FNED Post #3: Black Lives Matter

Before the march, a woman asked me to take a picture
of her grandson in front of a BLM sign, since her phone
had died. I still have this photo displayed in my classroom.

I was deep in the midst of my first real attempt at teaching at Teach For America's summer institute in Philadelphia when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were shot and killed by U.S. police officers within a day of each other.

When the media began reporting on these incidents of state-sanctioned violence, our summer school community came together as a group to collectively process and to share thoughts about discussing the events with our students. At the time, I did not feel emotionally-prepared, or that my relationships with my students, having only known them for two weeks, were strong enough, to facilitate that conversation.

But while in Philadelphia, members of the 2016 Teach for America cohort and local Philadelphia leaders joined forces to organize a #BlackLivesMatter march which I participated in. While I was conflicted about how I could manage a conversation about these recent events with my mostly black students, I did know that I had to show up in an actively anti-racist way as not only an educator, but as a person who deeply believes that the lives of black people in our country have historically and systemically been undervalued.

As I reflect on the brief month that I taught in Philadelphia, I think that my decision to not engage in a conversation about the shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling was okay in my position as a temporary outsider to the community that I was teaching in. While I deeply cared for my summer-school students, I do not think that a few short weeks of knowing each other for fifty minutes a day was enough for me to facilitate a difficult conversation around policy brutality and institutionalized racism without possibly doing unintentional harm. For these conversations to be had with fidelity, established relationships with embedded trust are truly necessary. 

Now, as I consider my position at my school now in my second-year, as a permanent member of the community, I see the opportunity for conversations and lessons based around the Black Lives Matter movement in a different way. As Lindberg sums up in her article, "A District Profile: Black Lives Matter at School," it is imperative as a culturally-relevant educator to take time to acknowledge the experience of black children in schools which historically were not made for them, and ultimately continue to silence their voices. 

This week, I plan to teach a lesson around the Black Lives Matter movement with my 9th graders. Lindberg and Pitts' thoughts give me a framework in which to operate in. I am taking away from these articles a few salient points: 

• the importance of a transparent, district-wide initiative to bring BLM into schools (and wondering how a program in comparison to the one in Rochester, NY could be implemented in Providence) 
• the need as a classroom teacher to not only focus on the problem, but also the ways in which many people across the nation are actively resisting it, by highlighting the localized leaders within the BLM movements and other socially-justice oriented organizations 
• the understanding of the similarities to, but more importantly the differences, between the conventionally-hailed civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to the modern-day BLM movement 
• Being ready and willing to respond to critiques of those who have a fundamental misconception of the BLM movement as a violent and racist group that seeks to elevate the value of only black lives 
• Pointing out the centering of queer and trans leaders in the movement 
• The distancing away from "respectability politics" that were prevalent during the 1950s and 1960s 

It could be because I did not study education in college, but sometimes I feel alienated by educators who hesitate to teach and talk about current issues centered around racism, classism, sexism, or any of the other -isms our students face, out of fear of swaying student opinions too much. Of course, I value the skill of critical thinking and teaching our students to make their own informed opinions, but to avoid bringing these topics and incidents into our classrooms, I believe, is a grave disservice to our students who are affected by them everyday. It is not only our job to create critical thinkers, but to also introduce them to what dialogues around important conversations can and should look like.

I am left only thinking of this quote by Desmond Tutu: If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.