there's been more talk about avoiding retraumatization when teaching and I'm honestly beginning to wonder if its even possible to avoid trauma when directly addressing racism.

I can't open twitter right now without retraumatization. I'm not sure we can honestly and fairly expect students or ourselves to engage wholly in antiracist classroom work without suffering the impact of some sort of trauma.

this isn't to say "suck it up, we're all gonna be in pain anyway". pain is dangerous. services for addressing pain disproportionately punish Black & brown students and teachers.

if we can avoid retraumatization, dope. I've been wrong plenty and would love to be wrong about this.

I just think it's wiser to shift from "avoid trauma" to "plan for trauma's inherent role in antiracism."

there shouldn't be any antiracist teaching without trauma-informed education.

there can't be trauma-informed education without antiracist teaching.

racism traumatizes.