What's The Point?

Racism is systemic in schools. It's time educators and administrators acknowledge that.

How Schools Are 'Spirit Murdering' Black and Brown Students

Bullet Notes

• In February 2019 in Wisconsin, a support coach physically assaulted an 11-year old Black girl
• reports of racial slurs in the classroom by teachers and substitute teachers
• a school bus driver was fired after slapping a Black child
• 14 staff members at Middleton Elementary dressed up as Mexicans and the border wall for Halloween
• The responses of district spokespersons never address how racism is system, institutionalized, and structural
• physical and psychological attacks on Black and Brown children's culture is racist and is the spirit murdering of the children
• "spirit murdering" is a term coined by Patricia Williams. It argues that racism is more than physical, because racism robs people of color of their humanity and dignity. This leaves personal, psychological, and spiritual injuries
• This racism results in a loss of protection, safety, acceptance, etc.- things that children need to enter school and learn

Notable Quotes

"school districts' spokespersons portray these incidents as isolated events, the work of a few overzealous, culturally insensitive but "good" teachers."

"What I am talking about is a slow death, a death of the spirit, a death that is built on racism and intended to reduce, humiliate, and destroy people of color."

"When schools mirror our society's hate, educational justice becomes out of our reach."

Questions

• how do children learn after being physically assaulted or racially insulted by a person who is supposed to protect, love, and teach them?
• How does a Black or Brown child live, learn, and grow when their spirit is attacked? When their spirit is in danger inside a classroom?
• How are children's imaginations and humanity stunted by the notion that they are not safe in school because of the color of their skin?