“Normal” Is Not Coming Back

 Hi Friends,

Happy weekend! A quick reminder to register for our Allyship Workshop with Service Never Sleeps on October 26. I know that seems a long time from now, but space is limited and we’ll be opening up access to the broader community soon, so if you want to reserve a spot, please do so!

I am coming to the realization that returning to “normal” is not possible. It’s not going to happen. It’s something I need to stop looking for or working towards. Instead, it’s time to see the significant loss and change as an opportunity. This is the time to embrace large-scale systemic change. This is the time to rethink how we feed people, educate people, house people, provide services to people, take care of our environment, transport people, care for and treat people. This is the time. Now. Every day going forward.

This is the time to leave our bubbles of ignorance behind.

So many things are changing around us without our permission or control. This is a time of tremendous upheaval. It’s understandable to hang on to the way things used to be. It’s understandable to try to grab control of anything within reach. You’re not alone in these impulses and desires.

My eldest, now 8 years old, has had a tough week, feeling really strong emotions and having great difficulty controlling her reactions. I watch her follow the pattern of frustration, seeking control, physical flailing, raising her voice, raging against the world. My heart both breaks for her and is energized for her. I recognize all of the emotions she is feeling. I acknowledge that the world is not what she thought it was, and the betrayal of reality and the fear of the unknown are so real. I share my solace in what remains intact — our relationships, our humanity, our resilience. Our ability to adapt and change in new circumstances, to create better things out of loss, to stand up and demand that we all do better.

I hope you will find encouragement in my updates. I hope you will find yourself both better informed and energized to meet the next challenge. Many people and families are struggling and are in harm’s way and there is much work to do. Many people are already stepping up to provide services, food, educational support, information, etc. to support people in need. It’s going to take a community-wide effort to ensure that no one falls through the cracks as we move forward towards recovery. Find your spot in that effort.

I am so energized by recent communications and efforts at APS. Superintendent Dr. Durán addressed APS staff in a kick-off event this past week that I was invited to attend in my role with CCPTA. The event included a video by APS students of color who spoke clearly and forcefully about equity and what that means to them. Dr. Durán built on their voices in his message to APS staff:

- Equity is a verb.
- The goal is an equity mindset, not just an equity lens.
- Equity is more than color or race, it is everything.
- Equity can be a unifier.
- Every student by name and by need.

Our new superintendent is focused on the social-emotional needs of our children during this difficult time. He is creating culture change by being explicit about the improvements APS can make and about taking responsibility for serving every student and meeting each student’s needs. He is approaching equity from a perspective of plenty, not a culture of scarcity. He is creating the change we need in Arlington and I am very encouraged by his work so far.

This is not to say that there won’t be challenges or that we can rest easy. Culture change is difficult and takes time. We each play a role in moving it forward, in our interactions with APS staff and other parents, in our advocacy for change. I love the idea of an equity mindset (rather than a lens, which can be removed) that evolves over time as we learn new things and incorporate better understandings of equity as we do this work.

One of the ways to have an equity mindset is to ask these questions (from the Arlington County Equity Resolution):

- Who benefits?
- Who is burdened?
- Who is missing?
- How do we know?

Practice this — like in your next conversation about who in the house should empty the dishwasher or sweep the floor. Start looking at your everyday decisions and consider them in this light. Start thinking about how people in different circumstances might answer these questions.

