One White Teacher

Although this podcast never gained the group of concerned learners that I was hoping that it would, my gratitude for all the Black people who shared their insights, wisdom, and solutions-oriented thinking is immeasurable. My thinking about, my awareness of, and my respect for Black fellow Americans has grown in ways I never could have imagined without those 1-to-1 conversations... which I recommend for all White people who care about healing the racial divides in our country.

This most essential elements of this podcast will now be merged with my other podcast, the Big Picture Social Emotional Learning podcast.  It might seem like an odd transfer, but it's logical and makes a great deal of good sense, because Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and well-rounded human development. 

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

According to Jason "Phatz" Kirkman, hip-hop has been misused and misappropriated. He’s written a book to shine a light on how the genre originated in the Bronx in the mid-60’s, as a peaceful, cultural alternative to crime. Phatz is on a mission to help youth understand hip-hop’s true purpose and to take it back.

Here's an article worth reading to understand some of Phatz' work:  Mentors and hip-hop combine in Virginia Beach

Here's a link to the Kindle edition of Phatz' book:   OFFSTAGE: The Culture of Hip Hop Before the Elements 

Here's a description of the book:  OFFSTAGE offers the reader a look at Hip-Hop from a historical perspective and a cultural perspective. The history of a people will give you people, places, times and things that culminate in their experiences. The culture of a people tell you who the people were in their heart and soul. It gives you insight on their walk, their talk and how their path formed and shaped them.

Here's the YouTube version of this episode, with lots of visuals:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5SRfbrD-kA&t=2s

Here's a link to SEL DAY info for the many ways you can help boost its success:  https://selday.org

#SELday Letter to the Editor Toolkit link:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/173T0MrbfuA4urQZvGYRp6ccRr45dKDDjMUTZeesWl94/edit

David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, made time for this conversation because he places a premium on dialogue that is seen by both parties as an opportunity to actively listen to each other, to learn from each other and to connect with each other in order to achieve a meaningful exchange of understanding and perspectives.

From that point, David and I both agreed that dialogue at that level is ever-evolving, because in any relationship … between individuals, within a community, or between different cultures … people are always changing, circumstances are always changing, and so there is always more to learn from and with each other.

From there we focused on how the group of 23 schools over which he presides works to bring the most meaningful and enriching education to underserved youth. These schools would be any parents’ dream for their children’s development, not only because they nurture individual skills and even hidden talents, but because they are doing the active work of prioritizing social emotional learning for every person within each school’s community.

We talked about the challenges, specifically the challenges caused by this country’s long history and undeniable patterns of racial injustice, that gave rise to the powerful solutions manifesting everyday at the Urban Assembly schools.

Assata Moore is that rare, gifted, and generous educator who is uncommonly successful at helping students (melanated or not) enjoy the power of mathematics to make life, in school and beyond, successful and rewarding.

Here is the link to Assata's BLACK MATH GENIUS online course. On sale in the month of February at a 62% savings. 

In 2017, Assata retired from her district-level position at the University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute. Before that position, Assata spent five years as a high school principal. Assata has traveled the world teaching other teachers how to teach mathematics, physics, and engineering in ways that engage students of all ages.

In 2009, under the Obama Administration, Assata received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

My name is nini white, I was a teacher for over 20 years, and now I am the One White Teacher of this podcast, seeking out meaningful conversations with Black people, so that all of us can, little by little, know each other better, so that we can undo the miseducation that has separated with racist policies and systems, that really only hurt all of us. Thank you for sharing these learning experiences with me.

YouTube of this conversation.

ThePocketUSA - includes excellent info about interacting with police when pulled over for a traffic stop.

ClippersandCops - effectively mending the gap between community and police: definitely a site worth checking out to see the positive community-level work being achieved.

Once in awhile, a problem is so pervasive it seems insurmountable, and then someone comes along with a solution so sensible and so simple that you can’t help but wonder why it took so long to show up.

Well, Brian Wilturner, a Black man and the loving father of a teenage boy had plenty of motivation to come up with a legitimate solution for traffic stops by police.

