Listen. Reflect. Take Action. Do Better.

*** Blog edited to add resources… Most recent update 6/2/2020

Over the past week I have been gathering as many resources as possible to share with my followers, colleagues, and co-workers.

It is NOT People of Color’s job to educate you or “tell you” what to do right now. The resources are out there. It is OUR responsibility to do the work, it is our responsibility to listen and to educate ourselves, this is not their burden to bear.

To be silent is to be compliant. Period.

Please please read these resources. Examine yourselves.  Listen to these videos. Reflect. Grow. TAKE ACTION and DO BETTER. DO SOMETHING.

White folks take 20 minutes to watch this.  Matthew Kincaid. Founder of Overcoming Racism. He leads my school in Antiracist work throughout the year each school year.  “Ask yourself the question: Your self-identification as “not racist” who does that really serve? It is something that you put on to make you feel safe and more secure knowing underneath all of that the vulnerabilities that exist for us all.”  “We have seldom seen a unified and interconnected movement led by white people in this country. Just like systemic racism and oppression is a prison for people of color, namely black and indigenous people, the biases that you are bound to which allow you to wake up and hug and kiss your children and send them off to be care free in a world in which you know that black and brown folks don’t have the same freedom and opportunity to do the same… the numbness that inspires in a person’s heart is also a prison. The inhumanity that that inspires in a person’s heart is also a prison. We are living these realities EVERY DAY. It is EASY to distance yourself from the “visible racist” because as long as you can see someone that you believe is more racist than you, then that gives you the ability to absolve yourself of the reality that you have intrinsic responsibility to daily fight against the system and structure that was set up and propped up to support the rights and the freedoms that you enjoy that were built upon the backs and sacrifices and labor and death and manipulation that is continuing to happen to people of color, namely black and brown people on a daily basis.”

White folks, take 6 minutes to watch Lauren Lake speak on Daily Blast Live. “Your silence is deafening, if you have time to Google where your child can go to Summer Camp you have time to Google how you can help in this fight. DO SOMETHING”

White folks, follow these accounts and hashtags on Instagram to remain up to date on current cases and to educate yourself on antiracist work and antiracist work in education. @thebreakdown @shaunking @leemerrittesq @teachers4socialjustice @hereweread @nowhitesaviors @overcomingracism @readlikearockstar @ohhappydani @learninginhues @inclusivestorytime @theconsciouskid @teachfortheculture @wokekindergarten #georgefloyd #ahmaudarbery #breonnataylor

White mothers and fathers, I am taking a course in September on how to raise anti-racist white children. (I tried to get in the June course but it filled so quickly, YAY!) Join me in this CRUCIAL step to dismantling systemic racism and educating our own children. It is going to fill up VERY quickly.

I work with an incredible Kindergarten teacher named Ms. Minor. She is a leader in anti-racist work in our building and she compiled a list of anti-racist resources, as well as an anti-bias playlist, a list of 99 race conscious things you can say to your child to advance racial justice, and 10(ish) things you can do to be an ally on her Instagram.  An incredible amount of time and work went into this, if you feel compelled to thank her with a monetary donation like I did, please do so through paypal: paypal.me/chicoryzine or venmo: majorlyminor

White mothers and fathers, I am taking a course in September (I tried to get in the June course but it filled quickly! YEA!), on how to raise anti-racist white children. Join me in this CRUCIAL step to dismantling systemic racism and educating our own children. It is going to fill up VERY quickly. In addition, check out the books you’re reading to your kiddos… are they from a diverse body of authors? What about the images? What color are the children in the stories? Here are three of Memphis’s favorite books at our house: A is for Activist,  The Thing about Bees, and The Story of Rap. You children are NEVER too young to talk about race.  Think about the books in your FVR libraries… Are your students represented in those books? If you teach at a predominantly white school, are there enough racially diverse texts, representative of the world we live in, in your classroom? Adriana Ramirez, A.C. Quintero, and John Sifert are three authors of diverse backgrounds who come to mind…. this is something I am continuing to work on for myself and my students.

LEAN into discomfort. I learned this from our work at Bricolage with Overcoming Racism. If you feel like looking away when the videos of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor come on the news, DO NOT TURN AWAY. IT SHOULD FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE. The fact that “uncomfortable” is the first thing you feel speaks to our privilege.

READ. Start with White Fragility. I am reading it for the third time, next month in a book study with other World Language teachers. Email me if you’d like to join us and I can provide you with the page link. Annabelle@34.228.244.130. I am also currently reading “We Got This” , and if you enjoyed Dr. Christopher Emdin’s speech at ACTFL this past November, then get his book “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood”.

Consider creating your own Racial Autobiography with me.We have a white affinity group at my school and one of the suggested things we do this summer to continue this important work is create our own Racial Autobiography.

Watch this FREE 90 minute panel discussion on: Repurposing Our Pedagogies: Abolitionist Teaching in a Global Pandemic. It was June 2nd. It was one of the most POWERFUL things I’ve ever seen.

LISTEN to this podcast:The Code Switch Project: Black and Blue on the complexities of being black and in law enforcement.

As I continue to listen, engage, grow and take action, I will continue to share with you. Please don’t be silent. Speak up. We must. We MUST do better.

Love you, so much!

Annabelle