From Classroom for Nonviolence - The Reflective Teacher: Guest MINDSETTER™ Acosta Griffin

From Classroom for Nonviolence - The Reflective Teacher: Guest MINDSETTER™ Acosta Griffin

Culturally responsive teaching in Baytown, Texas circa 1980 meant I knew I was not invisible in my school. So seamless was the bubble of anti-racist security in that 1980’s school that I believed that if the Russians do not bomb us, we all could make something of ourselves in this, our country.

John Joe, a Chinese American (my lab partner when I saw my first desktop computer: the Commodore 64), was our valedictorian. I saw Mrs. Powers, my senior English teacher, give my Pakistani friend an American flag pin when she became a US citizen. Mr. Wheelis, the Drama teacher, changed the course he planned for the drama department to accommodate me, his Mexican-American lead actor. Culturally responsive teaching made celebrating diversity a normal thing and within that bubble, assimilation was a natural American pie conclusion for middle-class kids like me. 

It strikes me now that my hometown upbringing resembles normal town Hawkins, Indiana, the setting of the Netflix show, Stranger Things --bicycle riding, board game playing, complete with a new mall and a diverse group of kids (some brown and geeky like me)  marching in school bands and playing football on Friday nights. Stranger things are happening in regards to diversity in schools today, however. 

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School communities think Peer Leadership Groups or student councils should function like an adornment to school climate. When students use their organizing skills to get a hot chocolate machine in the cafeteria or to decide to do a dodgeball fundraiser for the Pet Refuge, we can think it is cute. These are all great things, of course. Yay. Check a box for student leadership capacity! 

But what happens when students begin to ask for something more? Some schools allow for this as a part of their school’s mission to promote diversity and in recognition that when culturally responsive communities thrive so does student achievement. However, when students take on social justice causes like LGBTQ+ rights or address gun violence, they are shut down. 

Some administrators are complicit in perpetuating racist tropes when they seek to limit student leadership and tell teachers to be color blind in their teaching practices. Some schools use scripted social-emotional learning curriculum that is bland and condescendingly applied in such a way as to avoid controversy. How strange it is to live in a time when the government calls news, fake. How strange is it to be outraged about kneeling football players but not at tiki torch-carrying young white men marching in Charlottesville. Just the fact that children separated at the US border are being held in cages makes these strange days indeed.

Idealists, such as myself, have mistakenly believed that public schools are where students learn genuine leadership skills and develop into citizens equipt to problem solve and make decisions based on peaceful premises like those often stated in our mission statements. Asking students who are BIPOC/LGBTQ+ to stop discussing inequities and become invisible to make others feel less bothered is racist. It is important to highlight spaces where students can express their identities and be empowered when their school communities want them to be invisible or at worst, criminalize them at the schoolhouse door. 

ARISE is such a safe space. Founded as a non-profit dedicated to educational justice work, ARISE is the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education that operates out of classroom on the second floor of Roger Williams Continuing Education Building in Providence. Founder and Executive Director, Chanda Womack and the staff at ARISE work afterschool and during the summer with students from the Providence, Cranston and Woonsocket greater area. Their vision is for a healthy, thriving Southeast Asian community that can reach its full potential by having members who are engaged and socially responsible. At their annual “Visibility Event” May 23, 2019, called “Discovering our Hidden Narratives: Strengthening our Roots,” ARISE youth leaders (some as young as 13) presented to over 150 in attendance the highlights of 2018 and the direction of campaigned action planned for 2019.

We need to support organizations devoted to peaceful nonviolent organizing and Racial Social Justice in Rhode Island. Amplifying ARISE’s message is a counter-balance in my head to the “colorblind” appeal. By seeing the “color” in people of a different heritage, we are promoting conversations about race and gender equity in education. We can grow better humans at our schools if we are kinder to each other and know the stories of our human cousins with Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong and Vietnamese American heritages.

