Monday Musings from The Kravis Center January 18, 2021 Focus: Two Kings For Two Americas
Dear Colleagues,
This is a long one. Stay with me, y'all.
Today's programming about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy brings to the forefront, as special occasions do every year, the vital importance to the soul of America of fighting for social justice. But what of the rest of the year? Outside of responses to immediate horrors and scheduled fanfare, what are your responsibilities to racial justice? I write in the formidable shadow of Mr. Jeff Johnson, who's convocation talk pushed the entire community to think critically, to challenge ourselves to consider the entirety of Dr. King's legacy.
I write in the looming shadow of the assault on the Capitol. The internet and political punditry exploded with the revelation (news to some, old news to others) that there are two Americas: one, the idealized union forged in the fires of 1776, affirming liberty and justice for all; and another, the lived experience of people of color who by and large have yet to reap the benefits of that promise. I don't know if I accept the premise of two Americas over the reality of one extraordinarily complex and convoluted America, but I do wonder at those who look at the act of domestic terrorism on 6 January with wonder about the perpetrators. Where they came from, to which America they belong.
How easy it would be to dismiss those terrorists as outliers, hillbillies and rednecks who are not representative of the American spirit. How comforting to say, "This is not who we are, and this is not what we stand for." But...isn't it? If Dr. King and his contemporaries were representative of the fight for justice and the aspirations of Black households across America, couldn't it logically follow that those who sought fit to reaffirm white supremacy were representative of at least some of the nearly 75 million people who voted for President Trump? The seditionists who waltzed through the Capitol were just the ones who showed up, just as the marchers on Bloody Sunday were just the ones with the means and bravery to cross Edmund Pettus Bridge for a truly noble purpose.
I urge us, and specifically white colleagues, not to distance ourselves from these disgusting people, but to acknowledge and embrace them as part of the American identity. The danger of distancing ourselves from the violence and looting at the Capitol is that such mental gymnastics reinforce the notion of what Soraya Nadia McDonald would call TROTs (Those Racists Over There): "TROTs are scapegoats for racism, and they are everywhere." TROTs allow us to truly believe that "This is not who we are" is a sensible defense mechanism rather than a white supremacist delusion, that racism is not deeply entrenched and must be rooted out, but that we can compartmentalize and tend to our business as usual. As Sheila stated in her remarks this morning, "It's the sort of systemic racism that we face all the time here, at this school, in our community, and it's the sort of systemic racism that so many of our community members face every single day." She's not wrong. @blackatloomis shed a light on Loomis's past; a survey of our community of color today would reveal that our present is equally troubling. And we can't pin that racism, those actions and behaviors, on TROTs. That's on us.
Well, what to do? I would like to call upon Dr King's Letter from Birmingham Jail for guidance, specifically the following paragraph:
First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
What Dr. King does not specify, and what demands explicating here, is that the peace to which he refers, the negative peace to which white moderates so desperately cling, is peace for white people, "order" for white people. The "absence of tension" is the absence of discomfort and reckoning, of individual reflection, that are so fundamental to the pursuit of justice. Unfortunately, white America latched itself to a more palatable, less challenging Dr. King, one who aspired to see a nation judging people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, to negative peace. As Mr. Johnson alluded to today, white America, by and large, latched itself to the Dr. King that would cost them nothing. In insisting on color-blindness, on making racism the acts of individuals, of TROTs, white people distanced themselves from the systemic racism that took black lives in 2020 and proceeded to deny them justice. But racism isn't based on whether or not we're good people. Racism was designed throughout history, long-established and incontrovertible. To dismantle the system, we must work on reshaping our future.
Can you see yourself in the white moderate? Can you think of no time in recent memory when you thought or said, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action." If so, in that moment, what did direct action require of you? Direct action is often antithetical to white supremacy. To look in the mirror, to see the Capitol rioters as part of us, is in direct opposition to white supremacy, for white supremacy thrives on white people believing they are not the problem, that they are outside the system. Thomas Jefferson knew this: he likened the depravity of slavery to holding "the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other." Proper justice and the preservation of white supremacy are in direct contradiction; in order for justice to prevail, power must be shifted. Mr. Johnson told us as much in his Convocation address: "The next wave of work that [needs] to be done is going to cost America." Something must be lost. In our classrooms, we must trade materials and curricular mainstays we hold dear for opportunities that offer our students equity and justice. We must sacrifice time in the calendar to have longer, more immersive discussions. We must not find time; we must make time.
