So if you have been in educational communities you know the sexy words are equity & culturally relevant/competent teaching. Both are vital and important work, centering a long-ignored topics that have created and sustains the gap in our schools specifically for students of color.

But what worries me more is that folks & schools are "addressing" this issue in a way that is shallow & presents well but does no actual change to the problems we face. They are able to tell families and communities they are committed to the issues because they are talked about.

And I want to add, this is a great first step, and many schools and districts haven't even recognized this step or started, so I want to note this is a positive move. But, here is what I mean, we have to look at what the school says and what the school does.

Talking about it, holding professional learning is great, but if we don't see the change in classrooms, if educators are still asked to focus on test prep and no one is accountable to culturally relevant teaching or equity then what?

If a school does all of the sexy things of talking about it and "standing" for it, but puts people in positions of leading, who do not do any of that work directly with kids around equity or cultural relevance, what is the message?

To me, it's the Thomas Jefferson impact. We say all the things about liberty, freedom or equity and culture but he held slaves, and we hold up the pillars of white supremacy or continue to value the metrics in the system like testing, test prep skills or right answers.....

To me, it's the white moderate that MLK warned about impeding the progress. Like King said, "(the white moderate) who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;"

Saying all the right things, but not being willing to hold people accountable for culturally relevant teaching, or to demand we put that lens on the learning to insure it creates a more just classroom and school, is then just talk. Actions matter.

As David Stovall said, it is the fugitive teachers that are doing the work that brings justice into the system. If the folks in the lead talk about these issues but do nothing to dismantle the systems than fugitive teaching is required for justice.

But also don't hold up the work of those few doing the justice work as "our work" and then celebrate/promote/assign leadership to the folks who aren't committed to any cultural relevance or equity but produce the test scores you like. That is the system now. We must do better.

Start by listening to the folks who are doing this work, in physical and virtual spaces. Listen to the folks who are leading, then listen some more. Center the voices who have put their time in on this work. Not those who picked it up because it's now popular.