See It And Address It

Hi Friends!

I’m keeping it short this week because I really want you to engage with this.

(1) I have noticed Loudoun County schools in the news quite a bit for intolerant (at best) situations, just this week:
- Some parents are protesting LGBTQ classroom books in Loudoun County schools.
- The VA Attorney General has begun a bias probe of Loudoun County schools.

(2) Please watch Robin DiAngelo’s video on “Deconstructing White Privilege” (20 minutes, you don’t have to watch, just listen). Key takeaways (for me, anyway):
- Conflict over good/bad schools and good/bad neighborhoods are about upholding white supremacy.
- No one in Dr. DiAngelo’s privileged, segregated, white upbringing advocated for the value of including people of color in her life. Did anyone in yours?

(3) Howard County schools is taking an aggressive approach toward integration and families are up in arms.

I want to hear your thoughts and feedback. Clearly, culture change and active anti-racist advocacy is required to truly integrate our schools and ensure equal opportunity and education for all of our students. Each of us can have conversations with our fellow white families in our communities about the need to confront white supremacy, to acknowledge white privilege and our role in upholding a racist system, and our responsibility to change the system.

Where do you get stuck? What are you unsure about? Remember that you have been fully socialized into a white supremacist society, so it is normal to struggle with these realities. The system was created in a way that would prevent those who benefit from it from seeing it. Please open your eyes, not with shame and guilt, but with understanding, open-mindedness, and grace. We can’t fix it if we refuse to see it. We are all complicit. We each have a role in addressing it.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.