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Reflect on today's learning (and unlearning) using one or more quadrants of the of the Compass.

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Here is a list of the resources used during the Myth vs Fact portion of the session. Be sure to go back and check out each resource more deeply after the session. Consider how you can use them to spark further discussion with your staff and students:

Myth #1: We treat all children equally. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/11/26/new-federal-data-shows-black-preschoolers-still-disciplined-far-higher-rates-than-whites/

Myth #2: Black students have an abundance of opportunities in higher education.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need-full-student-debt-cancellation/

Myth #3: Black women as "welfare queens".
https://blog.dol.gov/2021/08/03/5-facts-about-black-women-in-the-labor-force

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Years after the Obama administration attempted to end deep racial disparities in preschool discipline, new federal data shows that Black youngsters are still more likely to be suspended or expelled than their White classmates.

This post explains the data as well as why past efforts to change the dynamic have not worked and what kind of action the authors - Shantel Meek and Evandra Catherine - want to see the incoming Biden administration undertake. They write: "Taking a colorblind approach to racism has never worked to address inequity; it has only ever increased it."

Meek (@ShantelMeek) is the founding director of the Children's Equity Project and a professor of practice at Arizona State University who was a senior policy adviser for early childhood development in the Obama administration. Catherine (@evcatherine) is a postdoctoral research scholar at the Children's Equity Project at Arizona State University.

By Shantel Meek and Evandra Catherine

In 2005, Yale researchers shocked the nation's conscience with the findings from the first major study on preschool expulsions. Astonishingly, researchers found that young children were expelled at a rate far higher than their older peers in K-12. Worse yet, Black children were much more likely to be pushed out.

Nearly a decade later, in 2014, the U.S. Department of Education released federal data on preschool suspension and expulsion for the first time. Little had changed. As in 2005, there were stark racial disparities in preschool discipline, with Black children being about three times as likely to be suspended from preschool than their White peers.

And now here we are, in 2020. Any guesses as to what the latest round of preschool discipline data released from the Department of Education last month shows?

While there have been some encouraging signs - the rate of suspensions and expulsions fell sharply between the 2015-2016 and the 2017-2018 school years - the same stubborn, stark racial disparities remain. Black boys make up 18 percent of the male preschool enrollment, but 41 percent of male preschool suspensions, and Black girls make up 19 percent of female preschool enrollment, but account for an astounding 53 percent of female suspensions.

Why haven't we been able to change this shameful pattern? It's not that we haven't tried.

One of us, Shantel Meek, served as a policy adviser for early childhood in the Obama administration and was the lead architect behind the first joint federal agency policy statement calling for an end to preschool exclusionary discipline in 2014. That same year, President Barack Obama launched the My Brother's Keeper Initiative and included eliminating exclusionary discipline for young children as a key policy goal.

We followed these calls with greater funding for children's mental health, guidance to states on better supporting teachers in the classroom, and by addressing exclusionary discipline in regulation. The issue caught the attention of Congress, which, for the first time, moved to require states to publicly report their policies on expulsion of young children from child-care settings.

A wave of state and local policy change followed. Nineteen states have passed legislation limiting exclusionary discipline in public pre-K settings since 2014, and nearly every state has implemented some executive action to address the issue in child-care settings, though most have been modest.

It's clear that all of this action still wasn't enough.

Our progress was set back even further by the harmful actions and rhetoric of the Trump administration, which rescinded Obama-era discipline guidance and repeatedly attempted to cut and limit the scope of the Federal Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department.

But this problem existed before President Trump, and it will exist long after he is gone if we do not drop the colorblind approach to discipline. The many states that have passed reforms focused on limiting exclusionary discipline did so without ever mentioning race or disparity. The plethora of social-emotional interventions implemented in schools do not specifically address racism and the disparities it causes.

So here we are. Not surprisingly, the rates have dropped, but the disparities remain, untouched by policy or practice.

With a new administration coming into office in a couple of months, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris have the opportunity to push past what we did under Obama so that the next time this data is released in two years, we are not in the same place, again wringing our hands at the stubbornness of the racial disparities.

That work starts with data. You can't address a problem if you can't see it. Programs that receive public funds should be required to track, report and address disparities in discipline and should get adequate resources to do so. Every preschool program, public or private, should continuously collect and analyze disaggregated data on discipline and use that data to inform internal policies, teacher training and support for children.

Teacher training on this issue must also be more targeted. Today, too many professional development opportunities for teachers aimed at improving positive discipline strategies focus exclusively on classroom management, managing challenging behavior and promoting social-emotional development. They ignore the key fact, supported by a wealth of research, that our implicit biases affect the ways that we perceive behavior.

Every teacher, teacher's aide, administrator and systems leader in the early-childhood field must have training and ongoing coaching on systemic racism, specifically on identifying bias and using tangible skills to address it. The battle to rid ourselves of bias is probably unwinnable, but the battle to prevent it from manifesting into actions that can hurt children is certainly winnable and worthy of our time and investment.

Taking a colorblind approach to racism has never worked to address inequity; it has only ever increased it. This is no different. Talking about racial equity is not enough. It must be reflected in policy, in practice and in budgets. Even in our bitterly divided nation, surely we can agree that children fresh out of diapers shouldn't be kicked out of school, especially because of the color of their skin.

Maya Angelou once said: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." It's been 15 years since the first data on preschool suspension was released. We've known better for a long time, and it's long past time to do better.

