Gratitude Journal Day 34 - Leaders for Just Schools - NEA

Today, I am grateful for being selected as the AEA representative in a three-year program called Leaders for Just Schools through NEA, National Education Association!

Saturday, we had our virtual kick-off of the program that took us through the history of NEA and it Racial Justice path. I was interested in the learning of the 1966 merger between NEA and the American Teachers Association (ATA), an organization that was representing teachers of color during the time of legal segregation.

Jim Crow, legal segregation, racism is not history, it is our present. We can feel it around us. Everywhere.

We have many organizations that we know that found their beginnings during this time. Many of the laws that we know are meant to protect people against discrimination found their legal beginnings during the '50s-'60s-'70s and we are experiencing those laws trying to be weakened and replaced or ignored today. 

I am proud to be a member of an organization that says the following statements that were at the beginning of the training on implicit bias and stereotyping. 

• Affirms NEA as a racial justice organization with racial justice at its core.
• Promotes systemic fair and equitable treatment of people of all races.
• Inspires our members to be anti-racist leaders and advance racially just and safe schools.
• Cultivates leaders who will lead with a race equity lens.
• Acknowledging, confronting, and dismantling white supremacy culture in our association, schools and communities.

I am proud and grateful to be selected to represent Arizona Eduction Association and Tempe Secondary Education Association. 

I have a lot of learning to do to be an ally and co-conspirator and I want to use my privilege to play a role in fostering and growing our communities that benefit everyone and all of us win.

     "Never forget that Justice is what love looks like in public." - Cornel West