Stereotyped Into Silence No More
In 2nd grade, my White teacher wrote on the dry erase board: “character traits/adjectives.” “Who knows an example of a way you can describe a character?” she said, her voice barely reaching the back of the room. The room remained quiet. She looked around the class. “You could have a character like Kaylee, who is […]
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Confronting the Unruly Black Student Stereotype
Four years ago, about a week after Hurricane Irma hit my home in Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, my mother, two younger siblings, and I were evacuated via helicopter to Puerto Rico. From there, we traveled to New York, where we joined my grandparents for good. For the first two semesters of high […]
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What Teachers Can Do to Combat and Call Out Racism
Like Asa, kids of color often tell us that they are tired of being the “racism police” at school, and get little support when they are targets of or witnesses to racism. Many school systems, including the New York City Department of Education, are providing implicit bias training. Still, teachers can often feel unsure how […]
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How I Became a Racist
Names have been changed. The summer after 8th grade, I was nervous about starting high school. A lot of my middle school friends were going to be attending other schools. I didn’t want to be alone; I was shy and found it hard to make new friends. So I tried joining a clique from my […]
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