Four Activists Provide a True Gift

Hi Friends!

I hope you’re enjoying the sunshine today! I have quite a few wonderful resources that many of you have been sharing with me — thank you! However, I’m focusing on an amazing resource this week, a true gift. This might be the most important thing you can internalize this year.

I had the immense privilege to be able to attend the “Activist Listening Session” last Friday evening, hosted by four local activists of color. They were billed as responding to the Northam situation, but what actually occurred was SO much better. And they recorded it! It was truly a gift. Here’s the link (Click on Archives, the session is called “Activist Listening Session on Race”, which can be viewed or downloaded).

Please donate to the activists through SURJ-NoVa — this is heavy, vulnerable work and they deserve to be compensated accordingly. Go to www.surjnova.org and pay via PayPal, then email surjnova@gmail.com to let them know your name and amount and that you want the donation to be designated to the activist listening session. If you share the session link with others, please pass along the donation information as well.

I really want you to watch the video for yourself (set aside 1.5 hours and make it happen, or do it in pieces), but here are some of my takeaways (and some of these may be close to what the speakers said, so I do not take personal credit for any of this except for when I’m speaking about my own reaction):

(1) White people, even the best allies, will never completely “get it” because we can never be without the privilege attached to our skin color. Rather than seeing this as a depressing reality, I found that this freed me to focus on the steps I can take every day and stop worrying about reaching some unattainable end goal. If we can accept that we might never get there, then we can ensure that we focus on every step in the right direction and keep on moving, every day.

(2) Many POC expect white people, even the best allies, to eventually abandon or betray them. History has shown this to be the trend, with very few exceptions. Prove that you are willing to do the work, even when you are feeling fragile, especially when you are feeling fragile, and center POC instead of yourself. Saying you have nothing more to learn = you’re no longer doing the work.

(3) The creation of our country was structured in a way that institutionalized advantaging some people over others — it is in everything. This means that uplifting and centering the people closest to the pain is the only way to make meaningful change. This is where we use our privilege — to Listen Amplify and Follow POC and their communities.

(4) It’s going to be uncomfortable. When you are accustomed to privilege, equality looks like oppression. When others are given a seat at the table, it feels too crowded.

(5) Do the work because it’s the right thing to do and long overdue, not because you want someone to recognize you as “not a racist” or “a good person” — this is not about approval or recognition of you. It will take practice to stop centering yourself in this work, so work at it and apologize when you make a mistake. Keep doing the work.

Helpful links:
From Whitney Parnell
From Courtney Ariel (from August 2017)

This information is hard to accept, hard to internalize. It may be the most unfiltered truth you have heard on this topic. Sit with it. Reach out to (white) friends, or to this group, or to me, as you reflect on your reactions to it. Wherever you are in this process, I won’t judge. This takes time and patience and work. You have been indoctrinated into this white supremacist system along with everyone else. You are not alone. Keep moving forward.

Trade fragility for strength.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

Oh, Virginia and More Letter Writing

Hi Friends!

Happy February! This Black History Month, make an effort to expand your knowledge beyond the famous few black historical figures who are remembered and/or look deeper than the often whitewashed legacies of those famous people. Here are two great resources — The Root and Good Black News.

The news about Governor Northam has been unsettling to say the least. Make sure you’re listening to the voices of people of color (who are not all unified on this) to guide your understanding of the impact this revelation has had on them. And listen to the underlying messages in what many of Northam’s (white) defenders are saying — many of them are upholding a white supremacist society when they excuse what he did as “just dressing up in costumes for fun,” for example. The local Unitarian church is hosting “An Activist Listening Session” with female activists of color to respond to the situation this Friday, February 8.

I attended the school district’s Desegregation event on Monday evening and I was very encouraged by the remarks by the local NAACP chapter president and the Chair of the County Board because they were both very clear that there is still work to be done and that everyone in our community has a role to play in doing that work. The County Board Chair even specifically mentioned groups of parents coming together to address inequities — he may have been thinking about us! It was also very encouraging to see familiar faces — a good sign that we’re making relevant connections to others working on these issues.

Black Lives Matter shared a toolkit for white people around #TalkAbout Trayvon. “White communities are used to consciously and unconsciously maintaining the racist policies and practices that led to Trayvon’s death — and, as white people, we must speak out against those policies and practices. When we remain silent and on the sidelines, we are complicit in maintaining these unjust systems. Our work is to get more white people who support us to take action toward racial justice — and to change the hearts and minds of those white people who are not yet with us.” THIS is why I started this group.

How are your school board equity letters coming? I have heard from a few who are working on them already — thank you! I also wanted to share some additional information and resources:
(1) I came across the Free/Reduced lunch numbers from October 2018. This is clear data about the disparities and segregation in Arlington.
(2) More information related to advocating for supporting principals.
(3) More information was requested about school planning factors. The district website has the details for each fiscal year. It should be noted that “equity” is used in the description of how these factors are implemented, but when you look at the actual process, it is based almost solely on the number of students. That is equality, not equity. A few staff positions (ESOL/HILT and Bilingual Resource Assistants, for example) are based on the number of English learner students.

