often than their male coworkers did. Double standards and stereotypes play out whenever diverse identities come together. Is a woman "emotional," or a black man "angry," while a white male is "passionate"? We once heard from a woman scientist that she was sharply criticized as "aggressive" when she brought up a flaw in a male colleague's analysis; after that she felt she needed to just "bring in baked goods and be agreeable." A black tech company executive we know told us about a meeting during which she said little while the only other woman, an Asian-American, said a lot. But she later heard that people thought she had "dominated" the conversation while her Asian-American peer had been "very quiet."

Unsure whether this sort of thing is happening on your team? Start tracking assignments and airtime in meetings. Use our free online tools to find out which work done by your group is higher- or lower-profile and who's doing what. For meetings, pay attention: Who's at the table? Who's doing the talking? Is someone taking notes when he or she could be leading the conversation? If you find a problematic dynamic, here are some ways to change it:

1. Set up a rotation for office housework, and don't ask for volunteers.

"I always give these tasks to women because they do them well/volunteer" is a common refrain. This dynamic reflects an environment in which men suffer few consequences for bypassing or doing a poor job on low-value work, while women who do the same are seen as "prima donnas" or incompetent. Particularly when administrative staff is limited, a rotation helps level the playing field and makes it clear that everyone is expected to contribute to office housework. If you ask for volunteers, women and people of color will feel powerful pressure to prove they are "team players" by raising their hands.

2. Mindfully design and assign people to high-value projects.

Sometimes we hear "It's true, I keep giving the plum assignments to a small group-but they're the only ones with the skills to do them!" According to Joyce Norcini, formerly general counsel for Nokia Siemens Networks, if you have only a tight circle of people you trust to handle meaningful work, you're in trouble. Her advice: Reconsider who is capable of doing what these important jobs require; chances are someone not on your usual list is. You may need to move outside your comfort zone and be more involved in the beginning, but having a broader range of trained people will serve you well in the end.

3. Acknowledge the importance of lower-profile contributions.

"Diversity" hires may lag behind their majority-member peers because they're doing extra stuff that doesn't get them extra credit. If your organization truly prioritizes inclusion, then walk your talk. Many bosses who say they value diversity programming and mentorship don't actually take it into account when promotion or comp time becomes available. Integrating these contributions into individual goal setting and evaluating them during performance reviews is a simple start. And don't be afraid to think big: A law partner we know did such a great job running the woman's initiative that the firm begged her to stay on for another year. She said she would if the firm's bosses made her an equity partner. They did.

4. Respond to double standards, stereotyping, "manterruption," "bropriating," and "whipeating."

Pay close attention to the way people on your team talk about their peers and how they behave in group settings. For example, men tend to interrupt women far more often than the other way around; displays of confidence and directness decrease women's influence but increase men's. If a few people are dominating the conversation in a meeting, address it directly. Create and enforce a policy for interruptions. Keep track of those who drown others out and talk with them privately about it, explaining that you think it's important to hear everyone's contributions. Similarly, when you see instances of "bropriating" or "whipeating"-that is, majority-group members taking or being given credit for ideas that women and people of color originally offered-call it out. We know two women on the board of directors of a public company who made a pact: When a man tried to claim one of their ideas, the other would say something like "Yes, I liked Sandra's point, and I'm glad you did too." Once they did this consistently, bropriating stopped.

5. Ask people to weigh in.

Women, people of Asian descent, and first-generation professionals report being brought up with a "modesty mandate" that can lead them to hold back their thoughts or speak in a tentative, deferential way. Counter this by extending an invitation: "Camilla, you have experience with this-what are we missing? Is this the best course of action?"

6. Schedule meetings inclusively.

Business meetings should take place in the office, not at a golf course, a university club, or your favorite concert venue. Otherwise you're giving an artificial advantage to people who feel more comfortable in those settings or whose personal interests overlap with yours. Whenever possible, stick to working hours, or you risk putting caregivers and others with a demanding personal life at a disadvantage. Joan once noticed that no mothers were participating in a faculty appointment process because all the meetings were held at 5:30 PM. When she pointed this out to the person leading them, the problem was fixed immediately. This colleague had a stay-at-home wife and simply hadn't thought about the issue before.

7. Equalize access proactively.

Bosses may meet with some employees more regularly than others, but it's important to make sure this is driven by business demands and team needs rather than by what individuals want or expect. White men may feel more comfortable walking into your office or asking for time. The same may be true of people whose interests you share. When Emily Gould Sullivan, who has led the employment law functions for two Fortune 500 retail companies, realized that she was routinely accepting "walking meeting" invitations from a team member who was, like her, interested in fitness, she made a point of reaching out to others to equalize access.

Developing Your Team

Your job as a manager is not only to get the best performance out of your team but also to encourage the development of each member. That means giving fair performance reviews, equal access to high-potential assignments, and promotions and pay increases to those who have earned them. Unfortunately, as we've noted, some groups need to prove themselves more than others, and a broader range of behaviors is often accepted from white men. For example, our research shows that assertiveness and anger are less likely to be accepted from people of color, and expectations that women will be modest, self-effacing, and nice often affect performance assessments. One study found that 66% of women's reviews contained comments about their personalities, but only 1% of men's reviews did. These double standards can have a real impact on equity outcomes. PayScale found that men of color were 25% less likely than their white peers to get a raise when they asked for one. And gender norms stunt careers for women. PayScale found that when women and men start their careers on the same rung of the professional ladder, by the time they are halfway (aged 30-44), 47% of men are managers or higher, but only 40% of women are. These numbers just worsen over time: Only 3% of the women make it to the C-suite, compared with 8% of the men.

Take these steps to avoid common pitfalls in evaluations and promotions:

1. Clarify evaluation criteria and focus on performance, not potential.

Don't arrive at a rating without thinking about what predetermined benchmarks you've used to get there. Any evaluation should include enough data for a third party to understand the justification for the rating. Be specific. Instead of "She writes well," say "She can write an effective summary judgment motion under a tight deadline."

2. Separate performance from potential and personality from skill sets.

In-groups tend to be judged on their potential and given the benefit of the doubt, whereas out-groups have to show they've nailed it. If your company values potential, it should be assessed separately, with factors clearly outlined for evaluators and employees. Then track whether there's a pattern as to who has "potential." If so, try relying on performance alone for everyone or get even more concrete with what you're measuring. Personality comments are no different; be wary of double standards that affect women and people of color when it comes to showing emotion or being congenial. Policing women into femininity doesn't help anyone, and-as courts have pointed out-it's direct evidence of sex discrimination. If that's not motivation enough, evaluators can miss critical skills by focusing on personality. It's more valuable, and accurate, to say someone is a strong collaborator who can manage projects across multiple departments than to say "She's friendly and gets along with everyone."

3. Level the playing field with respect to self-promotion.

The modesty mandate mentioned above prevents many people in out-groups from writing effective self-evaluations or defending themselves at review time. Counter that by giving everyone you manage the tools to evaluate their own performance. Be clear that it's acceptable, and even expected, to advocate for oneself. A simple two-pager can help overcome the modesty mandate and cue majority men (who tend toward overconfidence) to provide concrete evidence for their claims.

4. Explain how training, promotion, and pay decisions will be made, and follow those rules.

As the chair of her firm's women's initiative, one lawyer we know developed a strategy to ensure that all candidates for promotion were considered fairly. She started with a clear outline of what was needed to advance and then assigned every eligible employee (already anonymized) to one of three groups: green (meets the objective metrics), yellow (is close), and red (doesn't). Then she presented the color-coded list to the rest of the evaluation team. By anonymizing the data and pregrouping the candidates by competencies, she ensured that no one was forgotten or recommended owing to in-group favoritism.

All the evaluators were forced to stick to the predetermined benchmarks, and as a result, they tapped the best candidates. (Those in the yellow category were given advice about how to move up to green.) When it comes to promotions, there may be limits to what you can do as an individual manager, but you should push for transparency on the criteria used. When they are explicit, it's harder to bend the rules for in-group members.

CONCLUSION

Organizational change is crucial, but it doesn't happen overnight. Fortunately, you can begin with all these recommendations today.

A version of this article appeared in the November-December 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams

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Executive Summary Companies spend millions on antibias training each year in hopes of creating more-inclusive-and thereby innovative and effective-workforces. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups perform better and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and excel at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias-prevention programs rarely deliver.

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ESSAY: "This 'Equity' Picture Is Actually White Supremacy At Work" 

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ESSAY: "This 'Equity' Picture Is Actually White Supremacy At Work" 

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The author argues that the often-used graphic of kids behind a fence trying to see the game perpetuates a deficit mindset & ignores the issue of structural barriers. Published Nov 2018

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We've all seen this picture, right?

In a picture-is-worth-1,000-words kind of way, this image simplifies the profound difference between equality and equity. From this picture people have actually begun to understand that treating everyone equally doesn't lead to equity, and in fact, equal treatment often perpetuates and justifies racial hierarchies. Yes, this picture has taught us a lot.