Thank you for engaging in this work in everything you do.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Roge Karma writes about “How cities can tackle violent crime without relying on police” (Vox, 8/7/20)
- Peter Rousselot writes “Peter’s Take: APS, County Should Collaborate on New Instructional and Childcare Options” (ArlNow, 8/12/20)
- Stephen Abbott had a Q&A session with Mark Warren about how to “Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Remove Officers from Schools” (Beacon Broadside, 8/4/20)
- Sara Hendren writes about “The Forgotten History of How Accessible Design Reshaped the Streets” (CityLab, 8/5/20)
- Ibram X. Kendi writes “The American Nightmare” (The Atlantic, 6/1/20)
- SURJ NoVA shared “Free Them All Fridays” related to ICE detention centers
- Ibram X. Kendi writes “Patience Is a Dirty Word” (The Atlantic, 7/23/20)
- Alia Wong writes “The simple intervention that could lift kids out of ‘Covid slide’” (The Hechinger Report, 8/10/20)
- Imani Perry writes “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not.” (The Atlantic, 6/15/20)
- Kriston Capps writes “One-Third of American Renters Expected to Miss Their August Payment” (CityLab, 8/7/20)
- Jennifer A. Richeson writes “Americans Are Determined to Believe in Black Progress” (The Atlantic, September 2020)
- Liz Vinson writes “‘Courage can be Contagious’: Four women lead an impassioned movement to rename schools honoring Confederate leaders” (SPLC, 8/7/20)
- Mychal Denzel Smith writes “Incremental Change Is a Moral Failure” (The Atlantic, September 2020)
- Emily Hanford writes “What the Words Say” (APM Reports, 8/6/20), also available as a podcast.
- Ibran X. Kendi writes “Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism?” (The Atlantic, September 2020)
- Ryan Songalia writes “How Activists Brought Black Lives Matter to NYC’s Most Conservative Neighborhoods” (Vice, 8/4/20)
- Kate Wagner writes “The Secret History of America’s Worthless Confederate Monuments” (The New Republic, 8/6/20)
- Brentin Mock writes “The City Planners’ Case for Defunding the Police” (CityLab, 8/6/20)
- Bulletin 4 of the Missing Middle Housing Study in Arlington was released on August 4, 2020.
- The Southern Poverty Law Center has a new podcast, “Sounds Like Hate”
- Mark Finstrom writes “OPINION: Five ways to achieve equity in remote learning” (The Hechinger Report, 8/10/20)
- Laura Bliss writes “The Disparate Financial Impact of the American Justice System” (CityLab, 8/11/20)
- Jennifer DePaoli, Laura E. Hernández, and Linda Darling-Hammond write “Supporting a Restorative Opening of U.S. Schools” (Learning Policy Institute, 8/5/20)
- The 2020 Inclusive Schools Week Theme is “The Time for Inclusion is Now” (December 7–11)
- Learn from Dr. Joy Angela DeGruy, whose “research focuses on the intersection of racism, trauma, violence and American chattel slavery. She has over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work. She conducts workshops and trainings in the areas of intergenerational/historical trauma, mental health, social justice, improvement strategies and evidence based model development.” There are a couple of videos near the bottom of her main page worth watching.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION:
- A reminder of the Buy a Neighbor School Supplies effort happening through Volunteer Arlington.
- The Alliance for Housing Solutions is looking for volunteer assistance in governance/legal review.
- The League of Women Voters is looking for volunteer assistance with voter registration and outreach.
- If you’re looking for local volunteer opportunities for children, youth, and families, check out this listing.
- Mary Papenfuss writes “NAACP Plans Virtual March On Washington To Press For Police Accountability” on August 27–28 (HuffPost, 7/20/20)
- Consider joining the DMV De-Escalation Collective, which has online trainings
- OAR has Community Chats on the first Tuesday of every month. They are also hosting a series of 3-month virtual anti-racism and racial justice cohorts starting in September. The description of the program is worth reading even if you can’t participate!
- Contribute to the Give 8/28 campaign led by the Young, Black & Giving Back Institute (YBGB)
- Participate in An Antiracist Teach-In, August 16–22 (virtually)

BOOKS TO READ:
- Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (endorsed by Oprah, CBS News, 8/4/20)
Local titles from The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington:
- Dr. Alfred O. Taylor’s Bridge Builders of Green Valley/Nauck
- M.J. O’Brian’s We Shall Not Be Moved
- Wilma Jones’ My Halls Hill Family
- Robin Stombler’s As We Are
- Charlie Clark’s Hidden History of Arlington County
- Loki Mulholland and Angela Fairwell’s She Stood For Freedom
Buy your books from:
- Mahogany Books
- Loyalty Bookstores

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

Community Coordination Focused on Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors

 Hi Friends!

This last week was consumed by a bit more crisis management than usual, so I’m sorry I’m sending this later than normal. All is well, just navigating so much change and trying to provide useful guidance to our communities. I’m excited to share that this group now has over 200 members! We have grown so much in the past few months and I thank each and every one of you for engaging in this important work. I am proud to work with each of you.

I haven’t talked about our PTAs and school communities in a while. I want to recognize the amazing work they are doing in responding to the needs of our vulnerable families. You may know that I’m now the president of Arlington’s County Council PTA (CCPTA) and I’ve had the privilege of working with all of our PTAs and their local school efforts since schools closed. In a recent survey of these efforts, they are serving 2400–2500 people/families, not all of whom are connected to our schools, but all of whom need additional support during the pandemic. Volunteers with these efforts have given approximately 8000 hours from March-July. They are distributing food, gift cards, school supplies, baby supplies, books, cleaning supplies, and masks. We have been mostly in crisis mode since schools closed and needs are increasing. However, we are partnering more with existing safety-net nonprofits in Arlington, who have been doing this work for a long time and who have more capacity and flexibility with their funds than PTAs do. I’m hopeful that a more sustainable model will be developed, not just to make it easier on our volunteers, but to make it less burdensome on our vulnerable families to collect the various resources available to them each week.