Our conversation is short and to the point, and, while acknowledging the tragic outcomes of far too many traffic stops by police involving Black people, what we focus on together is the many layered benefits for all of us, no matter the color of our skin, including benefits for police officers.

Thank you for joining us to learn about one more way in which a racially-based challenge is being creatively addressed in the most Win-Win of ways. Welcome to the One White Woman podcast. My name is Nini White and I’m truly grateful to you for being the person who is taking time to learn so that real change can happen and move all of us, all Americans, forward.

Oh, and this conversation, as all One White Woman conversations going forward, is viewable on YouTube if you’d like to see the actual item that Brian is talking about.

Alvin Garrett is not interested in partial truths, and in this conversation we cover a broad range of topics, which several times circled back to the issue of real empathy, which Alvin affirmed, cannot be forced through a sense of guilt or in any other way.

If you, as a ‘white’ person, have ever felt uneasy about talking to a Black person, for fear of saying the wrong thing, or making the wrong move, Alvin helps to clarify the root cause of that frustration. And he follows that insight with a view from the Black person’s perspective. He explains that we need to stop trying to prove to each other what we are, and what we are not, let our ‘guards’ down, and start connecting from that place of openness.

We go on to talk about Braver Angels, a highly effective nonprofit organization to which he and I, independently, have found a home for engaging in the process of bringing Americans together to listen and learn from each other (rather than listening to the media’s inflammatory soundbites) in order to, with mutual respect, bridge the destructive partisan divides for the purpose of strengthening our democratic republic for everyone’s benefit.

Alvin’s viewpoint on the reason that George Floyd’s murder triggered a global response brings this conversation to a whole other level… and… if you’ve ever wondered, as I often have, how some Black people, in spite of all the challenges they live with, on a daily basis, just by being Black in America, how they only grow stronger - maintaining their freedom from the toxicity of negativity, you will definitely appreciate Alvin’s answer.

The part of our conversation about privilege and white privilege is pure gold… and just to give you a quick heads up: guilt has no value and no place in what he suggests we can do with our white privilege to make a positive difference.

And… we concluded with some of our combined thoughts on critical thinking: its importance, its obstacles, its challenges, and its rewards.

https://www.13blacktownstour.com

https://studio.youtube.com/video/5Phj93CKxjs/edit

These are intense times, with battles being fought in school districts over how and what today’s students should be learning about this country’s history.

Many of us are waking up to the fact that parts of this country’s history, the parts about which no one can feel any pride, have been and continue to be buried, withheld, and intentionally covered up.

One of the many things I found most fascinating about conversation with Derrick Smith, the Young Black Mayor, is his positive and constructive approach to turning things around for everyone’s benefit… and by everyone, I mean all Americans, whatever the color of their skin.

Education is how we become stronger as a nation… and Derrick is committed to education that not only informs but also entertains. Derrick has a big-hearted and worthwhile vision for how his community can independently grow and thrive, and I loved talking with this wise and creative gentleman. See if you agree about the positive value of his ideas and his vision.

Thank you for joining me on this the One White Woman podcast. My name is Nini White and this podcast is my way to learn and grow, by sharing my learning journey, one conversation at a time to move out of the cluelessness in which I’ve been swimming my entire life, and I want to breathe the clean fresh air of unaltered facts, because as James Baldwin famously said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Thank you again for sharing these conversations with me.

I'm starting to think that we 'white' people who value this kind of wisdom are in the minority of 'white' people, but if we stick together, and learn together so we can grow together, we will make a difference.

Thank you again for being here.

There are a few great organizations in our country that have decades-long reputations as effective agents against the crushing impact of hate and racism.

In this episode I shared a very personal, yet highly informative conversation with Tafeni English, the wise and warm-hearted Director of the CIVIL RIGHTS MEMORIAL at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Tafeni English first joined the SPLC in 1997 as a research analyst for the Intelligence Project. She later served as the first director of Teaching Tolerance, now called Learning for Justice.

