Racism is not a dirty word. That was my mantra as I sat on stage, an invited panelist at this past week’s BESTNC Innovation Lab. My colleague, and co-panelist Dr. Anthony Graham, provost at Winston Salem State University, challenged us to “have the conversation that needed to be had”, and to spend time diving into the real challenges facing education today. While it was implied, and most understood, it wasn’t until I said the word, racism, that the unspoken was now out there to be dealt with.

Saying the word racism, race or any mention of Critical Race Theory, not only makes people uncomfortable, but it also poses a challenge to psychological safety. And there I was, ready to risk it all for the sake of moving our work forward. While there was tightness in my chest as I spoke, the room applauded, and my colleague and dear friend Jenny O’Meara encouraged them to do so. It was clear that no one in this room was afraid of having a difficult conversation centered in racism.

How did we get here? To a place where we cannot talk about racism when discussing education considering the very construction of the education system as we know it. In September 2020, President Trump issued an executive order excluding from federal contracts any diversity and inclusion training interpreted as containing “Divisive Concepts”, “Race or Sex Stereotyping,” and “Race or Sex Scapegoating.” Among the content considered “divisive” is Critical Race Theory (CRT). In response, the African American Policy Forum, led by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, launched the #TruthBeTold campaign to expose the harm that the order poses.

With our nation facing challenges recruiting teachers to the profession, our work at Profound Ladies is to influence the conditions in which our teachers work given the structural challenges that impact Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).  After integration, there was widespread dismissal, demotion, or forced resignation of tens of thousands of experienced, highly credentialed Black teachers and principals who staffed the Black-only schools. After schools were integrated, many white superintendents in the southern U.S., who were against integration in the first place, were unwilling to put Black educators in positions of authority over white teachers or white students.

In addition to the implications of attempted integration, the reality is that our teachers were once students. They were the same students who are now feeling the inequities of an education system that was designed without them in mind. The implications of exclusion remain today. There is real trauma felt by our educators who were once the recipients of the very education system they are teaching in today.

Not talking about race when talking about education won’t make it disappear. You cannot solve race-based problems with race neutral solutions.

First, let’s work from a shared understanding and definition of racism. Dismantling Racism Works provides us a working definition of race by considering the following: Racism is different from racial prejudice, hatred, or discrimination. Racism is when the power elite of one group, the white group, has the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the institutional policies and practices of the society while shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those racist policies and practices. Our colleagues at CREED have offered research outlining what we already know – we still have challenges with racism in education in North Carolina.

The Profound Ladies approach is twofold, one that first works towards anti-racism. Alongside powerful allies, we question everything including the ways in which we were socialized about our beliefs. Then, we provide a space for our educators of color, who like our students, are navigating racism in education, to process, heal and be in the community with other educators who share their same experiences. Profound Ladies is a refuge from racism. Respite. The respite teachers deserve. The respite they need.

That’s big work. And we are poised to take it on.  You can do your part by taking one small step at a time.

1. First, familiarize yourself with the Leandro case. I recommend Jenny O’Meara and Donnell Cannon’s podcast The Hummingbird Stories. Their most recent episode dives deep into the case and outlines what is possible in our state.

2. Read this report from CREED. Where do you see your district, your leadership, your classroom in this report?

3. Be realistic about your specific LEA’s data. You can reference Civil Right Data Collection.

Once you’ve done that if your district is up for it, we are ready and willing to partner with you! Together we can create real change.

You can learn more about our work at www.profoundladies.org.

Takeru Nagayoshi was exhausted as he stood to give the opening keynote at the Teach for America 2019 Eastern North Carolina Corps Member of Color Retreat on Saturday. The 2020 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, Nagayoshi had landed at midnight the night before. He said grades were closing the following Friday, and he’d stopped eating lunch this month because he’s anxious he’ll be behind at school.

He told the crowd he hadn’t had a free weekend for nine weeks. He had recently come off what he described as one of the worst professional development meetings. A white “boomer” lady led a cultural competency session where Nagayoshi was called upon to speak on behalf of the Asian race, and somebody at the session talked about how, in 2019, it’s wrong to call Asian people Oriental.