Arlington County has a really useful data dashboard. It includes local COVID-19 disparities info by zip code and by race/ethnicity. This highlights particularly vulnerable populations in need of support during this time — systemic racism is across the board — health, employment, income, housing, education, etc. The projections are devastating and we need to be supporting and coordinating now to ensure that the safety net in place is more robust and efficient so as few of our neighbors as possible fall through the cracks. According to a recent AFAC report on their populations served, 1/3 of the over 14,000 people served are children, an increase of over 30% of their normal numbers. Latino people are over 50% of the population served (they are 15.8% of the population in Arl Co) and Black people are over 22% of the population served (they are just under 9% of the population in Arl Co).

So many people are talking about this that I wanted to highlight it: Nice White Parents podcast by the New York Times.

Also, if you missed it, APS released their draft Equity Policy. Please submit your feedback via Engage. A major question for me will be how it is implemented and how APS is held accountable to it.

Following up on my update from last week about the County logo, the NAACP issued its letter about the topic. Please keep writing to our County Board members about this issue. The more public support they hear for this effort, the more likely it will be to happen.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
- Rachel Jones writes “The environmental movement is very white. These leaders want to change that.” (National Geographic, 7/29/20)
- Darryl Fears and Steven Mufson write “Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history.” (Washington Post, 7/22/20)
- The Lakota People’s Law Project shared an interview with Jim Grijalva about DAPL and Environmental Justice
- Geoff Dembicki writes “A Legendary Black Environmental Group Is Back and Advising Joe Biden” (Vice, 7/30/20)

EDUCATIONAL EQUITY:
- Jay Mathews writes about “A family’s uncomfortable moments led to big changes at daughter’s school” (Washington Post, 7/26/20)
- Hannah Natanson writes “History meets mythology: Debate stirs over push to rename T.C. Williams High School, of ‘Remember the Titans’ fame” (Washington Post, 7/28/20)
- Li Cohen writes about the name change of Robert E. Lee High School in Fairfax County to John Lewis High School (CBS News, 7/23/20)

ECONOMIC INEQUITY:
- Alex Wittenberg writes “How U.S. Poverty Could Spike in the Last Half of the Year” (CityLab, 7/29/20)
- Samantha Schmidt writes “Wage gap robs Black women in D.C. of almost $2 million over lifetime, analysis finds” (Washington Post, 7/29/20)
- Robert McCartney writes about “Nonprofits in trouble: One-third of organizations may not survive pandemic, recession” (Washington Post, 8/3/20)
- Andre Perry writes “Black college grads end up with $25,000 more in loans than whites. Cancel that debt.” (The Hechinger Report, 8/4/20)
- Kyle Swenson writes “Ten bucks left, no place to go: How the pandemic and a broken unemployment system are upending people’s lives” (Washington Post, 8/1/20)

POLICING:
- Tom Jackman writes “African American mayors lay out plan for police reform without ‘defunding’” (Washington Post, 7/27/20)
- Arlington for Justice is hosting Let’s Talk Tuesdays.
- The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office hired a new Behavioral Health Docket team member — I’m learning that a lot of police work involves responding to mental/behavioral health needs in our community.
- Arlington County has also established a Police Practices Work Group, which includes many community advocates and activists.

HOUSING EQUITY:
- Eugene Robinson writes “Trump (again) uses housing as a racial wedge” (Washington Post, 7/30/20)
- Annie Karni, Maggie Haberman, and Sydney Ember write about how “Trump Plays on Racist Fears of Terrorized Suburbs to Court White Voters” (New York Times, 7/29/20)
- Kriston Capps writes “What Does Trump Think the ‘Suburban Lifestyle Dream’ Means?” (CityLab, 7/30/20)
- Patrick Sisson writes “Covid-19 Is Killing Affordable Housing, Just as It’s Needed Most” (CityLab, 7/30/20)
- Annie Nova writes about “How the eviction crisis across the U.S. will look” (CNBC, 7/27/20)
- The Center for Public Integrity writes “People of color face mass homelessness as eviction moratoriums end” (People’s World, 7/22/20)

