Your Voice Matters: Injustices Being Unsilenced from an Educators Perspective

                                        School to Prison Pipeline       The school to prison pipeline is a discussion that does not seem to get as much publicity as other topics that we constantly hear on the news. I would take it even farther and say that most people do not even know what the school to prison pipeline is. It is not something that is discussed nearly as much as it should be. Due to this, I thought it would be a good idea to first explain what the school to prison pipeline actually is.                                           What is it anyway?      The school to prison pipeline in short terms is when schools make a conscious decision to allow police officers to take the role of administration when it comes to disciplinary protocol. This then leads to police officers abusing their power, and sending children to juvenile detention centers for minor behavior problems. This can range from a child writing on a desk, to a non-violent confrontation amongst two children or ad

       Why Should African American People Exercise their Right to Vote?  Election Day is coming soon, and I felt that it was only right to do a blog on the importance of voting, and why African American people should absolutely exercise their right to vote. We live in a world where we see injustices happening around us everyday. Unfortunately, a lot of these injustices are usually happening to people of color. The list of injustices goes on and on, but I will name a few: school to prison pipeline in poverty stricken areas, police brutality, high incarceration rates for non-violent crimes, and so much more. When you really think about it, why are things the way that they are? Well, we could make the biblical argument that we live in a sinful fallen world. We could also make the argument that this is just the sad world we live in, and it will only get worse. We could also open our eyes and realize that the people who are placed in positions of power in our government and in our community

The history of Black hair goes back centuries. Most people believe that it all started with the Egyptians as they wore dreadlocks in their hair, but Black hair has a history all on its own. Not only is Black hair seen as a way of expressing oneself, it is also seen as a journey that each Black women and man partakes in to define themselves. Black hair has an identity all on it's own. It is super versatile, and you will probably see a Black women change her hair several times over the course of a year. It can be straight one day, in an afro the next day, and in braids the week after. Black hair is art, but unfortunately society does not see it that way. This issue of Black hair being seen as nappy, unacceptable, not beautiful, and undesirable started way before the 21st century era. This has been an issue for a very long time, and still remains an issue today. This is why so many Black women go to great extremes to straighten their hair, and spend thousands of dollars a year on weav

As a Black woman in today's society, I feel pressure from everywhere. As a child, most Black women are taught to be strong and not depend on anyone for anything. You can imagine how this is problematic. Some Black woman are even taught to be totally independent, and this causes problems when it is time to settle down to be in a relationship, because psychologically the Black women has to reteach herself that it is okay to depend on someone else than herself. This is not the only pressure that Black women face in today's society. We face having to smile despite everything NOT being okay. We are also required to hold the family together, and to never break or get tired. We are practically supposed to be superwoman, but this is not realistic. Why are Black women taught to be strong and hold all the pieces together from falling apart? I ask this because culturally we do not require this from our White women counterparts. For whatever reason, they are allowed to feel, be fragile, an

After the death of George Floyd, we have all witnessed how everyone has a different opinion about what happened, and how we as a society should view this injustice. There has been people who argued that what had happened to George Floyd was totally unacceptable, but he still had a lot of incidents with law enforcement, so they can see why he was involved with law enforcement again during his death. Some people have stated that the death of George Floyd was wrong, that there needs to be a change when it comes to systemic racism, and how Black people should not be viewed as less valuable than their White counterparts. Then there has been arguments that stated there is so much Black on Black crime happening in Black neighborhoods, how can the Black Lives Matter Movement be seen as a creditable public figure for Black people, when they clearly do not see all Black lives as valuable. The people who have made this argument feel like the Black Lives Matter Movement should focus on people who

