Black Pain And The Difficult Work Of Telling Our Stories
We cannot tell difficult stories for the sake of telling them, we have to tell them because if we do not, the perpetrators of our pain get to decide its impact. By Kamilah Bush Recently, I’ve been thinking about what it means
Timothy Loehmann Fired From Cleveland Police Department Over Technicality, Not Racism
Imagine an America that prioritized directly confronting its racist legacy, not devising roundabout avenues to address the problem. Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014, was fired by the Cleveland Police Department.
Teaching Beyond Respectability Politics
In the wake of the deaths of Jordan Edwards and Richard Collins, two more black boys left to a hashtag, the highlighting of accolades and posturing is more prevalent than ever.
By Erica Buddington “Silence and uniformity are not reflections of a job well done.” I said this to a former supervisor who’d walked into a class discussion earlier that day, students laughing and intrigued, flailing their arms to be the next person to speak. He shook his head, pointed to the text that the organization abided by, and repeated, “They should be quiet. They should have their hands folded, waiting their turn. They should all be looking directly at you. There were too many voices; there was too much laughter. It should be silent when I walk into your room. Children learn and understand, better this way. They become better citizens, this way.” I watched his pointer finger hit the desk, a brown hand that had only filled out a principal fellowship application, after teaching for six months out of grad school. I’d been immersed in a classroom or learning space for almost a decade and I couldn’t fathom how someone, who claimed to be an advocate for our children, could be so closed-minded. It is this same brown hand that would push a contract towards me, excited about my data from the past year, with $10,000 dollars added to my salary, a promise that I could have more autonomy over my classroom, and a plea to revitalize their performance arts. I smiled and pushed the contract back with my own brown hand, making it clear that there was no money or autonomy in the world that could make me treat our children like this.Related: WHITE PEOPLE CAN HAVE A TORCH-WIELDING MOB, BUT WHEN BLACK FOLKS MARCH PEACEFULLY, IT’S MARTIAL LAW
Jordan Edwards Died Exactly 25 Years After the L.A. Riots, and Nothing Has Changed.
The police shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards reveals that we haven't made any real progress since Rodney King and the L.A. Riots. Editor's Update: A previous version of this article stated that the L.A. Riots took place 20 years ago. The actual
How White Privilege Shapes “Intent” — and How Intent Keeps Privileged Whites Out of Jail
by Kristance Harlow The common saying that “it’s the thought that counts” is supposed to apply to gift-giving, but it was destined to morph -- as all language does -- and has been used to justify the continuation of a broken