Rethinking Schools: Making Black Lives Matter in Our Schools

This week I subscribed to Rethinking Schools magazine and chose an article entitled Making Black Lives Matter in Our Schools. 

This article begins by talking about injustices towards Blacks that have happened recently and how those injustices affect the Black community, including the young black students we teach in schools.

The article discusses how public many schools in the U.S. reinforce racist messages through their curriculum that tells history from the point of view of people with privileged status and through "no excuses" discipline policies. 

One part of the article mentioned how New Jersey passed a bill requiring schools to teacher children how to interact with police "in a manner marked by mutual cooperation and respect.”  This struck me while reading.  It reminded me once again of the the scene in the movie The Hate You Give where the father had to teach his young children how to interact with the police so that they stay safe. The editors pose the question, why are we not holding the police accountable for their “regular murdering of Black and Brown people across the country.” Instead we are putting the responsibility of these injustices on the victims instead of the perpetrators; similar to how some people say women shouldn't be out late at night or they shouldn't drink too much in order to help prevent sexual assaults. We should be holding the police (or men in regards to sexual assaults) more accountable in order to stop these injustices from happening.  There needs to be a shift in thinking; from the privileged perspective to one that comes from those being oppressed.  

There was also a quote that I chose from this article that I think summarizes a lot of what is going on in American society right now:

“The racist rhetoric of the Trump administration has provided license for police and white supremacists to escalate their attacks on Black people and in other communities of color. As a result, many students across the country will likely be returning to the classroom this fall carrying the pain and confusion borne of the racist events of the summer.”

I feel very strongly about what the quote is saying. Even though the first sentence of this quote is important and upsets me deeply because of the truth that lies behind it, it is the second sentence of this quote that is important to us teachers.  We need to be aware that the current state of society, is going to affect the young Black and Brown students that we teach.  We need to be aware of this and use this as discussion points in our classroom.  We can use the feelings, pain, and confusion of our students as a catalyst to helping teach our students about power and privilege in our society. We need to be in-tune with our students and how they are affected by what happens in the broader society in order create discussions regarding race and power, and empower a Black Lives Matter at School sentiment. 

This is also essentially what the editors of this article argue.  The editors argue that we (teachers/schools) need to work towards creating anti-racist, pro-justice pedagogy and curriculum.  We need to make our classrooms safe havens for children of color to feel safe and teach and discuss with them the history and struggles of Blacks throughout history from a non-privileged point of view. We cannot be afraid to say the words, as Johnson (2001) would argue, when discussing race, power, history, and current events with our students.  The editors also argue that teachers and schools need to act as advocates for students, and people within the community, not in the culture of power in order to, again, be an advocate for Black Lives Matter. 

"[It] is both about helping Black students feel valued and connected to their learning as well as about all of us learning from the central struggles for justice when injustice is regularly front-page news. As the current movement phrases it, 'all lives will matter, when Black lives matter.'"