via The revolutionary infographics of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington
Month: October 2018
Perspectives on the P-attitudes
When I first started working with teachers–20 years ago–I had only been in the classroom myself, as a teacher, for about five years.
The gall of me to think that I could be an “expert” at the midpoint of a decade in the front of a room!
But, I did have authority and perhaps expertise that had been invisible and/or undervalued in the school. My life as a Black student and a Black teacher and a learner of science–that content which finally had been valued–had not been a crystal stair but I could feel the pressure of my ascension.
Years later, I would train teachers using PRODUCTS
PROMOTED as frameworks
Based on research PROGRAMS
Built on best PRACTICES…
I used the language of research based products and programs to reinforce their practices.
I established and shared classroom norms and expectations with my students rather than any rules on the way to forming a community…I believed in the practices being promoted as programs being packaged as products
UNTIL I realized the dangerous entitlements of capitalism creeping into the/my ways…
Had I lost my vision for a new attitude–a P-attitude–in the classroom where voice and reason, and collaboration and community were equally valuable as success narratives defined within a system made for girls (and children) who didn’t look like me? Even the boys of all shades and experiences struggled in this system of rows and columns, raised hands and silent reading, books and worksheets instead of playful engagement with new and old things…
My P-attitudes:
To be POSITIVE because optimism just feels better than despair
To be PENSIVE because being thoughtful and considerate promotes relationship over pride
To be PERSONAL because exhibitionism creates an environment where those who are depraved may be tempted to steal or manipulate rather than simply admire
To be PREPARED because when you are ready for what happens next means you are ready for what happens later
To be PURPOSEFUL because mindfulness leads to achievement and maybe even mastery, for in it–purpose–there is vision that converts ideas into revelation…
I am grateful that I have a sister and a man and a child who believe in me enough to share their lives and thoughts with me. It builds me up so that I can build others…Wooooo sahhhhhh
In the face of…
The work of Black Women in STEM has never been in one vein.
Applied to who we are as mothers
sisters
daughters
wives
workers
queens
bee
working!
Hustle and flow
our lifeline is our work applied…
We wake up woke, knowing we are rising out of the margins.
Black women
Sisters, daughters, mothers, friends, and
lovers of life
longing to be
EMBRACED by the fields in which we sow…
Allowing our hustle to flow…
Because we know
Without us, truth cannot sojourn
Remembering to declare
Aint I A Woman!
As our feet hit the cold floor because the glass ceilings are out of reach
We dance like no one is watching as we create new space
To be extreme.
Reminding ourselves to love our selves as we become
miracle working
water walkers
in the face of
Violence
Like Wangari Maatthai–founder of the Greenbelt Movement who used her life and understanding of mothers and sons, earth and water, love and war to bring change and promote peace in war-torn Kenya. She won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004 but changed the perspectives of many by being the first woman in Eastern or Central Africa to earn a doctorate. She taught women to remain rooted and plant trees restoring quality life and policy…Dr. Wangari Maathai was extreme.
Reminding ourselves to love our selves as we become
miracle working
water walkers
in the face of
Economic Invisibility
Like Lisa D. Cook, an economist from Michigan who uses mathematical models to understand the economy and industry of inventiveness. Crafted out of the discipline and history of ancient genius, Dr. Cook is doing the social and natural and mathematical, all logical calculus to explain each slice under the curve of oppression that dominates black entrepreneurs.
Reminding ourselves to love our selves as we become
miracle working
water walkers
in the face of
Incarcerated Youth
Like Joya Clark, an educator from Newark, New Jersey who uses her work with incarcerated youth to change teacher training programs. Reminding traditional and established schooling environments to consider the needs of those who serve students on the margins. She travels around the state gathering resources to teach physics and trigonometry to her children so they can re-imagine life beyond brick cities and mortared graves.
Reminding ourselves to love our selves as we become
miracle working
water walkers
in the face of
Hunger & Food In-security
Like Ashante Reese, sociology and anthropology professor in the AUC, who studies issues of race at the intersection of food, nutrition and health.
in the face of
Academic Isolation
Like Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American who studies in New Jersey investigating the S, the T, the M: medicine, while working to empower women of color to keep their hearts, bodies and spirits healthy by staying knit together.
in the face of
Digital divides
Like Nettrice Gaskins, an artist from Baltimore, who talks about growing up in a world of COBOL & FORTRAN learning from her mother the craft of computer programs. This daughter is building new legacies of technology and creative expression.
in the face of
Bi-vocational living
Like my own sisters and friends, a preacher-teacher, an engineer-coach, and a family care giver. Moving from work to work in order to live life-long dreams and live out God-inspired purposes. PhDs who leave the academy to care for ailing parents instead of beat the research-paved path of financial security and prestige.
in the face of
Poverty, inequality, reproductive health injustice, poor educational opportunities, mounting burdens from student debt, climate-induced disaster, cryptocurrency failure, crumbling neighborhood infrastructures and
any of many crises that Black & brown women face on a daily…
Say their names!
Black Woman BE
EXTREME
Use science to tell our stories, use technology to tell our stories, use engineering to tell our stories, use art to tell our stories, use math to tell our stories…
These are our selves. Our science self, our tech self, our design self, our math self, our art self, our problemed self, our solved self…
REPRESENT!
Re-present.
What’s the work? They’re doing it. We’re doing it…on the regular. Shining light and being salt. Adding flavor, because we can.
Our arteries are clogged and constricted by a life-long diet of oppression and discrimination
Swallowing our pain like
suppleMENts,
non-vital-MEN
Putting band aids instead of salve on our wounds not giving ourselves time to heal or be healed
Rape culture and politics within and outside of our homes, churches, communities…
We are the Ruths working.
Be EXTREME Black Woman. White Woman. Brown Woman. All Men.
There really are no self-evident truths
So I remind you
Your self is worth the struggle…
Joy Barnes-Johnson, Ph.D. 