AntiRacist Saints

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

Did you know @NSACADEMY’s history when you started there?

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

What does a fictional character look like? And who decides?
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Don’t tell us racism no longer exists.
#BlackatNSA #SaintsStrong
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Share your story here: https://t.co/VKPdLi9s00
Open letter here: https://t.co/KEWR7zyAcM
#antiracistsaints #racerelated #fightracism #raceequality

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

But, we maintain that no real change can happen at the NSA until the school itself openly acknowledges this history. Public acknowledgement is essential and foundational. 3/3

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

NOW READING: Part II of our history of segregation academies.
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We were not taught this history in school... 1/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

@NSACADEMY is making strides toward building a new culture of anti-racism - including the recent adoption of an anti-racism policy in student and parent handbooks. We applaud the administration for taking what seem to be genuine steps toward becoming an anti-racist institution 2/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

Without this historical reckoning, there can be no progress.
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Stay tuned for part II next week.
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Don’t tell us racism no longer exists.
#BlackatNSA #SaintsStrong 3/3

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

We were not taught this history in school.
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The fact that NSA still struggles with racism is by design: it was never intended to be a home for diversity. Quite the opposite. The school’s foundation was part of a state-wide, systematic effort... 1/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

to keep white children out of integrated schools. No real change can happen at the NSA until the school itself openly acknowledges this history and makes a direct, sustained, and open effort towards ameliorating that history’s long-lasting effects on the community as a whole...2/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

“that are conveniently left out or are uncomfortable to discuss,” my best friend texted me. Her daughter had also visited a plantation... She had come home talking about cotton fields and tiny houses and native crops — with no mention of slaves who worked the land.” 7/7

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

Another fun plantation field trip!

If you grew up in the South, you likely went on a field trip to a plantation. But do you remember what you learned? Plantations hold a lot of historic significance in Suffolk - we aren’t saying that students shouldn’t visit them... 1/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

“I cannot help but see the strange fruit hanging from them.

I had to prepare my daughter. She could not wear her special class T-shirt and load the school bus thinking she would visit a botanical garden. “As a black parent, I feel like we are often interjecting the facts...
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[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

To learn more, check out Morgan Jenkins recent book, Wandering in Strange Lands, about reclaiming her family roots in the South. https://t.co/y5PvwJR5pR

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

Most Black Americans have a complex family history because of slavery. The Washington Post wrote about the limitations of genealogical research for Black families:

”After the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1808, more than a million enslaved people in the United States...”1/

[AntiRacist Saints @AntiRacistSaint]

https://t.co/NvySovvIJk