What is the purpose of our Reading Series?
As we start this summer, we encourage you to check out this piece by Tre Johnson, “When black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs”. This section particularly stood out to us:
“What they do is never enough. This isn’t the time to circle up with other white people and discuss black pain in the abstract; it’s the time to acknowledge and examine the pain they’ve personally caused. Black people live and die every day under the burdens of a racism more insidious than the current virus that’s also disproportionately killing us. And yet white people tend to take a slow route to meaningful activism, locked in familiar patterns, seemingly uninterested in really advancing progress. Theirs is still a world of signs and signaling, where actions like joining book clubs take precedence.”
We envision this summer as the start (or continuation) of the ongoing work of building antiracism. We want to challenge one another to think deeply about the texts we are reading, and look back at ourselves, our own lives, and the ways that we have personally contributed to white supremacy and the real harm it does to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and individuals every day.
While we want to acknowledge that joining a book club in itself is not enough, we also firmly believe that reading and discussion are essential components to grow movements. We’ve seen this work blossom in Philadelphia through the Caucus of Working Educators and Teacher Action Group’s annual summer reading series. In fact, BARWE originated from reading groups that met in the summer of 2016.
Our intention with this work, as with all our work, is to step up as white educators and challenge ourselves and other white educators to build antiracist identities and practices in our classrooms, schools, and lives. The work of “teaching white people” too often falls on the shoulders of BIPOC folks, and we believe that white folks need to more actively take on this responsibility. We do, however, welcome BIPOC folks to participate in this discussion.
As a part of our commitment to amplifying Black voices and to compensating Black people for their work, we will be paying members of the Melanated Educators Collective to co-facilitate each Zoom discussion with BARWE Core.
As we start this summer, we encourage you to check out this piece by Tre Johnson, “When black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs”. This section particularly stood out to us:
“What they do is never enough. This isn’t the time to circle up with other white people and discuss black pain in the abstract; it’s the time to acknowledge and examine the pain they’ve personally caused. Black people live and die every day under the burdens of a racism more insidious than the current virus that’s also disproportionately killing us. And yet white people tend to take a slow route to meaningful activism, locked in familiar patterns, seemingly uninterested in really advancing progress. Theirs is still a world of signs and signaling, where actions like joining book clubs take precedence.”
We envision this summer as the start (or continuation) of the ongoing work of building antiracism. We want to challenge one another to think deeply about the texts we are reading, and look back at ourselves, our own lives, and the ways that we have personally contributed to white supremacy and the real harm it does to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and individuals every day.
While we want to acknowledge that joining a book club in itself is not enough, we also firmly believe that reading and discussion are essential components to grow movements. We’ve seen this work blossom in Philadelphia through the Caucus of Working Educators and Teacher Action Group’s annual summer reading series. In fact, BARWE originated from reading groups that met in the summer of 2016.
Our intention with this work, as with all our work, is to step up as white educators and challenge ourselves and other white educators to build antiracist identities and practices in our classrooms, schools, and lives. The work of “teaching white people” too often falls on the shoulders of BIPOC folks, and we believe that white folks need to more actively take on this responsibility. We do, however, welcome BIPOC folks to participate in this discussion.
As a part of our commitment to amplifying Black voices and to compensating Black people for their work, we will be paying members of the Melanated Educators Collective to co-facilitate each Zoom discussion with BARWE Core.
