#137

Of the many images and quotes I have seen in recent weeks, this one very much stands out:

Further to my June 4, 2020 blog entitled, Knowledge + Empathy + Action, I want to restate that it is paramount:

(i) to acknowledge one’s privilege,

(ii) to be an ally to those who (for generations) have experienced marginalization, emotional and physical distress and worse, and

(iii) to challenge the racial inequalities and discrimination that exist.

(Taken from Facebook.

Original source unknown).

Over the last two months there has been a multitude of resources pertaining to equity issues, systematic racism and social justice. As shared in my June blog, Knowledge + Empathy + Action, the title of this blog post is taken from Rachel Cargle’s quote, "My equation for Black allyship is: knowledge + empathy + action". I am mindful that some of these resources encompass more than one of these concepts and, with regard to action, I include both examples of action taken and suggestions for action/activism to be taken. Of the many resources I have seen, these are the ones that both in general terms and with regard to the world of school most resonated and/or seemed most useful for moving forwards so as to create a more just and equitable world.

Knowledge:

• Read Ibram X. Kendi’s 2019 book, How to be an Antiracist (I am working my way through this and intend, once finished, to write a blogpost)

• Read Ibram X. Kendi’s website which has essays and a link to the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research and more

• Watch Ibram X. Kendi’s May 2020 Ted Talk, The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist in which he reiterates his oft quoted, “And so really the heartbeat of racism itself has always been denial, and the sound of that heartbeat has always been, "I'm not racist."”

• Read or listen to Ibram X. Kendi’s essay in The Atlantic’s September 2020 issue The End of Denial

• Watch William Darity’s July 2020 TED Talk: A blueprint for reparations in the US

• Read articles posted by Teaching Tolerance. Notable recent posts include: Black Lives Matter (June 1, 2020) and Anti-Racist Work in Schools: Are You in it for the Long Haul? (June 30, 2020).

• Read 10 Things You Might Not Know About Black History and Culture in France

• Listen to The New York Times’ July 20, 2020 The Life and Legacy of John Lewis

• Read The Conversation’s July 2020 John Lewis traded the typical college experience for activism, arrests and jail cell referenced his activism in the 1960s and concludes with part of his well-known 2018 tweet, “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” The complete tweet is shown below:

Empathy:

• Read Caroline Randall Williams’ June 2020 opinion in The New York Times, You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument. A powerful narrative which starts with the statement, “I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South.”

• Read Teaching Tolerance’s October 2019 article A Crooked Seat at the Table: Black and Alone in an Honors Class in which Dr. Kiara Lee-Heart shares what she wishes all educators, including her former teachers, knew about the experience of being the only student of colour in an honours class.

• Watch Nita Mosby Tyler TEDxMileHigh talk, Want a more just world? Be an unlikely ally to learn more about the importance of being an ally. Her closing comments are particularly meaningful: “...to win the fight for equity we will all need to speak up and stand up. We will all need to do that. And we will all need to do that even when it's hard and even when we feel out of place, because it is your place, and it is our place. Justice counts on all of us.”

• Listen to perspectives and personal narratives such as Emmanuel Acho’s Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man and BBC Radio4’s Four Thought Change through Engagement,

• Listen to The Guardian’s July 2020 podcast, The shocking truth of racism in British schools and Understanding white privilege, with Reni Eddo-Lodge.

• Read personal narratives such as Hanif Kureishi’s June 2020 article in The Guardian, Racism has been the grinding backdrop to my life. Is a different future now possible? and Simon Hattenstone’s interview in The Guardian with Benjamin Zephaniah, July 2020 article, 'Coppers were standing on my back and I thought: OK, I’m going to die here.’

Action (done)

The role of art in raising insight, understanding and perspective.

• Titus Kaphar June 2020 TED Talk entitled, Can beauty open our hearts to difficult conversations?, and his 2017 TED Talk Can art amend history? In which he states that, “Beauty is complicated, because of how we define it. I think that beauty and truth are intertwined somehow. There is something beautiful in truth-telling. That is: that as an act, truth-telling and the myriad ways it manifests -- there's beauty in that.”