ARISE has educational and community-based programs to build leadership in BIPOC/LGBTQ+ students in Rhode Island. At the education level, students participate in summer programs Hidden Lotus (a social-emotional learning from a cultural perspective that builds resilience and healing) and an ethnic studies course called Honoring our Ancestors that ensures students analyze their identities through a historical perspective that accounts for Black, Indigenous, People of Color stories.  Students advance on to apply leadership skills to present to other groups promoting cultural awareness and social justice advocacy, lead SAT study groups and take action on issues they have researched in their community. This requires twice a week after school meetings at ARISE for a close group of students ages 14-18.  Students at the highest level of leadership within ARISE facilitate, supervise and coordinate activities for the youth participating in programs. Instead of battling demogorgons or Russian spies, these young superheroes for racial social justice are learning about their identities to lead and act as agents of change in their communities. 

Chanda asked me what I thought about the Providence School report by the John Hopkins School of Education. We both agreed that the actions moving forward need to be equitable and will be meaningless unless administration listens to the students. Counselors, not Cops is the campaign ARISE is working on this year in alliance with other Social Justice groups. Together with the Providence Student Union (PSU) and Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) the coalition is now known as Providence Alliance for Student Safety (PASS,) to challenge the school to prison pipeline with three core recommendations for schools, districts, states and federal-level policymakers.

• End the regular presence of law enforcement in schools.
• Create safe schools through positive safety and discipline measures.
• Restrict the role of law enforcement officers who are called into schools.

 

The youth at ARISE are organizing around the democratic principle of equity in programs designed to empower participants to advocate for their communities and prepare them for academic and career success in a setting not layered in “color-blind” tropisms. They challenge others to examine the myth of the “model minority” and the stereotypes aimed at Asian Americans. 

I listened to the youth leaders at ARISE prepare for their recruitment presentation to the next group of youth leaders.  After pizza, chicken nuggets and the soothing voice of Frank Ocean on the speakers, they got down to the business of collaborating. Renina W. and Mealaktey S., junior facilitators both shared how much of an impact joining ARISE has had on their understanding of identity in a social justice context. Renina spoke of how the ethnic studies class connects to the values held by the strong women in her family as she one day hopes to become a college professor. Mealaktey S. describes how ARISE has developed her skills in graphic design and now devotes her creative energy to serve her community. All students involved were displaying the confidence and depth of knowledge all teachers crave in their students--purposeful engagement on the path to lifelong learning and equanimous global stewardship. 

Stranger things indeed. It defies rationality that students are asking to be treated like students and not criminals in their schools. They have to go to an organization outside of school to learn how to become revolutionary leaders to bring forth policies that are fair and equitable so other youth can learn in fair and racially equitable settings. This is our new normal in 2019.

It is a very good thing that ARISE youth are energized and compelling storytellers. I know Rhode Island is proud of the efforts of all the folks taking part in this dynamic organization. I saw the brisk turn out of family and community support at the well attended annual PrYSM Block Party on August 9, 2019. Great food (grilled coconut corn and beef satay!), music and entertaining family fun was had by all! 

Teachers who teach nonviolence know the importance of being culturally responsive to the students. While providing our BIPOC/LGBTQ+ students with access and agency under the desire to facilitate “leadership,”  be mindful of setting them up for failure as they navigate school communities operating under the so-called need to be “color blind.” Point students toward organizations where they can safely organize for their social justice needs. Understand that students want to develop their knowledge of systems of power, identity, community, so they can do the justice work required to be custodians of their own destinies. Be a teacherly presence at the celebrations of our BIPOC/LGBTQ+ students, just like my teachers were in 1980’s Baytown, Texas for us. Let your love for building equitable spaces for diverse histories be evident in your teaching for the beloved community. 

Just think about the monsters who stand in the way of racial social justice.  Culturally responsive teaching can create safer spaces for all of us to learn about our identities and build a more peaceful community. In 2019, youth at ARISE were organizing for social justice instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons or serving ice cream at the new mall.  Stranger things could happen if we get out of the way of the youth empowered and let them lead for a more just education in Rhode Island. 

 

Stephanie Acosta Griffin is a North Kingstown Teacher Special Educator and a member of the Racial Social Justice committee at NEARI