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Perspective | New federal data shows Black preschoolers still disciplined at far higher rates than Whites

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The authors call for new federal action to end the stubborn pattern.

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RESOURCE: Transcript for Boston is Blacker Than You Think

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RESOURCE: Transcript for Boston is Blacker Than You Think

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If needed, please use the transcript here as you listen to the two provided clips:

Clip #1: 5:00-9:52
Clip #2: 12:05-14:00

Here is the whole podcast if you would like to listen later:
https://youtu.be/ax0s76JMq7U

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Archival Recording: British racism is so bad, white people left. (LAUGH) They wanted to be free, free to create their own kind of racisms. That's why they invented Australia, South Africa, and Boston.

Trymaine Lee: Boston is known for a lot of things: throwing tea into a harbor, sports dynasties, liberal politics, a marathon, and racism. It's even become a punchline in popular culture.

Archival Recording: (APPLAUSE) Whether seriously or thrown around as a joke, Boston is often referred to as one of the most racist cities in America.

Archival Recording: (LAUGH) New England Patriots versus the Atlanta Falcons. I just wanna relax, turn my brain off, and watch the Blackest city in America beat the most racist city I've ever been to. (LAUGH)

Lee: In 2017, The Boston Globe surveyed Black people from across the country, asking which major city was most unwelcoming. Boston topped the list. And in many ways, the city has earned this reputation. There were the infamous riots against school integration in the '70s.

Archival Recording: But the crowd just kept shouting, "Bus them back to Africa."

Lee: When white communities violently opposed the busing of Black kids into white schools.

Archival Recording: A few minutes later, the police moved in.

Lee: Then there's Boston's racial wealth gap, which isn't just extreme, it's obscene. One study from 2015 found that non-immigrant Black families in the Boston area had an average of just $8 in wealth. The average white family meanwhile had around a quarter of a million.

And recently, Boston's mayoral race has shown how far the city still has to go to address the racial gap in political power. Just this spring, Boston got its first Black mayor ever, after Kim Janey took over as acting mayor for Marty Walsh when he joined the Biden administration.

Archival Recording: I was texting with Council President Janey last night and I texted, "Think about this for a minute. A little girl from Roxbury is about to be mayor of Boston."

Lee: But it didn't last long. Mayor Janey ran to keep her seat this fall and two other Black candidates ran as well. But none of them got enough votes in the preliminary election to make the general next week.

Archival Recording: Decision 2021 now, early voting now under way in Boston for the upcoming November election, where voters will determine the city's next mayor.

Lee: The Black candidate with the most votes was Andrea Campbell, who serves on the city council.

Andrea Campbell: Post this mayoral election, someone suggested to me, "There is no Black community in Boston."

Lee: I spoke with Andrea last week.

Campbell: That we don't turn out in elections. We are very divided. And so I think that is a conversation that must happen within the Black community, maybe behind closed doors, where we're honest with one another and say, "We're brilliant, resilient, beautiful human beings. And how do we lift each other up and support the aspirations and the dreams, especially of our young people, to fulfill their promises?"

Lee: After Andrea and the other Black candidates lost in the prelim election, analysts and media turned to the predictable explanation: that they split the Black vote. But Andrea pushed back against that narrative.

Campbell: And I think that framing, splitting the Black vote, only room for one, is nonsense. We need several running across the state and across, of course, this city for different positions in order to diversify these positions because if we don't, we know that certain communities will continue to be left behind.

Lee: Given all of this, you might be surprised to learn that the city is actually 25% Black. That's the same as New York City. And Boston is full of rich Black history and culture, going all the way back to the 1650s. So why don't we know about it?

Archival Recording: This is what we're dealing with with being a Black and Latino Bostonian, versus the image they show and what we know. It's endlessly frustrating.

Lee: I'm Trymaine Lee and this is Into America. Black people in Boston have been overlooked, forgotten, and erased for decades. But despite that, Black Bostonians have been making history. As Boston continues to grapple with its racist reputation, one man is on a mission to lift up his hometown.

Archival Recording: I love the city.

Lee: And tell the real story of being Black in Boston. There's a National Parks Black Heritage Trail in Boston.

Archival Recording: This tour explores the inspiring history of the free African American community of Beacon Hill in the 19th century, a community that led the city and the nation in the fight against slavery and racial injustice.

Lee: It winds through the quiet, ritzy, Beacon Hill neighborhood. And it's all about history at least 150 years in the past.

Archival Recording: Facing powerful opposition, both within the city and throughout the country, this community persevered. And in doing so, helped further Boston's reputation as a cradle of liberty in the ongoing American Revolution.

Lee: The tour that I got from a guy named Dart Adams is totally different.

Dart Adams: There's the African American Heritage Trail that highlights the American Revolution and a certain narrative they wanna tell, versus what gets overwritten. And we're walking.

Lee: I met Dart outside the Massachusetts Avenue T stop. Even though the sidewalks are lined with trees, this wide stretch of Mass Ave is busy, full of buses and delivery trucks and construction vehicles. It's on the border of the South End and Roxbury, one of the city's historically Black neighborhoods.

Adams: This was a vibrant community. You have different housing. A lotta the buildings that were here were listed in The Black Motorist Green Guide, where if you wanted to come to Boston or Massachusetts, this was a place you could come and find refuge.

Lee: There are old brick apartments and townhouses, some shops, but nothing that really lets you know you're walking in the footsteps of giants. That's where Dart comes in.

