Affirming Diversity In The Classroom Why it Matters to Your Students

this

is a hundred dollar bill and remembering

its value is the most important aspect

of our conversation today

my name is nadaya herron and i’m an

educator

and like you i am exhausted

i’m exhausted from the zoom meetings the

conference calls

the memos and the email threads about

race

our country is having a reckoning

following the death of george floyd a

reckoning with systemic racism

all this time i couldn’t help but think

do we as educators lack

the capability to better serve our

students when it comes to diversity

equity and inclusion in our classrooms

the truth is much darker and much more

complex than we care to realize

we lack the will and even the motivation

to try

we lack the consciousness to take

responsibility for the collective

failings

of inequity and social injustice so

deeply ingrained in our educational

system

oh i’m exhausted though because i care

and you should too you should care

because classrooms have long been the

battleground

in the struggle for social injustice and

students

oh they have consistently been leaders

on the front lines

for example in 1947

a courageous mexican-american farming

family

out of california california

we are always making trouble but good

trouble

this family they dared to challenge the

law and the consciousness of the

american justice system

and they won they fought for equal

schooling for their three children

this mendez v westminster case

was able to lay the foundation for

thurgood marshall

to argue the brown v board of education

case in front of the supreme court

and that is the case that upended

segregated classrooms across this nation

and yeah that’s great

but 67 years later we are still

waiting on equality in the classroom

wildly grasping

at diversity through a haze of

racial tension and virtue signaling

as inequality persists

oh you should care because we know that

the research

says that students internalize the

unfair treatment that they experience

in the classroom when you see them as

limited

small subhuman they begin to believe the

same about themselves

we must not tolerate such conduct from a

professional segment of persons

entrusted to educate enlighten and

inspire

the truth is if our classrooms are the

symbolic barometer

for the future health of our nation then

instructors must intentionally embody

their role in the health of said nation

or risk ideological genocide

we must have equality in our classrooms

and restructure

the function of those who refuse to

change

after all classrooms are becoming more

racially and ethnically diverse

according to the u.s census in 2018

of the undergraduate student population

52.9 percent were white

20.9 were hispanic 15.1 were black

7.6 were asian and everybody else

identified as other

keep up that same year according to the

national center for education statistics

of the full-time professors 75 percent

were white 12 percent were asian and for

hispanic

and african american full-time

professors they represented 6

respectively there is a glaring

gap between the faculty

and the student population that we claim

to serve these statistics speak to the

chasms

and polarization that have long impeded

meaningful progress

in the aim of social justice and

mobilizing for change in our classrooms

moreover this profound gap is the primer

for a slurry

of potentially harmful interactions

similar to what we saw with the

professor

whose response regarding a simple

question surrounding the

recent unrest earned him a suspension

and caused to be fired

furthermore it led to a breakdown of

trust

and a loss of that relationship that

sacred relationship between

teacher and pupil if academic minds can

come together and solve pure vermont’s

last theorem then surely we can solve

this issue of

racism in our lifetime if we can put a

man on the moon

then certainly we can address inequity

and social injustice in our classrooms

we can begin by closing the

representation gap

in institutions of higher learning

across this country

you should care because the future of

our nation will look like the student

population

that we serve today their tomorrow

rest upon our shoulders

now if a black student walks into your

classroom

know that they have defied the odds know

that they continue to participate in a

system

designed for their failure a system

that created laws to prevent them from

gaining wealth

and then would criminalize their poverty

a system

that would prevent them from reading

making it illegal for them to read and

then punish them for being illiterate a

system

designed to send them from the classroom

to the prison pipeline a uniquely

american system that assaults them on

every front from disparities in their

health care to confinement in

impoverished neighborhoods

to disproportionate exposure to inferior

schoolings to significantly

greater dangers and encounters with law

enforcement and i could go

on from the labor market discrimination

that’s waiting for them

on the other side of graduation to a

television media

and this one is important to a

television media that manufactures

