Precious Knowledge

"They are infusing students with racial ideas." ~ Tom Horne

I don't believe that Tom Horne feels he is doing anything wrong. He most likely feels like he is saving his town and his school from racism. However, after looking at the situation through the lens of Precious Knowledge, it is obvious to the watcher that Horne is not seeing the whole picture. Of course, he doesn't WANT to see the whole picture either. When asked if he had been invited into the classroom, Horne responded, "No, I have not been invited into the classroom." When the heat turned up and the committee member said he had heard that Horne actually HAD been invited, Horne changed his tune and said, "Oh yeah, NOW I remember that a teacher did invite me, once." But of course he doesn't want to actually see what's happening in that classroom, because the things that are happening in that classroom don't line up with what he wants to think is happening. Just like in How Structural Racism Works, Horne is part of the 60% of whites who believe that we as Americans have reached racial equality. If he sees the learning that these students are engaging in, it might have an effect on his entire philosophy about who he is and what he believes. He is not willing to go through any sort of transformation at this point during the legal battle.

Sadly, and I hope this is not true, but when Horne gets rid of the Mexican American Studies class, there will be less Mexicans in school due to the abolition of the class, and that will increase his school's white percentages, which will increase his scores as superintendent of the district. 

"I'm not seeing the pictures of Ben Franklin and I have a problem with that." 

During the legal battle, when one of the legal team members makes an appearance in the Mexican American Studies classroom, I was shocked that he wasn't proud of the students for what they WERE learning, but upset about what they weren't learning. Unbelievable! The visitor in the classroom sees that, like Anyon says, educational settings can begin to build movements, and he is afraid of the direction that this class is going. He correctly analyzes that the movement is being built by this Mex-American class. He incorrectly understands it's momentum and goal. This classroom was not trying to create war AGAINST white people. Instead, it was a movement of love and understanding of history. An appreciation for the history that is NOT being taught in other classes! Ben Franklin will be taught in every other classroom in that building over the course of the students' high school career (and even before). But the people they are celebrating in that classroom are never spoken about, never given any light, and are people who make up the Mexican history. Why can't they celebrate them?? Personally, I have been on a journey to read about the history of the Tea Party (the original 1773 tea party!) and the events that led up to the "shot heard round the world". Reading about our founding fathers in depth has truly been eye-opening and given me a sense that our beloved John Hancock and George Washington characters have been idolized to the point of us creating false narratives about who they really were. Giving them the respect they deserve is fine, but idolizing them to the point of not allowing other historic leaders to be given a spotlight reminds me of the same blurred line between "Black Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter". 

"Read the world and you will find out that it is not a pretty place."

When explaining to his students about the legal battles that are ensuing because of the Mexican American studies class, the teacher says to the students that they need to read the world... but when they do, they will discover it's not a pretty place. This quote reminded me of so many readings we did this semester, for example, The Long History of Violence Against Asian Americans by Chang. When Asian Americans were killed in 1989 by Long, he was defended because it "wasn't a hate crime, but (Long was) simply a sex addict in relapse." After reading Why US Jails Were Corona Hotspots, we learned that the people in jail have no soap and water to wash their hands, forget about paper towels! In Mighty Times: The Children's March, we leaned that in Birmingham, Bull Conner, who screamed from the rooftops to keep segregation, was voted into office 7 times! Just recently, in an instance of not wanting to look racism in the face, similar to getting rid of the Mexican Studies class, a BLM mural was rem
oved from a street in Washington, D.C. without the consent of anyone who had created it. The mayor of the city said it will be replaced... but he couldn't give an exact date as to when. Sound fishy? BLM Article. Unfortunately, the world is not a pretty place. And even more unfortunately, too many times, the ones who have the power to change the world are the ones keeping their heads buried deeply in the sand. 

Abolitionist Teaching 6/14

In Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools, Dena Simmons, Bettina Love, and Gholdy Muhammad speak about the fact that they don't want schools to just gradually reform. They want schools to tear down the current model and start over! The current model in education has black students saying, "I learned that I wasn't enough" (Dena Simmons). Our current model is seeped in systemic racism and does not teach students about how to be fully human and non-racist. When you see black people working in school systems, you can bet that their story is a story of trauma. 

When I first graduated college and my first got a job as a Christian school teacher in 2002, I worked with a black woman named Linda who had been fired from a nearby public school system. She told me regularly that the reason that she had to work for this Christian school (and we were severely underpaid at 17K a year) was because she had been fired from the public school because she was black. I quickly dismissed her claim and said I was certain that there must have been another reason... who would fire someone because they were black? 

