John Spencer’s Latest Post: Lessons from an Anti-Racist Principal and Resources

Although I had never heard the term anti-racism, this was just a small example of what it was like to be in a school with leadership that was actively anti-racist. Here’s a snapshot of what this looked like:

• Raul changed our approach to discipline. It started with the dress code, which he changed from uniforms to jeans and t-shirts. He refused to suspend students for wearing baggy pants or having skinny jeans (opposite ends of the acceptable denim spectrum). Later, when other schools were suspending students for dancing in the hallways (remember the Dougie?), Raul created huge dance competitions before school. But it went beyond that. We also looked at the discipline data to examine bias and explore the racism within the system. I still remember when a teacher wanted to call the campus police (SRO) for a child being “disrespectful,” Raul refused. There were still consequences but they didn’t need to be criminal.
• Raul actively celebrated our community and challenged white teacher perceptions about the neighborhoods around the school. When teachers said negative comments about parents in our community, he not only corrected them but also made sure parents were part of the conversations on school improvement. One day, when a teacher went on an racist rant on social media, he addressed this teacher but also asked teachers who were bystanders why they had been silent.
• Raul empowered BIPOC who were from the community and working within our schools. Raul often ate lunch with the custodial staff, the secretaries, and the aides. I can think of one member of the evening custodial staff who had dropped out of college to take care of his dying mother. Because Raul took the time to get to know him, he ended up going to back to college to pursue his dream of becoming a teacher. Raul also started a leadership conference for our students and was intentional about including local leaders of color.
• Raul had us examine our curriculum for racism and bias. He had us review our choices of books in the library and ELA classes. When I taught a block of reading intervention, he asked me to design one that was culturally responsive. He asked social studies teachers to avoid the “both sides” approach to injustices in history. But as my friend Brad points out, Raul also fought hard against the low expectations certain teachers had toward our students.
• Raul invited white allies to listen more. To parents. To students. To experts who know and live this work. He challenged us to examine our biases and to enter into hard conversations. It’s easy to default to the ideas of “colorblindness” and to ignore or deflect.
• Raul advocated publicly for racial justice. If you check out his Twitter profile, you’ll see that he is actively engaged in hard local work around racial profiling and policing. This isn’t something that he addresses only during a big national event. This is is his life.

Raul’s message was clear that we weren’t just going to be tolerant or even pro-diversity as a staff. He was going to ask us to dismantle oppression in our daily practice as educators — something I still often struggle with.

Additional Resources:

• For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Better Allies
• Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge.
• This piece about language
• This video by Tamika Mallory
• This Twitter thread by Erica Buddington sharing an important historical context

Also, the resources in this document are extremely helpful. It’s a curation of resources from Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein.
Anti-Racism Resources

The following are some of the people who have pushed my thinking right now and in the past:

• Dr. Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur
• Joe Truss: @trussleadership – Please check out this thread: https://twitter.com/trussleadership/status/1267333…
• Jose Vilson: @TheJLV
• Dr. Ibram X. Kendi: @DrIbram
• Dwayne Reed: @TeachMrReed
• Ken Shelton: @k_shelton
• Sabrina Joy Stevens: @realsabijoy
• Dr. Sheldon L Eakins: @sheldoneakins