If you are reading this today, then you have probably heard about all of the racial tension that is happening in our society right now, but this has long been an issue. As I sat to reflect on all that is happening in our society today, I now have come to terms with how my ancestors must have felt when they were beaten, raped, violated, and forced to work for free. Even writing this saddens me, because the truth of the matter is that many African American people today do not know who their ancestors are. You may be wondering why not? The simple answer is the slave trade. When African people were forced to come over to the Americas against their own will, we then became dismantled. We were taken away from our families, our home, our way of life. We went from being humans, to a price tag to sell to the next European that wanted to profit off of our free labor. This pain that Black people have suffered came way before George Floyd. We as a people have a history of suffering, but still bein

If you have turned on the news this week, or even taken a look at social media, it is a very good chance that you have heard about George Floyd's death, and Joe Biden's offensive statement towards Black people who support Trump. It seems that our world is becoming more and more desensitized, and racism is becoming a bigger issue. I think that we could even argue that not much has changed as far as racism from slavery. Think about it, the systems that dehumanized Black people during slavery, are the same systems that dehumanize them today, they just come in different forms. These forms could be seen by high incarceration rates of Black men, redlining Black people to keep them in certain living areas, Black people being killed and brutalized by White cops, and the list goes on and on. These incidents that are happening today are not to far off from what was happening in the past. The only difference is that society wants us to think we are all equal, because they do not put the t

We live in a society today where injustices are all around us. You turn on the news you see it, you go for a walk you see it, you go to work you see it, and it is something that has become the norm to hear about repeatedly, because it happens so frequently. In the mist of this, we as a society are constantly trying to figure out how to handle these issues that we see from day to day. We may ignore them because we feel like we do not have the solution, we may protest with others to get our point across, or we may find other outlets to express ourselves, while still feeling like we do not want to be seen as a radical. If you are a Black person, you know this struggle way too well. According to Du Bois, it is called the "Double Consciousness". Double Consciousness according to the Sanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is "inward twoness, putatively experienced by African-Americans because of their racialized oppression and disvaluation in a White-dominated society". Thi

If you have heard the story of Ahmad Aubrey, you probably have a lot of thoughts on this topic. You may be someone who feels that it had nothing to do with the color of his skin, and more to do with a person in a neighborhood that did not belong there. You may be another person who feels that it was absolutely about race, and because he was Black, he was then given an early death. Wherever you stand on this argument is totally okay. I am not here to bash anyones opinion on why they feel the way they feel, but because I am a educated African American women who has seen how race plays a huge role in what happens to people of color in society, I would be misleading my audience if I said that Ahmad Aubrey's blackness had nothing to do with why he was killed. In America, we have had a horrible history on dehumanizing people because of the color of their skin. We can see this through slavery, the KKK movement, the millions and millions of African American men who are in jail for non-viol

Healthcare is supposed to be a safe haven for everyone. It is supposed to be a place where people receive the medical attention that they need, so that they can live longer and healthier lives, but this is not always the case. There has been many studies that has shown that racial disparities amongst the healthcare profession still exists today. The reason why I say today, is because this is not an issue that just started, this is an issue that has been present for decades unfortunately. This injustice makes it nearly impossible for people of color to see the healthcare system as a safe haven. Instead, it could be viewed as a place that caters to white people more than people of color. You may be wondering where this issue has originated from, and why it still continues today. If these are the questions that are running through your head, then you are at the right place. Once upon a time there was a such thing as segregation. I know that we all know about this term if we ever took a

We live in a society where having difficult dialogues is something that people want to avoid at all cost. Not only is it uncomfortable for people, but people have different opinions on this topic called race.  Race is something that goes deeper than just the color of your skin, or the box that you have to put a check next to so that the employer knows how to identify you. Race entails our history, and what people of color have had to endure in a society where brown skin is not seen as desirable. Due to these disparities, we then hear the term race change to terms like racism or systemic racism. In order to unpack all of these difficult terms that we hear everyday in media or in our homes, we need to first be able to have those difficult conversations on white privilege, and how generations of racism has gotten us to a place where we would much rather not talk about it, because that is just the easiest thing to go right? Wrong! Change can only happen when things are exposed, and exposur