I keep thinking of those conversations now that I am listening to women like these three. Linda was right. I now believe she did get fired because she was black. When I think about it today, I think about how difficult it would be for a teacher to be fired in my district. They would have to commit a crime that is worthy of jail time to be fired. It is EXTREMELY difficult to be fired when you work for a public school! And yet... here was Linda. 40 something years old, her children in high school, and she had most likely just sliced her pay by 3/4 right before her boys went off to college. Just like these women mentioned, Linda's story was a story of trauma. Just like in the video "How Can We Win?" where the black activist woman shouts about how much oppression the black population has suffered in the past 400 years, Linda was trying to help me see that she was also being oppressed. However, I did not believe it. That was 19 years ago and I am just beginning to see it now. 

Lately, because of the BLM movement, I have been noticing more about how commercials position themselves within multi-racial communities. I have noticed in some cases where important new hires for companies or government jobs have been black. Many times, the bulk of the company or government department is mostly white, with a few key hires being black. Therefore, it struck me when Dena Simmons said she's tired of people saying to her, "Hey, can we use you?" (Dena Simmons). Companies and departments want to look diversified and anti-racist, and therefore, they use the few black faces they have to make it look like the population of employees they have hired is a beautiful mix of all different races. However, this is most often not the case at all and just a PR stunt. How completely sad that this is one way we are trying to "fix" racism. And, like I Am Not Your Negro stated, white people refuse to to realize that these things are going on.

Last year, during the beginning of the BLM protests during Covid, I was introduced to this video. 

https://de-de.facebook.com/KREXTV/videos/557824134935068/

It was posted in June 2020 and depicted a black man demanding for the police to end this racism and oppression that was going on in the city of Grand Junction, CO. I was struck last year when I watched this video that the policeman asks the black man, "What do you want me to do?" referring to the next steps in healing for the black community. The black man responds saying, "I don't know! That's for YOU to figure out!" Initially I thought to myself, "See? That man doesn't even know what he wants! He's just looking for some way to cause discord!" However, after listening to Dena Simmons, I realize that there is so much hurt, so much oppression, so many days where the black community has been pushed down and made to feel less that human, that by the time some white person asks them, "Ok. What do you want me to do?" the black person can only answer, "This reckoning? That's on YOU!" (Dena Simmons). I get it now. Why do they have to endure whites oppressing them, killing them, stealing from them, and then also be burdened with the job of coming up with all the solutions as to how to fix the entire system?! It's completely unfair for us to ask that question, and now my heart breaks for that black man as he rages at the police officer in that video I watched last year. 

Lastly, it really hurt to see hear the part that Bettina Love said at the end, asking white teachers if they would send their own children to the schools they teach in. What she said struck a chord with me because as we were discussing a few weeks ago, "White Flight" is real. White people will not buy homes or send their children to schools where the population is 20- 30% black or more. And yet, we will work in those cities, take their money, and buy our white children better educations or things with the money that the impoverished, red-lined city provided us with. And Bettna Love says, "This is OUR money!" It's like we are stealing. Ouch. That one really hit home. 

How Did I Not Know??

After watching I Am Not Your Negro, my brain is reeling with questions and possible answers. Definitely more of the former and less of latter. 

How did I not know that as Ruby Bridges walked into that white school building, she was being spat on and taunted by whites? That as she crossed the line between the black community and the white community, there were moms shouting at her, "Go back to your own school!" John F. Kennedy was asked to accompany Ruby Bridges on that significant day... and he declined, saying it was unnecessary that his presence be there. I wonder what he was thinking? Was the white/black divide veiled from him as well? Did he not understand the depth of the situation? Did he, like me, believe that Birmingham, AL "is located on Mars" and isn't a true representation of America's history and reality? Or did he just are about "safety and profits... not about segregation" (Samuel Jackson)?

And why is it, that 60 years later, my family is ignorant of the true history of the segregation and racial injustice in our country? Last year, right as George Floyd was coming across our televisions, a family member said to a black neighbor of ours, "I'm colorblind. And I'm so glad my kids are colorblind, too." Our neighbor was kind. He smiled and did not have much to say in response to their ignorant remark. Today, we think back to that comment, and it burns in our memories. How did we not see? How did we not know??

