Last month, we hosted our first online, national BARWE meeting. You can check out video of our speakers, Wendy and Lin, high school students from Philadelphia, and Alix Webb, executive director of Asian Americans United.

We hope you will join us for our next online meeting on May 19 at 7pm Eastern Time. You can RSVP here. We’ll follow the same format as last month: start with a guest speaker, then move into small group discussions using the BARWE protocol.

Overview

COVID-19 has created a host of new challenges for sectors all over our society. As schools have shut down and are attempting online learning, the underlying inequities of our society and education system are being exacerbated.

In addition to disproportionately high health impacts on communities of color all over the country, the pandemic is compounding many challenges already facing students of color. Students are struggling with internet and technology access, family income loss, health concerns, and other responsibilities at home. These realities make distance learning less manageable for some, and thus push an already biased system even further towards injustice. 

As educators, we are simultaneously in the throes of managing the upheaval in our own lives, trying to navigate new platforms and systems, and working to reach our students and still offer them the educational opportunities they will need to succeed as we come out of this historical moment. As we navigate this crisis, it is important for us to find ways to support our students, and push our schools and communities to make the necessary transformation to increase equity.

While schools are closed and communities are in isolation, it may begin to feel like we are becoming disconnected from this work. BARWE would like to encourage you to reach out to your  networks and consider a plan for holding your monthly discussion groups virtually. See last month's guide for tips on how to do that digitally.
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Primary Article

​Guiding Questions

  • What are some reasons why the COVID-19 Pandemic will impact students of color, particularly Black and Latinx students, the most?
  • As Amee says in the article, how can we all learn to “see how all our struggles are interconnected”?
  • As we close out this year in “distance learning”, what can we do as teachers and schools to address these inequities?
  • What should culturally responsive/sustaining teaching look like at this time?
  • How can we better support our students in their academic and advocacy work?

Additional Resources

Facilitation Information

  • Set a day and time for your group to meet online. You can also join us on May 19 for our national discussion. RSVP here
  • Send this month’s Primary Article to your group. 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.
  • Pass the Hat and collect donations for Students Deserve this month.
  • Complete the Feedback Form.

BARWE Online Meeting Feedback

Here are a few things people enjoyed about our first Zoom event:
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  • “I liked meeting with people from various places. I liked the small break out session. I really liked having featured speakers who did a great job.”
  • “The student speakers! So impressed with their strength to know and share their experiences and feelings. I also love breakout rooms and the BARWE protocol!”
  • “(I enjoyed) hearing and interacting with people who are doing this work from different geographical areas, grade levels, and backgrounds.”

Hope you’ll join us this month.

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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.

We encourage you to collect donations from your group each month. 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 the organization featured in our primary article, Students Deserve. Based in Los Angeles, they are “working towards Making Black Lives Matter in Schools.  We want schools to divest from criminalization and policing.  We want schools to invest in us as Black, Muslim, undocumented, indigenous, and queer youth in poor and working class communities of color.” In the face of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Students Deserve has 8 demands for the Los Angeles Unified School District. You can find them on their website. 

Take this time, either during our collective meeting on May 19 or your own school meeting, to make purchases from BIPOC-owned businesses that still offer delivery or takeout service. In Philly, we recommend South Philly Barbacoa (Sat and Sun for barbacoa, Mon-Fri for Casa Mexico, and for pop-up dinners) and Franny Lou’s Porch (open for online ordering). 

If you’re making purchases online, consider BIPOC-owned businesses. Here is a list of Black-owned online bookstores and Black-owned facemask sellers.