The continuous fight against assimilation.

Reading these articles and thinking about what has been happening in our country  since the start the importance of being seen in society has never faded. Repeatedly POC have been devalued in society and looked at as less than. Often we are invisible and cannot be openly seen in the portrayal of our society.

White supremacy and the ideologies that come with it is what this country and the systems within it are founded on. I often think about todays public schools, the rules that are forced on students and teachers of color, the attitudes and customs that are accepted in the space, even the material that is taught in the space are all dictated by “tradition”. Often when I pose the question “Why do we does this rule exist if it is developmentally impossible for youth?” I get the generic reply “ this is how it has always been done.’ Tradition.  

But what exactly is the tradition of education in the United States?  Well in 1860 the first “Indian Boarding School” was created on the Yakima Indian Reservation. The school, and the boarding schools that came all throughout the 1870s- 1960s, were designed to assimilate Native Americans to white “culture”. The tradition of public schools in the United States was born as well.

From then on public school is a place where students are asked to leave who they are at the door so a new “white” version of them can be placed inside. To this day students are forced to spend 40 hours a week in an environment that doesn’t accept them for who they are but rather focusses its energy on assimilating youth to “societal expectations”. 

Even to this day you can hear teachers use phrases like “ I just don’t understand, who taught them to act like that?” “You are acting crazy” “You are an animal” “Act right, I don’t care what is acceptable at your house.”  “ It doesn’t seem like this kid cares, like his family cares, like education is not important to them” "Your hair is WILD you didn't get a chance to do it today?" All of these phrases, and COUNTLESS more are phrases engraved into educators’ minds and tell children of color that their way of life, their culture, their ideals, they are not welcome here. The language coupled with racist policies create unsafe spaces called schools that youth of color are forced to survive.

This idea of assimilation and disappearing cultures shows up everyday in this society. When looking at COVID data Native Americans do not have disaggregated data that reflects the affects of this virus in their community. Why is this important? It is important because without knowing how much something is affecting a community we will never know how to support that community causing that community to continue to suffer at disproportional rates.

A JUSTICE LETTER TO EDUCATORS OF COLOR AND CONSCIENCE

 - This article is about the current situation in our society. What I like about this letter is it touches on the internal battle as an educator of color teaching/engaging with students of color and the struggles we face doing that.

The only way this cycle ends if the current systems, which are not broken but instead are working exactly how they are designed, are dismantled and a new society is birthed. People can no longer be erased in history books, in statistics, in honor, in power, and that is the only way.