I’ve been pretty vocal in the last few weeks, sharing lots of thoughts in my Twitterstream about the protests that are tearing our country apart.
That’s not unusual for me. I’ve written about inequity, injustice and racism over and over again in the past decade. You know that.
But an educator who doesn’t know me all that well was taken aback by what I was sharing.
“Bill,” he asked, “What would your students think if they saw your stream right now? Don’t you ever worry about that?”
When I probed his thinking a bit, he shared a thought that I’ve heard from lots of teachers:
“You are a teacher, Bill. Teachers shouldn’t take sides in controversial moments in such a public way. That’s not modeling how we want responsible citizens to act. You should be neutral. Share the facts if you want to share anything at all, but never share your opinions about those facts.”
Now, I can get on board the “remain neutral” and “share the facts” train for lots of things. I’m a science teacher, after all. Evidence — not emotion or even the opinions of well-established experts — should be used to support every decision in my field.
But I can’t get on board with that thinking when we are talking about the systemic injustice faced by people of color.
Here’s why:
First, systemic injustice towards people of color in our country IS a fact — and it has been for almost 200 years. Not only can you see evidence of that injustice in statistics around income inequality, healthcare and unemployment, you can see it in current events time and time again.
Seriously, y’all. George Floyd passed a counterfeit twenty and ended up dead. That wouldn’t have happened to me if I’d done the exact same thing. Period. Full Stop.
Now, don’t get me wrong: That’s not the fault of “the police” — who overwhelmingly deserve our support and appreciation for doing a difficult job with low pay.
But it is sure as heck evidence of systemic injustice and implicit bias.
We LOOK at people of color differently than we do white people. We TREAT people of color differently than we do white people.
Sometimes we know it and take action out of hate. See Derek Chauvin. His actions were reprehensible — but he didn’t take them because he was a cop. My bet is that he would have taken the same actions no matter what profession he chose to pursue.
Most times, however, we don’t even recognize how our choices and our actions have a disproportionately negative impact on people of color.
It’s the traveler questioning why there’s “a black man” in the First Class line at the airport. It’s the teacher questioning the intentions of the kids of color who are in the hallway after the bell while they simultaneously assume that every tardy white student is on an important errand for another teacher. It’s the pedestrian looking over their shoulder a dozen times while sharing the sidewalk with a person of color.
Can you imagine living under those conditions — that subtle skepticism — year after year?
Of course you can’t. You don’t have to.
I’m also not going to remain neutral on the injustice endured by people of color because I know that my students of color are listening and watching, too.
Remember: School is one of the first “systems” that our students experience in their lives — and teachers are the faces of that system. How frustrating must it be for a kid of color to see injustice all around and watch their teachers ignore that injustice completely?
We talk openly about the fact that relationships matter, right?
We bathe in the warmth of well-worn cliches like, “The kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
If we BELIEVE in statements like that, then all students — including those who come from communities of color — deserve to see their teachers speaking out on their behalf.
So, no: I don’t worry about what kids will think if they see the thoughts that I’m sharing in my Twitterstream.
In fact, what I REALLY worry about is the message we are sending to students when teachers remain silent about the injustice that impacts so many of the kids in our schools every single day.
THAT’s a question I think is worth asking.
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