aspiringanti-raciststemeducator

[aspiringanti-raciststemeducator]

Diary of an Aspiring Anti-Racist STEM Educator

Like many people in the world, I’ve found myself deeply moved by events of this summer and inspired to do some things differently than I have in the past. I’ve proudly said “Black lives matter” for years since the movement began; I became an educator; I’ve studied Culturally Responsive teaching; I regularly engage in conversations about race; I am a biracial black woman. I felt like I was checking so many boxes, but somehow it didn’t seem like enough. I had work to do, I knew. But I didn’t know how much until I started digging in.

A friend and fellow educator sent me information about a professional development on anti-racist education, and I sent it to my principal and got my school to pay for it. For pre-work, we were asked to read Tema Okun’s “White Supremacy Culture” and reflect on ways that we perpetuate white supremacy. I’d read it a few years ago, but it didn’t sit with me the way it sat with me this time. I hadn’t read it checking off boxes of things I do and things my school asks me to do daily the way I did this time. Perfectionism- check- something I’ve worked on un-learning in therapy; sense of urgency- check- did we really have a professional development day if we didn’t hear “sense of urgency” 30 times?;  defensiveness- check- I don’t like changing my plans, so I’ll argue to support them, and the powers that be in my school are even worse... Every single feature was ingrained in me, in the power structures that exist at work, and in the power structures that exist in our world. I spent some time in this powerful workshop trying to learn ways to dismantle this culture, starting with dismantling it within myself and within my sphere of influence. And I made a commitment to continue to do it in every way I can, even when it���s hard, because it’s going to be hard. So, okay, I perpetuate white supremacy culture- let’s work on that.

Then I read Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist, which is mandatory reading for every adult who believes our world is not the way it should be. It was so powerful because it challenges the idea that someone could be “not racist” (spoiler alert: Kendi says there is no neutrality; you’re either racist or anti-racist, and I agree.). And it challenged my very commonly-held belief that a person of color cannot be racist because our race is not the privileged one and does not hold power. Kendi points out how ridiculous this is to suggest that people of color in positions of power do not hold power. And I know I certainly have power. Year after year, I get between 40 and 50 young black children to influence for several hours of a day, 5 days a week, 10 months of the year. My policies, my decisions, my teaching style impacts these children for the rest of their life, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. And here I’ve spent time thinking I can’t be racist. No, I have power, and I can do racist things and have racist policies. And I have. So, okay, I have racist policies- let’s work on that.

This blog will be about my journey to be an anti-racist educator, even as I teach math and science. I will fail in places; I will continue to perpetuate white supremacy culture, and I will do racist things because it’s the culture I was raised in and the environment I continue to live and work in. But I will not be satisfied with that, and I will work to acknowledge my shortcomings and overcome them. I hope my transparency inspires someone else to do the work and my changes helps create a new generation of young folks better than mine.

Anti-racist Professional Development:  https://culturallyresponsiveleadership.com/category/culturally-responsive-leadership/

Tema Okun’s “White Supremacy Culture:” https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_culture.pdf