Adams: We're standing in front of 397 Mass Ave, looking at this building and thinking nothing of it. You see the small plaque. Now, what is this plaque (LAUGH) revealing? It tells you that this is where Martin Luther King Jr. lived when he was a BU student getting his doctorate.

Lee: Dart Adams is an author and historian. He's host of the podcast Boston Legends. He was born in Boston in 1975 and has lived here his whole life. For years, Dart has been taking people on his own unofficial tour of Black Boston. This area is full of history. But if I wasn't here with Dart, I'd probably miss all of it, like that plaque he's talkin' about on Martin Luther King's former home. It's almost completely hidden by a tree.

Adams: That plaque was put here in--

Lee: I could barely see it. I'm tryin' to--

Adams: Yeah. That plaque was put here January 15th, 1989. It is 2021, almost 2022. I was a kid who used to grow up and people used to walk by and point out this building and say, "You know Martin Luther King Jr. used to live here. He met Coretta in this neighborhood." These are things that people outside of Boston don't know. And the most insane part is that that's the thing telling everybody. Who can see that over these trees?

Lee: Dart is a walking encyclopedia of Black Boston. The tour usually covers several blocks, but there's a story around every corner, inside all the storefronts or shops. So we keep stopping every few feet as he pointed out yet another significant building. Most of them, unmarked.

Adams: So directly across the street, you see Cuttin' Edge Barbershop, which is at 410 Mass Ave. 410 Mass Ave was actually home to the Savoy Café. The Savoy Café was a haunt of Malcolm X, grew up in Roxbury when it was actually integrated before white flight happened.

Lee: So what's the significance of this street we're standing on right now?

Adams: Okay. So this was the actual epicenter of Black Boston when it was a jazz mecca. This is Wally's Jazz Café, all right? This is the only remaining jazz spot of all those legendary jazz places that were all up and down here. Between 1959 and 1970, all of these establishes, they had full entertainment licenses, full liquor licenses, had kitchens, all disappeared.

And when that disappeared, that means that the economic power that Boston held disappeared. That means that the Black hotels, the Black lodging houses, the rooming houses, all disappeared. All between 1959 and 1970. And when that happens, you wanna talk about racism, when Roxbury had all the shopping districts and the elevated train line ran through Roxbury, but it was torn down between 1986 and 1987 and all of the shopping was moved to Downtown Crossing, that's when we talk about the real effects of racism.

Lee: Walking with Dart, I could feel tension. On one side, deep respect for his home and history.

Adams: I was raised with all that energy. I was raised with all that history. The reason why I'm standing in front of you today is because of it.

Lee: On the other, anger and frustration with Boston's refusal to recognize it.

Adams: This is the NAACP building. This is where all the operations of the Boston branch of the NAACP happen, this building. There's no sign, no signage anywhere.

Lee: I'm surprised there's nothin' indicating at all the significance of this place.

Adams: When I was a kid, there was a big sign that said, "NAACP," a black sign and yellow letters. And this was, like, one of the places in the community where everybody came to get information. This was a place that was of immense pride to the community.

When you think about all the legendary people who actually came through here, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott, and we wanna talk about having your life and your culture and you existence overwritten, there it is right there, in plain day. Like, think about how many people just walk by this spot right now with no idea what this is.

Lee: Have there been efforts to, like, make sure there's signage put up? Have there been--

Adams: No.

Lee: No effort?

Adams: No, there hasn't been any.

Lee: You haven't gone to the city and said, "Hey"?

Adams: I've been fighting for a significant amount of signage for all these historical places for years. The fact of the matter is that there's all this Black history and culture that we know growing up here, but it's not shown.

Lee: That people are walking by every single day?

Adams: People walk by it every single day.

Lee: After the tour, Dart and I headed to Darryl's Corner Bar & Kitchen, a Black-owned restaurant and music venue that's been a cultural center of Black Boston for decades. Dart didn't set out to be a tour guide. He just wanted people to see and feel the Boston that he's always loved, the parts of the city you probably wouldn't see on the nightly news or in magazines.

Adams: I was on social media talking about all these different things that were in my neighborhood and all these factoids that people didn't know. So I would go on Instagram, take pictures, and then write captions. And I would tell this secret history of Boston.

And what happened was people started responding to it. They were, like, "Well, I have a cousin," or, "I have a friend," or, "I know somebody who just moved to the region. They would love if you would show them these things." So that's how the tours were born.

And it was people that were, like, came in for fellowships, whether it be at Harvard or MIT, or people that just moved here for a specific job and their families were concerned. And I became the point guy to do these specific tours. And this has been happening for between five and seven years now--

Lee: Wow.

Adams: --I've been doing that.

Lee: Were you always, like, a natural-born historian? Like, when you were young, were you all into the history?

Adams: I was a sponge as a kid. But the thing is that the elders in my neighborhood would tell me these things. And again, I would be intrigued that no one outside of here knew these things, you know? Like, Miles Davis used to come by here and hang out on the corner and smoke with the guys. "He stole a girl from me."

And when he came back to do his 1981 album, the only place he wanted to perform first was Boston. And whenever he had a new band or whenever he had a new sound, he wanted to bring it to Boston. And that's how we got Chick Corea and Tony Williams, who were both residents of Massachusetts and Boston.

