June 2020 Reads

June was an interesting month for reading.  I read quite a bit of nonfiction and I had even more of an excuse to read more books about race in America.  Everyone in the world did.  Or maybe I should say that we no longer had an excuse to not read more and educate ourselves.  Anyway, these are the books that I finished during the month of June:

• We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney
• Fences by August Wilson

We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

I am really grateful that I read this book as part of a book club.  It really helped me process what I was reading.  We  (meaning some other educators) started reading this in maybe December or January and picked each chapter apart, sometimes for a couple of weeks.  It was a hard read, because it's hard to face the reality that the way the education system is set up is not meant to serve children of color well at all.  And Bettina Love tells you exactly why and demands to know the answer, "Now what are you going to do about it?" while also telling you her own ideas and why they're important to consider.  It's also hard to face facts that even the most well-meaning practices in teaching are harmful and need to be fixed.  When you get past those feelings and accept that challenge that comes with "Now what?" then the real work begins.  I want to talk more about Black joy in my classroom and use more restorative practices and change the narrative of how I and my school have been handling discipline.  Her ideas on education causing soul death were really eye-opening to me.  I can't wait to get started with this work.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

This was another eye-opening read for me (or rather, listen, since I listened to the audiobook).  It talked about a number of things that I have experienced as I've gotten into the work of trying to have more of these conversations about race, injustice, and discrimination.  It helped me better understand some of my own responses and those that other people have as well and I think this will help me be better prepared when I do need to sit down and have a conversation with someone or call out a discriminatory thing that someone says or does.  

I have already been able to use a little bit of what I have learned from this book when talking to the director of my school who is working to form an equity group to help better serve our students.  I voiced my concerns about the possibility of people leaving when they are faced with hard conversations and challenges to their thinking.  This is an example of white fragility.  I don't want this to be what sinks us before we've had time to really sink our teeth into some meaningful change.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney

This was one that I kept checking out from the digital library because I liked the cover a lot, but I never actually listened to it.  But since I'm up quite early to feed the baby and feed him for 40 minutes at a time, I have a lot of time on my hands that I've been using to listen to more audiobooks, since reading hard copy books has proven to be a challenge due to not a lot of energy at night and not enough free hands during the day.  So I finally got around to listening to this one.  I didn't expect to like it as much as I did!  Allie, the main character, is doing a lot of soul-searching and feels this gap where something is missing.  Her immediate family is culturally Muslim on her father's side, her mother converted to Islam, but they don't practice at home.  She hasn't had a chance to explore her religion and even the Arabic language, which many of her extended family speaks as well as a lesser-known language, the name of which escapes me.  In order to feel better connected to her family, she finds these pockets of community who help her navigate her explorations through Islam.  One of my favorite parts of this book is when she stands up to her boyfriend's father who is extremely Islamaphobic and I'd even go so far as to say racist.  Even though he remained hard-headed and discriminatory to the end, I thought that Allie was a bad-ass when she addressed him and corrected him with facts and experience.  I just wish that her boyfriend's father would have listened better and changed, but I recognize that that's not how this usually works.  It's too bad.

Thanks for reading!  I can't wait to see what good reads I come across in July!  

--Jude