Playing the "White Card": Can Whiteness Trump the Midterm Election and the Constitution?
The country woke up yesterday morning to the news that Donald Trump plans on eliminating birthright citizenship via an Executive Order. This is yet another blatant leveraging of whiteness to energize Trump’s white working class base. The violence inherent in its worldview means nothing to Trump or those that work with him. This move plainly illustrates that the elevation of white supremacy is fundamental, and a priority. It exposes the lie that the Constitution or any aspirational principles enshrined within it, or any other founding document’s rhetoric, are anything other than distractions for the masses who need something to believe in…
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The Politics of Teaching
Very few professions have to defend their existence the way teachers do. There seems to be an insatiable need to critique teachers and “fix” education via “fixing” teachers. Often what this looks like is formulas and best practices compiled in a rubric meant to facilitate teacher accountability and increase effectiveness. Teachers pushback with some iteration of “teaching is an art not a science.” After more than a decade in the classroom…
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The Power of Whiteness
The day after Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States millions of Americans took to the streets. The Women’s March was reported to be the largest single-day protest in American history. For a moment, one could be forgiven for feeling a tinge of optimism and hope amid the tragedy of the election. As the protests enfolded there was one image that reminded the world of the reality, present even among the pink hats of the Women’s March - that of a Black woman holding a sign that stated a simple fact: white women voted for Trump. The picture enraged white people across the nation as whiteness did what it always does: mystifies truth and obfuscates reality…
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If It Ain't Broke, Why Fix It? Education in America
Any educator working towards social justice, might have thought or been asked: “If we know what works in education, what’s getting in the way of using that understanding to fix our clearly broken educational system?” And sure, we know a lot of what works, educators and researchers like John Hattie have devoted their lives to defining what works - like holding high expectations for all students, building strong relationships with students, giving meaningful feedback, using effective teacher coaching strategies, et cetera, et cetera…
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Taking a Knee: The NFL & Racism
Despite not playing in the NFL for over a year, Colin Kaepernick is dominating NFL discussions. The former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl quarterback who decided to silently, and peacefully, protest police brutality by sitting for, and then taking a knee during, the national anthem. When asked about the motivations for his protest Kaepernick was very clear, saying: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…
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5 Personal Questions to Help Sharpen Your Social Justice Lens
“Our perception is always impacted by the lens through which we see, and our lens is always impacted by both physical barriers and socialization. For example, when looking through the barrier provided by sunglasses - the world may appear darker; and when looking through the socialization of the dominant narrative - the world may appear merit based and not oppressive,” Re-Imagine Education (Posted 4/24). Given this reality, it is imperative we relentlessly question what we see. Below are 5 questions we continually ask ourselves at Re-Imagine Education - questions that help sharpen our social justice lenses…
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Equity in Schools (Part 3): Using an Equity Lens
Understanding the definition of Equity in Schools (part 1), and recognizing the effects of counterproductive misunderstandings of equity (part 2) is useful, but merely understanding and recognizing equity or inequity does not necessarily lead to equity. Action leads to equity. Understanding is the parking lot; building one's social justice and racial equity lens the entrance ticket; using that lens to ask the right questions and take meaningful actions is the game. Questions like…
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Equity in Schools (Part 2): How “Equity” Hurts
In part one of this series we discussed common misconceptions that lead to misuses of the term equity. It’s not that these misconceptions are malicious, or even inherently inequitable; however they can, and often times do, distract from the ultimate goal of creating an equitable world. In this piece we examine the potential harm that comes from misunderstanding equity…
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Equity in Schools (Part 1): Misunderstandings of “Equity”
In terms of the dictionary, equity covers everything from, “The quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality” (Dictionary.com) to “Justice according to natural law or right” (Merriam-Webster). In the world of education, when we talk about equity, we are generally referring to racial equity, but what does that mean? It has taken me years to grasp this term. coming into education I thought I was woke because I clearly knew equity did not mean equality, but beyond that I had no idea how actually clueless I was about the term and what it meant for my actions. Below are some iterations of understanding that I went through and have heard others go through - that do NOT equal equity - understandings that may be important but can often derail us from the truth and ultimately derail us from truly equitable outcomes…
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Knowing and Teaching the Difference Between Bigotry and Racism
Oumou Kanoute was eating her lunch and minding her own business. The next thing she knew Smith College police were present. An employee had called the police because Kanoute looked “out of place.” This is the latest in a string of white people calling the police on Black people for simply living their lives. Without fail, social media assured us no white person in these instances are racist. This should be obvious due to the lack of bigotry so many white people outwardly display. They do not act with overt hate and therefore cannot be racist. But racism does not require bigotry. No, all racism requires is an acceptance of society as it currently exists.
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