But, it's time to move on.
This picture -the noble imagery of the equity movement - is white supremacy at work.
Sorry folks. But it's true.

First and foremost, the shortest boy is positioned as the problem. He needs multiple boxes to see over the fence. He's the one who is the pathology: he's literally less than the others. The shortest boy is - by sheer presentation alone - not whole, not normal, especially compared to the tallest boy. And because he is shorter he is seen as the problem, he needs more help. He is by fact, needy.
Dominant and oppressive narratives about people of color bleed into this picture: people of color are less than and thus, need more.
This is white supremacy. This feeds into the oh-so-familiar racist politic - people of color have little to offer, and yet take so many public resources. Heard that before haven't you?

Even those who "center equity" feed into this framework - people of color need our resources because they're too broken to have their own. Volunteered with that organization maybe?

It is high time to rid ourselves of these white supremacy-laden "equity" ideas, and actually recognize the full humanity and capabilities of people of color.

Imagine if you will, 3 people -all the same goddamn size. The ground beneath them slopes, buckling beneath one person so significantly that person cannot see over the fence at all. The foundation on which these people stand is unequal, and that foundation, might we even say systemic, difference leads to some being able to watch the baseball game, while others cannot.

Yes, the person who is on the slope requires a box or two to stand on, but it is only because they are on lower ground to start - not because they are shorter to begin with.

As useful as the picture was in starting conversations around "Equality vs. Equity," we are basically blaming the person for being short, when in reality, we aren't standing on a level playing field to start. We aren't *allowed* to stand on a level playing field.
In fact, we are - by reason of policy, practice, prejudice, and bias - forced to stand on a lower level ... AND then told we should be happy to be near the game at all. All while not given enough boxes to see over the fence.
The unequal ground we are forced to stand on is the aspect of the picture we need to change. Understanding that those boxes are necessary because of the sloping ground is key to undoing white supremacy. With this new picture, let us decolonize the rules of where we stand and why.

That is equity.

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This 'Equity' picture is actually White Supremacy at work

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In a picture-is-worth-1,000-words kind of way, this image simplifies the profound difference between equality and equity. From this picture people have actually begun to understand that treating...

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Page 6 provides examples of welcoming vs unwelcoming language. Developed by the Univ of Southern CA.

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Developed by Dr. Estela Bensimon, at USC, this self-paced workshop has 5 sections, including Why Do Syllabi Matter? What is Equity Mindedness?, Who Does Your Syllabus Serve? and an Example Syllabus.

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To truly support students from minoritized racial groups who traditionally have faced greater obstacles to accessing and completing higher education, states, higher education systems, and institutions need an explicit racial equity focus to inform all efforts related to this essential work.

Estela Mara Bensimon

Director and Professor of Higher Education

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To truly support students from minoritized racial groups who traditionally have faced greater obstacles to accessing and completing higher education, states, higher education systems, and institutions need an explicit racial equity focus to inform all efforts related to this essential work. Director and Professor of Higher Education

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VIDEO: "Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Schools"

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VIDEO: "Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Schools"

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Sponsored by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, this webinar features Dr. Bettina Love, Dr. Gholdy Mohammad, and Dena Simmons.

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Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools

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ESSAY: "The Whitening of Anti-Racism in Education" by Anjale D Welton. June 2020

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ESSAY: "The Whitening of Anti-Racism in Education" by Anjale D Welton. June 2020

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This blog post lists 4 strategies that people who are White and newly conscious can adopt.

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It happened with social justice, and then again with equity. Must you whiten anti-racism too?

In the last month since the unfortunate violent, public modern-day lynching of a Black man, George Floyd, and the global wave of Black Lives Matters protests, books on anti-racism have dominated the top ten of bestseller lists. And now the media has become quite cavalier with the word anti-racist, throwing around the term as a descriptor for anything and everything from anti-racist reading lists and book festivals, anti-racist organizations to donate to, how to be an anti-racist ally, how to create an anti-racist workplace, and even how to raise an anti-racist child or baby. A lens designed for systemically taking action against racism that I value is now becoming whitewashed and used for capitalistic gains.

As a scholar on anti-racism who believes in the power of anti-racist practices if approached systemically, I have recently struggled with how anti-racism has now all the sudden become a trend. I have a co-authored book with Dr. Sarah Diem on Anti-racist Educational Leadership and Policy that will be released next month, a book project we hope will assist educational leaders in working collaboratively with their school communities to think critically about the racial implications of the policies they design and implement. We were initially hesitant to tweet and share out about our book, work that we are indeed proud of, given the current circumstances where anti-racism is now all the sudden trendsetting. I have my own set of reservations about the fact that white folx may flock to my scholarship on anti-racism just to deal with their own guilt about, and newfound realization of, how they may have perpetuated racism and even anti-Black racism in education.

As a Black female professor in the field of educational leadership and policy who teaches at a predominately white institution, my class enrollment is usually dominated by white educators who are preparing to become principals or superintendents-something else I and definitely the field as a whole still needs to work on. Research in the K-12 educational leadership field for a long time focused specifically on white, male-centric managerial frameworks that took more of a business approach to practicing educational leadership. So, it was seen as revolutionary when, in the early 2000s, the field began to center on social justice. Social justice at its core should be a systemic effort to upend interlocking forms of oppression in education. But the concept soon became a globally trendy mantra with not much traction for real change, especially with the problematic proclamation of being a " social justice warrior " or famous quotes from anti-Apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, which were turned into T-shirt slogans.

Then in the mid 2000s the education profession decided to try out the concept equity, and that image of the three kids sitting on the boxes at different levels staring over the fence at a baseball game became the go-to for our collective sensemaking of the term. I have even used this image in professional development talks I've given in the past, but still equity appeals to whiteness and that fence in this noted image also represents whiteness. This particular image equates equity to a mere survival tactic for those minoritized by education. With equity we are simply giving each student what he or she needs to succeed in surviving the structures of whiteness and white supremacy in education. Thus, equity becomes a deficit concept that focuses on fixing youth and adult learners while allowing white norms in education to remain intact. Case in point, national educational reforms like the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for K-12 and the Perkins V Act for career and technical education are both now requiring states to include equity in their plans for rolling out the reforms. However, many states are simply wordsmithing by adding language to their plans that appeases federal mandates, with little actionable changes that would level the playing field for minoritized students.

With equity we are simply giving each student what he or she needs to succeed in surviving the structures of whiteness and white supremacy in education.

So, what exactly then is anti-racism? In an article I co-authored with Drs. Devean Owens and Eboni Zamani-Gallaher on anti-racist change, we argue that the concept of anti-racism should extend beyond "just talk" about how educational institutions are going to change. This anti-racist talk with no substance or follow-through usually comes in the form of emailed statements condemning racism issued by top-level leaders or one-off diversity workshops that never generate any critical discussion about what then leads to actual changes that redress racism in policies, procedures, and practices both at the institutional and classroom level. In our article, we argue that anti-racism is actually a systemic project, and those working to achieve racial justice in their institutions or organizations should not just focus on changing individuals' racial biases and attitudes but should also attempt to address changing the system as a whole. One mistake we often see is that educators spend so much time on trying to change the hearts and minds of their colleagues when it comes to redressing racism, and they never even get to systemic-level work. So, in this article, we developed a framework that practitioners can use for actionable and systemic anti-racist change.

So, for white people who are newly immersing in anti-racist literature, you should not call yourself anti-racist at this early stage of learning. Anti-racism is a journey. Anti-racism is something you are constantly working on to do better and improve upon, not just in the short-term but consistently over the long run. Anti-racism is daily, ongoing work and actions toward righting racial wrongs. Anti-racism is more than just reading about the effects of racism but is also the willingness to take what you have learned and then doing the hard work of questioning and putting an end to norms, structures, policies, and practices that are racially harmful, and then starting anew by rebuilding educational systems and institutions that prioritize racial justice.

Also, anti-racism is doing the revolutionary work needed to achieve racial justice even if it means you will lose many of your privileges as a white person as a result. So, the truth of the matter is that at this stage of your journey, it is more accurate to refer to yourself as newly conscious of and aware of racism, and hopefully this is inclusive awareness of anti-Black racism. Don't give yourself a pat on the back just yet, as you still have a lot of learning and real work to do toward anti-racist change.

When immersing yourself in anti-racism readings, tools, scholarship, and engaging in anti-racist practices, here are some recommendations:

As a starting point, examine anti-Blackness. As the Black Lives Matter movement is teaching us, much of white privilege and racism in educational institutions and organizations is in direct correlation with anti-Blackness and the devaluation of Black people. For white privilege and whiteness to maintain and work, it relies on the denigration of Black, Indigenous and racially minoritized groups. Begin by learning about the history of anti-Blackness, how the fabric of our nation was established on anti-Blackness. Next, deconstruct how current policies, structures, and practices in the educational institutions where we work and learn are designed to fuel anti-Blackness. Acknowledging how anti-Black racism operates at your institution is the first step to addressing it head on.

