Black Lives Matter:
Building Understanding
for Equity Work in
Skyline Humanities
September 29, 2020
Lesson Overview • Discussion Ground Rules
• Reflection
• What is Systemic Racism?
Why have civil rights laws failed to
eliminate systemic racism?
Examples of systemic racism in our
community and country
• The 2020 Black Lives Matter
movement
• Reflection
• Next Steps
Discussion Ground Rules
Focus on the
Be willing to Challenge Be willing to be
idea, not the
apologize your reactions vulnerable
person
Center your
Discomfort
voice around Just listening
doesn’t mean
impact on is fine
you are unsafe
others
Adapted from the work of Jen Fry, anti-racism educator
Reflection Questions
• How has your race or ethnic background impacted your life?—
examples? (based on your personal experience; there is no “right”
answer!)
• Has the protest movement since the killing of George Floyd in late May
increased your awareness of issues of race and racism in the U.S.?
• Do you talk about these issues with your friends, either in person or on
social media?
• How comfortable do you feel talking about issues related to race?
Definitions
It is important to use words
accurately and have a shared
understanding of their definitions
when discussing issues of social
justice and race.
Definitions
• Racist – one who is supporting a racist policy through
their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
Racist is not a permanent label. In one moment I
can be a racist by voting for a measure that sustains
racist zoning laws and the next moment I can be an
antiracist by supporting equitable funding for schools in
different socio-economic neighborhoods.
• Antiracist – one who is supporting an antiracist policy
through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.
Using words such as racist and antiracist accurately
allows us to analyze our own actions and our society.
Definitions
• Individual Racism – Person to person, based on hate or fear,
stereotypical
• Systemic Racism – policies and practices that produce or sustain
racial inequality between racial groups.
Systemic racism can be...
explicit or implicit,
intentional or accidental,
obvious or opaque.
Systemically racist policies can also be remnants of explicit racism (old) or
completely new. Denying systemic racism is ahistorical and willfully
ignorant.
Example of racist policy or practice: Zoning laws allow high-polluting factories to be built in low-
income neighborhoods, but not in high-income neighborhoods.
Example of racial inequality outcome: Increased industrial pollution in low-income neighborhoods
contributes to African Americans being 25% more likely to die of cancer than White Americans.
Who is affected by • All People of Color are affected by
systemic racism? systemic racism in the US.
• Systemic racism is also found in other
countries.
• Systemic racism can be found in many
aspects of our society: employment,
wealth, housing, criminal justice,
healthcare, education, etc.
• This lesson is focused on
systemic anti-Black racism in the
United States.
Doesn’t the Constitution
Ensure Equality?
• The 14th Amendment to the Constitution ratified after the Civil
War in 1868 guaranteed "equal protection of the laws" of the United
States. This was the first major guarantee of civil rights to all
Americans.
• However, this was immediately undermined by state laws, federal
laws, and Supreme Court decisions.
• The Constitutional protection of equality can only exist if it is enforced
by local, state, and federal entities.
Example: Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court case ruled that Jim
Crow segregation laws were Constitutional because they were
"separate but equal", despite that fact that this was never true and
segregated systems always favored whites.
This showed the overt racism of the Court (made up of 9 white men)
and represents the greater systemic racism of the court system that
the document of the constitution does not "automatically" counteract.
Laws do not create reality.
Why haven't Civil Rights Laws
eliminated Systemic Racism?
• During the Civil Rights Era, the Supreme Court and Congress put
forth a clear effort to help eliminate racist laws and systems.
• Examples:
Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of the Education struck
down the Plessy's "separate by equal" ruling and determined legal
segregation was unconstitutional.
This led to the end of LEGALLY segregated schools, but did not
address DE FACTO segregated schools.
While it somewhat desegregated schools, it did not have
oversight to change the inner workings and day-to-day
systems/policies of schools, or the racism/prejudices and
implicit biases of school officials.
Why haven't Civil Rights Laws
eliminated Systemic Racism?
• As a result of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s, the
Supreme Court and Congress put forth a clear effort to help eliminate
racist laws and systems.
• Examples (Continued):
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis
of race, color, religion, sex or national origin in public accommodations
and federally funded programs. States later adopted their own
versions to reinforce.
This is a step in the right direction, but laws do not create
reality without enforcement.
The complexity and size of the various systems (education, housing,
employment, prisons) in America allowed systemic racism to
remain because of lack of enforcement of the law and the burden
put on the victim.
The victim of discrimination must file Civil Rights violation
claims and the process is very arduous.
Systemic racism is also often veiled and intersectional making
victims ability to prove discrimination legally difficult.
Systemic Racism
Effects: Ebony vs.
