This needs to happen a lot more in Dept. and staff meetings. First, let me start by saying I believe all Ts got into this profession with the best intentions. And, for the most, operate daily with the belief that what they’re doing to/with/for their students is the right thing. https://twitter.com/toodopeteachers/status/1263854239882768384

Many teachers, despite what the research says and despite their own training, simply resort back to the way they were taught. It worked for them, so it must be good, right? Wrong. We know that K-12 schools have long been little more than factories of assimilation.

There are many, many students who have a natural inclination to resist assimilation because assimilation is figurative suicide (and sometimes literal).

When our interactions with students are based on the assumption that everything about the student’s life outside of school needs correction, we’ve oppressed them before we even start. When we don’t love students AS THEY COME TO US, we’ve oppressed them before we even start.

Many teachers are racist and uphold white supremacy. Not racist in the sense that they’ll call a student a racial slur (although I can testify that happens, too), but racist in the sense that they believe Western Civilization, and all that comes with it, is the apex of humanity.

Of course, Western Civilization cannot be separated from white supremacy. And the glorification of Western Civilization is woven into our school structures and it dominates our curriculum. Many teachers, apparently, don’t know that.

And many teachers, apparently, don’t know about the long history of minor, subtle resistance to Western Civilization that BIPOC have maintained to this day.

Our BIPOC students carry on this struggle, and I’m proud of them every time I witness it manifest in the form of resisting one of their teachers. I WAS THAT STUDENT!

As a Black man and as a teacher, I feel it is my duty to challenge my colleagues who are oppressors. But it is extremely difficult. I always ease into it, in the same way that I eased into this thread.

Even the more overtly racist teachers see BIPOC teachers as “one of the good ones.” We have to use that to help our students. I always use personal anecdotes, because most of the time I had a teacher do the same oppressive thing to me at one time or another.

So I’ll tell a colleague: “When I was a student, I had a teacher do that to me, and this is how it made me feel....” Sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn’t. But ignoring oppression never eliminated it, so even in the face of failure I will persist.

Of course, for this to make an impact, we need many more BIPOC teachers, and many more of them to have the courage to confront. Anyway, I could go on for days, but I’ve said enough for now. I hope I contributed something valuable to the conversation.