Over the past year, I have found that the Children’s Council of San Francisco is helping people get to work, incubating quality businesses for women of color, and helping pre-school age children of low-income families to be ready for kindergarten.
Click on CONTINUE READING to view a 5-minute video I made to share my knowledge and impressions of this organization.
Touring the western states behind the wheel of my camper van over the past months, I have listened to my share of audiobooks. Those that rise to the top combine excellent writing with compelling voice talent. I have three recommendations to share with you that are entertaining and enlightening: a crazy tale of urban crime, a psychological courtroom drama, and a swirling fantasy from post-civil war Florida.
The audio version of each book features stellar narration. The books also share a common theme of Black people living in modern America, yet they each address that theme from a unique perspective. Prepare for a blend of fun, engagement, and social enlightenment.
I know that many of us want to help correct race-related flaws in our society, but it can be difficult to know where to start. The new Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University is poised to make a significant impact. Ibram X. Kendi started this project, and he was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world. Kendi’s book How to Be an Antiracist made a big impression on me and I have been excited to get involved with the center. In this blog, I provide some examples of how the center’s work may help people like you and me to make an impact in the course of our professional and social lives.
I just watched a film about the history and current state of Black voter suppression, and I want to shine a light on the movie and its call to action. Stacey Abrams lost her gubernatorial bid in 2018 and then she unleashed her organizational powers to fight for voter rights. All In: The Fight for Democracy, a recent Amazon Studios release, raises our understanding of Abrams’ work by tracing Black voter suppression from the birth of the nation to the year 2020. Rotten Tomatoes gives All In a 100% rating and I credit the film with opening my eyes. Here are some things I learned by watching the movie.
I have been looking for ways to help reverse systemic racism and I think that volunteer efforts for the Georgia Senate runoff made an impact. In this blog, I begin by briefly sharing what it was like to help get out the GA vote. Then, I dig into the data that quantifies the outcomes. Winning these two senate seats was a big deal. Helping tens of thousands of Black voters find their power was likely more significant as a step in the direction of reversing systemic racism, and this is what excited me the most.
I have been studying the history and current thinking on race for the past 18 months. Reading. Listening. Researching. I have been taking a deep dive so that I can both understand and share. I have learned about fundamental problems with the way we have achieved whiteness and ways in which we experience whiteness today. I believe that recognizing those problems can help us to live more complete lives and ultimately uplift people of all colors.
I invite you to join me on a tour through the history of whiteness, culminating with an exploration of new paths forward. We will begin in the late 1700s, where the erotic nature of Greek statues and the skull of a beautiful woman helped define our whiteness. We will then visit the 1920s and 30s to examine documents that formed the basis for Nazi Germany, sing along with beloved Paul Robeson in a ballad that captured American hearts, and see how Italians, Jews, and other immigrants became “white.” Finally, we will focus on the year 2020, where we discover new ways to view our social structures, unearth sources of venom in our social media, and pave a path toward social reconciliation and prosperity.
Beginning last summer, I decided to devote much of my time and energy to issues related to Black Americans. I have done much reading and studying. While I have not become an expert, I have been learning from experts and one surprising reality has opened my eyes: The concept of race itself is forged from myths and misinformation. Race is a social construct invented in modern times to support the enslavement of dark-pigmented people from Africa. Being a teacher at heart, I wrote this blog to share what I have learned with you.
Read on to learn about genetics, the history of term “race,” religious and scientific theories about race, and how IQ testing perpetuated race-based science in the 20th century. I hope that we can collectively come to understand the origins of the concept of race and thereby truly understand the origins of racism. By getting to the roots of racism, we can open the doors to greater harmony in our country and around the world.
I decided many months ago to focus my 2020 election cycle efforts on supporting African Americans and promoting their right to vote. I want to take this time to share three specific organizations that stand a strong chance of making profound, systemic changes in the lives of people of color.
Janet Grice has passed away. She was dear to me during her year as a music student at the University of Oregon. We reconnected as adults, strolling and talking on the banks of the Hudson River. Yet, it was back in those college days that we shared had one remarkable experience that kept us forever connected.
Empathy education. Is it valuable? Should teachers set aside precious time and resources to have students learn to appreciate one another? What about teachers in schools where the performance is not high? Can they afford to focus on social-emotional learning? I got my answer last week when I visited a public elementary school on Chicago’s southwest side. I saw rigorous, top-tier teaching that centered around building empathy and enacted best-practices that will likely raise student test scores in the near term and give them life-supporting skills for the long term.