It's never a convenient time for justice, for rewriting the rulebook, for keeping promises instead of making them. We have to make the time to throw out the rundown, to reschedule ourselves around what we claim is important, to have conversations that challenge us, that make us uncomfortable and ask ourselves to sit in that. If we want to talk about systemic changes, we need to examine what it would mean for the school to adopt a more equitable grading system. In our classrooms, we have to continue to restructure our learning objectives and assessments around questions of justice and equity. In our department meetings, we need to think about what true equity looks like. Beyond diversity and inclusion, what does a just curriculum, and equitable curriculum look like? In our TAG meetings, we have to continue to press our advisees to think critically about questions to which we will not always have the answers. There are resources aplenty. One last nod to Mr. Johnson: he told us straight up. It won't make us feel good. "Actually challenging ourselves" does not make us feel good. But it is necessary.
Jackson, Mississippi integrated schools in 1972, when my mother was 10. She'd never gone to school with white children before. On the bus ride (she was bussed from her black neighborhood to a school in a white one), one of her neighbors told her that "My momma said we have to be careful about how we talk around white folks. They better than us." My mother vehemently denied this, told him that this simply wasn't true, but one of two things must have been happening: that boy's parents told him this to protect him, or that boy's parents truly believed this, and passed this on to their son. My mother also told me that everyone got along in elementary school, but by high school, white children didn't associate with their black classmates. Racism is taught, she said. And so it can be unlearned. Let's keep going.
To my colleagues of color, I would like to honor you on this King Day. I know the burden you shoulder, and I am in awe of your strength and grace. Asé.
Yours, as ever, MAM, on behalf of the Kravis Center ________________________________________________________________ Relevant articles and resources
Shoutout to Freddi Dupré for pointing me to McDonald's article. Freddi always comes through with great resources.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson details brilliantly the Great Migration. We Need a Second Great Migration by Charles Blow, outlines how the elections in Georgia are perhaps the beginning of a second Great Migration.
Why Students Should Write in all Subjects and How Mentor Texts Provide Valuable Lessons Beyond Writing Instruction offer valuable insight into the art of writing across the curriculum and how to use mentor texts to help students learn to write.
Click here to register for the virtual White Privilege Conference on April 7-11, 2021. For more details, click here.
Professional Development Opportunities
Looking for an amazing line up of experts on the adolescent brain? Look no further than the The Science of Teaching During a Pandemic. Click here on the Learning and the Brain site for even more professional learning opportunities. A wealth of opportunities awaits us!
Here's the perfect opportunity to take a deep dive into creating authentic assessments with the Buck Institute, the gold standard of PBL workshops. PBL Works Summer Workshop, June 21-24, 2021
Another outstanding opportunity to take a deep dive into the neuroscience of learning: The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning is offering numerous winter workshops: Foundational Strategies for Teaching during COVID.
Harvard GSE programs for educators - so any worthwhile workshops for teachers! ________________________________________________________________ More articles and podcasts from past Monday Musings...
NAIS: Assessment Practices for Promoting Equity, by Amoy Walker is a must-read. Ms. Walker speaks to her experiences as a student as an an educator on the importance of examining "assessments more closely and identify best practices to combat bias."
When broken down into chunks, What works, what doesn't could serve as a valuable learning tool for our students. "Some study techniques accelerate learning, whereas others are just a waste of time—but which ones are which? An unprecedented review maps out the best pathways to knowledge." Thanks, Scott!
Another resource on teaching and learning that I always keep handy: Deans for Impact, The Science of Learning
Women of Color Need Courageous Allies in the Academy: An Open Dialogue Part One and Part Two. These interviews with seven women are outstanding, informative, and full of information about how to advance the work of allyship and accompaniment.
Reading Diversity: a tool for selecting diverse texts, Teaching Tolerance
Seeing White - podcast - and there's a study guide!
Creating Moments of Genuine Connection Online. the Cult of Pedagogy
Are you Teaching Content or Just Covering Material?, by Terry McGlynn, The Chronicle of Higher Education, A new book on science teaching makes the case for focusing on a smaller set of concepts to produce deeper learning. _______________________________________________________________ Follow us on Twitter! |