Hi
 
and welcome. We are a group
of teachers called the "Teacher's Collective for Racial Justice"
Our purpose is to utilize historical knowledge
and cultural analysis through an educational video series.
We want to begin this project
with transparency
and recognize  the foundation of our work.
First, as of now, we are a
group of non-black people of color, and recognize
that our historical deconstruction of institutional racism
is informed by our own experiences, yet
distinct from the Black experience. We do not seek
to co-opt this movement, and we will use our individual,
and collective platforms to center
black leadership.
In a capitalist, white supremacist, imperialist,
cis-hetero patriarchy, we should all
be race experts. Miss Angela Davis states
"in a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist,
we must be anti-racist.
Second, we acknowledge that the work
of educating people on anti-racism is the duty of all
committed to an equitable society. The labor of transforming
collective grief and outrage into eloquence
and articulation should not fall on the most oppressed,
though it often has. As such we will do this work as
an extension of what we've done in the classroom, and
provide this information to a wider audience in order to
increase access, bring greater awareness to the whitewashing and
erasures of history, and dissect the lasting
effects of white supremacy on all aspects of society.
We will be dismantling the history on which
people base their understanding of the world.
And hope that our audience takes this knowledge
and uses it to advocate for racial equity. Finally,
we want to remain open as teachers engaged
in life long learning. If anything
we create or promote or put out is inaccurate
inconsiderate, or just plain wrong,
we will change it. We will learn. We
are committed to growth, our own very much included.
We know that committing ourselves to anti-racism
does not absolve us of racism or make us perfect,
but it does require that we hold ourselves
accountable. And we hold ourselves accountable to you.
My name is Chris Marmolejo, and I am a
queer, brown educator, an intuitive
healer committed to radical community healing  and building.
I seek to liberate through critical pedagogy,
client consultations, and transgressive
truth-telling. I have 5 years of educational
experience with marginalized students
to provide them the means of liberation
through education. I was born and raised in San Bernardino,
and earned my masters and teaching credentials from UC Santa Cruz.
Blessings, and bendiciones to all my
cybernetic relations. My name is Carla Gonzalez.
I am a home grown educator
based out of East Salinas, California.
I teach Ethnic Studies, Chicanx
studies, and US History at my alma
mater. I also serve as MECHA coordinator.
My hope is that the work of this collective
and all videos that are put out
is used to start conversations, to
increase access, and to provide new knowledge,
really based around critical race theory and
the history of this country,
and know that oftentimes, critical race
theory and access to this kind of, these kinds of
resources are coveted and are
inaccessible. We hope to break that trend.
Hello everyone. My name is Nick Neese,
and I am a high school social studies teacher.
I was born in Texas, but I grew up in a
suburb of San Diego called Santee, which
unfortunately has the nickname of "Klantee"
for fairly obvious reasons. Growing up, I went
to a predominantly white high school,
and I received a predominantly
white education, consisting of the basic
foundational concepts, but never really diving deeper.
As a college student, I focused on American History and Education,
and moreso realized the issues that
are pervading the systems. As a white, Mexican-American,
I understood racism
as it affected other people, but really
learned about the systemic nature of racism
in college, because my white city hadn't taught
any of us about it. This new development of knowledge, and a Master's
credential program that was centered on teaching from a lens of social justice,
has set me up to teach government, economics,
and world history, with an emphasis on
addressing the problems that communities of color continue to face.
My hope is to use my privilege
as a method for communicating the issues of systemic racism
to a diverse audience,
and to especially communicate to those whose education
failed to recognize the history that has brought us to this point.
In a time and place like this, we should all have
access to critical race
theory, and we should all be race experts.
Thank you for sharing
your time and energy with us. It is appreciated.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
