White educators - and here I’m referring primarily to folks who make extensive use of the speaking circuit to push their “brand”:

If you have more to say about a shortcut in a tech platform than about the protests currently happening, you are irrelevant to what education needs

If you claim to talk about systems that support education but are silent about the systems that kill the family and friends of the people in our schools, you have no business claiming to speak about using systems to improve education.

If your timeline is filled with rock stars, badges, ninjas, or doing anything like a pirate, and is silent about police violence?

You aren’t an educator. You’re pushing a brand.

And hey - you do you.

But don’t claim to know education when you have more to say about Google sheets, Microsoft Teams, Apple shortcuts, or other Cool Apps(tm) and nothing to say about the emotional state of people learning.

Now is not normal.

We see you.

If you have a platform, use it to amplify the voices of people who know justice, and know how to provide the context we need to support people processing real and ongoing trauma.

If you can’t do that, be silent. Say nothing. That’s okay too.

But don’t push your brand. Don’t push your platitudes, your oversimplifications, your claims that tech is neutral and education must be apolitical.

To be clear, I’m not naming names in this thread. But these thoughts did not arise in a vacuum. I need to write up a blog post that shows how to get a list of posts from a Twitter feed from a person between specific dates.

Vetting presenters should include vetting responses to important events.

Part of being an informed leader includes being aware and empathetic. This includes being a part of conversations that affect our areas of expertise - as a learner and a participant.