But, he said, he sacrificed his weekend so he could come to the retreat — the kind that his district and the districts of many of the teachers attending don’t provide for teachers of color.

Keiyonna Dubashi, director of classroom culture and community for Teach for America Corps Member Professional Development, put together last weekend’s event at the Central Park School for Children in Durham. She said it shouldn’t be so rare an opportunity for teachers of color.

“This shouldn’t be a unique experience … I think this should be a part of all professional development. It should be a part of all schools,” she said. “And I think that the more we continue to diversify our teaching force or even thinking about diversity, we should also think about what are the conditions that we are setting to make sure that people are set up to thrive.”

The event brought together teachers for sessions on self care, panel discussions that touched on topics such as decolonization, building coalitions, and solidarity. It was about having hard discussions and time to reflect upon them. It was about meeting people who have had similar experiences, struggles, and traumas.

“This space is not about what skills, what curriculum, what shiny new tool can you use to teach math or to teach reading or to teach science,” Dubashi said. “This space is about what do you need as a person to make sure you’re mentally prepared.”

Nagayoshi talked about his journey to becoming the teacher he is today, and how winning teacher of the year in his state highlighted for him how toxic celebrations of teachers can be.

He said that when he was a kid, he would see his dad get mocked in public for his broken English. And as a short, gay Asian, Nagayoshi was constantly battling preconceptions.

And then, when he won teacher of the year, he ran into another preconception: that of the exceptional individual.

All the media interviews and conversations he had centered on him and his accomplishments, but he said he never saw his achievements as the result of his work alone; they were a collective effort, built upon the work of those who came before him and the work he does with others.

He said this American fetishization of the individual over community is “low-key toxic” and sets up a narrative where both winning and losing are reflections of the individual alone.

And, he said, it’s a particularly damaging narrative for people of color.

“For people of color, it kind of sets us against each other,” he said.

The state teachers of the year compete to become the nation’s top teacher, and as he was looking through the bios of the other teachers, Nagayoshi found himself paying particular attention to the other teachers of color. The majority of the teachers of the year were white women, he said. He said that, selfishly, that made him feel as if he stood out. But then he would look at the teachers of color in the group, and he would start to think of them as his competition.

“In a white-dominant system, people of color, no matter how successful they are, other people of color are always going to be positioned as our competitors,” he said.

A lot of the conversations on Saturday revolved around the need for people of color to be there for one another, rather than giving in to the idea that success for one means failure for the others.

Nagayoshi described it as a model of scarcity — an idea that there is not enough success to go around. It was just one misconception that was challenged over the weekend.

During a panel discussion, Tim’m West, senior managing director for Teach For America’s LGBTQ+ Community Initiative, talked about the messages that people of color receive and the need to challenge them.

One example he gave was a notion he was raised with: as a black person, he was going to have to work three times as hard as his white peers.

“I celebrated that idea until I was like, no,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

Left to right, Tim’m West, Candelario Cervantez, Takeru Nagayoshi, and Keiyonna Dubashi. Photo courtesy of BlackOps Events, LLC.

Candelario Cervantez, the national senior managing director for Latinx Alliances at Teach for America, talked about the idea that taking care of one’s self is selfish.

“A lot of times I feel like we’re always giving and having to support others … and you have this sense of guilt. ‘Oh my gosh, if I’m doing this for me, it’s selfish,’” he said.

But he said these days he favors a different view. He likened it to the instructions people get on a plane. If the cabin suddenly depressurizes and the oxygen mask drops down, the instructions are to put your own mask on first before helping anyone else. Otherwise you’ll pass out, and someone will have to help you, Cervantez said.

Jenna Ortiz, an associate for National Community Alliances at Teach for America, said events such as this are some of the few designed specifically for teachers of color.

“I come because it is really important for people of color and indigenous peoples to have a space where they feel brave and safe enough to learn in the ways that are created for them,” she said.

She hopes that when teachers come away from retreats like this, they leave with something tangible. Something they can build on and rely on throughout the rest of their school year.

“I want them to feel empowered in themselves, in their identity, in their histories,” she said. “And I want them to have been able to build a network, relationships in the region that they can continue to lean on for support.”