I’m still getting used to this whole Substack thing but I’m almost there, I think. Here is my second weekly newsletter complete with, like before, a diary, a book focus, and some prompts. I really valued the few comments from my last newsletter - my hope is that I give you some ideas or some food for thought and, eventually, we build a community of substacking anti-racists.
Diary
It was yet another busy week at school. The maths teacher side of things sort of takes care of itself but it’s the Diversity and Inclusion Lead role that requires constant thought, research and action. Sitting still is not an option in a world that demands change.
On Monday, I hosted a Climate Q&A assembly where I asked the leaders of my school eco-related demands and questions that were put to me by staff and students. This went really well and hopefully showed everyone that they are being listened to. As a school we have recently imposed meat-free Mondays, for instance, as a result of pressure from the school community. I’ve learned over the last few years that environmentalism and antiracism are intrinsically linked and I will be sure to share more of my thoughts and the research behind it in the coming weeks with posts about nature connection, and rural racism, to name but a few .
At lunch time, I hosted my regular antiracism and inclusion club meet, where we talked about next week’s inclusion assembly, our broadening-the-curriculum project we’re currently working on, how to celebrate Chinese New Year, and our visit to some younger children to talk about diversity (that’s next week’s diary entry sorted!).
On Thursday, I also checked in with a community of diversity and inclusion leads from other schools and reached out to a couple of others, knowing full well that a community of anti-racists is greater than the sum of its parts. Amongst other things, I also got stuck into a new book: Intersectional Environmentalism by Leah Thomas. I loved her previous book, Border Nation, and am finding this one just as engaging and necessary; perhaps even more so. I will definitely write a full book review and disseminate at some point in the future!
Finally, I thought it would be worth referring to a couple of posts that I shared on Instagram. One shared some statistics about institutional racism in healthcare including the fact that, in the US, Black new-born babies are three times more likely to die when looked after by white doctors, compared with when they’re looked after by Black doctors. And in the UK, babies from the Black ethnic group have the highest rates of stillbirths and infant deaths, with Asian babies being the second highest. Again, I will share more about this important topic in a future post. The second post was a quote I heard from Bonnie Greer on why she used rowing as a thread throughout her brilliant debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry. Here is the excellent quote in full:
Things like systemic racism and misogyny and religious zealotry are divisive elements and they're not based in science. They are social constructs and they're usually used to control people, to keep some in charge and others under their thumbs. Imbalance in a boat spells failure and the same is true in everyday life. So when we choose to create situations dominated by one race, one gender, one religion, one outlook, we create imbalance and the result is havoc.
Book focus
Whilst I’m still talking about education this week, I thought I would spotlight the brilliant I Hear What You Said by Jeffrey Boakye. It is written with passion, humour, honesty and authority. Boakye is engaging and familiar but has the power to completely knock you over with a devastating fact or anecdote.
“The curriculum places explicit value on a particular, historic brand of Britishness that does not stretch far enough to include non-white, marginalised British identities..” JEFFREY BOAKYE
Deep Post Preview
Last week, I ended up sharing my post that was published in the Times Educational Supplement on antiracism in schools. I’ve made it free so please do have a gander if you get an opportunity. I originally intended to write a post about Natives by Akala so, instead, I’m going to combine Natives and I Heard What You Said, to write one big piece on institutional racism in education.
Here’s a snippet:
Rather than regurgitate the British Values of democracy, rule of law, liberty and tolerance, put them all on a pedestal unchallenged, and ultimately reinforce this narrative of supremacy, let's discuss their gaps, let's discuss how other cultures might respond to these, and let's discuss why they were imposed on teachers in the first place.
Final Thought
I have just read a great Substack post by Sustainability by Numbers, which argued that waiting for the perfect solution in climate activism is as good as doing nothing. That is true in all forms of activism. What ever you do this next week, try to do something. To stick with the educational theme this week, can you email your local headteacher to ask how diverse their library is? Or ask the governors what they are doing to recruit from diverse backgrounds? Can you find your school’s curriculum online and find out how broad and inclusive it is?
Next week theme will be about the exploitation nature of fast fashion. Hopefully see you then.
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This week in Iowa, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds plans to finally roll out her controversial voucher system for private school education for K-12 students across the state. Approximately 40 of Iowa’s 99 counties do not have alternative schools to public education, and it will serve only as a barely covered up alternative for what it really is designed to do in pulling kids mostly White kids, or upper-income families, into mostly White institutions, or home schooling programs. The vouchers provide no benefits for public school students. For children of color, Governor Kim Reynolds’ program is a barely veiled racist action that will hurt many.
Looking forward to next one as time ago I worked in some tech that aimed at changing the horrendous fast fashion model. I *think* fast fashion as an industry is fading, but it may be wishful thinking, I've not looked at data. Will wait for your writing.