Emily
This video demonstrates a few of the inequitable differences in the identical lives of
two fictional children Ebony and Emily, based solely on their race. (Video: 4:29)
"Ebony (a Black child) is
"Ebony is seven times
three times more likely
more likely than Emily
than Emily (a white
to be suspended and four
child) to die in the
times more likely to be
hospital as a newborn if
arrested on campus."
her doctor is white."
"Odds are fewer "Once Ebony is hired,
employers will call statistically, as a Black
Ebony back because she person, she'll make an
has a 'black average of 25% less than
sounding name.'" Emily."
Note: no one person’s individual racism singularly is to blame for Ebony and Emily’s divergent outcomes.
What does systemic
racism look like?
A lot of
different things,
actually.
• In education, black children constitute 18% of preschoolers nationwide, but they make up
nearly 50% of suspensions.
• When all age groups are examined, black students are three times more likely to be
suspended than white students, even when their infractions are similar.
• Overall, black students represent 16% of student enrollment and 27% of students referred
to law enforcement.
• Once black children are in the criminal justice system, they are 18 times more likely than
white children to be sentenced as adults.
Education
Systemic Racism in Housing
Creates/Maintains Plateau Demographics
Segregation From the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor
History Project:
official redlining
destruction of Black
property
prejudice/unofficial redlining
created and
inherited wealth from
housing for some Americans https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants.htm#east
Racial Housing Covenants in Sammamish
What allows systemic racism to
thrive, even when we aren't
conscious of it?
1. IMPLICIT BIAS: Also known as unconscious or hidden bias,
implicit biases are negative associations that people
unknowingly hold.
• Implicit biases ...
are expressed automatically, without
conscious awareness.
have been shown to override individuals’
stated commitments to equality and fairness,
thereby producing behavior that diverges
from attitudes many people profess.
are created by stereotypes.
What allows systemic racism to
thrive, even when we aren't
conscious of it?
1. IMPLICIT BIAS: Also known as unconscious or hidden bias,
implicit biases are negative associations that people
unknowingly hold.
• Implicit biases …(Continued)
have been studied extensively and are supported by
research, including but not limited to:
On a Threat or No Threat split-second decision-making
test of implicit bias, police officers routinely hurt not
threatening African Americans– more interestingly all
people show the same propensity to hurt non-threatening
Black people, even African Americans.
Very young children of all races have been found to prefer
white dolls because they are “prettier” or “nicer” or
“smarter” than black dolls, even
African American children.
Implicit biases are present in all of us, but they can be
worked on and reduced by thinking critically and
challenging ourselves to think twice.
What allows systemic racism to
thrive, even when we aren't
conscious of it?
2. MICROAGGRESSIONS: The everyday verbal,
nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or
insults, intentional or unintentional, which
communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative
messages to persons based solely upon their
marginalized group membership.
Research has shown that microaggressions, although
they're seemingly small and sometimes innocent
offenses, can take a real psychological toll on the
mental health of their recipients. This toll can lead to
anger and depression and can even lower work
productivity and problem-solving abilities.
What allows systemic racism to
thrive, even when we aren't
conscious of it?
3. SAYING ‘I’M NOT RACIST’ WHEN
CONFRONTED WITH INEQUITY: Not being
something doesn’t mean much– it is a mindset of
denial and inaction.
Claiming to be ‘not racist’ indicates a tolerance for the
easily-identifiable inequitable outcomes for
marginalized people and indifference.
Neutrality always favors oppression.
What allows systemic racism to
thrive, even when we aren't
conscious of it?
4. SELF-INTEREST. The everyday failure to
empathize with those who are outside our own
group and prioritize their real and urgent
needs leads to policy decisions and laws that
continue to advantage the group in power over
other groups.
So, how can we combat
systemic racism?
Antiracism.
Antiracist: One who is supporting an anti-racist
policy or stating an anti-racist idea (Ibram X. Kendi)
Antiracism is an ideal that we strive for. It is
achieved when a person's actions/words combat the
systemic racism that they are socialized in from
birth. All people can practice anti-racism.
An anti-racist person is a person whose actions and
words demonstrate that all humans are biologically
equal, no matter their race; who supports policies
that undo systemic racist damage; and who knows
that they have been raised with implicit bias.
5 Tips on
How to Be
Anti-Racist
from Kendi
(3 min
video)
Definitions
White Privilege – societal advantages that benefit white people in
ways beyond what is commonly experienced by people of color.
Saying "I have white privilege" does not mean your life has not been hard.
It simply means your skin-tone is not one of the causes of your
struggles.
Examples of white privilege:
Being able to go into a store and not feel hassled, followed or watched by the
employees.
Being able to find band-aids and bandages matching your skin color.
Being pulled over by the police and not having to fear for your safety or your life.
Being able to not think about your race on a daily basis.
White Privilege in Consumer
Goods
Does the color of band-aid really
matter?
• “When I saw the brown bandage, it was just beautiful,”
Apollon said. “I felt a tad ridiculous feeling that way,
but it really just felt like I belonged, like I was
welcomed, like I was valued.”