Tony Williams moved as a child here to Roxbury, one of the greatest drummers of all time. And it just made me think that, "How come I'm told these things, and everybody here knows these things, but I never heard it outside of here?" And I carried that because it makes you think, "Why doesn't everyone know this?"

If I was in a certain part of Queens or Harlem, everybody celebrates that history. If I'm in a certain part of Chicago, everybody celebrates that history. Philly, New Orleans, they all celebrate this history. Why is Boston the outlier when we've had Black folks prominent here since the 1600s? It makes no sense.

Lee: Boston is home to one of the oldest Black communities in the country. In the late 1650s, free Black people founded a small enclave in the north end of the city called New Guinea. Later, a larger one grew in Beacon Hill. That's where the official Black Heritage Tour is.

But by the 1900s, high rents and poor living conditions forced most Black families to places like Roxbury and Dorchester. Boston was also a center of the abolition movement in the decades leading up to the Civil War. But, through all of that, Black Bostonians have still had to fight against a culture steeped in racial violence and white supremacy.

Adams: Boston is a unique case because we have to remember that Boston is pretty much 150 years older than America itself. So a lotta the systems of oppression and inequity that we have to deal with predate America. It's a uphill battle, and it's been an uphill battle for almost 400 years. That's what people don't really understand about what it is to be a non-white Bostonian and trying to, you know, carve out any space here.

Lee: Boston was one of the first cities to have restrictive housing covenants barring Black people from living in certain communities. And even though it was the heart of the abolition movement, slavery wasn't legally abolished in Massachusetts until the 13th Amendment in 1865.

Adams: Yes, we had abolitionists and freedom fighters, but there was always resistance. The big issue with Boston is Boston likes to paint itself as this progressive, liberal city. But it's only progressive and liberal to a point.

Lee: Dart says, "Look no further than the upcoming mayoral election."

Adams: We had five different individuals up for mayor. And, of those five, three of them were Black. Two of them, the most prominent being Black women. And when the preliminary election ended, those two women just missed the cut for the general election.

And while the next mayor of Boston is not going to be a white man, and the city has made it clear, "We're done with having a white man be the mayor," they've made it very clear, "We might not be ready to have a Black woman be the mayor." It says that after this city being almost 400 years old, there still isn't a clear cut way for Black and LatinX Bostonians to clearly aggregate power, economic, political power, and wield in this city.

Lee: How do everyday race relations in this city play out? Certainly, as you mentioned, all across America, America's not perfect at all. America is, again, steeped in racism. But there is something I think unique about the culture of Boston. The huge white working class here is different than a lotta cities. Reminds me of Philly a little bit, right? You have these little, tough, white communities that are different than some other places. But how do these relations play out every single day between, you know, Black folks and white folks?

Adams: The thing is that it doesn't play out in the way that people would think it does, you know? Your Black and white neighbors, your Latino neighbors, your Asian neighbors can all get along, live in a community. Your kids play together, what have you. When the issue rises is when people feel like the way of life that they've been living is going to change and they're scared.

Lee: Which part of Boston's that?

Adams: Specifically the white, more conservative leans parts, pockets of Boston. The fact of the matter is Boston is changing, has been changing, is always changing. I've already seen the fact that where I grew up in already doesn't recognize what it was, or what it used to be, or what it was at its core.

Lee: So it sounds like you're going with the transformation and other people are just resisting and hunkering down. They don't wanna see a change, where you're kind of rocking with it because already, your childhood neighborhood has already been changing?

Adams: Yeah. My childhood home on Mass Ave, we were evicted from there in 1999 when the vote for rent control changed. I still live in this neighborhood by the grace of God. So my way of dealing with the changing neighborhood is completely different from somebody who feels like everything that they know is ending, you know?

Because the way it's always been is, "We, white Bostonians, we ethnic white Bostonians have always been the face of Boston." And they don't wanna give that up. I've already lived with being out of the frame, out of the picture, pushed to the margins. I'm asking for a seat at the table. And I'm not asking anymore. I'm saying, "I'm getting my seat at the table."

Lee: We'll be right back.

Lee: Is there a moment that stands out for you when you think about what it means to be Black in Boston? Is there one that makes you especially proud?

Adams: Oh, absolutely. When I was young, my older brother and older sister, we had family in Orchard Park. And that's where New Edition is from.

Archival Recording: Here are New Edition.

Adams: And when New Edition was starting their path and they, you know, they got their contract on Streetwise, they started appearing on, you know, local television. And their song was playing on the radio.

Archival Recording: Their songs hit the top of the R&B charts. That's quite an achievement. And their latest is--

Adams: And--

Archival Recording: --a great song. You're gonna love it.

Adams: --when we finally started seeing them on national television, when we finally started seeing them on Soul Train, when Casey Kasem mentioned their name for the first time on America's Top Pop 40, and then we see them blow up and become, like, international stars.

Archival Recording: Welcome five very talented young men who have captured the fancy of music lovers all over more than any other new group we've seen in recent years. It's their latest single on the Streetwise label entitled Candy Girl, and they are New Edition.

Adams: Candy Girl was their first hit that broke out. And it was their first video. And it was the song that knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the R&B charts.

New Edition: (SINGING) My girl's like candy, a candy treat. She knocks me right off of my feet. She's so fine as can be. I know this girl is meant for me. Candy girl, you are my world. You look so sweet. You're a special treat. Candy girl, all I want--

Adams: Five dudes--

New Edition: --to say.

