"The truth is that these rules take direct aim at the kind of teachers most dedicated & experienced at communicating about race and racism. The teachers who discuss the tragedies & horrors of anti-Blackness, slavery, and genocide in this country are the exceptions, not the rule.
They are already well-versed in maneuvering around tone-deaf administrators, poorly informed students, scarce resources, and outdated curricula.[...] And I expect that they are the teachers most skilled at circumventing and subverting these sorts of policies.
People who believe that a banned words list can prevent the discussion of American history and culture are people who know neither very well."
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Schools regularly ban Black children from wearing their hair the way it grows out of their heads. Braids have been banned. Covering their hair, too, has been banned.
Here's another list of discrimination against Black children's bodies in school, including a white teacher cutting off a 7 year old girl's hair in front of her class as punishment:
Never forget that nine years ago this week, a Black mother begged a white homeowner to help her and her two babies (4& 2 years old) outside his door during Hurricane Sandy.
Instead, he put his back against the door and the two children drowned.
His response when he found out that he had literally turned his back on a mother and let two kids drown to death outside his door?
"It's unfortunate. She shouldn't have been out, though. You know, it's one of those things."
This story will never stop haunting and horrifying me. I still think about these parents and this mother, sending them healing and my deepest sympathy for an unspeakable loss.
I'm just sitting here remembering the time when I was arrested in NJ.
I was driving to my internship and racially profiled, pulled over for going 6 mph over the speed limit and arrested for ibuprofen I had in the car. The cops rifled through my entire car looking for drugs and
even destroyed cookies I was bringing for co-workers from my second job at a fast food place. They tore each one apart as I looked on helplessly. They went through my trunk as I watched. What triggered the search? Supposedly a small bag of earrings I had in my purse from a recent
job interview. "Drug paraphernalia" according to the police report. Add a 'small plastic bag' to the list of things Black people aren't allowed to carry.
Anyway, I have a lot of vivid memories from that experience-the terrible public defender, the things the cops said outside
Can I be really honest on this thing for a second? I was one of those fools who thought getting a good paying job, having excellent credit, & being debt-free was the key to buying a home.
It's generational wealth, actually.
No millennial has earned $200,000 for a down payment.
I mean, maybe there are like 3 who have. But this kind of spending on home-buying that I see where I am?? A lot of this is generational wealth. Parents who can lend a kid $200,000 or even $800,000 to buy a house in cash, and then get paid off by a mortgage later.
What is a way to eliminate this for historically oppressed groups that were actively prevented from developing this kind of wealth (through either theft or discrimination)?
Well, there could be loans with excellent mortgage rates and a small (5% or less) down payment, for one.
What exactly is the worst police department in America? On one hand Chicago police had a secret torture site. On the other hand cops in Ohio killed a Black woman in her own house while she held her infant. Then again, the entire police department of King City had to close down
because so many cops were arrested. But then New York cops raped a handcuffed man with a plunger IN a police station. Though Harris County cops in Texas physically "examined" a woman's vagina on camera for 11 minutes during a routine traffic stop. But then Boston cops covered for
an accused child rapist for years, promoted him, and made him their union president. Still, plainclothes cops in Hugo Oklahoma shot three Black children ages 5, 4, and a 1 year old baby in the head. Then again, DC cops shot unarmed Miriam Carey dead with her baby in the car.
I'm a dark-skinned natural hair "inner-city" Black girl with a single mom from the projects raised by folks who believed in me and loved on me.
And today I was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
There are so many folks to thank- mostly folks who made this possible - introduced me to an editor, called a friend at a journal, invited me to be on a panel, told me that my writing was great.
There were so many voices that said I couldn't, but theirs were stronger.
A big thanks goes to my advisor @johnljacksonjr who continues to teach me the importance of grace and generosity in this career. I owe you an untold debt :-) I hope to pay it forward.