Since the early 1970’s, the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Montgomery, Alabama, has been dismantling white supremacy, strengthening intersectional movements, and advancing the human rights of all people.

This podcast exists to share my deep-dive into learning the layers of realities of life in America for Black people in this very white-centric country of ours… realities that never penetrated my awareness until George Floyd’s senseless murder by a white police officer.

Some have told me they think what I’m doing is hard, and I get why they think that, but for me it’s harder to remain tethered to filtered facts and false narratives, causing me to unconsciously engage in the unwarranted, unjust, imbalanced, disrespectful, harmful and just plain wrong systems of separation that seek to divide people based on their skin color. I love sharing this learning journey, I love and deeply respect the people I’ve been learning from on this discovery journey, and I’m hoping you’ll subscribe, and leave a rating, maybe even sign up to donate $2.00 a month to help me hire someone to do the tech stuff for uploading these episodes… so that more shy but well-intentioned members of the ‘white’ race can learn alongside you and me. If enough people put in that $2.00 a month, it would save me hours of time and make a serious difference for my efforts here. But whether or not you donate, the same learning experience will be here for everyone, because nothing else would make sense… so…

… Welcome to the One White Woman podcast. My name is Nini White, and I hope you know how very grateful I am to be sharing this beautiful and healing learning with you.

Civil Rights Memorial Center:  https://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial

SPLC and the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) are committed to providing resources to the people building community resilience against extremism and for a more just and inclusive society.https://www.splcenter.org/peril

The book:  "White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Fragility

I need to make a more 'official' way to donate to this podcast, but meantime, here's my Venmo account:  @Nini-White

Thank you!  More soon!

“The fortunate man,” observed Max Weber, “is seldom satisfied with the fact of being fortunate. Beyond this, he needs to know that he has a right to his good fortune. He wants to be convinced that he ‘deserves’ it, and above all, that he deserves it in comparison with others.”

Are you like me in that you were sure you understood all that is necessary to understand about affirmative action?  I’ve always been firmly on the ‘side’ of implementing affirmative action, but I had never really given the subject all of my attention, because I assumed, incorrectly, that a ‘broad strokes’ understanding of the topic was sufficient.

In this quest that I’m on to off-load as much of my white privilege as I possibly can, and become as consciously anti-racist as I possibly can, I keep learning some incredibly important and very not-so-obvious lessons… that the details are where the power is… the power to restrict positive outcomes or the power to liberate and clear the way for positive outcomes.

My very special guest for this conversation is Reed Fromer, and his book, ‘Racetrack,’ provides crystal clear reasoning that helps you and me to logically and constructively see through, and respond to, disinformation and negative comments about the legitimacy of affirmative action.

What I love, and personally very much needed in order to gain a true sense of the validity of affirmative action, is that his book does not lecture, but instead draws us in to deep understanding through story. Reed is a masterful storyteller, especially skilled with dialogue that balances absurdity with reality in ways that, in a standing-room-only audience with which I recently attended a reading of his book, there were audible waves of awakened comprehension… it was really quite something to experience, as is his book.

Is affirmative action a little more relevant to you after hearing Reed’s perspective? It is for me, and that’s not to say that it wasn’t already something that I knew mattered… though I didn’t have as clear a picture about the scope of its applicability.

Other people’s realities and challenges, I am once again reminded, are less top-of-mind, thus less likely to be fully comprehended than realities and challenges that directly effect us. Of course, considerations of direct and indirect effects are something we do well to acknowledge, since everything really is connected… a fact of life I plan to discuss on this podcast quite soon.

To purchase your copy of Reed’s book, ‘Race Track,’ subtitled The Blind Spot of Privilege, please go to LULU.com and search for Reed Fromer. (The direct link for the book on the LULU site is in this show’s notes.)

As always, if you have questions, comments or suggestions, please know you are warmly welcomed to connect with me on Facebook, on the One White Woman page. Thanks again for being here. The more we learn and the more we know, the more we can be part of real solutions.