Adams: --from Roxbury--

New Edition: You're with me--

Adams: --knocked Michael Jackson--

New Edition: Brighten up my day. (LAUGH)

Adams: --off the top of the R&B charts, which were more competitive--

New Edition: All--

Adams: --than the pop charts back in 1983.

New Edition: When I'm with you--

Adams: Mind-blowing.

Lee: That's crazy.

Adams: That was the first time when I thought that I am immensely proud to be a Black Bostonian because, aside from living here, we didn't really have that much of a public face. That's when I felt like, "Okay, the corner's changing." You know, I feel, like, really proud.

Lee: Seeing New Edition blow up, you finally felt seen? That people saw--

Adams: Yes.

Lee: --New Edition, and they connected them to Boston, and you finally felt seen, like, people see--

Adams: Yes.

Lee: --the world sees us?

Adams: Yes. That was one of the big turning points for me as a young person to feel pride, absolutely.

Lee: Dart has been working with local community groups and officials to get more recognition around the city for places of Black history.

Adams: So far, I haven't gotten very far with it. One of the things that hindered us was COVID. When I really started back in 2017, 2018, 2019, it was gaining more and more steam. But ultimately, it was COVID that kinda stopped me from making real headway with that. But by the time we had gotten up to 2020, I think that people realized that, "You know what? Representation matters and we should really look into doing this," you know?

Lee: Do you think the city would be willing to bolster the little plaque that we see outside of the MLK house, put markers down that aren't there? You think they really want to do this?

Adams: I absolutely do. Five years ago, it might've been an uphill battle. Going into 2022, they'll be way more receptive to doing it. I've done a lot of the ground work. I've laid it out for people. You know, we have things now like, you know, the King Foundation, which I have a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. coming up soon, you know?

We have all these different propositions to have statues of different people, renaming certain streets, you know? So it's, like, there's actual progress. But again, you know, dealing with COVID, a lot of that, you know, was hindered. But I feel that going into 2022, we'll be able to get back into it.

Lee: For Dart, there's one story from long ago that really shows the stakes of his fight. In 1773, Phillis Wheatley was the first Black American to publish a book of poetry. She was enslaved in Boston at the time. She was later emancipated, but died penniless at the age of 31.

Adams: Every February, I go to a place called Copp's Hill Burying Ground, which is in the North End. We think she's buried in Copp's Hill. But the problem is, another issue with Boston and Black folks being overwritten and, you know, almost erased is that there is a stretch along a street, I believe it's called Snow Hill Road, where there's just a patch. And it's bare.

You can count all the grave markers on one hand. And that is where the overwhelming majority of Black Bostonians from that region are buried. And I go there every February and I just, like, you know, pay homage to my ancestors. And I think to myself that Phillis Wheatley is buried here, and we don't know where.

Lee: But even living in a city that he feels for so long has not valued lives like his, Dart truly loves Boston.

Adams: Being a Bostonian is what gives me everything to be able to be on this journey. It gives me my attitude. It gives me my strength. It gives me my power. It gives me my authenticity. It gives me my conviction, all of it. I am who I am because I'm a Black Bostonian. I love my city. I love my home. It's not perfect, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to fight to make it as equitable for everybody who lives here.

Lee: Boston likely isn't going to lose its racist repercussion any time soon. And knowing history won't rectify big issues like gentrification and the wealth gap, or even police violence. But image and feeling seen and welcome, that's important too.

Lee: What's your great hope for Boston, Black Boston, and race relations in this city?

Adams: My great hope is that for once, it won't be people asking, "Do Black people or LatinX people live in Boston or Massachusetts or New England?" That we would've made enough changes and had enough representation and moved the needle enough where people would never need to ask that question again.

And again, that starts with us being able to be in charge of the narrative, or us finally being included when they tell the stories. And I'm confident that that's going to change going into the future because we can't go back to where it was.

Lee: As always, we wanna hear from you. You can tweet me @TrymaineLee, that's at Trymaine Lee, my full name, or write to us at IntoAmerica@NBCUNI.com. That was Into America, at NBC and the letters U-N-I. com. Into America is produced by Isabel Angel, Allison Bailey, Aaron Dalton, Max Jacobs, Joshua Sirotiak, and Aisha Turner. Original music is by Hannis Brown. Special thanks to producer Stefanie Cargill and our crew in Boston, Jim Frances, Tom Fahey, and Clint Bermesco (PH). I'm Tyrmaine Lee. We'll catch you next Thursday.

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Transcript: Boston is Blacker Than You Think

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Archival Recording: British racism is so bad, white people left. (LAUGH) They wanted to be free, free to create their own kind of racisms. That's why they invented Australia, South Africa, and Boston. Trymaine Lee: Boston is known for a lot of things: throwing tea into a harbor, sports dynasties, liberal politics, a marathon, and racism.

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RESOURCE: Google Classroom for your Cohort

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RESOURCE: Google Classroom for your Cohort

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JOIN CODE: nc5rlck

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As you listen to the clip, what are your major takeaways? What it might say about adult education or education in general in Boston and beyond?

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Boston is Blacker Than You Think | Into America Podcast – Ep. 138 | MSNBC

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RESOURCE: Intent vs Impact: School Resource Officers

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RESOURCE: Intent vs Impact: School Resource Officers

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“Even though youth crime is on the decline — and has been, since the mid-nineties — and graduation rates are up, the myth that our children are criminal and violent persists. The data shows that the increase in arrests is directly correlated to the presence of SROs in schools. The arrest rates for schools with SROs were 3.5 times the rate of those without SROs, and in some states the arrest rates are as much as eight times the rate of schools without.”

