True Social Justice & Racial Equity Is Hard Work
To my beautiful, brilliant Black daughters, I have so many hopes and dreams for you, that if I tried to say them all, they would run longer than the entire Harry Potter series! My hopes for you, my two beautiful Black girls, are so simple and yet also entirely grandiose. […]
An interesting phrase, with an equally interesting hashtag, has started to go around: #StayWoke. This phrase was especially present during the Women’s March after the inauguration of President Trump. There are many different ways to interpret what it means to “Be Woke;” but I posit, that instead of just focusing […]
Since having a child diagnosed with special needs, I’ve learned so much about navigating the special-education process. First thing: the special education system is a hot mess—even for savvier parents, it’s incredibly difficult to navigate. The second thing: Early intervention can make all the difference. To give you a head start, I want […]
When moving into my neighborhood, my husband and I never considered our neighborhood school a viable option for our children. It wasn’t “good” based on any list we consulted when choosing schools. The scores were all over the place and honestly, it just wasn’t special. It was just a regular […]
“How can I be sexist? I have a mother, a wife and daughters!” If you’re a woman reading that sentence, you almost certainly won’t have a problem finding the flaw in its all-too-common reasoning. There are plenty of men in the world who love their mothers, wives and daughters while […]
First, let’s get something straight: The current bar for being a “good, non-racist White person” is set way too low. Here’s what it looks like today: Go to an anti-racism training? You’re a good non-racist White person. Acknowledge that you have White privilege and say it to other people? You’re […]
I recently wrote about my White teacher who badmouthed civil rights in 1995. She willfully did not want to let go of White supremacy. There are other White people who want to see a better country, but they have so many blind spots related to race. This led me to […]
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to defend free speech on campuses and criticized the idea of creating safe spaces on campus, protected from hate speech. He argued that classrooms should be places of “robust debate.” To that I say, bring it—bring on honest, fact-based conversations about history, race […]
Before I had my younger daughter, I had no idea about special education. I had never heard of an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). And if I am being completely honest, I associated “special-needs students” with cruel jokes about “the kids on the short bus.” So when at 2 years old, […]
This weekend, there was a terrible and very telling incident in Charlottesville, Virginia. While emotions are high and people are scared, to me, this is a moment in which we, Americans, must make key decisions about our legacy. Around middle school, I began to grasp the lies I had been […]