Select readings and resources on anti-racism with some sense of criticality. Just because a book, an article, an op-ed, or even an infographic uses the word anti-racism doesn't mean it is of quality. Practice a level of criticality and discernment when searching for readings on anti-racism to inform your practice. Look for readings and resources on anti-racism that provide a holistic and systemic approach to redressing racism that goes beyond examining anti-racism in a theoretical sense but also provides practical examples as well.

Anti-racism should be systemic change, not piecemeal and sporadic. When strategizing and organizing to achieve racial justice, the process should not be piecemeal by tackling a little bit here and a little bit there. Racism is systemic; if you address one component of it at a time you will never get anywhere, because while you are working on that one small part of the problem, the rest of the problem will continue, fester, and grow. Plus, whiteness and white supremacy's growth and success are inversely tied to the slowness in which institutions address racism and work toward racial justice. Therefore, do anti-racist work systemically by addressing racial biases, the relationships between individuals and groups that perpetuate racism, and racist policies, structures, and practices simultaneously. And of course, ensure that this work is ongoing.

Don't read anti-racist resources because you want something to quell your white guilt. Finally, begin this journey of adopting an anti-racist mindset and practice not because you need something to absolve you of your guilt about your role in perpetuating racism, but because you truly are ready to do the hard work necessary to achieve systemic racial justice in education. Many white leaders and predominately white institutions are releasing anti-racism statements as a means of weathering this current moment. Truth be told, history has shown these displays to be empty declarations. Right" now, we need leaders to make the enormous consequential changes required in addressing American racism.

This blog post is part of OCCRL's "Truth Thursdays" series, which examines the impact of race, racial inequity, and calls for racial justice. Read and share other blogs in this series: "Truth Hurts," "Educational Governing Boards and Structural Racism," Black Student Activists and the Fight for Racial Justice," and "Moving from Allies to Racial Justice Accomplices: Beyond Awareness to Action."

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The Whitening of Anti-Racism in Education

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It happened with social justice, and then again with equity. Must you whiten anti-racism too? In the last month since the unfortunate violent, public modern-day lynching of a Black man, George Floyd, and the global wave of Black Lives Matters protests, books on anti-racism have dominated the top ten of bestseller lists.

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VIDEO:  Book Discussion with Dr. Ibram Kendi

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VIDEO:  Book Discussion with Dr. Ibram Kendi

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3rd Annual Summer Institute for Education Equity and Justice - Day 3 - Book Discussion: Stamped Raci

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ESSAY: "What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently" by Pirette McKamey. June 2020

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ESSAY: "What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently" by Pirette McKamey. June 2020

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They view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching.

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I have seen some of these very same students walk into another teacher's classroom, go to the last row of desks, and put their head down. I have seen them sit frozen in their seat, staring at an assignment-when earlier I had heard them make jokes, talk excitedly about the content of their history class, celebrate solving a vexing algebra equation, or shake a test tube with authority, waiting for a result. Their report cards often reveal this disparity in classroom experiences: A's and B's in classes where they feel valued and C's, D's, or even F's in classes where they don't.

When black students' academic strengths are overlooked, black students are marginalized. They are kept out of advanced courses, given bad grades, and sent to the dean's office. Over the years, the power that they initially bring to school is siphoned off by educators at every level of the educational system who do not respect, and in some cases do not wish to respect, the intellectual contributions of black students.

Anti-racist teachers take black students seriously. They create a curriculum with black students in mind, and they carefully read students' work to understand what they are expressing. This might sound fairly standard, but making black students feel valued goes beyond general "good teaching." It requires educators to view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching. This is a paradigm shift: Instead of only asking black students who are not doing well in class to start identifying with school, we also ask teachers whose black students are not doing well in their classes to start identifying with those students.

I spent the majority of my career in the classroom, and I loved it because-to do it well-it required that I call on all aspects of my humanity. Standing in front of my black students, I knew that it was my responsibility to invite them into the classroom and then to see, push, and protect them once they were there. Over the years, collaborating with other anti-racist educators, I co-developed an approach that was successful-and it showed in the students' attendance, grades, and quality of work.

We read articles and books, and we attend workshops centered around black pedagogy. That helps us examine cultural differences in discourse styles, so we can better understand black students' analytical approaches in essays. We learn how to integrate oral language into our curriculum, such as adding a debate unit or a poetry-recitation assignment, and to provide ample opportunities for students to work together. And we learn that nothing goes without saying and that praise and direction should be plentiful. In essence, we do what works for black students, which also works for all students.

Educators who are committed to black students use evidence in their own classrooms to find ways to improve. They analyze the assignments handed in, identifying ways in which their teaching reached-and didn't reach-all of their students. They recognize the brilliance of a black student's contribution to a class discussion and seize on it. They disaggregate data such as grades and attendance by ethnicity, look for patterns, and problematize their own practice-rather than assume that their students weren't motivated or sufficiently prepared to engage with challenging material. They ask themselves: Why did Taylor get a C on the final when he earned an A or a B on all of his other assignments, many of them equally demanding? Why is Vince silent in his group? What inspired Hile to write multiple drafts of her essay, each time asking for more detailed feedback? They seek support from colleagues who are effective teachers for all of their students, including black students, because they know that the changes they make to their teaching practice will have an impact on their students' achievement. All of this makes them better educators.

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What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently

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I have seen some of these very same students walk into another teacher's classroom, go to the last row of desks, and put their head down. I have seen them sit frozen in their seat, staring at an assignment-when earlier I had heard them make jokes, talk excitedly about the content of their history class, celebrate solving a vexing algebra equation, or shake a test tube with authority, waiting for a result.

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DATABASE:"158 Resources to Understand Racism in America" by Meilan Solly. June 2020

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DATABASE:"158 Resources to Understand Racism in America" by Meilan Solly. June 2020

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This essay by the Smithsonian links to podcasts, videos, articles, and websites.

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In a short essay published earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch wrote that the recent killing in Minnesota of George Floyd has forced the country to "confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division."

Amid escalating clashes between protesters and police, discussing race-from the inequity embedded in American institutions to the United States' long, painful history of anti-black violence-is an essential step in sparking meaningful societal change. To support those struggling to begin these difficult conversations, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture recently launched a " Talking About Race " portal featuring "tools and guidance" for educators, parents, caregivers and other people committed to equity.

"Talking About Race" joins a vast trove of resources from the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to understanding what Bunch describes as America's "tortured racial past." From Smithsonian magazine articles on slavery's Trail of Tears and the disturbing resilience of scientific racism to the National Museum of American History's collection of Black History Month resources for educators and a Sidedoor podcast on the Tulsa Race Massacre, these 158 resources are designed to foster an equal society, encourage commitment to unbiased choices and promote antiracism in all aspects of life. Listings are bolded and organized by category.

Historical Context

Between 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million people were kidnapped from Africa and sent to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Upon reaching the New World, some 3.9 million of the 10.7 million who survived the harrowing two-month journey were enslaved in the United States. Comprehending the sheer scale of this forced migration-and slavery's subsequent spread across the country via interregional trade-can be a daunting task, but as historian Leslie Harris told Smithsonian's Amy Crawford earlier this year, framing "these big concepts in terms of individual lives ... can [help you] better understand what these things mean."

Take, for instance, the story of John Casor. Originally an indentured servant of African descent, Casor lost a 1654 or 1655 court case convened to determine whether his contract had lapsed. He became the first individual declared a slave for life in the United States. Manuel Vidau, a Yoruba man who was captured and sold to traders some 200 years after Casor's enslavement, later shared an account of his life with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which documented his remarkable story-after a decade of enslavement in Cuba, he purchased a share in a lottery ticket and won enough money to buy his freedom-in records now available on the digital database " Freedom Narratives." (A separate, similarly document-based online resource emphasizes individuals described in fugitive slave ads, which historian Joshua Rothman describes as "sort of a little biography" providing insights on their subjects' appearance and attire.)

Finally, consider the life of Matilda McCrear, the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. Kidnapped from West Africa and brought to the U.S. on the Clotilda, she arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in July 1860-more than 50 years after Congress had outlawed the import of enslaved labor. McCrear, who died in 1940 at the age of 81 or 82, " displayed a determined, even defiant streak " in her later life, wrote Brigit Katz earlier this year. She refused to use her former owner's last name, wore her hair in traditional Yoruba style and had a decades-long relationship with a white German man.

How American society remembers and teaches the horrors of slavery is crucial. But as recent studies have shown, many textbooks offer a sanitized view of this history, focusing solely on "positive" stories about black leaders like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Prior to 2018, Texas schools even taught that states' rights and sectionalism-not slavery-were the main causes of the Civil War. And, in Confederate memorials across the country, writes historian Kevin M. Levin, enslaved individuals are often falsely portrayed as loyal slaves.

