This session explores the socio-historical foundations of anti-blackness in the US as well as the racism embedded within conventional schooling practices. We will have an extended conversation to better understand how interpersonal forms of anti-blackness (microaggressions and implicit bias) operate in schools and unveil the biopsychosocial impact (via deteriorating telomeres) of this everyday racism on youth’s vulnerability to disease and shortened life-spans. Moving to action, our conversation encourages culturally relevant, sustaining, and decolonized perspectives on children’s developing understandings of the significance of race, racism, and the importance of challenging anti-blackness at its roots. Finally, there will be an acute focus on identifying strategies to abolish violent schooling practices and foster authentic relational interactions that contribute to the development of healthy third-spaces wherein black children are nurtured, educated and empowered.

Understanding & Uprooting Anti-Blackness in Schools