6 minute read
28-Day Anti-racism Challenge
BEING THE CHANGE
THIS SUMMER, the Nashoba Brooks Inclusivity Leadership Team (ILT) launched a 28-Day Anti-racism Challenge to the adult community. Members of the ILT created a website of carefully curated print, audio and video resources to help guide individual participants through four weekly themes including: Historical Foundations of Race, Racism and Systems of Oppression, Racial Identity and Whiteness, and Anti-racism and Action. The intention of the 28-Day Challenge was to raise awareness of racial injustice, to encourage participants to reflect personally upon the material, and to promote actionable steps toward creating a more equitable and just society.
In rolling out the first week of the challenge to employees, Tim Croft, assistant head of lower school and ILT member, wrote:
The poignancy of this moment in our nation highlights the importance of engaging in anti-racist work that is both challenging and hopeful. We owe it to our students and ourselves to work toward dismantling systemic and institutional racism, and in doing so preparing our students for “leadership in a diverse and changing world.”
What follows below are some of the thoughts, reflections, and revelations that participants experienced as a result of taking the challenge.
READ: Reconstruction’s Legacy, how reconstruction still shapes American racism, by Henry Louis Gates (20-30 min).
Being a part of the 28-Day Challenge that NBS instituted this summer has been one of the most informative and enlightening experiences of my 10 years as a Nashoba Brooks parent. During my own personal reckoning with my life’s education, and better understanding of racism in our country, this challenge has been a phenomenal resource. The questions that the material has compelled me to ask myself, my family members and my children have and continue to provide so much room for discussion and learning. I still have so much to learn, but am incredibly grateful for the support NBS is giving me as a part of that education. Anonymous, parent
WE WANT TO SEE…
One of the key aspects of our mission statement is to nurture growth and character and this is exactly what the 28-Day Challenge has done...I have listened, reflected on my character, learned, and most importantly grown from the information provided. As educators we always encourage our students to be lifelong learners, but as educators we must hold ourselves to the same standard. Many times throughout this month, I would be listening to a podcast while I was making dinner or folding laundry and would have to admit outloud, "I didn’t know that." It’s not fun to say those words, but that is how we learn and grow. I am grateful for this opportunity to have open and honest conversations with my co-workers and to see how individually and as a school community we will continue to grow in the direction of change. Mollie Surprenant, librarian
READ: NMAAHC Overview, explore the history of race, white privilege, and anti-blackness (30-45 min).
The curated resources are incredible! I’ve shared the site with friends and family who are also yearning to better understand our country’s history, and daily life experience for people of color. The resources both challenge and stick with me. I am thinking more critically about my interactions in the community, past actions and inactions, and the media I consume. I’m grateful to teach at a school that not only supports my growth as an educator but also as a citizen. Michelle Perreault, preschool teacher
Whether listening to the 1619 podcast from the NY Times or NPR’s Will You Be My Black Friend? podcast; reading Lynching in America or The White Space; watching The Massacre of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, or doing the weekly reflections...the 28-Day Anti-racism Challenge has provided me with yet one more reason to shout to the world that I am proud to be a Nashoba Brooks employee. I am grateful to my colleagues for making the time to collect and share these powerful resources. The 28-Day Challenge is a gift, and one that I hope everyone finds the time to open. Anonymous, non-teaching employee
The depth and variety of pieces - written, audio, video - are astounding. I read/listen/watch a piece or two every day, not always in order. The site is clear and includes thought-provoking questions to guide you. There is a wide variety of history, pop culture, and academic pieces and each has an estimated time listed beneath so that you can easily work things into your time frame. The ripple effect in my life has been wide. Conversations have opened up among immediate and extended family; college, high school and elementary friends; new friends, and strangers. And, especially, with my children. The conversations, seeded by many of the NBS Challenge’s pieces, have been powerful and eye-opening, sometimes emotional and vexing, and always meaningful.
I find myself asking my children a lot of questions. My daughters are ahead of me; I’m playing catch up. Their education is more nuanced, more empathic, more complex, richer, and more layered than mine ever was. Through the NBS Challenge, I have had the opportunity to experience what this kind of education is all about and I have found it deeply rewarding, even while being personally challenging. Through the Challenge, I’ve become convinced that if we do not reckon with the past, there is no true forward momentum. Lydia Rheinfrank, P’19 ’22 ’24
I am grateful to NBS for having compiled the 28-Day Anti-racism Challenge resources and for providing the NBS community with a platform to engage in such difficult and important discussions. I found the resources very helpful and easy to navigate. Aggie Lubega, P’23 ’25 and trustee
READ
As part of the team that pulled together these resources, it’s been heartening to see so many people in our community engage in the Challenge...One of the articles, When Black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs, struck a real chord for me, and I hope it will be motivating for others as well. There is so much work to be done to counter the racism embedded in our culture.
Susan Lewis, Middle School science teacher
From Christian Cooper to George Floyd: A Letter To White Parents, why white parents need to talk to children about racism (15 min).
NMAAHC on Race and Racial Identity, race is not biological yet is used to justify systems of power. (30-40 min).
WATCH
13th, Ava DuVernay looks at how the country’s history of racial inequality drives incarceration today (1hr 40 min).
LISTEN
Origins of Jim Crow - The Black Codes and Reconstruction, reconstruction, the black codes, and the beginning of Jim Crow (6 min).
Understand Systems of Oppression by Interrogating Whiteness, with poet Claudia Rankine featured on Here and Now (10 min).
Do the Work: Rachel Cargle, writer, academic, and activist Cargle talks about what real "allyship" looks like (58 min).
TAKE THE CHALLENGE
Find a small group of friends, colleagues, and or family members with whom to take the challenge. Visit https://bit.ly/2EGAuhd Choose to read, listen, or watch the resources you have time for. Discuss what you’ve learned, what you struggled with, and what you don’t understand. By discussing these issues more and more openly, we can work together to reduce their destructive impact. In the words of Rosa Parks: “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.”
