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During the 2018-19 school year, BARWE rolled out a monthly inquiry series that featured an article/video, essential questions, and discussion protocol to more than 2,000 subscribers nationwide. BARWE groups met in Colorado, California, and North Carolina. Some school districts even incorporated BARWE work into their professional development. Feedback from groups showed that this work was meaningful, challenging, and timely. 

We’ve also heard from folks facing school or district level resistance to explicitly antiracist work. If you have experienced this, we’d love for you to reach out to barwe215@gmail.com, so we can connect you with others and start to develop strategies for addressing pushback. We’re also intending on focusing a month later in our series on this topic - if you have articles or resources, we’d love for you to send them our way.

For the 2019-20 school year, our second BARWE Inquiry Series will build on last year’s series.  We will continue to email a monthly article or video, discussion questions, and a protocol focusing on building anti-racist educators, schools, and communities.

We will start our Inquiry Series 2 in September. We found last year that many schools did not get the opportunity to meet in August. If you are able to meet in August, we recommend that you use that meeting to review your work last year and establish norms and a purpose for your group this year. If you need more tips on how to get your group off the ground, see this resource.

In the meantime, here are some big ideas we’d like to use as we begin to plan for this year’s inquiry series. Stay tuned for the first discussion guide on September 1!

Accountability to BIPOC

Note: In this section (and throughout this year), we will be using BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and BIPOC) in place of the term “people of color”. In line with the BIPOC Project, “We use the term BIPOC to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all BIPOC within a U.S. context.” For more, you can visit their website.

While we do believe it is critical for white folks to play an active role in anti-racist work and conversations in their schools, it is also essential that this work is accountable to BIPOC folks, especially our colleagues, students, families, and communities. As an organization, we did not focus enough last year on this crucial aspect of our work. This is evolving work, and we would love to hear recommendations from you on how to add to this list. Here are a few tips:
  • Transparency: It is important to be clear with your colleagues about the purpose and content of these conversations. This could involve sending out or posting articles and discussion questions, and even sharing out notes from your conversations. White folks should not be having “secret” conversations about racism and white supremacy. It is important that we do this work “out in the open”.
  • Humility & Listening: As white people engaged in this work, it is important to maintain humility around the topic of race when in dialogue with our colleagues of color. The goal will never be to explain to a colleague how they should feel about race; rather, we want to learn how to be productive allies in the work towards racial justice in education and society. This involves active listening, rather than trying to present ourselves as “experts”.
  • Take Feedback on Your Racism: Inspired by “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, it is important for us to take feedback on our racism with grace, to take that feedback seriously, and to act intentionally on it. 
  • Raise the Conversation: Too often in our schools and communities, racism and white supremacy are not discussed unless a BIPOC is present. And often, these topics aren’t discussed until a person of color raises the topic. As white folks, we have the privilege of not thinking about racism and white supremacy. This is not something that BIPOC folks have. It is important for us to play an active role in calling out racism and white supremacy when we see it in our classrooms, schools, and communities. This means not only speaking up about overt displays of racism, but also addressing systemic manifestations. 
  • Elevate Voices: Often, white supremacy and racism manifest in our schools and organizations by marginalizing the voices of BIPOC and denying them opportunities. It is our responsibility to advocate for our colleagues of color when leadership opportunities become available and supporting them in elevating their voices within our organizations and beyond.
  • Decenter Whiteness: While it is important to engage in this work as white folks, it is also essential for us not to center ourselves in antiracism work. For more on this idea, read this piece by educator Shana V. White.

As an organization, we have relationships with the Melanated Educators Collective and Caucus of Working Educators Racial Justice Committee in Philly, both led by Black people. We are currently seeking out grant funding to compensate organizations led by BIPOC to review our monthly discussion guides and provide feedback. We’ll send updates on this process in the coming months.

Focus on Action

Over the first year of our Inquiry Series, we received a fair amount of feedback with folks asking for more focus on action steps. And yes - anti-racist action is essential and pressing. Racism is literally killing BIPOC folks. 

First, we would like to emphasize that engaging in these discussions for developing your own anti-racist understanding and identity, finding ways to bring more people into the conversation, and developing authentic relationships with other anti-racist people is critical work towards building a foundation for meaningful action. Therefore, by continuing to dig deeper with our inquiry series and connect these resources with others, you are taking action.

This year, we will encourage you to take additional action steps on the individual, classroom, school, district, or community level, and we believe that the stronger your foundation and network of support is, the more impactful your action will be. 

What if I don’t work in a school?

We have spoken to many folks who are doing this work in organizations and museums that are involved in education, but don’t necessarily match the school context of most of our articles. If this is your experience, feel free to continue to use our resources. You could also consider using our discussion guides to do a book or podcast study that lasts several months. If you’re interested in going that route instead, we’d recommend:

Getting Involved

Last year, a core group of educators in Philadelphia planned, edited, and distributed these resources. In the coming year, we would love to get more folks involved - and to get more input on resources, topics, and action. If you’re interested in getting involved in the planning, or have a resource, topic, or action you think we should consider, please email us at barwe215@gmail.com. 

Stay tuned for more ways to get involved in the planning of our future work, and keep an eye out for our first discussion guide on September 1!