From the #G2Great Leadership Team
#G2Great will not hold its weekly chat, Thursday, June 4, 2020.
| Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. – Brene Brown |
Vulnerability has been a part of our lives since the pandemic caused us to shelter in place and restricted our lives in March 2020. Because we, the #G2Great leadership team, live in different spaces across the US and Canada, our individual responses have varied. One shared truth is that we still don’t know how this will end. As a team we have celebrated our struggles and successes both personally and collectively.
And then last week the murder of George Floyd with four police officers charged in Minneapolis became the tipping point as the video of eight minutes and 45 seconds of pleading by George and bystanders went viral. Breonna Taylor was murdered by police in her own home in Louisville. And Amy Cooper dialed 911 as she herself was breaking the leash law in Central Park in order to claim that she was being attacked by a Black man who calmly videoed the incident. It’s a world where being Black is dangerous. A world that our friends have always known as dangerous. A world of oppression that in our ignorance brought communities out into the streets in protest as the danger and sadness escalates daily. Violent. Senseless. Shameful.
Our #G2Great leadership team is broken-hearted over these recent events of racism in our world. Our collective grief leads us to think of actions that can help to nurture communities of support during a time of tragic loss of life from both violence and illness. Due to recent events and the need to elevate #BlackLivesMatter, we made the decision as a team to cancel our chat (June 4, 2020). We believe that our hearts are needed elsewhere and we knew that Kidlit Rally for Black Lives was a good place to start.
In this time of overwhelming vulnerability we wonder: What can we do? What should we do? What are we doing? Are these questions weighing on you now? We are still trying to answer those questions for ourselves, but we hope that one of the following will spark your own ideas or actions because it is ultimately . . . up to each of us to determine what steps we will take in the coming days!
| #BlackLivesMatter |
What can we do?
- Seek the truth.
- Look inward.
- Reflect on our own beliefs
- Question.
- Speak out.
- Align ourselves with our Black friends.
- Increase our “Ally” status.
- Strive to be anti-racist.
- Share the words of others
- Become Co-conspirators
What should we do?
- Amplify the voices of others.
- Raise our own voices in support.
- Work together as a community.
- Discuss these issues with our families, in our work spaces and in our community.
- Donate (see resource links in the table below)
What are we doing?
- Continuing to study.
- Continuing to have conversations.
- Continuing to be vulnerable.
- Acknowledge that we don’t claim to have answers.
- Continuing to ask ourselves: What am I doing? Am I doing enough?
- We promise to stand with our Black colleagues in solidarity.
As a #G2Great leadership team we must express the range of emotions that we, like many of you, have felt: heartfelt sadness, shock, anger, disgust, and rage. We recognize that as White educators we must do more to speak out against racism and the oppression and violence that it brings. But there is so much more to do and we are working to learn together to face these issues side by side with educators in their classrooms and communities to pushback and promote Antiracist practices. We know we must work together as a community. Yes, these events are current but they are not new and we have collectively as white educators chosen to remain comfortable rather than confront these inequities. We have a long way to go but we vow to look at our work and learn to be better allies on our journey to anti-racism.
Being vulnerable does not mean inaction. It does not mean certainty. It does mean taking a stance. We recognize that failure to act leaves one complicit in racist activities even as a witness. Historically, silence is violence. We must take steps forward to improve the world by seeking change in our own communities..
We see you!
We stand beside you!
We love you! ❤️
| RESOURCES |
| DONATIONS: |
| gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd Official George Floyd Memorial Fund minnesotafreedomfund.org Minnesota Freedom Fun actionnetwork.org/fundraising/lo… Louisville Community Bail Fund northstarhealthcollective.org/donate North Star Health Collective secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy… Reclaim The Block secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUag… Black Visions Donations |
| READ: |
| #31DaysofBIPOC (2020 and 2019) BIPOC Project Cornelius Minor: Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classrooms Too https://bit.ly/3dtQXBV Chad Everett: For the Thomases Among You https://bit.ly/3dsv5aj How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X Kendi) This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work (Tiffany Jewel) White Fragility (Robin Diangelo) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (Jason Reynolds & Ibram X Kendi) Cultivating Genius (Gholdy Muhammad) White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided World (Margaret A Hagerman) We Want to do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (Dr. Bettina Love) |
| LISTEN: |
| Podcasts: #BlackLivesMatter Youtube: I Just Want to Live School Library Journal keynote with Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi https://bit.ly/2AwI0JJ Cornelius Minor: Disrupting a Destructive Cycle, Part 1/2 (ILA Keynote) https://bit.ly/2XVv9J5 |
| BLOG POSTS AND TWITTER THREADS: |
| Kidlit Rally for Black Lives – The Brown Bookshelf https://bit.ly/3gOsPMw Anti Racism Resources: Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein May 2020 https://bit.ly/3dFp6z3 Jennifer Gonzalez Twitter Thread https://bit.ly/2XsWtiG Jessica Lifshitz Twitter Thread https://bit.ly/3cs1ts4 Jess Lifshitz: To White Educators: We Must Remember Our Anger When Anger Feels Less Comfortable https://bit.ly/3crz2KZ Jess Lifshitz Beyond the Statements: Doing the Work to Create More Anti-Racist School Districts https://bit.ly/3ePDpRJ Joe Truss: Culturally Responsive Leadership Tweet Thread https://bit.ly/2Y9dLkf Paul Thomas: U.S. Policing a Systemic, not a “Bad Apple” Problem https://bit.ly/2Y9dLkf Paul Thomas: Imagine a United States … https://bit.ly/302ISAv Thoughts on a Way Forward: An Interview with Cornelius Minor by Lanny Ball. https://bit.ly/2U3sg7W Cornelius Minor: Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classrooms Too: https://bit.ly/3dtQXBV Cornelius Minor and Kass Minor: Engaging in Community Literacy during Racially Divergent Times (Guide and Curation of Resources) https://bit.ly/3gWeHB5 31 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance https://bit.ly/3eDHZ5g Kylene Beers Video Message: Join me as I share one way to do something to make kids’ lives better. What Can I do right now? https://bit.ly/308C0BH Brent Gilson: After the Books https://bit.ly/2Y1l3Xc Teachers Must Hold Themselves Accountable for Dismantling Racial Oppression https://bit.ly/2zUTuXn Corinne Shutak 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice https://bit.ly/2U1CMMY Franki Sibberson: You Can’t Be Neutral https://bit.ly/3cu6ikP |