Advocacy

Let's start taking our voices into low-income areas and engage our black families to join the fight. Teach our babies that their voice matters. We must become a village and go out educate our tribe. There’s a parent that has never made any parent conference, coffee with the principal or school meetings. There’re many reasons why parents/guardians stop volunteering at schools. Could it be due to their 1st encounter is the front office staff. Or, experiencing negative encounter from school staff. With that they stigma gets place on the parent for not being the best parent and doesn’t care about their child’s education. Even making the mom feel that she puts other things in front of her mommy duties. Avoiding and assuming are a horrible combination. Unfortunately, in today's society the “norm” is mom being at every meeting, volunteering showing a visual support. Black women are not the norm.

Ever consider mom is spread thin daily. Working a full-time job, going back to school to better herself for her family. So, her unfortunate lack of volunteering in parental participation has now allowed a lot of trust in the school system. Her nightly nightmare is her losing the roof over her kid's head. She grew up without family and never wanted that when she started a family. The school only sees her black child as a number for funds. Where’s the village. If you see and find out someone is traumatized by their daily struggle, don’t criticize just lend a safe, nurturing environment. A single black mother grinds to make ends meet. Know someone story before you right them off 

When black fathers step out with their kid's people notice it and began to give the black father a parade. Infatuation increases when the father does a cookie drive or volunteer. Black men don’t need or want your pat on the back for surviving incarcerations, racism and police brutality. Being able to watch their kids grow, now that’s what we now celebrate. Prison and police have taken many of our black men (not solely responsible). Community trauma and lack of support in the school system has devoured the soul of our young black babies. Watching people that look like them constantly being gunned down has lifelong trauma. Leaders and our black village need to push for the rights of trauma survivors. Generation Z has witnesses more than we did at the age and then we send them into schools unprepared and full of confusion.

How do educators handle our babies when we haven’t given them some sort of safe space?