Issue 7: Moniker
Noun. A substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character.
Picture: Two Oreo cookies broken in half exposing the white crème center. Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash
Check-In:
Oreo
Banana
Coconut
We are ingenious in finding a moniker to describe how when our skinfolk aren’t our kinfolks.
I have two distinct memories of being called an oreo. The first one was when I was in college. I assumed it was because of my speech. I didn’t talk “Black” according to the other Black kids in my classes and dorm. But I also was like, “we were all attending New York University so we may not be double-stuffed, but weren’t we all a little bit of an oreo?” Anyways, the second time came from one of my students. I remember him saying, “To Ms. Mary the whitest Black person I’ve ever met.” Again, the comment stung and I thought it was because of my speech pattern but after reading Ratchetdemic by Dr. Chris Emdin, it lifted to the surface what I’ve begun to unpack about myself these past few years. Emdin explains, “Being an Oreo is not about being Black on the inside and White on the inside; it is about allowing White folks to determine which form of Blackness are worthy and useful.” The interview with David Reese talks about how when there are racial similarities there are still other cultural differences that can lead to challenges when navigating within a system. When the comment of being called an oreo, banana or coconut comes your way maybe instead of dismissing it maybe it’s time to take a step back and ask yourself, “what action/inaction have I taken that may have brought this comment on?”
#mondaymotivation: “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly prepared for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free someone else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower someone else,” -Toni Morrison quoted in Ratchedemic, p. 206.
Interview with Leader of the Global Majority:
David Reese, Jr. is the Director of Equity and Excellence in the Prince George's County School District. He has been in the role for over two years.
Mary: You mentioned the idea, the fact that Prince George's County for the most part is a very Black district in regards to staff. And so I'm curious to hear about, is navigating that space for you different from navigating other spaces that you've been in that would be considered more White spaces?
David: There are more similarities than differences because insiderness, outsiderness, I guess would be the big bucket theme. And that can exist around lots of different spaces of identity. It just so happens that being Black allows me to be more of a chameleon and fit into certain spaces because of how I look. But I'm not from this location. I didn't attend an HBCU. I'm not in a Divine Nine organization. I don't belong to one of the big churches in the area.
David: And so there's some things that I do that I encounter culture in a lot of ways. And so I have had to navigate those spaces because I am different in some very key ways.
David: I have had to navigate insider, outsiderness, but not really along racial lines as a matter of fact. And what's fascinating is because I don't mind using my Spanish. I found that makes people, especially Spanish speakers want to know more about, "How did you learn Spanish?" I say, "Well, I went to seventh grade through 12th grade in high school, and I did what my teachers told me."
David: And so I try to find ways of connecting with different groups of people and showing again, different aspects of my cultural upbringing.
Mary: Do you feel like this has had any impact on your ability to connect and navigate across multiple divisions and departments?
David: I think so. I think I'm a very, this is my perception of myself is that I'm very disarming.
You can hear more David from when “Leading Within Systems of Inequity in Education: A Liberation Guide for Leaders of Color” is published in April 2023. Let me know if you would like to be interviewed and/or recommend someone to be profiled in this section.
What I’m Reading: Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success by Christopher Emdin.
About the author: Chris Emdin is a former science teacher and current professor at Teachers College
Book Audience: Primarily teachers but also school and system-level leaders
Book Overview:
Chris Emdin says, “to be ratchetdemic is to reclaim one’s right in a system and world that has denied them.” He explains that we all have a bit of ‘ratchet’ in us but it’s about how much we embrace the ratchet that lives in all of us and show it in the classrooms and schools in which we work. He goes on to explain “..everyone has a piece of who they are that reflects a raw element of their authentic self they are forced to hide for sake of acceptance. The issue is that some folk have to hide just about all of who they are while others can express themselves more freely because their ratchet is normalized, ” (68).
Throughout the book Emdin takes deep dives into metaphors, similes or concepts and explains how they show up in education. There are three that particularly resonated with me:
1. Elevators- The top floor is a place of light. “..a place where an understanding of the past, present and future is revealed. This is the ideal place from which every teacher must teach to do the good work, because it is where they receive a vision of the teaching landscape…The past is seeing history and historical trauma, the present is understanding the ways that the past impacts the new (along with new forms of oppression), and the future is being able to reimagine a ratchetdemic world in which the pedagogy transforms how young people experience school and the world moving forward,” (p. 107). I appreciate the connection between past, present, and future, it’s a powerful vision for teaching that I haven’t heard described in this way.
2. Black Sheep-“Without black sheep in the school system, the grayness of White sheep’s excellence would emerge. The reality is that certain students and schools have to underperform so that others can be seen as overperforming.” (p 148). I connected this concept with an earlier section where Edmin makes the distinction between systems and students. “The schools that fail children are allowed an improvement plan….Yet students are rarely given chances to reimagine schools.” (p91). The binary thinking/enacting that is rampant in education continues to hurt the same populations and communities.
3. Frenemies- “They gather to support each other and their projects/initiatives and nonprofits and always appear to be providing something of benefit to those who are less advantaged. All the while, they are maintained a larger system or structure designed to bring about the demise of those they profess to care about,” (p 182). This concept of frenemies struck home for me as I work in developing partnerships and collaborations in my day-to-day work. It’s easy to uphold a racist system if we don’t center students and families in our work.
I tried to a new writing style for the book overview this time. Let me know what you think.
Next Book: Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters. You can find a full list of my book recommendations here.
Resources:
My newest article, “Defining, measuring, and supporting the success of equity officers” is out in Kappan magazine. I wrote this one with Tanji Reed-Marshall from Education Trust. This article is response to recent backlash the role has received.
Lean In and McKinsey & Company have conducted Women in the Workplace, a study on the state of women in corporate America. Their 2021 report includes data-driven narratives that highlight the experiences of Black women. Each year, the findings show that there is no single story of women at work.
Wait! One Last Thing!
I RAN the NYC Marathon YESTERDAY on Sunday, November 7th (separate post on this coming next week) and STILL raising money for the New York Urban League (NYUL). NYUL has been supporting Black New Yorkers for 100 years and it continues to support through advocacy, employment, and education services. It will host its annual HBCU College Fair on Saturday, November 12th at Riverbank State Park which is one of my favorite events. Any donation for my fundraiser is greatly appreciated!
If this is your first time reading, please go back and read my Introductions post. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. If you like it, please share it with your network!