Accurately representing slavery might require an updated vocabulary, argued historian Michael Landis in 2015: Outdated "[t]erms like 'compromise' or 'plantation' served either to reassure worried Americans in a Cold War world, or uphold a white supremacist, sexist interpretation of the past." Rather than referring to the Compromise of 1850, call it the Appeasement of 1850-a term that better describes "the uneven nature of the agreement," according to Landis. Smithsonian scholar Christopher Wilson wrote, too, that widespread framing of the Civil War as a battle between equal entities lends legitimacy to the Confederacy, which was not a nation in its own right, but an "illegitimate rebellion and unrecognized political entity." A 2018 Smithsonian magazine investigation found that the literal costs of the Confederacy are immense: In the decade prior, American taxpayers contributed $40 million to the maintenance of Confederate monuments and heritage organizations.

To better understand the immense brutality ingrained in enslaved individuals' everyday lives, read up on Louisiana's Whitney Plantation Museum, which acts as "part reminder of the scars of institutional bondage, part mausoleum for dozens of enslaved people who worked (and died) in [its] sugar fields, ... [and] monument to the terror of slavery," as Jared Keller observed in 2016. Visitors begin their tour in a historic church populated by clay sculptures of children who died on the plantation's grounds, then move on to a series of granite slabs engraved with hundreds of enslaved African Americans' names. Scattered throughout the experience are stories of the violence inflicted by overseers.

The Whitney Plantation Museum is at the forefront of a vanguard of historical sites working to confront their racist pasts. In recent years, exhibitions, oral history projects and other initiatives have highlighted the enslaved people whose labor powered such landmarks as Mount Vernon, the White House and Monticello. At the same time, historians are increasingly calling attention to major historical figures' own slave-holding legacies: From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, William Clark of Lewis and Clark, Francis Scott Key, and other Founding Fathers, many American icons were complicit in upholding the institution of slavery. Washington, Jefferson, James Madison and Aaron Burr, among others, sexually abused enslaved females working in their households and had oft-overlooked biracial families.

Though Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the decree took two-and-a-half years to fully enact. June 19, 1865-the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger informed the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas, that they were officially free-is now known as Juneteenth: America's "second independence day," according to NMAAHC. Initially celebrated mainly in Texas, Juneteenth spread across the country as African Americans fled the South in what is now called the Great Migration.

At the onset of that mass movement in 1916, 90 percent of African Americans still lived in the South, where they were "held captive by the virtual slavery of sharecropping and debt peonage and isolated from the rest of the country," as Isabel Wilkerson wrote in 2016. (Sharecropping, a system in which formerly enslaved people became tenant farmers and lived in "converted" slave cabins, was the impetus for the 1919 Elaine Massacre, which found white soldiers collaborating with local vigilantes to kill at least 200 sharecroppers who dared to criticize their low wages.) By the time the Great Migration-famously chronicled by artist Jacob Lawrence-ended in the 1970s, 47 percent of African Americans called the northern and western United States home.

Listen to Sidedoor: A Smithsonian Podcast

The third season of Sidedoor explored a South Carolina residence's unique journey from slave cabin to family home and its latest incarnation as a centerpiece at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Conditions outside the Deep South were more favorable than those within the region, but the "hostility and hierarchies that fed the Southern caste system" remained major obstacles for black migrants in all areas of the country, according to Wilkerson. Low-paying jobs, redlining, restrictive housing covenants and rampant discrimination limited opportunities, creating inequality that would eventually give rise to the civil rights movement.

"The Great Migration was the first big step that the nation's servant class ever took without asking," Wilkerson explained. " ... It was about agency for a people who had been denied it, who had geography as the only tool at their disposal. It was an expression of faith, despite the terrors they had survived, that the country whose wealth had been created by their ancestors' unpaid labor might do right by them."

Systemic Inequality

Racial, economic and educational disparities are deeply entrenched in U.S. institutions. Though the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal," American democracy has historically-and often violently-excluded certain groups. "Democracy means everybody can participate, it means you are sharing power with people you don't know, don't understand, might not even like," said National Museum of American History curator Harry Rubenstein in 2017. "That's the bargain. And some people over time have felt very threatened by that notion."

Instances of inequality range from the obvious to less overtly discriminatory policies and belief systems. Historical examples of the former include poll taxes that effectively disenfranchised African American voters; the marginalization of African American soldiers who fought in World War I and World War II but were treated like second-class citizens at home; black innovators who were barred from filing patents for their inventions; white medical professionals' exploitation of black women's bodies (see Henrietta Lacks and J. Marion Sims); Richard and Mildred Loving's decade-long fight to legalize interracial marriage; the segregated nature of travel in the Jim Crow era; the government-mandated segregation of American cities; and segregation in schools.

Among the most heartbreaking examples of structural racism's subtle effects are accounts shared by black children. In the late 1970s, when Lebert F. Lester II was 8 or 9 years old, he started building a sand castle during a trip to the Connecticut shore. A young white girl joined him but was quickly taken away by her father. Lester recalled the girl returning, only to ask him, "Why don't [you] just go in the water and wash it off?" Lester says., "I was so confused-I only figured out later she meant my complexion." Two decades earlier, in 1957, 15-year-old Minnijean Brown had arrived at Little Rock Central High School with high hopes of "making friends, going to dances and singing in the chorus." Instead, she and the rest of the Little Rock Nine-a group of black students selected to attend the formerly all-white academy after Brown v. Board of Education desegregated public schools-were subjected to daily verbal and physical assaults. Around the same time, photographer John G. Zimmerman captured snapshots of racial politics in the South that included comparisons of black families waiting in long lines for polio inoculations as white children received speedy treatment.

In 1968, the Kerner Commission, a group convened by President Lyndon Johnson, found that white racism, not black anger, was the impetus for the widespread civil unrest sweeping the nation. As Alice George wrote in 2018, the commission's report suggested that "[b]ad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment, voter suppression and other culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination all converged to propel violent upheaval." Few listened to the findings, let alone its suggestion of aggressive government spending aimed at leveling the playing field. Instead, the country embraced a different cause: space travel. The day after the 1969 moon landing, the leading black paper the New York Amsterdam News ran a story stating, "Yesterday, the moon. Tomorrow, maybe us."

Fifty years after the Kerner Report's release, a separate study assessed how much had changed; it concluded that conditions had actually worsened. In 2017, black unemployment was higher than in 1968, as was the rate of incarcerated individuals who were black. The wealth gap had also increased substantially, with the median white family having ten times more wealth than the median black family. "We are resegregating our cities and our schools, condemning millions of kids to inferior education and taking away their real possibility of getting out of poverty," said Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, following the 2018 study's release.

Today, scientific racism-grounded in such faulty practices as eugenics and the treatment of race "as a crude proxy for myriad social and environmental factors," writes Ramin Skibba-persists despite overwhelming evidence that race has only social, not biological, meaning. Black scholars including Mamie Phipps Clark, a psychologist whose research on racial identity in children helped end segregation in schools, and Rebecca J. Cole, a 19th-century physician and advocate who challenged the idea that black communities were destined for death and disease, have helped overturn some of these biases. But a 2015 survey found that 48 percent of black and Latina women scientists, respectively, still report being mistaken for custodial or administrative staff. Even artificial intelligence exhibits racial biases, many of which are introduced by lab staff and crowdsourced workers who program their own conscious and unconscious opinions into algorithms.

Anti-Black Violence

In addition to enduring centuries of enslavement, exploitation and inequality, African Americans have long been the targets of racially charged physical violence. Per the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,400 lynchings -mob killings undertaken without legal authority-took place in the U.S. between the end of Reconstruction and World War II.

Incredibly, the Senate only passed legislation declaring lynching a federal crime in 2018. Between 1918 and the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act's eventual passage, more than 200 anti-lynching bills failed to make it through Congress. (Earlier this week, Sen. Rand Paul said he would hold up a separate, similarly intentioned bill over fears that its definition of lynching was too broad. The House passed the bill in a 410-to-4 vote this February.) Also in 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative opened the nation's first monument to African American lynching victims. The six-acre memorial site stands alongside a museum dedicated to tracing the nation's history of racial bias and persecution from slavery to the present.

One of the earliest instances of Reconstruction-era racial violence took place in Opelousas, Louisiana, in September 1868. Two months ahead of the presidential election, Southern white Democrats started terrorizing Republican opponents who appeared poised to secure victory at the polls. On September 28, a group of men attacked 18-year-old schoolteacher Emerson Bentley, who had already attracted ire for teaching African American students, after he published an account of local Democrats' intimidation of Republicans. Bentley escaped with his life, but 27 of the 29 African Americans who arrived on the scene to help him were summarily executed. Over the next two weeks, vigilante terror led to the deaths of some 250 people, the majority of whom were black.

