At this week's Round Table, Collin, Erina, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Dr. Steven Becton, Chief Officer of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Facing History and Ourselves. Dr Becton has spent his career working deeply in and with schools to create whole school culture and transformational educational experiences that equip educators, while also empowering students, to overcome the systemic issues that have placed them at risk. We talked about the structures that uphold racism; the impact of structural racism on communities and schools; the importance of disrupting narratives, and confirmation biases, about what people can and can’t do, whether Black, new immigrants, non cis gendered, or anything outside dominant identities; and the power to teaching difficult history to students along with teaching them to be critical thinkers and giving them space to come to their own conclusions–which is far afield from the purported “indoctrination” that worries people in relation to race. We talked about how America was born in a paradox (not a contradiction), with two competing ideas sitting as truths for people–that is, that all men are created equal at the same time that the founders were enslaving people–and how we still live with paradoxes and the consequences of them. We talked about how as activists, we too often fail to connect change to policy, yet most of what happens in our country is influenced by policy as much as by culture and changing hearts and minds. Dr Becton underscored that the anti-racism movement doesn’t need allies; it needs co-conspirators. He reminded us of the danger of thinking it’s THOSE people who have the problem when we often have to think about OURSELVES–what price are WE willing to pay for equity? History has taught us that it costs upstanders something. Are we willing to give up power? Positionality? Income? Good schools? We encourage you to join us in this self-interrogation–and in taking action based upon it. Thank you for listening!
