Liberal Educators in a Conservative System
Undercover Activism
My first years as a school librarian in a largely Black and Brown school district were filled with radical ideas about serving the needs of students as they are. Put Black and Brown books on the shelves. Feature the untold stories. Pull back the curtain on forgotten history. The hard part was the research. I had to do the work of finding the books, writing grants, and begging teachers to bring kids into the library. It was fun. It was purposeful and over time I was able to gain quite a few allies.
Black History Month was the SuperBowl with a walking museum where I blew up Black Newspaper clippings from Chronicling America to serve as juxtaposition against the state newspapers that claimed that slavery was a good thing. We analyzed the Articles of the Confederacy. I made copies of The 1619 Project when it was just a series of articles and not a book and each station went into depth on each of the articles. That kind of school project would be cause for my removal in some counties. The fight against Critical Race Theory gained traction in state legislatures and many counties across the South have banned books like the 1619 project.
As used in this Code section, the term: 34
(1) 'Divisive concepts' means any of the following concepts, including views espousing 35 such concepts: 36
(A) One race is inherently superior to another race; 37
(B) The United States of America is fundamentally racist; 38
(C) An individual, by virtue of his or her race, is inherently or consciously racist or 39 oppressive toward individuals of other races; 40
(D) An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely 41 or partly because of his or her race; 42
(E) An individual's moral character is inherently determined by his or her race;
(F) An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, bears individual responsibility for 44 actions committed in the past by other individuals of the same race; 45
(G) An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, should feel anguish, guilt, or any 46 other form of psychological distress; 47
(H) Performance-based advancement or the recognition and appreciation of character 48 traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or have been advocated for by individuals of 49 a particular race to oppress individuals of another race; or 50
(I) Any other form of race scapegoating or race stereotyping. 51 (2) 'Espousing personal political beliefs' means an individual, while performing official 52 duties as part of his or her employment or engagement with a school or local school 53 system, intentionally encouraging or attempting to persuade or indoctrinate a student, 54 school community member, or other school personnel to agree with or advocate for such 55 individual's personal beliefs concerning divisive concepts.
What to do? There’s the adage that if we don’t know our history we are doomed to repeat it, but there’s also evidence that if we don’t present Black children with proof that they are capable and that people who look like them have achieved great things then we’ll be right back to 1947. That was the year Kenneth and Mamie Clark did their Doll tests where Black children were presented with dolls to play with, some Black and some White and asked to point to the “good” or “pretty” doll and they chose the White dolls. Absence of representation breeds contempt.
I don’t want to lose my job. I need my job. So what is the answer?
Radical Neutrality.
Don’t comply in advance. Buy the books about everything. (If I’m honest there have been some more provocative titles that I’ve struggled with)
Present both sides. No, really. Roll out your Black Panther Party display and alongside it prop up speeches by Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schafly.
Primary Documents are your friend. No need to say that the Civil War was about slavery when you can just post the speeches and debates that explicitly state the reasoning for succession in the State newspapers.
Stay connected with other educators and beg, borrow, and steal.
Hand sell books to kids, present robust book lists and article lists, but limit displays
I had a teacher ask not to book talk queer books in her class. Some would have said I should have pushed back and refused to book talk at all, but that would mean that the kids in her class wouldn’t have had access to queer books at all. I brought the books, but talked about another title. All kids maintained access to all books.
Here is a collection of resources about the inauguration. See if you can detect my political leanings? Does it meet the need for learning?
Here are some resources for MLK day.
Not everyone got a full education on the real history of MLK and sometimes it's boiled down to the I HAVE A DREAM speech.
Y'all know I moonlight as a school librarian, right?
Learn about the campaign to make this a holiday & the poor people's campaign.