This workshop introduces the concept of identity safety as an anti-racist strategy that is an antidote to stereotype threat. Drawing from the books "Identity Safe Classrooms Grades K-5" and "Identity Safe Classrooms 6-12," the workshop highlights the power of educators reflecting on their own identities, privilege and biases. It also highlights strategies for ensuring their classrooms do not serve to replicate white supremacist attitudes, policies and structures. Strategies are presented to ensure classrooms are not colorblind and validate students’ social identities. The use of counternarratives is modeled to support students of color and students of all backgrounds in understanding historical antecedents of racism privilege and white supremacy.

Every action began with an idea, and every idea stemmed from someone’s reality or imagination. Each is a dynamic tool, combined with storytelling, and you have the perfect recipe to challenge values, structures, and behaviors, including systemic oppression. These tools empower us to expand our understanding of the world, develop new possibilities, activate our empathy, and alter our way of seeing and existing in the world. The ideas we possess and the stories we share empower us to activate our compassion and imagine a more equitable world. This workshop focuses on learning, listening, and creating a diverse holistic experience, inside the classroom and out, through storytelling. 

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to: 

1. identify the importance of storytelling in the fight to dismantle oppression;

2. understanding the importance of elevating counter-narratives; and

3. obtain a few “how to…” tools and resources for students, community organizers, and educators. 

While the overwhelming number of groundbreaking initiatives and opportunities that are developed address the continuing impact of racial oppression and structural barriers that affect Black boys, Black girls, who face similar plights, are far too often excluded from the increased attention to racial justice issues. From pre-school onwards, Black girls are suspended at higher rates than their peers and disproportionately receive harsher punishments. Research shows that these discipline disparities are related to racial and gender stereotypes that portray Black females as “loud, confrontational, assertive, and provocative.” The pervasive racial and gender biases in education prevent Black girls from succeeding and shrouds their presence in the school to prison pipeline. This session invites you to gain a deeper understanding of the intersectional experience for Black girls in our schools.

Objectives:

1. To expand the conversation around educational opportunity by seeking to increase awareness of the gendered consequences of disciplinary and push-out policies for girls of color, particularly Black girls. 

2. To have dialogue about the various ways Black girls are channeled onto  pathways that lead to underachievement and criminalization. 

3. To begin to develop a personal and professional plan to support Black girls.

There is still time for dreaming. In the honor of AfroFuturism and Magical Realism we will turn to contemporary poet Danez Smith to reimagine the future with the aim to question current institutions of white supremacy. We will ask ourselves: What future do we envision?  In leaving Earth to search for betterment, what would our new planet look like? What systems of power will we do away with? What principals will we uphold to combat oppression? Participants can expect to engage in community builders, examine texts for study, and ultimately be prompted to generate and draft writing of their own creation. We hope poets + writers leave feeling empowered, connected, and inspired to create change. 

In this interactive session, participants will learn about one of the Being skills that can help them engage in productive dialogues about race and privilege by gaining insight about the process of exploring the various reactions to difficult dialogue. Participants will learn about a conceptual framework for the 8 defense mechanisms displayed in the Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE) model and identity practical strategies for engaging in difficult dialogues that would be helpful in various settings such as classrooms, schools, institutions of higher education, community-based organizations, and other workplace environments.

The PIE research helps identify reactions of others (and ourselves) who are engaged in difficult dialogues. For those who are trying to understand their own privilege, and others’ privilege, the PIE model is a useful tool for intra and interpersonal understanding and compassion. Further, we will discuss environmental strategies that can help facilitate meaningful engagement in and transformation through difficult dialogues. Understanding and identifying the range of reactions can help individuals effectively participate in difficult dialogues and can support anti-racism efforts at the individual and community level. 

As a result of participating in this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify defenses that arise in controversial dialogue about privilege, through the PIE model

• Utilize the PIE model to identify personal defensive mechanisms that prevent meaningful exploration of privilege and engagement in dialogue 

• Practice engaging in and sitting in dissonance, in order to build stamina to be present in difficult dialogues 

• Learn about the environmental conditions that can help with sitting with dissonance

What are the stories that have been passed down in your family? Can you see your own history deeply woven into your classrooms curriculum, and where were Black and brown folx in these moments? This workshop invites participants to reclaim their ancestor's stories and repair generational trauma. We will be following the stories and values passed down from generation to generation, acknowledging the power structures we uphold as educators and leaders, and co-creating ways to disrupt the belief that the colonizer's retelling of our history is the only valid one. 

This session will explore lessons learned from the hate incidents on Drake’s campus during the Fall of 2018. We will examine how students organized for change, and the challenges they faced from various stakeholders on campus. We will also explore how some community members used their white privilege to derail the movement, and some used their privilege in allyship. Finally, we will evaluate how the movement translated into progressive and sustainable inclusive practices on campus.

This session will offer a deep-dive into the history of facilitating conversations about race and equity in under the white "progressive" gaze, the covert manifestation of the microcosm of systemic racism in such spaces, and how the expectation that Black presenters labor for the sake of such events- from the submission of proposals whose acceptance/rejection is contingent upon the final say of white conference leadership to the pervasive lack of budgeting to remunerate Black presenters for sharing their expertise- is, ironically enough, rooted in the same white supremacy such events purport to abhor.

Participants will leave this session questioning how effective conferences on white privilege- as they currently exist- are with regard to actually confronting and dismantling systems driven by white supremacy. 

The objective of this workshop is to dismantle the Eurocentric classroom beliefs of "Ebonics" and understand code switching. 

To help attendees devise strategies that address institutionalized racism in the recruiting, hiring, and retention of BIPOC educators, it's not enough to hire for diversity - you need to address the CULTURE that prevents BIPOC educators from feeling included and supported.