this is what i posted on facebook on thursday, as i spent Wednesday evening on English teacher pages of the interwebs, convincing teachers that they should indeed talk about terrorists taking over the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
educators, please talk about domestic terrorism at the capitol today. fuck a lesson plan. show an image and ask them to journal, or ask what they're thinking about. answer their questions, be honest, if you don't know something... look it up with them. (or say "I don't know" and then come back with an update later) model how you research. give them links and resources to research and process on their own. and just listen to them. young people need places to process the white supremacist violence they see.
we must understand it to dismantle it.
i understand the reasons that teachers, parents, white people may want to "continue as normal", but silence is complicity. if you don't know what to say, at least say something before you continue with your lesson plan. allow the space for processing. tell them that you don't know what to say. read articles together, and learn about it side by side, become a student with them. show them how you research. even if social studies isn't your content area, you should still acknowledge this event. talk about why it happened, who lit the fires of white supremacist nationalism for the entire 4 years of his presidency and campaign beforehand.
please do not rely on statements like "this is not who were are, as Americans", because it's precisely who we are. present to them other moments in history in which white supremacy has been allowed to flourish and be violent; there are thousands of examples that we can access easily on the internet. google is free.
on this very same day, my aunt Reni (Maureen Flynn Sieminski) passed away after a fierce fight with a rare blood cancer. i dealt personally with the overwhelming grief of loss as i watched in horror at Capitol police just opened the gates for violent terrorists, who ended up killing 5 people, and reports are starting to show, intended to do much worse. Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office immediately. now Twitter finally decides to block his account permanently, and now he is finally blocked from other forms of social media. too little, too late.
i will post separately about my aunt, and grief, but i have felt numb these past few days. trying to be a parent and remember to feed, bathe and love my kids. checking on my mom. leading healing circles, which is the only therapy i have right now, so i will utilize it as much as possible to reckon with my own losses and see my own humanity. my colleagues in the Restorative Justice Collaborative of The DRC reminded me this week that we seek to hold a mirror up to ourselves and see each other, which is the only way we can seek to challenge white supremacy in our conversations. we can, and we must, but as a white practitioner, i have less risk in terms of beginning this conversation.
i am excited more about The Collaborative than anything else right now, because we are working together as practitioners of restorative (read: transformative) justice... where we break down systems of oppression and institutions that have harmed people in Washtenaw county. Courts and schools are two places where we need to work, and this group will allow us to be in schools, in the court system, and in the community, which is where the values are. we need to collaborate with other groups in our area to maximize our impact and i'm excited to watch our work grow.
the vaccine has arrived, and i will hopefully be able to be vaccinated in the next month or so. i am willing to wait my turn to keep our most vulnerable folks safe and vaccinated first. both Amy and my mom have gotten their first doses. Mulay will hopefully be able to in the spring, so that we can travel. inshallah, when it is safe, we hope to finally bring him home this year, for at least a few weeks. we can't control when it will be safe, so we are preparing in the ways we can. it would be lovely to get away, but we don't want to harm anyone else, and will not endanger our friends and family, but 20 years is enough and he needs to go home.
stay safe and healthy. wear your masks. keep distanced. limit travel and gather virtually. hug the people in your circle and remember that tomorrow isn't promised. and if you're tired, full of grief, unable to move much, as i am, rest yourself and take good care so we can begin the fight again tomorrow.
xo, lolo
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