In April 1873, another spate of violence rocked Louisiana. The Colfax Massacre, described by historian Eric Foner as the "bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era," unfolded under similar circumstances as Opelousas, with tensions between Democrats and Republicans culminating in the deaths of between 60 and 150 African Americans, as well as three white men.

Between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s, multiple massacres broke out in response to false allegations that young black men had raped or otherwise assaulted white women. In August 1908, a mob terrorized African American neighborhoods across Springfield, Illinois, vandalizing black-owned businesses, setting fire to the homes of black residents, beating those unable to flee and lynching at least two people. Local authorities, argues historian Roberta Senechal, were "ineffectual at best, complicit at worst."

False accusations also sparked a July 1919 race riot in Washington, D.C. and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, which was most recently dramatized in the HBO series "Watchmen." As African American History Museum curator Paul Gardullo tells Smithsonian, tensions related to Tulsa's economy underpinned the violence: Forced to settle on what was thought to be worthless land, African Americans and Native Americans struck oil and proceeded to transform the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa into a prosperous community known as "Black Wall Street." According to Gardullo, "It was the frustration of poor whites not knowing what to do with a successful black community, and in coalition with the city government [they] were given permission to do what they did."

Over the course of two days in spring 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre claimed the lives of an estimated 300 black Tulsans and displaced another 10,000. Mobs burned down at least 1,256 residences, churches, schools and businesses and destroyed almost 40 blocks of Greenwood. As the Sidedoor episode "Confronting the Past" notes, "No one knows how many people died, no one was ever convicted, and no one really talked about it nearly a century later."

Listen to Sidedoor: A Smithsonian Podcast

The second season of Sidedoor told the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Economic injustice also led to the East St. Louis Race War of 1917. This labor dispute-turned-deadly found "people's houses being set ablaze, ... people being shot when they tried to flee, some trying to swim to the other side of the Mississippi while being shot at by white mobs with rifles, others being dragged out of street cars and beaten and hanged from street lamps," recalled Dhati Kennedy, the son of a survivor who witnessed the devastation firsthand. Official counts place the death toll at 39 black and 9 white individuals, but locals argue that the real toll was closer to 100.

A watershed moment for the burgeoning civil rights movement was the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Accused of whistling at a white woman while visiting family members in Mississippi, he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, decided to give her son an open-casket funeral, forcing the world to confront the image of his disfigured, decomposing body. (Visuals, including photographs, movies, television clips and artwork, played a key role in advancing the movement.) The two white men responsible for Till's murder were acquitted by an all-white jury. A marker at the site where the teenager's body was recovered has been vandalized at least three times since its placement in 2007.

The form of anti-black violence with the most striking parallels to contemporary conversations is police brutality. As Katie Nodjimbadem reported in 2017, a regional crime survey of late 1920s Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, found that while African Americans constituted just 5 percent of the area's population, they made up 30 percent of the victims of police killings. Civil rights protests exacerbated tensions between African Americans and police, with events like the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968, in which law enforcement officers shot and killed three student activists at South Carolina State College, and the Glenville shootout, which left three police officers, three black nationalists and one civilian dead, fostering mistrust between the two groups.

Today, this legacy is exemplified by broken windows policing, a controversial approach that encourages racial profiling and targets African American and Latino communities. "What we see is a continuation of an unequal relationship that has been exacerbated, made worse if you will, by the militarization and the increase in fire power of police forces around the country," William Pretzer, senior curator at NMAAHC, told Smithsonian in 2017.

The history of protest and revolt in the United States is inextricably linked with the racial violence detailed above.

Prior to the Civil War, enslaved individuals rarely revolted outright. Nat Turner, whose 1831 insurrection ended in his execution, was one of the rare exceptions. A fervent Christian, he drew inspiration from the Bible. His personal copy, now housed in the collections of the African American History Museum, represented the "possibility of something else for himself and for those around him," curator Mary Ellis told Smithsonian's Victoria Dawson in 2016.

Other enslaved African Americans practiced less risky forms of resistance, including working slowly, breaking tools and setting objects on fire. "Slave rebellions, though few and small in size in America, were invariably bloody," wrote Dawson. "Indeed, death was all but certain."

One of the few successful uprisings of the period was the Creole Rebellion. In the fall of 1841, 128 enslaved African Americans traveling aboard The Creole mutinied against its crew, forcing their former captors to sail the brig to the British West Indies, where slavery was abolished and they could gain immediate freedom.

An April 1712 revolt found enslaved New Yorkers setting fire to white-owned buildings and firing on slaveholders. Quickly outnumbered, the group fled but was tracked to a nearby swamp; though several members were spared, the majority were publicly executed, and in the years following the uprising, the city enacted laws limiting enslaved individuals' already scant freedom. In 1811, meanwhile, more than 500 African Americans marched on New Orleans while chanting "Freedom or Death." Though the German Coast uprising was brutally suppressed, historian Daniel Rasmussen argues that it "had been much larger-and come much closer to succeeding-than the planters and American officials let on."

Some 150 years after what Rasmussen deems America's " largest slave revolt," the civil rights movement ushered in a different kind of protest. In 1955, police arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white passenger ("I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn't take it any more," she later wrote). The ensuing Montgomery bus boycott, in which black passengers refused to ride public transit until officials met their demands, led the Supreme Court to rule segregated buses unconstitutional. Five years later, the Greensboro Four similarly took a stand, ironically by staging a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter. As Christopher Wilson wrote ahead of the 60th anniversary of the event, "What made Greensboro different [from other sit-ins] was how it grew from a courageous moment to a revolutionary movement."

During the 1950s and '60s, civil rights leaders adopted varying approaches to protest: Malcolm X, a staunch proponent of black nationalism who called for equality by "any means necessary," "made tangible the anger and frustration of African Americans who were simply catching hell," according to journalist Allison Keyes. He repeated the same argument "over and over again," wrote academic and activist Cornel West in 2015: "What do you think you would do after 400 years of slavery and Jim Crow and lynching? Do you think you would respond nonviolently? What's your history like? Let's look at how you have responded when you were oppressed. George Washington-revolutionary guerrilla fighter!'"

Martin Luther King Jr. famously advocated for nonviolent protest, albeit not in the form that many think. As biographer Taylor Branch told Smithsonian in 2015, King's understanding of nonviolence was more complex than is commonly argued. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi's "passive resistance," King believed resistance "depended on being active, using demonstrations, direct actions, to 'amplify the message' of the protest they were making," according to Ron Rosenbaum. In the activist's own words, "[A] riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. "

Another key player in the civil rights movement, the militant Black Panther Party, celebrated black power and operated under a philosophy of "demands and aspirations." The group's Ten-Point Program called for an "immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people," as well as more controversial measures like freeing all black prisoners and exempting black men from military service. Per NMAAHC, black power "emphasized black self-reliance and self-determination more than integration," calling for the creation of separate African American political and cultural organizations. In doing so, the movement ensured that its proponents would attract the unwelcome attention of the FBI and other government agencies.

Many of the protests now viewed as emblematic of the fight for racial justice took place in the 1960s. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered in D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the march, activists who attended the event detailed the experience for a Smithsonian oral history: Entertainer Harry Belafonte observed, "We had to seize the opportunity and make our voices heard. Make those who are comfortable with our oppression-make them uncomfortable-Dr. King said that was the purpose of this mission," while Representative John Lewis recalled, "Looking toward Union Station, we saw a sea of humanity; hundreds, thousands of people. ... People literally pushed us, carried us all the way, until we reached the Washington Monument and then we walked on to the Lincoln Memorial.."

Two years after the March on Washington, King and other activists organized a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. Later called the Selma March, the protest was dramatized in a 2014 film starring David Oyelowo as MLK. (Reflecting on Selma, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, then-director of NMAAHC, deemed it a "remarkable film" that "does not privilege the white perspective ... [or] use the movement as a convenient backdrop for a conventional story.")

Organized in response to the manifest obstacles black individuals faced when attempting to vote, the Selma March actually consisted of three separate protests. The first of these, held on March 7, 1965, ended in a tragedy now known as Bloody Sunday. As peaceful protesters gathered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge-named for a Confederate general and local Ku Klux Klan leader-law enforcement officers attacked them with tear gas and clubs. One week later, President Lyndon B. Johnson offered the Selma protesters his support and introduced legislation aimed at expanding voting rights. During the third and final march, organized in the aftermath of Johnson's announcement, tens of thousands of protesters (protected by the National Guard and personally led by King) converged on Montgomery. Along the way, interior designer Carl Benkert used a hidden reel-to-reel tape recorder to document the sounds-and specifically songs-of the event.

