All White People Must Confront How the System Only Works in Total Whiteness

Bingo. I appreciate the heartfelt post. Each tenure professor can challenge their campus fo hire Black. We’re qualified and have endured more trials than tribulation under white leadership and tutelage. It took me 35 yrs and graduate school before I saw a Black professor outside of a HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities). That campus (University of Houston Clear Lake) is now led by a Black woman, Dr. Ira Blake. They didn’t just say and post about diversity and inclusion, UHCL demonstrated and continues to dismantle white privilege and leadership. Dr. Thomas, I apologize for digressing in a way but I wanted to piggy back on your platform to advocate to the academic audience. However, this candid post about your immersion in whiteness and your unceasing commitment to Black Equality and Injustice is greatly appreciated. The opening of doors and transfer of leadership for Black Americans goes even further. How are you or any white person “paying it forward for a Black person?” It’s not an askance for a handout but benevolently turning over leadership, especially in academics.

dr. p.l. (paul) thomas

I was born in 1961, after Brown v. Board but before the Civil Rights Act.

My childhood in the upstate of South Carolina included the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy as well as vivid memories of my mother’s family living through the racial unrest in nearby Asheville, North Carolina and my uncle being shipped off to the Vietnam War.

My parents had been raised in the 1940s and 1950s throughout North and South Carolina; they were among the white Americans who disapproved of King, and I recall vividly my parents’ animosity for Muhammad Ali that sat next to their anger at the mainstream media for bringing down Richard Nixon.

I was born in 1961, but I was baptized and washed daily in whiteness.

I believed in whiteness even as I was conditioned never to see it because my accusatory…

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Blacklanderz Convos! Outlander S3 Epi1

Blacklanderz®

Blacklanderz Convos!

Outlander S2 Epi1 – The Battle Joined

Written by Ron D. Moore     Directed by Brendan Maher

This conversation is between Blacklanderz Vida, Amanda and Jean. Edited by Vida.

BRUTAL | HEARTBREAKING | HOPEFUL | RED HAIR!

Vida: Doughtlander is FINALLY O-V-A-H! I am glad they started with the battle and sped up the timeline. It was definitely a Battle Royale for all – Battle of Culloden, Jamie and Black Jack, Claire and Frank and then as the title would indicate, the Battle Joined of Jamie and Claire. Jamie now has to battle and survive with not dying with the other Highlanders. Claire now has to battle and survive in a more civilized world where she is not expected to speak or have opinions, let alone think intellectually. As we all know with our beloved, potty-mouth, whiskey drinking Claire, that ain’t happening. Then you have Jamie and…

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A Declaration in Support of Children

Please add my name Eboni Jean Darnell.

faceofhope Illustration by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Children’s literature may be the most influential literary genre of all. Picture books, chapter books, middle-grade and young-adult novels all serve the most noble of purposes: to satisfy the need for information, to entertain curious imaginations, to encourage critical thinking skills, to move and inspire. Within their pages, seeds of wisdom and possibility are sown.

Therefore we, the undersigned children’s book authors and illustrators, do publicly affirm our commitment to using our talents and varied forms of artistic expression to help eliminate the fear that takes root in the human heart amid lack of familiarity and understanding of others; the type of fear that feeds stereotypes, bitterness, racism and hatred; the type of fear that so often leads to tragic violence and senseless death.

Our country is deeply divided. The recent election is a clear indication of the bigotry that is entrenched in this nation, of…

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Those in power would prefer favela culture to remain out of sight

Media Diversified

Dispatch from Rio

by Felipe Araujo  

The day after the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics, I found myself in northern Rio’s Madureira Park – a place far away from the bright lights of the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. On weekends, it’s here that Cariocas from the surrounding favelas congregate to spend quality time with family and friends. As young and old gather in front of a stage on a hot Saturday night, what they are about to witness is the latest art form to come from the favela residents.

Passinho, or “little step”, is what breakdancing is to hip-hop. But on these shores, Brazilian kids dance to (the local version of) funk.

The dance mixes a number of genres such as samba, breakdancing, and forro. The moves have been a cultural staple of favela life for a generation, but only recently has it gone mainstream.

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But The Kids Aren’t Reading – 20 Ideas for Creating Passionate Reading Environments

This is absolutely perfect!

Pernille Ripp

So many of us are trying to create passionate reading environments, we are doing all the things the experts tell us to do, and yet, something just isn’t clicking.  Some kids are reading sure, but they would probably be reading any way, others though, not so much.  Our passionate reading environments are just not working for all of our kids.

When I moved from 5th to 7th I knew I would be up against a challenge, after all, I had seen the slow decline of reading in my 5th graders and was pretty sure it would continue as they got older.  And I was right,  by 7th graders some of my students are not just disliking books, some really hate reading. And they are vocal about it!  So what have I done to continue to create passionate reading environments?  Here are a few ideas…

Invested in books.  Every single book…

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