The United States is dealing with two plagues simultaneously: the plague of the coronavirus pandemic and the plague of racism. It’s pretty clear to most white folks how they can protect themselves against COVID-19: social distance, wash your damn hands, don’t touch your face, wear a mask, stay home if you’re feeling sick, get testedContinue reading “Journal of the Plague Year: #19”
Tag Archives: Racism
The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved
I’ve posted a slightly different version of this piece before, two years ago and some change. It seems appropriate to post this revision now in honor of Toni Morrison, whose fiction has over the course of my adult life completely changed my heart and my brain in immeasurably powerful and positive ways. The American EnglishContinue reading “The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved”
#294: How Woke?
Substitute plans laid out in plain sight and handouts ready that should keep my sophomores honest and hard at work, I head off this morning to a professional workshop in a district populated by mostly white kids and staffed by mostly white adults to have brave conversations about race. Even while the graduation rate forContinue reading “#294: How Woke?”
#228: On the Day After the Election
Having wept myself to sleep the night before, I got up and went to work in the school house where we met in small teams in the library to plan or do curriculum work or talk about assessments, where instead I chose to color with crayons at the table our new librarian set up forContinue reading “#228: On the Day After the Election”
michael jarmer 