Thread by @AFTunion

Join @rweingarten and @fedingram now for a conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) at tonight's #TEACH21 general session!

You can tune in live here:

.@BTU66 President @JessJTang kicking us off this evening!

"As AFT members we are the people who educate children, care for patients, and help keep our communties safe and so we must continue to teach tolerance and acceptance." #TEACH21

"Liberation, education justice, housing justice, and economic justice are one in the same in our union struggle. None of us are free until we are all free." @JessJTang #TEACH21

.@rweingarten is starting up our discussion for tonight!

"I have always loved having this TEACH conference and having the kind of professional development our members want and need." @rweingarten #TEACH21

"Tonight, we’re going to take some time to talk about racial justice. In our union justice and opportunity exist at the intersection of everything we do." @rweingarten

"Frankly, America’s professed values—life, liberty, equal justice under the law—have never squared with the lived realities of many. Living up to those values, building as Dr. Kendi says an anti-racist society is so important." @rweingarten

"They're not giving us a chance to engage with our kids in the way we know we need to and the way kids need. If giving students a good education is the goal, it's our North Star." @rweingarten

"We want our kids to have an education that imparts honesty abotu who we are, integrity in how we treat others, and the courage to do what's right. We want to rise critical thinkers who can hear the truth and draw their own conclusions based on fact." @rweingarten

"On the corner of 38th and Chicago and Minnesota in Minneapolis, each day since George Floyd died local activists have held space for grief but they also made space for hope." @rweingarten

"@EducationMN member Marcia Howard lives. With AFT’s support, she took a leave of absence from teaching to create community in that square." @rweingarten

"On May Day, they hosted a worker’s fair with local unions providing information about apprenticeships and jobs. Together with Marcia, our Secretary-Treasurer, @fedingram, led AFT’s efforts to support that work." @rweingarten

"Last year, the AFT executive council passed a groundbreaking resolution that laid out 19 commitments to combat racism and violence against Black people, including the separation of school safety, which we know we need, from policing." @rweingarten

"The AFT recently partnered with the NAACP and First Book to launch “Stamping Out Racism and Hate,” which aims to make sure every student has an actively anti-racist, safe and welcoming learning environment." @rweingarten

"Fed worked to elect Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff to the US Senate during the runoffs in Georgia. He currently leads AFT’s subcommittee on fighting white supremacy and white nationalism, and he will be a featured panelist at this year’s 112th @NAACP convention." @rweingarten

Secretary Treasurer @fedingram is now in conversation with @DrIbram. If you haven't joined us yet, you won't want to miss this!

.@DrIbram starts off our session by acknowledging and thanking teachers for creating a wholesome, complex, and enriching learning environment for our children. #TEACH21

.@fedingram: Can you tell us what you see your role as in this anti racist movement, what anti racism means to you, and why you continue to be a voice in this movement despite GOP vitriol?

.@ DrIbram: To be anti racist is to see practices and policies as a problem, not people.

To Dr. Kendi, it is the prudent thing to do for educators to explain to students those reasons for why the systems are inequal. Kids are asking these questions and it is our jobs as teachers to explain why and explain it is not because of inferiority.

.@fedingram: what does the term racist mean to you?

Racist is someone who is expressing an idea of racial hierarchy or supporting a policy that is leading to racial inequity or injustice... Racist is a descpritive term.

Some may argue that racism will go away if we stop talking about and focusing on race. Why is it important to talk about racism?

To teach our children not to be racist, or even to be anti racist, we first have to talk about it.

Next we have a question from a student in South Carolina: Do you think that slavery should be taught and how early should it be taught? #TEACH21

In Germany, teachers are teaching the Holocaust as early as kindergarten ebcause there is an incredible level of seriousness to ensure that our youngest of people have a clear sense of nazism and the holocaust to make sure it never happens again. @DrIbram #TEACH21

Slavery is one of this country's earliest crimes and we should be teaching it early, in age appropriate and understandable ways. We should defer to early childhood educators but as early as possible. @DrIbram #TEACH21

@fedingram What do you see in the laws and policies limiting what can be taught in schools, especially when it comes to critical race theory. Which as far as we are aware is something taught in law school.

The only thing @DrIbram can compare this recent wave of what is happening in our school distrcits, schools and communities is that it really reminds me of the reaction and response to the Brown v Board decision, the widespread fear in certain communities.

It's similarly being cast & framed that teaching about history is somehow going to harm white children and the monstrous lie that this effort to teach kids about racism is an effort to teach white children that they are evil and racist. No teacher would be teaching that. @DrIbram

Next we have a question from AFT member Tia Costello, an 8th grade social studies teacher: what advice would you give to civics teachers who want to address racism and sexism?

There is a history of teachers being mandated to teach racist thought or to not teach about racism but the courageous teachers were willing to defy the odds. I'm mentioning that as well becasue we're here right now in this place because of teachers who found a way. @DrIbram

I want to encourage teachers that teachers have done this historically and continue to do it and I have faith that teachers will continue to do it. @DrIbram

Victoria Ren, a rising senior from Pittsburgh, comes to us with another question: Since history revolves around story telling, how did you choose what to tell? Especially with the skewed narratives we hear in school.

In "Stamped" from the beginning, @DrIbram wanted to first share the stories that conveyed the driving force of American history at any given moment and what were the racsit and anti racist ideas fueled these ideas and shaped the course of American history.

Our next question is from @WTUTeacher member Rachel Thomas: how can we move from the guilt portion of racism and move right into the reorientation of our consciousness

To change our vantage point, we have to reflect on and identify those ideas and feelings and move past them.

When you change our vantage point from sitting in passive guilt to feeling liberated, it's time to act. @DrIbram

In his study, @DrIbram found a consistent thread of denial of racism. He wanted the heartbeat of this book to be the opposite of that: actual admission and vulnerability.

Daniel Ryan, a para educator from United Educators of San Francisco, asks the next question: do you think the intersection of LGBTQ+ rights and anti racism efforts in the classroom can make progress for both of these concerns?

Absolutely! @DrIbram

It's critically important to recognize the ways that our racist ideas, our homphobic ideas, or transphobic ideas prevent us from really fighting for LGBTQ people of color and also for us to figure out ways to convey intersectionality to young people. @DrIbram

Lucy, a rising 9th grader in Washington, DC, asks, "What is the connection between racism and religion?"

One of the things that @DrIbram tried to show in Stamped was the debates between racist ideas and the earliest debates were between religious conceptions of Black people.

.@fedingram: In your book you talk about how the racial problem in our society is not in people, it's in policy and power. Can you tell folks the importance of civic engagemnt in fighting racial injustice?

The nastiness and divisiveness in our politics has made people say "I don't really do politics." I had to realize that politics is another word for power. For us to not being civically enagaged is to cede power and our seat at the table. @DrIbram

Civic engagement is saying: I have power and I'm going to use it. @DrIbram

Thank you all for joining us this evening!
If you weren't able to join us for tonight's enriching #TEACH21 conversation between Secretary-Treasurer @fedingram and @DrIbram, you can still view it below. 👇