Unfortunately, according to Malcolm, "our country insists on being very narrow minded." As my husband and I think now about how we are raising our two daughters, both in elementary school at this time, we are "moral monsters" if we do not teach them about the racial injustice that America has been built on. Sadly, I know my daughters will not hear about this in their school on a regular basis. They will not hear it from their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends. I feel now that I can almost completely relate to Ben Rector when he sings the song The Men That Drive Me Places. Listen to the words. Those who are privileged don't really know how they even became privileged. It's a gigantic secret to whites that our country is divided into colors. White people don't want to believe it... we don't WANT to see it... but the numbers are there and they don't lie. They are as real as the numbers that are able to predict your lifespan by looking at the amount of money in your bank account (In Sickness and In Wealth).

Why does our country insist on being so irresponsible? We are selling our children a version of "some idealism which you assure me exists in America which I have never seen" (Malcolm X). It is our duty and our children's right to know that American history is NOT the clean, perfect story that I heard about in school 30 years ago that continues to feed our children today. Additionally, "we are criminals if we don't face our history" and "nothing can be changed until it is faced" (Samuel Jackson). 

Can you imagine what it would be like, though? Can you imagine if you lived in a well-funded town where Great Schools rated your district highly, where the money flowed in easily, and where the ratio of black to white was 50/50? We know now, after watching How Structural Racism Works, "white flight" exists and after 20-30% of the population is black, whites will flee. But what if they didn't? What if whites stuck around because it was better for creativity and culture, better for the children, better for our health, better to be surrounded by all intellects of all races in a community that was NOT struggling? I'm realizing now that this does not exist. I always thought that it did "somewhere." I'm coming to the realization now that this is, like the video explained, an idealistic dream that is not based on reality. Martin Luther King's dream was bigger than what I originally understood his dream to be. I thought his dream was that blacks and whites could be in school together. I see this in my classroom every day. We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and take the day off from school as a holiday. He did it! I thought his dream had come true. 

I didn't realize before this year how far we are from fulfilling the realization of Martin's dream. 

In Sickness and in Wealth - Part of the Series: Unnatural Causes. California Newsreel.

Quote: "We should not be able to do that." 

In this documentary, it was discovered that by looking at your income level, looking at your access to public resources, and looking at your high school completion level, your life expectancy can predicted. "We should not be able to do that!" It is generally thought by many that if people would simply make more time for exercise, chose healthier food options and get plenty of rest, humans will be able to extend their life expectancy. However, scientists are now finding that having too much cortisol from heightened stress levels that are directly related to your type of employment (or lack thereof), the amount of resources you are able to afford, and the amount of control you have over your environment play a larger part in your life expectancy than we originally believed. 

Quote: "Economic policy is health policy."

A century ago, our life expectancy as Americans was 48 years of age. With more resources added to the nation including social programs, as well as better healthcare, the life expectancy went up for all people. However, since 1980, we have been going, as a nation, in the opposite direction. We have slashed social programs and reduced taxes on the wealthy. The rich have gotten FAR richer and the the gap between Rich and Poor has widened dramatically. We are one of the most unequal nations of the world's richest democracies. Therefore, it is not healthcare that is directing our disintegrating health as a nation necessarily, but the economic policies that our nation is putting in place. As the policies become more equal, the health of the nation goes up. As economic policies protect the rich and leave behind others, becoming more unequal, our health deteriorates. Therefore, equal and beneficial economic policy should BE our health policy. 

Quote: "Power is a public health issue."

We are the richest country in the world, however, we are far behind many other nations in terms of economic policies that create good health. Other nations support their citizens with daycare, free education through college, and good healthcare for all. America's has so many people in their prime working ages dying of diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and other related illnesses. They can't get an education. Fast food, quick marts, and liquor stores are more readily available to them than healthy grocery stores. They suffer from hypertension. Lack of power is creating a public health issue by shortening the lives of the people who have less access to power. The next generation of young people in America may be the first generation to see a shorter life span than their parents did. American Life Expectancy Isn't it inefficient to have people who could be contributing to America's economy to be caught up in the hospital with issues that are related to high levels of cortisol stemming from the fact that they have less power and control over their circumstances than their neighbors in the neighboring towns do?

I'm Meghann Warnick. I've been teaching grades 3-7 since 2002 and am currently holding the position of 4th grade SpEd/ESL teacher. I am in the TESOL program with the Woonsocket Cohort and enjoying it much more than I originally imagined I would. I did not think I'd be going back to graduate school after almost 20 years in the field... and I'm feeling very blessed to be able to have this opportunity. Some of my favorite activities are hosting student teachers in my classroom, gardening, cooking, being a mother and a wife, and traveling to or discovering new places.