and reinforces disparaging portraits of

their identity by telling you that they

as black people are sub-human validating

the abuse

that they receive know that when these

students

sign their names on the papers and

assignments that they turn into you

they’re not really signing their names

they’re actually signing the names of

the person who owned their great

great grandparent in slavery pause

for just a second and realize how deep

the veins of systemic racism run

many are going to be defeated before

they even walk through the door

but they’re still coming they are

walking through your classroom doors

and many are met with instructors who

express dissent for their skin through

harmful microaggressions

or pathologizing of their culture these

affronts are

often coupled with assumptions of

criminality resulting in over-policing

on our college campuses and universities

black people portrayed as violent in

america when more often than not we are

on the receiving end of said violence

they face ascriptions of their

intelligence while they’re more

accurately experiencing historic growth

in education

in 2015 a report by nielsen documented

that high school graduation rates and

the percentage of black high school

graduates enrolled in college

jumped to historic heights outpacing

that of any other ethnic group

outpacing that of the total population

period

but just because they’re brilliant

doesn’t mean that they don’t feel

know that ironically the first time many

of them experience racism was in the

classroom and know that they will more

than likely

continue to experience the weight and

trauma of racism throughout their

lifetime

but i know this too really has nothing

to do with you

so the question remains why should you

care

as the nation recovers from the

polarizing events that follow the death

of george floyd and we return to our

campuses

classrooms and community as educators

we must acknowledge acknowledge some

pretty

daunting realities this is not just

about the death of george floyd

we must acknowledge that his death is

only a singular occurrence in a scathing

epidemic of collective

race-based violence and systemic

oppression perpetrated

on black persons in this country since

its inception

we must cease and our failure to

recognize the undeniable truth america

is a great nation but it was built on a

foundation

of hate that encompassed slavery white

supremacy

and mass genocide a foundation that

cannot stand

if you choose to if we choose to

will we continue to be passive

participants

in a culture of silence in our

classrooms

or will we begin to develop a

consciousness to be a part of something

bigger than ourselves

now i understand no no you are not

responsible for something that happened

centuries ago that you have nothing to

do with

but you do have the opportunity to be a

part of a solution for what’s going on

right now

contemporary oppression contemporary

marginal marginalization

and contemporary brutal violence we are

dying today

you have the opportunity to be a part of

a kind of justice

that will ripple through the generations

the academic community must we must

adopt an

iterative process of developing and

enforcing meaningful strategies in the

aim of peace

from systemic violence and racism aimed

at minoritized communities

more specifically african-american

people in our educational system

and society as a whole we

are here today because a man propelled

by centuries

of racial injustice kneeled on another

man’s neck

for nine minutes and 29 seconds

now there were three other people there

and had one

taken one of those seconds to speak up

we might not be here today

i’m not asking you to abandon any

long-held religious or political beliefs

i’m just asking you no i am begging you

to speak

up inequality persists in our classrooms

and it is time that we adjust our

behavior accordingly

this will require collective effort of

deliberative engagement

authentic dialogic interaction with

inter-organizational

interdivisional and interdisciplinary

alignment

the future of this country will be

decided in our classrooms

the future of this country educators it

will be

shaped by you and that’s why it

is time to care now

i did not forget about this hundred

dollar bill to the african-american

student

under the sound of my voice like this

hundred dollar bill you may have been

walked on stepped over you may feel

overlooked

but you must never forget your value

you see i didn’t forget this hundred

dollar bill because it still has its

value

you must never forget your value so that

in your success

you may pay homage to the generation of

black folks that came before you

and shed their blood that their progeny

might know true freedom

you must never forget your value that

you may give hope

and inspire action in the next

generation that’s coming up behind you

that they may take the torch of progress

that they may take the tenets of black

genius and run with it without restraint

no

you must never forget your value

remember that you are seen you are

supported

you are loved you you are

invaluable my name

is nadaya heron and i thank you so much

for listening