The protests of the early and mid-1960s culminated in the widespread unrest of 1967 and 1968. For five days in July 1967, riots on a scale unseen since 1863 rocked the city of Detroit: As Lorraine Boissoneault writes, "Looters prowled the streets, arsonists set buildings on fire, civilian snipers took position from rooftops and police shot and arrested citizens indiscriminately." Systemic injustice in such areas as housing, jobs and education contributed to the uprising, but police brutality was the driving factor behind the violence. By the end of the riots, 43 people were dead. Hundreds sustained injuries, and more than 7,000 were arrested.

The Detroit riots of 1967 prefaced the seismic changes of 1968. As Matthew Twombly wrote in 2018, movements including the Vietnam War, the Cold War, civil rights, human rights and youth culture "exploded with force in 1968," triggering aftershocks that would resonate both in America and abroad for decades to come.

On February 1, black sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker died in a gruesome accident involving a malfunctioning garbage truck. Their deaths, compounded by Mayor Henry Loeb's refusal to negotiate with labor representatives, led to the outbreak of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike-an event remembered both "as an example of powerless African Americans standing up for themselves" and as the backdrop to King's April 4 assassination.

Though King is lionized today, he was highly unpopular at the time of his death. According to a Harris Poll conducted in early 1968, nearly 75 percent of Americans disapproved of the civil rights leader, who had become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam War and economic inequity. Despite the public's seeming ambivalence toward King-and his family's calls for nonviolence-his murder sparked violent protests across the country. In all, the Holy Week Uprisings spread to nearly 200 cities, leaving 3,500 people injured and 43 dead. Roughly 27,000 protesters were arrested, and 54 of the cities involved sustained more than $100,000 in property damage.

In May, thousands flocked to Washington, D.C. for a protest King had planned prior to his death. Called the Poor People's Campaign, the event united racial groups from all quarters of America in a call for economic justice. Attendees constructed "Resurrection City," a temporary settlement made up of 3,000 wooden tents, and camped out on the National Mall for 42 days.

"While we were all in a kind of depressed state about the assassinations of King and RFK, we were trying to keep our spirits up, and keep focused on King's ideals of humanitarian issues, the elimination of poverty and freedom," protester Lenneal Henderson told Smithsonian in 2018. "It was exciting to be part of something that potentially, at least, could make a difference in the lives of so many people who were in poverty around the country."

Racial unrest persisted throughout the year, with uprisings on the Fourth of July, a protest at the Summer Olympic Games, and massacres at Orangeburg and Glenville testifying to the tumultuous state of the nation.

The Black Lives Matter marches organized in response to the killings of George Floyd, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and other victims of anti-black violence share many parallels with protests of the past.

Football player Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem-and the unmitigated outrage it sparked-bears similarities to the story of boxer Muhammad Ali, historian Jonathan Eig told Smithsonian in 2017: "It's been eerie to watch it, that we're still having these debates that black athletes should be expected to shut their mouths and perform for us," he said. "That's what people told Ali 50 years ago."

Other aspects of modern protest draw directly on uprisings of earlier eras. In 2016, for instance, artist Dread Scott updated an anti-lynching poster used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1920s and '30s to read "A Black Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday." (Scott added the words "by police.")

Though the civil rights movement is often viewed as the result of a cohesive "grand plan" or "manifestation of the vision of the few leaders whose names we know," the American History Museum's Christopher Wilson argues that "the truth is there wasn't one, there were many and they were often competitive."

Meaningful change required a whirlwind of revolution, adds Wilson, "but also the slow legal march. It took boycotts, petitions, news coverage, civil disobedience, marches, lawsuits, shrewd political maneuvering, fundraising, and even the violent terror campaign of the movement's opponents-all going on [at] the same time."

Intersectionality

In layman's terms, intersectionality refers to the multifaceted discrimination experienced by individuals who belong to multiple minority groups. As theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw explains in a video published by NMAAHC, these classifications run the gamut from race to gender, gender identity, class, sexuality and disability. A black woman who identifies as a lesbian, for instance, may face prejudice based on her race, gender or sexuality.

Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectionality in 1989, explains the concept best: "Consider an intersection made up of many roads," she says in the video. "The roads are the structures of race, gender, gender identity class, sexuality, disability. And the traffic running through those roads are the practices and policies that discriminate against people. Now if an accident happens, it can be caused by cars traveling in any number of directions, and sometimes, from all of them. So if a black woman is harmed because she is in an intersection, her injury could result from discrimination from any or all directions."

Understanding intersectionality is essential for teasing out the relationships between movements including civil rights, LGBTQ rights, suffrage and feminism. Consider the contributions of black transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who played pivotal roles in the Stonewall Uprising; gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who was only posthumously pardoned this year for having consensual sex with men; the "rank and file" women of the Black Panther Party; and African American suffragists such as Mary Church Terrell and Nannie Helen Burroughs.

All of these individuals fought discrimination on multiple levels: As noted in "Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence," a 2019 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, leading suffrage organizations initially excluded black suffragists from their ranks, driving the emergence of separate suffrage movements and, eventually, black feminists grounded in the inseparable experiences of racism, sexism and classism.

Allyship and Education

Individuals striving to become better allies by educating themselves and taking decisive action have an array of options for getting started. Begin with NMAAHC's "Talking About Race" portal, which features sections on being antiracist, whiteness, bias, social identities and systems of oppression, self-care, race and racial identity, the historical foundations of race, and community building. An additional 139 items-from a lecture on the history of racism in America to a handout on white supremacy culture and an article on the school-to-prison pipeline-are available to explore via the portal's resources page.

In collaboration with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the National Museum of the American Indian has created a that aims to "help people facilitate new conversations with and among students about the power of images and words, the challenges of memory, and the relationship between personal and national value," says museum director Kevin Gover in a statement. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center offers a similarly focused resource called "Standing Together Against Xenophobia." As the site's description notes, "This includes addressing not only the hatred and violence that has recently targeted people of Asian descent, but also the xenophobia that plagues our society during times of national crisis."

Ahead of NMAAHC's official opening in 2016, the museum hosted a series of public programs titled "History, Rebellion, and Reconciliation." Panels included "Ferguson: What Does This Moment Mean for America?" and "#Words Matter: Making Revolution Irresistible." As Smithsonian reported at the time, "It was somewhat of a refrain at the symposium that museums can provide 'safe,' or even 'sacred' spaces, within which visitors [can] wrestle with difficult and complex topics." Then-director Lonnie Bunch expanded on this mindset in an interview, telling Smithsonian, "Our job is to be an educational institution that uses history and culture not only to look back, not only to help us understand today, but to point us towards what we can become." For more context on the museum's collections, mission and place in American history, visit Smithsonian's "Breaking Ground" hub and NMAAHC's digital resources guide.

Historical examples of allyship offer both inspiration and cautionary tales for the present. Take, for example, Albert Einstein, who famously criticized segregation as a "disease of white people" and continually used his platform to denounce racism. (The scientist's advocacy is admittedly complicated by travel diaries that reveal his deeply troubling views on race.)

Einstein's near-contemporary, a white novelist named John Howard Griffin, took his supposed allyship one step further, darkening his skin and embarking on a "human odyssey through the South," as Bruce Watson wrote in 2011. Griffin's chronicle of his experience, a volume titled Black Like Me, became a surprise bestseller, refuting "the idea that minorities were acting out of paranoia," according to scholar Gerald Early, and testifying to the veracity of black people's accounts of racism.

"The only way I could see to bridge the gap between us," wrote Griffin in Black Like Me, "was to become a Negro."

Griffin, however, had the privilege of being able to shed his blackness at will-which he did after just one month of donning his makeup. By that point, Watson observed, Griffin could simply "stand no more."

Sixty years later, what is perhaps most striking is just how little has changed. As Bunch reflected earlier this week, "The state of our democracy feels fragile and precarious."

Addressing the racism and social inequity embedded in American society will be a "monumental task," the secretary added. But "the past is replete with examples of ordinary people working together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. History is a guide to a better future and demonstrates that we can become a better society-but only if we collectively demand it from each other and from the institutions responsible for administering justice."

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smithsonian asian pacific american center

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158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America

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In a short essay published earlier this week, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch wrote that the recent killing in Minnesota of George Floyd has forced the country to "confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past 50 years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division."

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TWEET: "Trauma-Informed Interviewing" by Annie Hylton

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TWEET: "Trauma-Informed Interviewing" by Annie Hylton

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Although we want to validate students' experiences by offering them opportunities to write or talk about them, Hylton reminds us of the risk of re-traumatizing students or discounting their experiences. This tweet offers practical tips for asking students to share their stories.

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5. NEVER interrupt. Not even to clarify. Listen, wait for a pause, then ask follow-up questions. "Hey, is it ok if I ask you more about TK?"
6. Check-in: "Are you doing ok? Do you need a break?" This is esp. important in phone interviews, as it's harder to pick up on social cues

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Thread by @HyltonAnne: I was recently interviewed about something painful in my life. I learned more about how not to be an interviewer than anything I've read/pra...