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Where are you finding opportunities to engage in the following ways during today's session? Jot it down when you notice it.

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Which agreement are you committed to leaning into during today's session?

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Racially harmful experiences in education settings go way beyond marginalization, misrepresentation, and alienating content in textbooks.

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Individually write down your thoughts on the following. Be prepared to discuss: 

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Individually write down your thoughts on the following. Be prepared to discuss: 

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Who owns the narrative in our educational systems?

Who “writes” history?

How is knowledge shared?

How do YOU share knowledge within teams? In the classroom?

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Defining Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI)

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Defining Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI)

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As we go through today's session, jot down other terms you hear that you might want further clarification or definitions for.

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"We ALL miss out when we discount and throw away people and all that they could do and be."

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Every year, more than 600,000 individuals are freed from America's jails and prisons.

But many of America's formerly incarcerated people face numerous obstacles when integrating back into public life once free, according to Wes Caines and his former colleagues Scott Hechinger and Hannah McCrea at Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defender service in New York City.

Former prisoners are routinely denied employment, housing, education, and other benefits that would help ease their integration into life on the outside, Caines says.

Caines understands the value of these benefits better than most people. He finished both his undergraduate and graduate education while serving 24 years in prison for his role in a shootout that left one man dead.

The rare educational opportunities that Caines was afforded in prison changed his life.

"I didn't have to worry ... when I looked for a job and the minimum requirement was a bachelor's degree," Caines told me. "I was going to be able to convince an employer to give me an opportunity."

After he was released in 2014, Caines got a job with the Brooklyn Defenders Services, working as a reentry coordinator helping individuals cope with life outside of prison.

While with BDS, Caines helped produce the above video, illustrated by artist Molly Crabapple, about the everyday obstacles former inmates face. It's a concept that Caines calls "perpetual punishment."

Caines considers himself lucky. Unlike many other former inmates, he found meaningful work after prison. He is quick to remind me that stories like his are rare.

"I never want my experience ... to be the story that is used as the rule," he told me. "The fact of the matter is that it's exceptional."

I recently spoke to Caines, who is 51 years old and now working with the Bronx Defenders as a reentry coordinator, about his prison experience and his work helping to reintegrate former prisoners into society.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Matteen Mokalla

You were able to obtain your education while in prison, but many of these programs have disappeared. Why is that?

Wes Caines

Initially, the [Bill] Clinton-era anti-death penalty legislation that was signed in 1994 removed Pell Grant accessibility to people who were incarcerated. Then in New York state under the [George] Pataki governorship, a similar legislation was signed which removed the tuition assistance program from access to people who are incarcerated. So those two funding mechanisms, once legislation passed, removed their accessibility to people in prison. There was no way for men and women who were incarcerated making 12 cents per hour to legitimately pay for college education.

And of course the ability to get a loan and to get to school is a nonstarter. Most people who are incarcerated for a long term in New York state are considered civilly dead. A civilly dead person cannot qualify for a loan.

Matteen Mokalla

I can imagine you come across critics who are not sympathetic to the plight of people in prison. They might reasonably argue that it's hard enough to find funding to pay for services for people who have not committed crimes. How do you respond to those critics?

Wes Caines

On an emotional and even on a very superficial level, I think comments like that are somewhat legitimate. I think, however, whether it's in the community or in the correctional setting, we have to expand the conversation around policies and policymakers who oftentimes are not very deep thinkers.

The vast majority, if not more, of the people who are incarcerated eventually return to society. Whether or not they deserve a second chance, the fact of the matter is they will return. Every crime doesn't lead to life imprisonment without parole. Every crime is not a death penalty crime. So people are going to return.

The question we should start with is how do we want that person who entered into our incarcerated space to return to our community space?

Matteen Mokalla

In 2014, you came out of prison. What was that experience like for you? Was it intimidating coming out after 24 years?

Wes Caines

I always like to preface my reentry experience by stating that I never want my experience and my story to be the story that is used as the rule. The fact of the matter is that it's exceptional. And when we make the exception to the rule that, we allow policymakers off the hook. We allow those who would do nothing about fixing a very broken punishment system to not address real systemic inequalities in our system.

While incarcerated, I had good fortune on my side. Whether or not people who are incarcerated get access to true rehabilitative opportunities should never be dependent on good fortune. If it weren't for me being at a particular prison at a particular time when the Bard college program came in, my reentry experience likely would have been a lot different. Maybe even closer to what I see everyday with my clients.

Matteen Mokalla

So how specifically was your experience different from some of your clients?

Wes Caines

I didn't have to worry about where I was going to sleep; I knew that I had a home. I didn't have the desperate need for financial support. I didn't have to worry about whether I was going to be able to get myself food everyday because I had family support. I didn't have to worry about ... when I looked for a job and the minimum requirement was a bachelor's degree whether or not I was going to be able to convince an employer to give me an opportunity.

Matteen Mokalla

In the video you talk about how even low-level crimes can ripple throughout a community and family. So let's say someone gets in a fight and punches someone in the face - how does that punch ripple out to families and neighborhoods?

