January: How can we ensure that our schools value Black lives?

*If this is your first time doing a BARWE discussion group, we recommend starting with the August 2018 materials. If this is your first year doing this series, we recommend that you follow the 2018-19 Inquiry Series 1 Discussion Guides. Here is January 2019 from Series 1.

Don't forget to give us feedback!

Overview

There are many groups around the country engaging in racial justice work. For January and February, BARWE is partnering with one such group, the Philadelphia Caucus of Working Educators Racial Justice Committee, to jointly curate materials. For these months, we encourage you to reach out to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) colleagues and begin to foster interracial conversation around antiracist work in your school or organization (if you have not already). As you work to expand the work in this way, be sure you keep in mind our norms - especially the need to maintain humility and work towards being a productive ally, rather than dominating the work.

The Black Lives Matter at School movement began in Seattle in 2016, expanded to Philadelphia and Rochester in 2017, and became nationwide in 2018. And the coalition has been growing ever since. In 2020, the Black Lives Matter Week of Action will take place February 3-7, focused on four demands:

End “zero tolerance” discipline, and implement restorative justice
Hire more black teachers
Mandate black history and ethnic studies in K-12 curriculum
Fund counselors not cops

As we prepare for the Week of Action, we will read a piece that outlines the demands for the week and explains some of the ways we can value Black lives in our schools. To get involved, visit the Black Lives Matter at School website. Two related events are happening this month at the Blackwell Branch of the Free Library in West Philadelphia (125 S. 52nd Street) this month:

January 7: Caucus of Working Educators Racial Justice Political Reading Group at 4:30pm.
January 18: Black Lives Matter Week of Action Curriculum Fair from 12-3:00 pm

Primary Article

“Black Lives Matter Week of Action” from Teaching Tolerance

Guiding Questions

What does it look like when Black lives matter at your school? How has the movement impacted you, your school, and your students?
How do the demands of the Black Lives Matter Week of Action apply to your school and district? Who can you contact to push these demands forward at your school? (See above for list of demands)
How will you participate in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action (February 3rd -7th)? How will this build upon the work you did last year?
How do we engage students in meaningful work around the demands of Black Lives Matter Week of Action?

Additional Resources

Facilitation Information

Set a day and time for your group to meet - during lunch, before school, after school, whatever works best for participants. Make sure to send reminders. Also, snacks are always a good idea!
Send this month’s Primary Article to your group. You could even send this to a broader group of your colleagues - maybe it will pique someone’s interest! Also look through the additional readings to see if there is another reading that might be better suited to your group and its interests.
Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol. Choose the protocol that works best for your group in this month. If you have a large group, maybe ask a colleague to help facilitate.
Pass the Hat at the end of your discussion and collect donations for Black Lives Matter this month.
Complete the Feedback Form.
Prepare yourself for February by setting a date and time, inviting colleagues, and looking out for our next Discussion Guide on February 1.

Pass the Hat

In addition to being accountable to our colleagues and students of color, we believe it is important to be financially accountable to people of color who are doing this work on a daily basis. Each month, we will recommend an organization led by people of color, in education and beyond, doing the work of pushing for justice.

At the end of each monthly discussion, pass a hat (or a box) and collect donations for the designated organization. You can then have one group member go online and donate in the name of your school. If you want, you can add “Building Anti-Racist White Educators” after your school name.

This month, we encourage you to donate to Black Lives Matter, “an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.” With more than 40 chapters, BLM is at the forefront of this work. The work of Black Lives Matter is centered on the 13 guiding principles. If you haven’t read them, we encourage you to take a look.

If you are looking to buy refreshments for your session, we recommend supporting businesses owned by people of color, especially Black-owned businesses, if at all possible. In Philly, we recommend Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Franny Lou’s Porch, and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books.

Coming January 15

Starting this month, we are going to send out a mid month BARWE News email. If you have any relevant news or events that you’d like us to include, please send them to [email protected].