• Artistic responses to George Floyd’s murder are evident in Banksy’s artwork highlighted in Banksy shares new artwork on Instagram inspired by George Floyd's death and photos in The Culture Trip’s June 2020 Black Lives Matter – and These Murals Want Us to Remember That post.

The role of athletes highlighting the need to fight against the injustices and inequality that prevail:

• The Guardian’s July 2020 article, From Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, the proud history of black protest in sport

• The BBC’s July 2020 articles, Lewis Hamilton: 'Lack of understanding' of the issue of racism and Lewis Hamilton's statesman-like presence comes to the fore after Styrian GP

• Aljazeera’s July 2020 article, Black Lives Matter: Should sports and politics mix?

• The Conversation’s July 2020 article, National anthems in sport: songs of praise or memorials that are past their use-by date?

• Tom Zoellner’s July 2020 article, How one woman pulled off the first consumer boycott – and helped inspire the British to abolish slavery states that, “Her focus on citizen-driven change through deliberate consumer activism was unpopular with her contemporaries who preferred negotiations among government officials to achieve their ends.”

• The July 24, 2020, New York Times article, How One of America’s Whitest Cities Became the Center of B.L.M. Protests, describes Portland’s past and current protests involving citizens across the racial divide.

• Pirette McKamey’s June 2020 article, What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently, in The Atlantic is a powerful reflection and includes the following key focus: “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.” …. which culminates with the following, “The only measure of our anti-racist teaching will be the academic success of all of our students, including our black students.”

Action (to do):

• Start to/continue to sign petitions, share article of interest and/or learning through social media channels, demonstrate safely, and donate (as funds permit) to organizations which challenge the racial inequalities and discrimination that exist.

• Listen to podcasts such as CNN’s Silence is Not an Option presented by Don Lemon. The first nine episodes are as follows: (i) There is No Going Back From This Moment, (ii) Why Not Being Not Racist is Not Enough, (iii) Beyond Mammy: Misrepresentation in Film, (iv) Schooling the System, (v) Monumental Conversations, (vi) Defining What Matters, (vii) Finding Common Ground, (viii) Reimagining the police and (ix) American Caste with Isabel Wilkerson.

• Continue to ensure community libraries, school libraries, classroom libraries and home libraries are representative of all within our local and wider community. Some suggested texts may be found here: BAME and diverse perspectives book lists, Good Reads With Black Protagonists (suitable for preteens or teens), and Black Lives Matter Instructional Library (with read aloud texts).

• Review and act upon NCTE’s June 2019 article Being an Anti-Racist Educator Is a Verb, The PTC’s Resources on Equity, Social Justice and Systemic Racism and A New, Antiracist Canon - Suggested Texts curated by @alexiswiggins and @Noble_Greenough for use in formal education settings.

• If not done so already, subscribe to The New York Times’ weekly Race/Related Newsletter, Teaching Tolerance, SOS Racisme (a French organization) and other organizations to expand your knowledge and understanding of historical action and current events.

• Watch Erin Robinson in her July 2020 PTC Pearl of Wisdom Know Yourself as an Interculturally Responsive Leader and keep uppermost in mind her final thought, that it is important to ask ourselves how our culture, bias, privilege, and experience influences and impacts our leadership and communication on a day to day basis

• Expand your knowledge through informal and formal learning. Examples of which include the following: Harvard Graduate School of Education’s on-line course (August 10-24, 2020) entitled, Schooling for Critical Consciousness of Racism and Racial Injustice, Open Yale Course: African American History: From Emancipation to the Present, University of Exeter’s Empire: the Controversies of British Imperialism offered through Futurelearn and Teaching Tolerance’s Spring 2020 PD, Digging Deep Into the Social Justice Standards: Justice

As we (within the school settings and on a personal/societal level) reflect on history, recent events and our roles as allies, how can we - with the view to making the world a better place for all - challenge the racial inequalities and discrimination that exist in the larger community?