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE:
- Native Land Digital has an amazing map showing the many native people’s traditional lands.
- Alleen Brown writes “Trump’s Pick to Manage Public Lands has Four-Decade History of ‘Overt Racism’ Toward Native People” (The Intercept, 8/1/20)

ACTIONS AND EVENTS:
- The NAACP Civic Engagement Program has a voting rights campaign, “Black Voices Change Lives” and you can sign up to volunteer to help mobilize voters for November.
- Volunteer Arlington has a new campaign, Buy a Neighbor School Supplies, through August 23. Doorways has also started their Back to School Campaign.
- VOICE has an Action Team meeting on August 13 including an update on the No More Evictions campaign.
- The Arlington Committee of 100 is hosting APS Superintendent, Dr. Durán for a webinar on August 12.
- The Arlington Historical Society is hosting a virtual program on US Civil War “Colored Troops” in Arlington on August 13.
- Consider applying for Arlington’s Neighborhood College, a free civic leadership development program (deadline August 28).
- Race Forward is holding its annual national conference, Facing Race, virtually this year, from November 10–20.

MORE RESOURCES:
- National Equity Atlas
- Candid Learning has a webinar on “Designing Equity-Centered Organizational Values”
- SURJ DC created “Ask Anne” to be an advice column about race, racism, and white supremacy. “The project honors Anne Braden (1924–2006) who was a white anti-racist organizer, journalist, and leader in racial justice movements in the South.”
- Sydney Trent writes “At 88, he is a historical rarity — the living son of a slave” (Washington Post, 7/27/20)
- Petula Dvorak writes “Is it cultural appropriation when a Black woman does Irish dance?” (Washington Post, 8/3/20)
- Michel Martin speaks with Portland NAACP President E. D. Mondainé about the protests, “Portland NAACP President On Protests As A ‘White Spectacle’” (NPR, 7/25/20)
- There’s a series of interviews called “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” by Emmanuel Acho, which has the support of Oprah.

Thank you for engaging with these resources and for taking action.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.

County Logo, Internet Access, and Pods

Hi Friends,

I hope you’re all well and finding balance in your awareness of the difficulties that surround each one of us and in the self-care that will help you continue to engage in this work. We’re working hard to put together some workshops and discussion sessions. Please fill out this survey by August 5 to share your preferences so we can make some arrangements.

I know many of you are hearing about (and maybe considering) learning pods. Please read the latest post at Integrated Schools “On COVID-19 and Micro-schooling, Pods, and more” (7/22/20), including, “If we truly care about equity, we need to consider plans focused on the most vulnerable, not the most inconvenienced.” The whole thing is really worth reading, grappling with, reading again, digesting, reading again, talking about (calmly!) with trusted friends, internalizing…. Make the questions they pose in this post part of your new normal. They even talk about how people have responded in the comments, described as “spicy.” There are also very helpful additional resources linked at the beginning. Please engage with this. And consider advocating for something like this: Dominic Fracassa writes about “‘Learning hubs opening across SF to help 6,000 kids in need with distance education” (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/23/20).

I have some amazing local action items for you this week:

(1) Doorways is holding its annual Back to School Campaign. You can sponsor a child by providing a backpack, supplies, and a gift card for back-to-school clothes shopping. I believe there is another backpack campaign happening with several safety-net nonprofits (including OAR), but I don’t have the details yet. I’ll share when I see it.

(2) I have heard about an effort to address the wireless challenges in Arlington County. Please check out the information by ArlFiber and their “campaign to have Arlington County form a broadband authority to convert part of its ConnectArlington dark fiber network into a software defined open access network.” I heard from Arlington County Board members today that they are working on many possible avenues to making internet access a public utility like water and electricity. They need to hear from members of the public about our support for giving everyone in the county affordable or subsidized access to the internet in their homes. It sounds like the recent Comcast deal is not as successful as they had hoped.

(3) With permission, I am amplifying efforts by Carolynn Kane and Emma Violand-Sanchez about the Arlington County seal and logo and their roots in racism. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Please speak up about this and show our elected leaders that this cannot stand and must be changed, in coordination with the other efforts already underway to rename roads and places and to show that our symbols matter.