Free/Reduced lunch is referenced in the document a few times:
(A) For a Elementary School Testing Coordinator, which says “Provide a 0.5 coordinator to 11 elementary schools with the highest free and reduced lunch percentage.”
(B) For Elementary School Reading Skills — “An additional 0.5 reading skills teacher is given for those schools that have free and reduced lunch percentage greater than 60%.”
(C) In Middle Schools, it is only referenced for the Basic Skills Improvement Program Teacher — “An additional 0.4 teacher position is given for those schools that have 25–40% Free and Reduced Lunch. An additional 0.8 teacher position is given for those schools that have 41% or more Free and Reduced Lunch.”
(D) In High Schools, it is only referenced in relation to SOLs.

The school district is making a clear connection — provide more resources for students who quality for Free/Reduced lunch with the sole purpose of improving state test scores. This is not in line with “Whole Child” and this is not equitable. The schools should be educating every student to succeed in life, not focusing on testing outcomes.

And here’s a cool organization I learned about — the Vera Institute of Justice — which recently released a study of arrest distributions and has wonderful data and graphics about the US justice system.

Keep pushing.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

Action Item Letter to the School Board

Hi Friends!

I hope all of you are staying warm in this chilly weather! I have a schools-specific update this week, including action items!

But first, some quick calendar items:
(1) Please note that our next small group meeting is Thursday, February 7. Please let me know if you plan to attend.
(2) The school district is celebrating 60 years since Desegregation on February 4, 2019. I’ll be there, so let me know if you want to meet up!
(3) Register for March 9th Racial Justice Allyship Workshop!
(4) The School Board has a work session on Diversity on Tuesday, February 26, which is when the consultation report and recommendations will be discussed (the report should be available prior to this, likely as a monitoring item at a School Board meeting on 2/7 or 2/21 — I’ll try to let you know when it shows up). I’m pushing for some advocacy from our group members prior to the 2/26 work session so that our School Board members are informed and aware that community members are very engaged on this topic in the interest of equity.

Action Opportunity:
I would like to ask for your help in a letter writing campaign to the School Board. I have on good authority that many letters about a particular topic from a large number of individuals (rather than one letter signed by many people) have a strong impact. I would like to suggest that we each draft a letter around equity to send, in our own words, but with some common themes/phrases that will tie them all together. These can be sent via email to each School Board member individually. Here are some topics for your consideration:

(1) Planning factors are the elements used to calculate what each school will need, mostly based on the number of students each school will have (for example X number of students = Y number of rolls of toilet paper). Right now, those planning factors are applied equally to all schools, and since they also determine more consequential things like how many specialist staff positions are available, it is worth arguing that an equitablecalculation would be more appropriate (based on SES scores and/or economic levels) so that we are actually meeting individual student need rather than treating every student as the same. For example, the way it works right now, a school with 6 students who are English-learners and a school with 300 students who are English-learners would be allotted the same number of reading specialists. This makes no sense, especially because Title I funds do not even get close to covering the difference.

(2) Currently, the Superintendent gives the principals at each school a lot of autonomy in how they choose to spend their budgets. This can be a really great thing, but the flexibility is somewhat limited. For example, a principal cannot convert a math specialist position to a reading specialist position if their student needs are heavier in a particular area. We can encourage the School Board to ask the Superintendent to allow more flexibility for principals in their specialist choices, for example. The other piece to this is that because the Superintendent is relatively hands-off at individual schools, principals must decide to ask for more resources if the needs of their students are not being met. This can be a complex decision, because while I understand that the Superintendent is responsive to the requests he receives, it is possible that principals are hesitant to make a request because it can reflect negatively on their ability to handle the challenges they face, especially in the face of budget constraints.

(3) This is particularly relevant at one ES, which is a new neighborhood school this fall and has a wonderful principal with a strong reputation leading it. The Superintendent does not need to be more hands-on, but there needs to be explicit and generous support offered as the principal shepherds the school into a new phase, particularly with acknowledgement of the embarrassingly inadequate support this school has experienced historically. School leadership should be given more than ample freedom to ask for what the students need and an explicit understanding that they will receive the support they request. We can advocate for this (and for our local families — please chime in with any helpful language or preferences since you’re most informed about this). The School Board and Superintendent need to know that the County is watching how this develops.

(4) In addition to supporting our principals, the school district can make a concerted effort in its marketing of its schools, especially when boundary processes are happening, to ensure that families are more informed about the exciting things happening at each of our neighborhood schools and less concerned about these “unknown” communities. These marketing resources can really help to address the negative impressions many residents have of particular schools and can encourage engagement between schools and their communities.

I imagine that there are other ways we can advocate for specific things that address inequities in our schools, so please feel free to add more to this list or just include them in your letter. If we can aim to send these letters to the School Board between now and February 20 (to make sure they have time to read them before the meeting on the 26th), then it may have an impact. If you want to share your letter with the group, feel free, and if you want to just let me know that you send one, that would be awesome, too. You’re also welcome to say that you’re part of our group — we’re starting to gain some recognition and all of the School Board members know about us.

Thank you in advance for engaging on this topic! And if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.