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Thread by @HyltonAnne: I was recently interviewed about something painful in my life. I learned more about how not to be an interviewer than I've read/practiced. This is a devastating time for so many, and people don't owe us their stories. Some insights...

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Black Minds Matter" - July 16, 23, 30 & August 6, 13

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Black Minds Matter" - July 16, 23, 30 & August 6, 13

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Hosted by CORA, Black Minds Matter  is a 5-part series which addresses the experiences and realities of Black students in education. Black Minds Matter is a national movement that draws parallels between the policing of Black lives and schooling of Black minds. The course will balance a discussion of issues facing Black students as well as offer research-based strategies for improving their success.

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Announcing confirmed speaker for Black Minds Matter Tyrone Howard!

Series begins July 16. Register: https://bit.ly/3efELFd

#BlackMindsMatter

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Antiracist Teaching, Part 2: A Learning Series for White, Liberal Teachers" - Starts August 4

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Antiracist Teaching, Part 2: A Learning Series for White, Liberal Teachers" - Starts August 4

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This is a professional learning series and community for white educators who see ourselves as “liberal” or “progressive,” but who know that’s not enough. The series includes four 75-minute webinars and discussions with educator-activists of color about the impact of white liberalism on racial justice efforts, which will meet Tuesday evenings, 7-8:15pm Eastern Time, in August 2020. (Sessions will be recorded for people who register but aren’t able to view them live, so if you can't make it live, don't worry!) Registration fee is sliding, from $50 - $100.

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After selling out this series for July, we reassembled the team to run a new series in August. Same guests (see list below). If you participated in the July series, know that each guest will cover different territory in this new series, so feel free to join us again!

This is a professional learning series and community for white educators who see ourselves as "liberal" or "progressive," but who know that's not enough. We want to do better when it comes to racial justice.

The series includes four 75-minute webinars and discussions with educator-activists of color about the impact of white liberalism on racial justice efforts, which will meet Tuesday evenings, 7-8:15pm Eastern Time, in August 2020. (Sessions will be recorded for people who register but aren't able to view them live, so if you can't make it live, don't worry!)

Guests include:

August 4: Eddie Moore, Jr.

August 11: Liz Kleinrock

August 18: Cheryl Matias

August 25: Cornelius Minor

See fuller description below for more details of what is included in your registration.
Who
The series is hosted by Paul Gorski in conjunction with the Equity Literacy Institute.

Guests include Eddie Moore, Jr., Cheryl Matias, Cornelius Minor , and Liz Kleinrock.
Why
The schools, school districts, and communities where racial justice progress often feels the hardest are those with the biggest percentages of white liberal people. This is a truism often discussed among people who do racial justice work in schools.

In fact, in a recent study I conducted with Noura Erakat, we interviewed racial justice activists of color who had experienced activist burnout. Their most common cause of burnout wasn't explicit white racists or general blowback from their racial justice work, but rather coping with the attitudes and behaviors of white racial justice activists: white people who assert themselves into social movements and causes without having done the pre-work needed to do so responsibly and with deep racial justice commitments.

People who study racism and education sometimes use the term "white liberalism" to describe a combination of attitudes and actions adopted by white educators in the name or racial equity that fall far short of being a threat to racism. The distinction here is not between "conservative" and "liberal," but rather between "liberal" and "antiracist."

This professional learning opportunity, which we're offering in conjunction with the Equity Literacy Institute and in collaboration with educator-scholar-activists of color who have something to say about white liberalism and how it helps to sustain racism in education, is designed specifically for white liberal educators: those of us who think of ourselves a liberal or progressive, who want to be engaged in transformative racial justice efforts, but who want to be sure we're not doing so in a way that harms colleagues of color or that, in the end, is really more about antiracist optics than antiracist actions and transformations.

This opportunity is for people with a serious commitment to doing better. This is not a Diversity 101 workshop. We will not be debating whether white supremacy exists or whether white liberal approaches to racial equity are inadequate. It does and they are. And we can do better. That's our starting point.
More Detailed "What"
Here's what the opportunity includes:

* Four 75-minute interactive webinars (part interview, part reflection exercise, part Q&A) with educator-scholar-activists of color about their experiences navigating white liberalism. They will share their views on how white people should prepare ourselves without relying on their emotional labor. These will happen Tuesday evenings in August 2020, 7-8:15pm Eastern Time, via Zoom. Confirmed participants include Eddie Moore, Jr. (founder of the White Privilege Conference and coeditor of The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys), Cheryl Matias (author of Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education), Cornelius Minor (author of We Got This!), and Liz Kleinrock (anti-bias, anti-racist educator and elementary teacher). (Sessions will be recorded for people who register but aren't able to view them live.)

* Weekly reading suggestions including books and articles.

* Weekly reflection-to-action prompts for individual journaling and reflection throughout August 2020.

* An online space where participants can share resources and dialogue before, after, and between the weekly webinars.

We will use Zoom for the webinar sessions. Links will be distributed via Eventbrite 2-3 hours before each session begins.

These webinars are only Phase 1 of this project, which we hope to continue with monthly webinars, reflection-to-action prompts, and more opportunities to engage starting in the fall. Participants will have an early opportunity to register for future iterations, as well.

Here are the principles, values, and commitments guiding this project:

* We will elevate the voices of activists of color and financially compensate (with the fees you pay to join) activists of color who choose to share their knowledge and experiences with us. We will read and share only works written or co-written by activists and scholars of color.

* Beyond instances in which activists of color choose to be engaged with us, we will use our own labor, emotional and otherwise, to support one another's growth so that we can enter activist communities in more mindful, antiracist ways.

* Celebrating diversity is important, but not enough. Learning about cultures is important, but not enough. Our focus is on becoming better, stronger, more deeply committed racial justice activists and co-conspirators.

* We reject the notion that racial equity work involves adjusting the mindsets, values, actions, or emotions of students of color or activists of color.

* We understand that the goal is informed action, not just learning for the sake of learning. The purpose of this professional learning opportunity is not to provide a list of practical action steps: we all need to do that in local community contexts. The purpose, instead, is to prepare ourselves for informed action by reflecting on the attitudes, ideologies, and behaviors that inform our antiracist efforts. Participants commit to finding informed ways to act in their own schools, communities, and beyond.

* We understand that this is not about our individual feelings. We don't expect or demand that our comfort will be prioritized over the need for honest, deep analysis and engagement.

If this sounds like a process you would like to be part of, please join us. And please share with others who might be interested!

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becoming antiracist part ii: a learning series for white "liberal" teachers

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becoming antiracist part ii: a learning series for white "liberal" teachers tickets

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Becoming Antiracist Part II: A Learning Series for White "Liberal" Teachers

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After selling out this series for July, we reassembled the team to run a new series in August. Same guests (see list below). If you participated in the July series, know that each guest will cover different territory in this new series, so feel free to join us again!

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Introduction to Racism and White Privilege" - Every Wednesday from July 2020 to February 2021

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WEBINAR SERIES: "Introduction to Racism and White Privilege" - Every Wednesday from July 2020 to February 2021

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A free 24-session anti-racism course on the many different forms of racism and white privilege in the US. Wednesdays from 6-8pm in Zoom. Register via this link; if the class is full, you will get free access to the podcast.

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2020 intro to racism and white privilege webinar course

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2020 intro to racism and white privilege webinar course tickets

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2020 Intro to Racism and White Privilege Webinar Course

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Eventbrite - People's School of DC presents 2020 Intro to Racism and White Privilege Webinar Course - - Find event and ticket information.

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TWEET: "An Analogy for Fellow White People Who Are Just Now Exploring Antiracism Education"

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TWEET: "An Analogy for Fellow White People Who Are Just Now Exploring Antiracism Education"

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An analogy about expectations for my fellow white people who may be just diving into #antiracism education:

Imagine showing up to a class an hour late. How would you expect the professor to respond to your entrance?

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Thread by @MotherhoodnMore: An analogy about expectations for my fellow white people who may be just diving into #antiracism education: Imagine showing up to a class an...

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Thread by @MotherhoodnMore: An analogy about expectations for my fellow white people who may be just diving into #antiracism education: Imagito a class an hour late. How would you expect the professor to respond to your entrance? Would you expect them to...

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VIDEO: A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott

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VIDEO: A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott

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A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott

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LIST: "The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List"

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LIST: "The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List"

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For those who have had limited experience with African American culture

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Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays

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So you want to be an ally but don't know where to start? First of all, thank you and welcome. This is an ever growing community of people who refuse to accept Black death and institutionalized racism as the norm. This community takes measurable steps, is intentional about their day-to-day interactions, and is committed to self- education. Where to begin? Look no further than the below starter pack of TV shows, documentaries, films, TED talks, and books that can ground your activism and ensure you're offering this movement more than lip service. Grab an accountability partner (or start a group!) as a way of debriefing what you learn and ensuring you stick with it.

