I want to do better. I am reading. I am listening. I am reflecting. I am starting with my work, and made my first steps there on Monday. I wrote this to think through some thoughts tonight.
A lot of schools have been, and surely more will be soon, updating their libraries to include more diverse books. If you're not sure why this is important, or why you should have diverse characters in the books you have at home, here is a wonderful explanation: The Danger of a Single Story. https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg In February I shared the story of Violet King with my grade five students and I should have shared it on Facebook, too. She isn't written about in any fiction or children's biography books that I could/can find, so we read news articles and an encyclopedia page. Her story is impressive and most of us don't know it (I didn't until a tweet from the local high school). She was the first black Canadian to obtain a law degree in Alberta, the first black person admitted to the Alberta Bar and the first black woman to become a lawyer in Canada. Then she was the first woman appointed to an executive position with the YMCA in the US. King grew up one neighbourhood away from our school (in Crescent Heights) and went to the high school one kilometre down the road. I am sad I didn't know her story earlier. I am sadder that our city has not named a school after her. As we read, the big questions came in and my god, the looks on their faces when I tried to explain clearly and directly, but also gently... What is discrimination? What is the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (Violet's brother was the president)? Why did black people need that association? Why would people do that to black people, other human beings? Interesting to note, 18 of the 21 students in the class are people of colour. So the vast majority are experiencing racism everyday. Yet they were, all but my one black student, wide-eyed as we scratched the surface of racism against the black community. I hoped I was saying the right things, being clear and honest but not overwhelming them. Doing so as the white authority in the room, well, that irony was not lost on me and I told them so. It was heavy even though I was emphasizing what a great job they were doing for engaging in this conversation as future leaders who need to not shy away from it. This Monday and Tuesday I taught anti-racist lessons and again, my students are in grade five, so I was nervous about doing so online. I didn't want to discuss violence. No child needs to feel more unsafe right now. But racism and prejudice we need to discuss. I put out a feeler by asking what they'd heard on the news recently aside from coronavirus updates. They responded in the chat box on Google Meet: George Floyd, Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter, blm, we are all equal, this needs to stop, they have human rights... lots of fist emojis and exclamation marks. I was proud of them already. So I posted a link to a read aloud of "Something Happened in Our Town" on Youtube (our diverse school library being, at the school library). We all watched the story, which is about two kids, one white, one black, processing racism toward black people with their respective families. A discussion using the chat and unmuting in turns to share thoughts and feelings ensued. Everyone participated. Everyone made thoughtful remarks. They asked if Amnesty International was doing anything about this, because we previously talked about how they defend human rights (we campaigned for access to clean drinking water in Grassy Narrows in December). They brought up Violet King's awesome story. They said they want the coronavirus to be over so they can focus on Black Lives Matter. Kids want to do better and help people. Let them show us the way. If you don't have diverse books with you at home, go to Youtube for read aloud videos showing the pictures or find an audiobook. If you want a lesson for ten year olds with discussion questions, I'd love to share. If you want other book rec's, oh please hmu because you know I love to share those. Also, let me say that it is for good reason White Fragility is sold out in so many places. It is well worth the read.