Wes Caines

Let's take that individual who punched somebody in the face and gets arrested. That individual, regardless of what caused that encounter, that individual might possibly be the primary breadwinner. Or maybe a caregiver, maybe the only caregiver for minor children. If it's in public housing in New York City, they could possibly lose their housing because of the arrest. If you live in a New York City housing authority complex, it can result in you being excluded from you returning to your family setting. So that impacts directly the family that that individual belongs to.

Matteen Mokalla

One of the things you say in the video is that even being arrested can lead to complications for individuals later in life. What exactly do you mean?

Wes Caines

I am now working on a project with the Bronx Defenders where we review our clients' criminal justice involvement records, what's called a rap sheet. And rap sheets have error records of over 60 percent.

So it may be that someone is simply arrested and the arrest is voided. That should not be on a person's rap sheet. I've had several clients who've had had those experiences, who thought when they walked out of the precinct the matter was behind them.

Then months later, or sometimes years and years later, they go on a job interview and there is, in the interest of hiring them, a background check. The employer [later] contacts them saying, "Hey, we're going to rescind this offer because we see that you have an open criminal matter."

So we do a record check where we get the rap sheet, and sure enough, there is this arrest information on the rap sheet, by itself. John Doe, arrested on this date, charged with this crime, and it says no court information available.

And this person lost a job opportunity for a criminal matter that doesn't exist, that's not there.

But then the kicker is, in order to access your own record that the government has of you, you're required to pay, in New York, $65. That's unless you can provide documents or proof of indigency, where they will then waive the fee.

Matteen Mokalla

What doesn't the public understand about formerly incarcerated people and the attitudes they bring to opportunities like schools, jobs, and housing?

Wes Caines

If you have a conversation with employers or housing providers who have as their employees formerly incarcerated people or have as their residents formerly incarcerated people, you will get a sense that we are people that are passionate about our work and we are grateful for our work and we will go above and beyond.

We are grateful for a place to live, so we want to make sure that the conditions, that which we live [in], are sound. So we will clean up what is not our duty to clean up. We will work late when we're not required to. We will do the things that I think most people who haven't had our experience take for granted. I have yet to speak with or to hear an employer who employs a formerly incarcerated people complain about the quality and the passion of the work that they have received.

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A former inmate on the perils of life after prison

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Every year, more than 600,000 individuals are freed from America's jails and prisons. But many of America's formerly incarcerated people face numerous obstacles when integrating back into public life once free, according to Wes Caines and his former colleagues Scott Hechinger and Hannah McCrea at Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defender service in New York City.

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Who do School Resource Officers HELP?

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Who do School Resource Officers HARM?

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What methods, policies, or approaches that can be taken to ensure the intent of supporting students and their safety matches the impact?

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Reflect and Answer in Racial Affinity Group Reflections: BIPOC

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Reflect and Answer in Racial Affinity Group Reflections: BIPOC

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You will have time in racial affinity groups to reflect on today's session. After discussing,please reflect on the conversation from the group and jot down the overall reflections to these questions:
- What did you appreciate about today?
- What was challenging or triggering?
- What else do you need in these spaces to support you, your identity, and your growth?
- What else do you want UPD to know?

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Reflect and Answer in Racial Affinity Groups: White-presenting

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Reflect and Answer in Racial Affinity Groups: White-presenting

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You will have time in racial affinity groups to reflect on today's session. After discussing,please reflect on the conversation from the group and jot down the overall reflections to these questions:
- How can similar thinking, social definitions, and stereotypes inform our perceptions of race and people who hold racialized identities?
- How can this be harmful?
- As someone who holds power, how can you recognize these biases (that we all hold) and align our efforts through an equity lens?
- Is there anything else you want UPD to know?

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Check out this resource shared during our session!

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Michael LaFitte Jr. said he was one of several parents who felt compelled to take action after nearly two dozen students got arrested, suspended, or expelled within three days at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to Good Morning America.

Wanting to find a way to stop the violence, LaFitte Jr. sat down with four other dads in his office and came up with the idea to start a crisis intervention team at their kids' school called " Dads on Duty USA," GMA reports.

"After about three hours, we came up with the idea to have us be a presence on the campus," LaFitte Jr. told the outlet. "We thought we could be a collective unit to be able to show them that there are strong men who are on the campus."

"Dads on Duty" brings the fathers together as they take shifts protecting the grounds of Southwood High, according to CBS News. While there, they would interact with students in a positive manner while also helping to prevent fighting and violence on campus.

"We're dads," they told CBS News. "We decided the best people who can take care of our kids are who? Are us."

Though they started with five fathers, the group has since increased their squad to approximately 40 members, CBS News reports.

LaFitte Jr., whose daughter is a junior at the high school, told GMA that they use an independent security company to vet the participating dads and work in shifts with 6-10 dads on campus each day.

The fathers - most of whom work full-time jobs - also make appearances at extracurricular activities and sporting events, according to GMA.

"Although we're titled 'Dad's on Duty,' we also serve as uncle's on duty, we serve as men of the community on duty," LaFitte Jr. explained to the outlet. "Because there are some folks who don't have a father or don't have such a great relationship with their father, and it's our goal to let them see what the right relationship with a male figure is supposed to look like."

"Some days we have long, long days, but we will be at school no matter what," added Zachary Johnson, who has four kids at the school. "When your heart is into whatever you're doing, you make it work."
RELATED VIDEO: Powerful New PSA Spotlights Plight of School Shooting Survivors Who Lost Their 'Teenage Dream'
In just six weeks, the dads, who wear matching black-and-white "Dad's on Duty" t-shirts, have made their presence known to the school's 1,500 students - and its staff, GMA reports.