There's no better day than today! Here's your anti-racist starter pack.

TV Series

1. Ava DuVernay's When They See Us stopped the world when she told the stories of the (now) Exonerated Five. This is a cautionary tale for some on the dangers of making the narrative match a racist agenda and insight into the fear of Black families across the country, and world.

2. OWN's Queen Sugar: Queen Sugar shares the beauty and complexity in family, legacy, and justice through the warmth of a Black family. Over the course of the seasons, we become even more exposed to Black rural advocacy and the power in land ownership.

3. FX's (available on Netflix): The Black LGBTQ+ community is no stranger to over-policing and brutal violence and Pose gives us a front row seat to the resilience and ingenuity of Ballroom culture and the fight for autonomy and safety.

4. Netflix's Seven Seconds: Before the hashtags and media, what is it like for a Black family learning they've lost a loved one and for a police officer realizing he took a life. How do these stories intertwine and what insight can we glean about repairing harm?

5. Dear White People (available on Netflix):Dear White People has drawn controversy from many who have been afraid to push past the title, but it's great insight to the inner workings of Black student activists and their campus experiences.

Related: 40 Ways White Women Can Help Fight Racism
Documentaries

Netflix's 13th by Ava DuVernay: Many cite The New Jim Crow (book by Michelle Alexander) as what woke them up to the extreme injustice in our criminal justice system and arguably 13th would be the documentary version of that, exposing how deep-rooted institutionalized racism is.
Related: Self-Care for Black Women Activists Right Now

1. The Children's March: Youth-led activism has been on the rise since the fearless survivors of Parkland sparked a 21st century gun violence movement. To understand the shoulders on which we stand, learn about the children of Alabama that brought a racist police chief and segregation to its knees.

2. The Kalief Browder Story (available on Netflix): For many of us, protesting is a right we take for granted. For those in the belly of our criminal justice system, advocating for yourself can be deadly. We must honor Kalief's sacrifice by knowing his story and ending cash bail.

3. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: The Black Liberation movement of the late 20th century is riddled with stereotypes and propaganda causing many to believe that the movement died following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. This documentary sets the record straight from the source with powerful interviews and recollections.

4. LA92 (available on Netflix): It's important that we never lose sight of the legacy of police violence. To understand the righteous anger of the Black community, learn more about the LA riots following the Rodney King trial.

Related: Beyoncé, LeBron James, Viola Davis, Taylor Swift and More Celebs Demand Justice for George Floyd
Movies and Short Films

1. Fruitvale Station (directed by Ryan Coogler): When advocating around police brutality, we often lose touch with the humanity of those we fight for. In this masterful film, we see a glimpse of what is stolen from us each time police use excessive force.

2. Higher Learning (directed by John Singleton): Since 2016, many have become hyper-aware of the deep rifts that exist in American society and others have always known that we have very different experiences of this country. Higher Learning will surprise you in how relevant it is to today and showing some of the hurdles to achieving a "post-racial" society.

3. Do The Right Thing (directed by Spike Lee): Eric Garner and George Floyd have both drawn connections to a fiction character who preceded them both: Radio Raheem of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. The film masterfully highlights where unrest stems from and what leads to the rage felt in uprisings and rebellions.

4. If Beale Street Could Talk (directed by Barry Jenkins): Activism can be very glorified by those privileged to be advocating from the abstract. This film-part love story, part drama-gives us a look into what is truly at stake for those facing wrongful incarceration head on.

5. I Am Not Your Negro (directed by Raoul Peck): James Baldwin has provided novels, personal essays, and prose to last many lifetimes! The film adaptation explores the extended history of racism through Baldwin's recollections and personal observations.

Related: 18 New Artists, Songs and Albums to Add to Your Playlists in Honor of Black Music Month

TED Talks

1. Bryan Stevenson's We Need To Talk About An Injustice:Bryan Stevenson is one of the leading racial justice advocates, working with people incarcerated on death row. If anyone can diagnose recent injustices and understand the steps forward it would be him.

2. Kimberle Crenshaw on The Urgency of Intersectionality: Following 2016, 'intersectionality' became quite the buzzword, yet gets used out of context often by both the Right and Left alike. Hear from the black woman who coined the term in the '80s as to how we use intersectionality to defend Black women.

3. Baratunde Thurston on How To Deconstruct Racism, One Headline At A Time: Racism isn't funny, but in this TED talk you'll learn about the pervasive nature of racism and laugh out loud way more times than you'll be able to count.

4. T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison on The Trauma of Systemic Racism is Killing Black Women:Racism is traumatic. Oftentimes we are focused so much on legislative changes and urgent calls to action, that we neglect the emotional well being of Black people everywhere facing PTSD from this cyclical violence. Dive more into self-care as radical preservation with this joint TED talk.

5. Verna Meyers on How To Overcome Our Biases? Walk Towards Them: #AllLivesMatter is the new color blind and both terms are proof that people fear being accused of biases more than they feel committed to addressing them. Let's lose the shame and take bold steps deeper into your allyship.

6. Heather McGhee's Racism Has A Cost for Everyone:My liberation is bound in yours. This is not a feel good statement but a reality when it comes to how racism impacts policy, budgets, and prevents us from achieving a society that works for us all

7. The Human Stories Beyond Mass Incarceration:We can never lose sight of the people behind the statistics and in this powerful TED talk, you'll be reminded of why we fight this fight.

8. Marlon Peterson's : Marlon Peterson is formerly incarcerated and one of the leading national experts on alternatives to incarceration. Learn about why we desperately need more empathy when it comes to addressing harm.

9. Emma Harrison's From Reform to Abolition: The Future of the U.S. Prison System: More than ever before, people are Googling abolition and exploring what a society without prisons looks like. Have questions about why we can't reform these systems or what this looks like in reality? Listen up!

10. Rayna Gordon's Don't Be A Savior, Be An Ally:Sometimes with the best intentions we still fall short. Hear from Rayna about thoughtful allyship that seeks to uplift and support not take over or "save."

Related: 25 Anti-Racist Instagram Accounts to Follow for Listening, Learning and Action-Taking
Books

1. by Bryan Stevenson: You've likely heard the story of someone who served decades in prison for a crime they didn't commit. How does that happen and how do we ensure people don't disappear behind the bars and into bureaucratic systems that value process more than justice?

2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward: America often equates Black to mean urban America when more of us live in "middle America" and the deep South than anywhere else. Ward is a literary artist who spins the stories of Black men in Mississippi with so much love and a deep desire to protect those she loves.

3. Free Cyntoia by Cyntoia Brown-Long: Everyone from Rihanna to Kim Kardashian was tweeting about Cyntoia Brown-Long, the young woman incarcerated for defending herself against her abuser and a sexual predator. Cyntoia's story is one that many women share-and this book sheds light on how systems set up to protect us, fail us time and time again.

4. by Trevor Noah: Noah's book reads like an episode of his late night show which is to say it's informative, compelling, and well researched. This is a must read for those looking to understand race and class.

5. Unafraid of the Darkby Rosemary L Bray: Racism feels like this big scary monster which can make some of us feel like we don't know where to begin in dismantling it and others feel it's not relevant to them at all. Bray sets the record straight with these vignettes and anecdotes about what racism looks like in practice but also how police interventions can work to alleviate the pressures.

6. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor: "Listen to Black women!" Want to learn what Black women from movements past have to say about justice and freedom? Look no further than this foundational manifesto.

7. Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi: Science fiction is a powerful tool for exploring problems from the distance we normally aren't afforded with day-to-day life. This first part of the electric new trilogy explores issues of fear, revenge, and what it takes to build a new future.

8. When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan Cullors: Cullors co-founded Black Lives Matter over five years ago alongside two other Black women organizers. Years later, she reflected on her own journey to that moment and what it means to be labeled a terrorist by the government that has sought to erase you and those you love.

9. Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice by Paul Butler: This Harvard Law grad turned prosecutor went from high-powered attorney to wrongfully accused Black man in one day. What that experience taught him is cemented through this book and will tell you all you need to know about this rigged system.

10. Pushout by Monique Morris: Black girls and women are often left out of the conversation when it comes to criminal justice reform but Morris reiterates exactly how Black girls are oversexualized, more likely to be described as aggressive, and more frequently suspended or expelled, leading to this school-to-prison pipeline we hear so much about.

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The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List

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So you want to be an ally but don't know where to start? First of all, thank you and welcome. This is an ever growing community of people who refuse to accept Black death and institutionalized racism as the norm. This community takes measurable steps, is intentional about their day-to-day interactions, and is committed to self- education.

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VIDEO: "Laying the Foundation for an Equity-Minded Class Culture"

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VIDEO: "Laying the Foundation for an Equity-Minded Class Culture"

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Dr. Jennifer Dale, Community College of Aurora, describes the practices she uses in her classes over the first three weeks to establish a class culture.