Banning books and educational change

 BLOG POST #7 Share a brief summary of the podcast you listened to. What are YOUR key takeaways? What do you want us to know? How does this connect to social justice youth work as described by Clemons?

The podcast I listened to was Freedom Readers: Why Kids Should Learn About Racism. The focus of the podcast is to emphasize the nation's reality, and if we are taught the truth, we will be able to act on it appropriately. With literature being withheld from students, it withholds our education of an ugly past. Controlling what people read has been a productive way to stop us. The podcast was an interview between Kimberlé Crenshaw and Ibram X. Kendi is a author of six books for adults and 5 books for children. 

The podcast interviewed a student as they learned about CRT I had gotten an glimpse of Rachael Clemons' reading. The act of students at People For Change could help the student who didn't know that the book he picked out was banned and may have allowed him to actively make change happen. 

Key takeaways: "Our liberation is as much a matter of who owns our mind as who owns our body", "Black people just want to be free,"  "illiteracy allows for people to be dooped"

Ibram X. Kendi mentioned how if books in high school and middle school were reflective of his identity, then he would have started reading earlier, and it would have changed his life. The podcast was extremely interesting, they discuss the age range and if young people understand racism, and the truth is they do. With age comes better depth of understanding, non verbal communication shapes our children - we talk when we are not talking. There is battle of unlearning the racism around us and within us. There is a need in having historical analog, and literature and history books naming the history so we can condemn the wrongdoing. 

Rachael Clemons discusses SJYD model at the youth organization People for Change, and the podcast connects! The idea of encouraging students to make a voice about issues they deal with first hand in their school or in their district is creating agents of change. Rachael focused on studying participants co constructed knowledge with you people of color to teach about systems of oppression and the history of resistance to provide foundational change in communities. The students were supported by staff at the organization to help identify and facilitate action that would make an impact. The summer workshops on oppression came to my mind when listening to the podcast, it is in a sense Teaching out Critical Race Theory to the students in the org.