Dear Colleagues,
[CLICK HERE for the Full Blog Article]
Introduction
Earlier this week, I was on a conference call with a superintendent who is leading one of our five-year federal School Climate Transformation Grants. As we eased into our agenda, she said, “I have never worked as hard as a superintendent as this year.”
She continued to describe all of the meetings and planning that she and her Leadership Team had completed this past summer, in the midst of the pandemic, to craft different back-to-school scenarios, schedules, and staffing approaches. . . all to address the varied needs of her students and families.
And then, after spending most of the summer in recess, her State Legislature reconvened and, with virtually no educator input, made the Superintendent’s plans largely obsolete.
While frustrated, she sighed. . . knowing that the District’s plans would be redesigned, and that her students and families would still receive “full value.”
Booker T. Washington said, “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Celebrating Our Labors
Historically, Labor Day became a national holiday in 1894 as “a general holiday for the laboring classes”—a way to celebrate those in the working class and, especially, those who were union members.
As I thought about my colleague, the superintendent described above, I reflected on those educators who have “labored” so conscientiously over the past months of this pandemic. . . and those who have indirectly contributed to keep our educational systems open and working.
And so, on this Labor Day weekend, I would like to celebrate:
- The superintendents, administrators, and office staff—many of whom, this past Spring and on top of their education-specific responsibilities, turned their districts into food distribution centers to make sure that students were fed;
- The support staff—including the school technology and transportation departments—who canvassed their communities just to locate some students, while connecting other students to computers and hot spots;
- The related service professionals (counselors, social workers, school psychologists, nurses, and others) who checked in with sequestered students to ensure their health, mental health, and wellness—providing needed social, emotional, and behavioral services and supports;
- The teachers, intervention specialists, and paraprofessionals who learned new technologies, adapted their approaches to curriculum and instruction, balanced their own personal and professional lives, and rededicated themselves to their students and their craft; and
- The parents, guardians, and caretakers at home who, once again, became their children’s “first teachers” while attending to their other roles and responsibilities.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Labor Day—But Not For All
But while celebrating our colleagues in education above, we still need to recognize the embedded issues of race and equity that have been especially highlighted by the pandemic.
In fact, during the time when Labor Day became a national celebration of the American worker in 1894, many of the atrocities historically experienced by African Americans in this country were redoubled.
According to a historical account of the 1890s by the Jim Crow Museum of Racists Memorabilia:
[CLICK HERE for this Quoted and the Full Blog Article]
So. . . at a time when unions were expanding their influence and advocacy for working class Americans, the prejudice, hate, and vitriol toward African-American citizens was expanding and becoming institutionalized.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Reflecting on White Privilege
In the 125 years since Labor Day became a national holiday, many things have changed relative to race relations in our country, yet many things remain the same.
Indeed, the ability (due to the closing of polling places in many low-income areas) and the right to vote in 2020 for African-Americans remains at-risk. For example, last week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia released a report documenting that 198,351 Georgia voters who supposedly moved from their registration addresses were wrongly purged from that state’s voter rolls. This represented a 63.3% error rate—with the cancellations concentrated among younger citizens and citizens of color.
While not by law, many school districts have become re-segregated, and an April, 2019 Report by the Shanker Institute, The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems, documented a cumulative state education funding gap in this country of $23 billion per year favoring white over non-white districts. This funding gap is experienced by approximately 12.8 million of our nation’s students.
Finally, many Black Americans would argue that lynchings have not stopped in America—especially given the violent deaths of too many black citizens at the hands of police around the country. Indeed, while Black Americans account for less than 13% of the U.S. population, they are shot and killed by police more than twice as often as white Americans.
Clearly, the calls to acknowledge the implicit and explicit racial prejudice in our country—now and over 400 years, and the calls for real and systemic change have been loud, sustained, and passionate this Spring and Summer.
And yet, while many of us—who are White—have joined the chorus, we cannot fully understand how our white privilege has directly and indirectly opened doors for us and benefitted our lives.
And others—who are White—continue to “miss the mark” by asserting that “All lives matter,” while misunderstanding why “Black lives matter.”
To me, it comes down to the following two perspectives.
As a father of two White sons, I had to give a number of “talks”. . . about drugs, sex, alcohol, respect for authority, and always doing one’s best.
But I never had to give the following “talk” because of my white privilege.
[CLICK HERE for this Video in the Full Blog Article]
And as a son, I had to assure my mother that I would be home at a certain hour, that I would call her from College every week, and that I would try to make her proud.
But I never had to assure my mother in the following way. . . because of my white privilege.
[CLICK HERE for this Video in the Full Blog Article]
_ _ _ _ _
Summary
Labor Day is supposed to be a time of family barbeques, relaxation, and a celebration of the end of summer.
But this year. . . with a pandemic, the killing of too many Black brothers and sisters at the hands of the police, and a divisive presidential election mixed in, there is anger, hurt, confusion, and polarization across our country.
I do not expect this article to “change the world,” or help our country to get “back on track.”
I do not expect some of my colleagues, after watching the videos above, to understand our Black- and African-American colleagues any better, or to change their perspectives of what it’s like to grow up Black in America.
But. . . I did want to share my reflections this weekend. . . with honesty, humility, and hope.
Best,
Howie
[CLICK HERE for the Full Blog Article]