• Apollon said he has been encouraged to see many
recognizing their privilege for the first time. "I hope it
opens up conversations," Apollon said. "I hope white
people listen to the exclusion felt by people of color.
Everyone deserves a sense of belonging."
Black Lives Matter
What does Black Lives Matter
mean?
• Black Lives Matter (#BLM) began as a slogan and became a
movement for equality in response to outrage over the fatal shooting
of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, MO police officer, Darren Wilson,
who was not indicted for Brown's murder.
In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was murdered by vigilante
George Zimmerman, who was acquitted, which was important
context to the emergence of the movement as well.
• The phrase means that Black lives matter as much as the lives of
any other racial group. It is used to call attention to racial
discrimination and racist violence against Black people.
• It does NOT mean only Black lives matter.
• It does NOT mean Black lives matter more than other lives.
When a person says this in response to “Black Lives
Why •
Matter”, they are failing to acknowledge the
Saying purpose of the BLM movement, as well as the
systemic racism, oppression, and violence faced by
“All Lives Black people every day that other groups of people
Matter” is do not face.
Harmful • All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.
Police Violence
• Between March 13th [the tragic killing of Breonna Taylor in her home in
Louisville, Kentucky] and September 4th police have killed 83 Black people,
according to the Washington Post.
• Other organizations put the total even higher: The Mapping Police
Violence database notes more than 100 Black people killed by police since March 13.
According to the Mapping Police Violence database, “99 percent of killings by police from
2013-2019 have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime.” It is this slow,
steady drip of police killings that ultimately drives Black families, activists, and their allies
to protest in the streets.
According to the Washington Post, which won a Pulitzer for creating the first nationwide
tracker of police killings, “the rate at which Black Americans are killed by police is
more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.”
African Americans do not commit crimes at higher rates than whites.
• Police violence is the third most common cause of death for young men of all races in
America.
Police Violence
• "Over the life course, about 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be
killed by police. Risk of being killed by police peaks between the ages of 20 y
and 35 y for men and women and for all racial and ethnic groups. Black
women and men and American Indian and Alaska Native women and men
are significantly more likely than white women and men to be killed by
police. Latino men are also more likely to be killed by police than are white
men."
Edwards, Frank, et al. “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the
United States by Age, Race–Ethnicity, and Sex.” PNAS, National Academy
of Sciences, 20 Aug. 2019, www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793/tab-article-
info.
Mapping Police
Violence
Police have killed 781
people in 2020. Black
people have been 28% of
those killed by police in
2020 despite being only
13% of the population.
Red: Police
Killing Rates
Blue: Violent
Crime Rates
It is not about crime.
Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice
• Elijah McClain (23) died last summer in Aurora, CO after going into cardiac arrest following the use of
excessive force by police with a chokehold that has since been banned. He was also injected with ketamine, a
powerful sedative. He was unarmed, walking home from a convenience store. No criminal charges were
filed against the officers responsible for his death. McClain was well known in Colorado for playing his
violin to stray cats.
• Breonna Taylor (26) was shot and killed in her own home by Louisville police in March, who entered her
home with a miscalculated no-knock search warrant based on false information. Her boyfriend was legally
armed and fired at the intruders and Taylor was killed by police gunfire. No criminal charges have been
brought on the officers responsible.
• Tamir Rice (12) was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer in November of 2014. He was carrying a
toy gun and had been throwing snowballs when the officer arrived on the scene and shot him in less than 10
seconds. No criminal charges were filed against the officer and he was fired from the department 2+ years
later for other incidences.
Reflection Questions
First, some personal reflection questions...
• What have you learned from this lesson/experience?
• What questions do you still have?
• What emotions did you experience as you listened?
This is the Issaquah We believe that each student has the potential
School District's to achieve, and it is our responsibility to
provide all students the opportunity and
"Equity support needed to meet their highest capability
Mission Statement" in a safe and welcoming environment.
We acknowledge that systemic and
institutional inequities and bias exist, creating
barriers for student achievement and well-
being.
We are committed to raising the achievement
of all learners regardless of race, status, varied
ability, mental health, English language
fluency, gender, gender identity, sexual
orientation, religion, trauma impact, and
geography.
Our culture should promote the identification
and removal of barriers causing predictability
and disproportionality of the highest and
lowest achieving groups. ( EL-16 EQUITY)
Reflection Questions
How do you see the beliefs of the How do you see Skyline working To what extent are students able to To what extent are students
Equity Mission Statement reflected towards the goals outlined in the support this mission themselves? responsible for supporting this
at Skyline? (And where can we Equity Mission Statement? (And mission themselves?
improve?) where can we improve?)
Faces of Power: 80% Are White, Even as U.S.
Becomes More Diverse
New York Times, Sept. 9th 2020