EQUITY IN EDUCATION RESOURCES:
- Laura Bliss writes about how “Silicon Valley Is Jumping on the Microschool Bandwagon” (CityLab, 7/23/20)
- Linda Darling-Hammond writes about “The Urgency of Reopening Schools Safely” (Forbes, 7/21/20)
- Tara Garcia Mathewson writes about “Kids with disabilities blocked from bilingual programs” (The Hechinger Report, 7/14/20)
- Anna Maier, Sarah Klevan, and Naomi Ondrasek write about “Leveraging Resources Through Community Schools: The Role of Technical Assistance” (Learning Policy Institute, 7/17/20)
- Eric Shieh writes “TEACHER VOICE: Reimagine schools? We must widen our starting points.” (The Hechinger Report, 7/10/20)
- Simone Stolzoff writes “How Would You Reimagine Learning? 5 Visions for Our Post-COVID Future” (Ideo, 6/30/20)
- Pamela Melgar writes “STUDENT VOICE: ‘I worry that the coronavirus is going to erase access to opportunity for low-income students and students of color’” (The Hechinger Report, 7/21/20)
- Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice created “A Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration” (PDF) which relates to the importance of data sharing and integration in decision making in all levels of government and that racial equity must become central in that process.
- Kayla Svedin writes “OPINION: When black parents benefit from school choice, it doesn’t perpetuate racism” (The Hechinger Report, 7/15/20)
- Jennifer Blatz writes about how the “Cradle to Career Network serves as change agents in crisis” (Strive Together, 7/21/20)
- Jill Barshay writes “PROOF POINTS: Survey reveals stark rich-poor divide in how U.S. children were taught remotely during the spring school closures” (The Hechinger Report, 7/27/20)
- Integrated Schools had a recent podcast with “IntegrateNYC: Youth Voice for Real Integration” and also shared “The Integrated Schools Movement: Where We Begin” streamed webinar (7/13/20)
- Jackie Mader writes “Parents are panicking, giving up their careers and spending thousands of dollars on piecemeal solutions for the school year” (The Hechinger Report, 7/22/20)
- Claire Cain Miller writes “In the Same Towns, Private Schools are Reopening While Public Schools Are Not” (New York Times, 7/16/20)

ABOUT PORTLAND:
The Wall of Moms in Portland, Oregon is inspiring. The statement on their front page is important to read and internalize:

• “We listen to Black leaders. We are here to follow their direction, behind the scenes and at the justice center. We go where they tell us.
• “Our goal is to push the media to turn the focus where it belongs: Black leaders.
• “We will use our white bodies, not our white voices.
• “Bev’s vision was that we moms would take some physical hits in hopes our Black and Brown kids, friends, neighbors, and loved ones will be spared some pain. To summon that mom warrior spirit to protect our kids — ALL our kids. To let the Feds/cops hit, gas, shoot us first. Not to be the voice of the movement.
• “A lot of us haven’t put our bodies in harms way like this. It’s really scary and awful. But it’s what’s been happening to Black and Brown bodies for years.”

- SURJ posted “Solidarity with Portland & a Call to Action” (Medium, 7/24/20)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES/ACTIONS:
- Olamide Goke-Pariola writes “All Black Lives Matter” (Arlington Magazine, 7/21/20)
- The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a rule change “that would remove protections against discrimination of transgender and gender non-conforming people experiencing homelessness, severely limiting their ability to access emergency shelters and services.” LGBTQ+ advocates have created Housing Saves Lives to raise awareness and encourage the public to submit comments by September 22.
- The Arlington Branch of the NAACP Executive Committee voted on July 23 in favor of removing School Resource Officers (SROs) from APS.
- If you tried to subscribe to Symone Walker’s School Board campaign updates and had difficulty figuring out how to do that, they have added a button on the main campaign website “Join the Mailing List!” that you can use now. Thanks to those of you who let me know there were some barriers there — the campaign was very responsive to your feedback and appreciated your suggestions.
- I would like to call attention to the recent 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one of many civil rights protections that is only as good as our ability to support and enforce it. Consider your ability privilege and how you play a role in advocating for equal opportunity. Related to this, Susan Mizner writes “COVID-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes are Not Unavoidable — They are the Result of Deadly Discrimination” (ACLU, 6/23/20)
- Please make sure you can vote in November! From the non-partisan League of Women Voters: “November may seem far away, but it’s not too early to make sure you are registered to vote. If you are concerned about going to the polls this year, it’s easy to vote by mail. You can request your ballot now, and you don’t need an excuse. Go to https://bit.ly/VoteArlington to register, update your registration, or request your ballot or call the registrar at 703 228–3456. The deadline to register is October 13, and the deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 23. Don’t wait! You can request your ballot NOW and it will be sent to you closer to the election.”
- I’m highlighting the Dream Project, based in Arlington, which focuses on mentoring, scholarships, community building, and advocacy for immigrant students.

Keep up the work!

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow.