Cornel West said we have a history that is “inseparable from though not reducible to victimization.” This is just as essential as it is difficult to keep in mind when white high school dropouts own more wealth than black and Latino college graduates. Black children in America today are constantly being told that they do not belong and they are not enough.
The past several years have forced me to reflect on what it means to be not only a black man in this country but a black educator for black and brown kids. My role as their teacher is to encourage them to reach for the stars. Instill in them a sort of practical intelligence that gives them opportunities to deliberate on their own lives. To give them the power of choice. To let them know that there is nothing in this world that they cannot achieve. But I find it increasingly hard to do that.
How do I convince my students that they are worthy of, and expected to do, great things when black children in America today are constantly being told that they do not belong and they are not enough?
[For more on this story by LUCAS LYONS, go to https://www.the74million.org/a...ays-love-them-back/?]
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