"After the fights, there was a heavy police presence at the school and the kids told me they did not like that," Dr. Kim H. Pendleton, the principal of Southwood High, told the outlet. "The dads are from the community. They care and they're committed to being present."

"The kids see them as they're walking in, in the morning," she continued. "They greet the kids. They tell corny jokes. When I do my rounds to classrooms, they walk with me. They're making sure that kids are leaving school safely. People are able to talk to them."

One student added to CBS News: "I immediately felt a form of safety. We stopped fighting; people started going to class."

Due to the success of their group, the dads told GMA they plan to expand "Dads on Duty" into the other schools within their district. One day, they hope to reach all schools around the country.

A GoFundMe page was also launched on their behalf to help them continue patrolling the school grounds.

"We just want people to know that it's possible," Johnson explained to GMA. "We went with it hoping it would make an impact on the school, and now that we see that it's working, we want to take it to other schools."

"We'd like this to be the same as the PTA, something that is in every school in every county," noted LaFitte Jr.

"Because not everybody has a father figure at home - or a male, period, in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference," the dads added to CBS News.

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Louisiana Fathers Form 'Dads on Duty' Group to Help Stop Violence at Their Children's High School

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Michael LaFitte Jr. said he was one of several parents who felt compelled to take action after nearly two dozen students got arrested, suspended, or expelled within three days at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to Good Morning America . Wanting to find a way to stop the violence, LaFitte Jr.

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Think about how these principles could help inform your work.

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Read the Principles — Design Justice Network

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This is a living document. Last update: summer 2018

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A quote from George Orwell: “ The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

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Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the U.S. settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the U.S. empire.

In An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by U.S. Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: "The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them." [Publisher's description.]

Interview with Author

Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Thanksgiving: "It Has Never Been About Honoring Native Americans" on Democracy Now! on Nov. 29, 2016.

Excerpt
The excerpt below "Redskins" (from Chapter Four: Bloody Footprints) is useful for teaching about the #ChangetheMascot campaign regarding the Washington football team and other sports mascots.
Indigenous people continued to resist by burning settlements and killing and capturing settlers. As an incentive to recruit fighters, colonial authorities introduced a program of scalp hunting that became a permanent and long-lasting element of settler warfare against Indigenous nations. During the Pequot War, Connecticut and Massachusetts colonial officials had offered bounties initially for the heads of murdered Indigenous people and later for only their scalps, which were more portable in large numbers. But scalp hunting became routine only in the mid-1670's, following an incident on the northern frontier of the Massachusetts colony. The practice began in earnest in 1697 when settler Hannah Dustin, having murdered ten of her Abenaki captors in a nighttime escape, presented their ten scalps to the Massachusetts General Assembly and was rewarded with bounties for two men, two women, and six children.

Dustin soon became a folk hero among New England settlers. Scalp hunting became a lucrative commercial practice. The settler authorities had hit upon a way to encourage settlers to take off on their own or with a few others to gather scalps, at random, for the reward money. "In the process," John Grenier points out, "they established the large-scale privatization of war within American frontier communities." Although the colonial government in time raised the bounty for adult male scalps, lowered that for adult females, and eliminated that for Indigenous children under ten, the age and gender of victims were not easily distinguished by their scalps nor checked carefully. What is more, the scalp hunter could take the children captive and sell them into slavery. These practices erased any remaining distinction between Indigenous combatants and noncombatants and introduced a market for Indigenous slaves. Bounties for Indigenous scalps were honored even in absence of war. Scalps and Indigenous children became means of exchange, currency, and this development may even have created a black market. Scalp hunting was not only a profitable privatized enterprise but also a means to eradicate or subjugate the Indigenous population of the Anglo-American Atlantic seaboard. The settlers gave a name to the mutilated and bloody corpses they left in the wake of scalp-hunts: redskins.

This way of war, forged in the first century of colonization - destroying Indigenous villages and fields, killing civilians, ranging and scalp hunting-became the basis for the wars against the Indigenous across the continent into the late nineteenth century.

Reviews

A must-read for anyone interested in the truth behind this nation's founding. -Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, Jicarilla Apache author, historian, and publisher of Tiller's Guide to Indian Country

This may well be the most important U.S. history book you will read in your lifetime. . . . Dunbar-Ortiz radically reframes U.S. history, destroying all foundation myths to reveal a brutal settler-colonial structure and ideology designed to cover its bloody tracks. Here, rendered in honest, often poetic words, is the story of those tracks and the people who survived - bloodied but unbowed. Spoiler alert: the colonial era is still here, and so are the Indians. -Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams

ISBN: 9780807000403 | Beacon Press

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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States - Zinn Education Project

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Book - Non-fiction. By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 2015. 312 pages. Four hundred years of Native American history from a bottom-up perspective.

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MEsearch instead of research! Thanks @Ian for sharing.

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The Bias of 'Professionalism' Standards by the Stanford Social Innovation Review

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The Bias of 'Professionalism' Standards by the Stanford Social Innovation Review

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The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards (ssir.org)

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The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards (SSIR)

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Professionalism has become coded language for white favoritism in workplace practices that more often than not leave behind people of color. This is the fourth of 10 articles in a special series about diversity, equity, and inclusion.