We couldn't be at the People of Color Conference/Student Diversity Leadership Conference and not talk about Ferguson, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, right? Right.
PoCC/SDLC14's opening session kicked off this morning, and in what fine form it was. Almost every speaker referenced and affirmed what we all know to be true: that black lives, black children, all children, ALL. Lives. Matter. That the work we do at PoCC, at SDLC, in our schools, with our students is necessary and that it matters. You know it to be true, but it's good to hear others say it anyway.
PoCC is a little different than most of the professional development conferences I attend in that I'm not usually moved to tears at the others. There's no shortage of passion and feeling here, and this morning's speakers both embraced and reflected that.
NAIS vice president of equity and justice Caroline Blackwell asked the audience to stand with her - for education, for transformational change, to do what's right. SDLC leaders Rodney Glasgow, Oscar Gonzalez, and Collinus Newsome Hutt walked onto stage with their hands up and began by reading Eric Garner's last words. They finished with the exhortation, "they don't want us to breathe like this -- together, with power. And so with every breath...[right fists raised in unison] revolution." Kayla Sweet, a local student, performed a soulful rendition of "Hallelujah." And then it was time for Michael Eric Dyson.
Michael Eric Dyson is gooood. Oh, I know you knew he was smart, and engaging, and funny, and challenging, and insightful. Maybe you even knew he can croon as well as rap. I'd heard and read those things too. But listening to him speak live is outstanding. His rapid-fire patter took the 3800 attendees in and outside the room (a huge bump in SDLC attendance this year meant that screens and chairs had to be set up outside the auditorium to accommodate the over-capacity crowd) on a whirlwind ride touching on topics including the roots of American inequality, wilful ignorance and rewriting of history, the need to prioritize the advancement of principles over individual achievements, implicit and unconscious bias, conscious bigotry of gender and sexuality, language and imagery, police brutality, and respect, all the while sprinkled with references to Harriet Tubman, Jay-Z, Marvin Gaye, and Barbra Streisand (among others). Phew.
He was in his element, and he acknowledged it: "I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the choir gotta rehearse too." To pull out just a couple threads is to do a disservice to his virtuoso performance, but is probably the best way I can manage to give you a taste.
1. We Americans need to acknowledge our history -- our full history, not just the history that includes Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, but the full stories of people of color and inequality. We need to understand the ideals and principles under which we were founded, but we also need to recognize that not everybody was included in that original vision; what effect that has had and continues to have; and what needs to change in order to shape our present and future to realize those original ideals in a way that is in fact equitable and just. "We are invested in principles that outlast persons," and having a black president doesn't magically give us a post-racial society ("[o]ne black guy living in public housing can't solve everything.").
2. We need to call out injustice and act. Why should we talk about "just a few bad cops" as if that's not a big deal, when we don't talk about "just a few cancer cells"?
3. Everyone deserves respect. Diversity takes many forms, and every single person on the planet, regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, deserves to have their humanity recognized. We need to "recognize the right of everybody to breathe."
And with that, PoCC14 was officially underway.