I don’t know about you but I know I was furious to watch another black woman talked over and not heard during the Vice Presidential debate last week. I mean it was embarrassing how many times Senator Kamala Harris had to say, “I am talking” to hush the incessant interruptions by Pence. I mean she played nice and smiled and respected him. What’s so hard about her getting the same in return? But sadly, I know the answer to this question is that this runs deeper than just one debate. It’s systemic within all of our institutions where the voices of Black women are counted last and go unheard and even one of the future highest ranking bi-racial woman in the land can’t get a break. So as a Black woman and mother myself, that’s the all too familiar reality of what happened on stage and in so many Zoom calls and meetings across this country. Black women are seldom heard or respected in this country.
Just need to sit with that for a second. Now that that can resonate for the people in the back to hear it. We can now talk about why this matters for kids in the middle of a pandemic. Right now, over half the country’s 56 million students are in some form of virtual or remote learning which means kids are mostly with parents learning. But more importantly, in metro Atlanta where over 56% of the population is Black and there are over 600,000 students and 60% are from low-income communities, who is most likely to be at the helm of educating our kids during remote learning? I would venture to say Black women and Black mamas are leading over 300,000 kids through their learning everyday right now. So we probably should listen to them ya know. The facts are almost half of Black households with children are headed by single women, and so must face issues of child care and virtual schooling on their own while they are also more likely to work outside of the home as essential workers.. So if they are leading homes and the workforce by themselves, do they have a chance to talk? Secondly, if they do speak up for their kids, who is listening to their struggles and challenges in this season? Sadly, I bet the answer is probably no one or MAYBE a part-time, under-resourced Parent Liaison who serves hundreds (so again no one). But the answer has to be school and district leaders must listen now more than ever before. With only 27% of black students reading at grade level by 3rd grade o and 27% proficient at math by 8th grade in Metro Atlanta, we must talk to and truly listen to their parents who are integral component to improving all of our students’ outcomes, if only we include them in authentic and meaningful ways. To some, this data may suggest something is wrong with the parents, especially Black parents ( which as I said are mostly single Black mamas). But this deficit mindset is the wrong approach and instead the answer is in all the times black parents have said what they need but those pleas were unheard. So no this does not mean another mandated Title 1 parent night with a dump of information onto parents nor does it mean schools have to do this work alone. In these Covid times, this means a continuous and open forum and dialogue surrounding student needs, family needs and relevant resources that support meeting these needs with the school and community. One such radical model is from Minneapolis called the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ coined after the Harlem Children’s Zone). NAZ is a collectivist approach that frfr places students and (Black) parents at the center of all of their work through leveraging a collaborative ecosystem, streamlined technology and continuous communication FOR and WITH parents. Intractable problems like poverty and racist systems need more than a parent night, they need an entire integrated response from a well-organized ecosystem of support that is setup to listen and prepared to respond. I am not saying you have to make a NAZ but hey if we could, let’s go to work. So what can a school or district do to champion black parents and their voice in this season?
But no matter what we do, the most important thing that we all WILL have to do is begin to listen more to black mamas (and grandmamas) who carry the lion share of this load. We have to make space for them to be heard with every decision we make and truly allow it to drive our decisions about the best way to move forward. I will say that I am sure most think this work is already happening, especially if you have a black woman leader. But, I disagree. I mean as an educator and advocate, I have even been muzzled from speaking by even black leaders to protect the status quo. But to get to the other side of this pandemic, better than where we were ( not back to normal) we will need to uplift and champion the voices of black mamas more and even at times hold black women and all women accountable to do the same. As a black mama myself, I am committed to listening more and using whatever privilege I have to champion other black mama voices in this season. If you are too or are a black mama in metro Atlanta, please sign up for our newsletter to learn more about our work and how we are disrupting educational inequity in Atlanta (and not black women speaking).
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AuthorEducator, student advocate and community activists. Archives
October 2021
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