Mx. Understanding

They/Them; Black, Queer “toddler teacher” seeking everyday to liberate myself and my students through education. And, honey, that’s easier said than done!

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

If you aren’t actively disrupting carceral logics in your classroom/school, you’re not doing antiracist education.

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

Whenever I think of (especially white) liberals, I think of that lyric from the Witch’s Lament in “Into the Woods”: “You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just...nice.” Niceness, comfort, performance are all that matter to them. Not liberation.

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

Anti. I’m concerned that it has become THE mode of teaching teachers how to teach Black and Brown (especially working class) students. I always ask myself why we teachers of Black and Brown students have to be trained like lion tamers.

[The Modest Teacher @ModestTeacher]

Ok my peeps...

Are we pro “Teach Like a Champion” or are we against it?

Discuss please.

[Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks]

Cop “unions” are white supremacist gangs, and cops aren’t workers. Kick them out of the labor movement

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

A question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately:

How will I use my role as an educator of young people to help create the conditions of possibility for a police-free, prison-free, TRULY just world? How will you?

[Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks]

Abolition. Now.

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

We’re going to have to do that thing that is considered so controversial for teachers to do: we’re going to have to tell the truth. The whole truth. That the country we live in is built on and sustained by Black and Indigenous death.

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

Tbh, I’m glad that classes for this year are over. I’m not sure I know how to balance the immense rage I feel with the need to care for the young people I teach. Nor am I sure I can effectively guide them in harnessing their own rage in ways the lead to radical re-imagining.

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

The simple truth is that as teachers, we work in one of the vanguards of white supremacy: the US Education System. We have to have an active hand in tearing this shit down, and the old modes of addressing this shit in our classrooms are not going to work.

[African American Policy Forum @AAPolicyForum]

Breonna Taylor was an EMT. She was a future NICU nurse. She was full of joy. In the midst of a global pandemic, she dedicated herself to helping others. Breonna had a story and she had a future.

None of that mattered when Louisville police murdered her as she slept. #SayHerName

[Mx. Understanding @MxUnderstanding]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but please do not re-traumatize the young people you teach with images of Black death in an effort to address anti-Black racism and white supremacy. There are ways of guiding them through this without further trauma.

[Colin Jones @colinjones]

NEW: Here’s 11 local news stations just straight up running an Amazon scripted segment ahead of their shareholders meeting

[Jesse Hagopian @JessedHagopian]

Stop trying to kill us.

Schools should be opened when it’s safe to do so.

And they should be reopened with a full time nurse in every school, wraparound services, and a curriculum that teaches kids about deceitful, racist presidents and how to stop them.