NYLC Youth Lead Conversation on Racism with Administrators

By Maya Beecham

On Fri., Feb. 4, NYLC youth representatives addressed the issue of systemic racism in education at the 2011 Courageous Conversations Mini-Summit at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. The two-day summit, hosted by Pacific Educational Group, was offered to educators from the region to experience leadership training focused on identifying institutional racism and eliminating the achievement gap within their schools and districts.

Glenn Singleton, PEG President and CEO, facilitated a ”fish bowl” dialogue for the presentation, where youth participants spoke amongst themselves as adult audience members listened. Youth participants included Julia Sewell, current Detroit City Year participant and former NYLC Youth Advisory Council member; Tyler Hamblin, senior at Cretin Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minn. and NYLC Gill Fellow; Jorge Zamora, sophomore at Kelvyn Park High School in Chicago, Ill. and current NYLC Youth Advisory Council member; and Devin T. Robinson X "Egypt", actor, poet, motivational speaker, and National Youth Leadership Training alumnus from Georgia.

The dialogue began with a pointed discussion on the importance of cultural identity in a name, and the general disregard of this identity when people mispronounce a given name in favor of a westernized version. This point led to Hamblin's assertion that “Racism is not always putting another person down, but a race enforcing their culture on others.” Additionally, Hamblin recalled transitioning from public school education, with diverse surroundings, to a private school education, in a predominantly Caucasian setting, between his primary and secondary school years. He said he lost contact with a diverse group of classmates and strong cultural ties. He is involved with a multicultural group in high school, but realizes maintaining stronger community ties will be imperative as he begins his college and professional careers.

Sewell reflected on her experience of transitioning from a predominantly African-American school in grades K-6, to a predominantly Caucasian school in grades 7-12, where she became the token African-American.

Zamora discussed the issue of black and brown relations regarding tensions between African-Americans and Latino-Americans. He said, “I see us as a whole.” Zamora went on to explain the close ties he has built with African-American students in a predominantly Polish high school.

Robinson said the separatist thinking isn’t beneficial. “We are going to realize how close we are. We need each other,” he said.

The floor was then opened for the youth to challenge the educators and administrators with questions that included: “How do you approach a young black male, not to intimidate him, but to encourage him?” “What are specific examples of Caucasian administrators checking their ‘white privilege?'" “In comparison to last year, what did teachers or administrators of any race do to close the achievement gap for an African-American male?” and “What do teachers and administrators do to help African-American males succeed outside of school?” A lively discussion ensued, augmented with examples from the educators’ work.

In addition to the fish bowl dialogue, Sewell presented a rousing original spoken word piece on the achievement gap, Robinson performed two original dramatic presentations related to the life-threatening struggle for literacy amongst African-Americans during slavery and the present-day struggle of African-American males to succeed in education, and Zamora gave a brief speech on being empowered by service-learning experiences provided by the Social Justice Academy at Kelvyn Park High School.

The 2011 Courageous Conversations Mini-Summit set out to build a more stable, interconnected community of racial equity-focused leaders. Participants learned to hold themselves and each other accountable to taking an increased number of bolder anti-racism actions in their families, schools, and communities.

Left to right: Maya Beecham, Devin T. Robinson X "Egypt", Jorge Zamora, Julia Sewell, Wokie Weah, and Tyler Hamblin.

Photo courtesy of Ken Hamblin.