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Guidelines for Teachers Engaging in Black Lives Matter at SchoolCreated by World of Inquiry Student Council Crew

Basic Understandings:

Ideas for Lessons

Movie excerpts from:

Ideas for Readings

Ideas for People to study

Ideas for topics of discussion

T-Shirt orders will be open until Friday February 9th.

Order Your Shirt Here: http://www.positiveprintz.com/blmatschool.php

We have designed this initiative toallow educators and students to participate, if they choose to, in a way that works best for them. There are many ways for everyone to engage and our ideas can be found on our how to participatepage.

How to Participate

We suggest the you, your colleagues and your classes begin with the following lesson from the Morningside Center as a way to understand the origins and principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

BLM Lesson Series Part 1: An Introduction

You can also find many other resources for self study, lesson planning and professional development on our page of resources.

Resources

We would like to know how you, or your school, plans to participate. Please complete this form so we can get an idea of what understanding and affirming Black Lives Matter at School looks like in our community. We will share, with your permission what you have planned, with others to inspire and motivate.

All school communities in the Greater Rochester area are encouraged to participate in a day of understanding and affirming Black Lives Matter on February 16th, 2018. Last years initiative was an important catalyst that has lead to real change and we hope to expand the impact of this initiative in 2018.

It is understood that every community is at a different place in this journey and that there will be a different path for each and every school but we believe that schools are a place to practice equity and the active engagement of teachers and students in building understanding and affirming that Black lives matter will lead to sustainable progress towards freedom and justice for all people. We have designed things in a way that allows us all to share a vision and leadership, it is up to you how you engage in this initiative but we suggest you begin by educating yourself and enlisting collaborators.

Please reach out if you need support, want to share your plans or have resources that will help. We especially want to hear how last years event has lead to growth or change within your school community.

Articles and Media About Last Years Initiative

Additional Resources

The Black Lives Matter at School Reflection and Action Planning event has been rescheduled for April 29th from 9-12 at World of Inquiry School #58.

Please attend if you would like to share your experience, hear the experiences of others and want to add your ideas as we discuss what needs to happen next.

Pleaseregister with this form: Registration Form

Please share your experiences and reflections here: Feedback on Black Lives Matter@School

Program:9:00 9:15 Registration / Breakfast9:15 10:15 Reflection Circles(sharing experiences from February 17th, and identifying needs moving forward)10:15 11:15 Plenary Sessions:11:15 11:50 Next Steps: What work needs to be done? What are we missing? How do we keep moving forward?11:50 12:00 Closing

In order to capture the wide range of experiences behind the many events that took place across the Rochester Community on February 17th, 2017, we are offering an opportunity for structured conversation and collaborative reflection as a means of synthesizing experiences and making plans for future work in regards to Black Lives Matter at School.

To everyone who participated in BLM@school or wished they had or wants to in the future this space is for you to debrief, celebrate and conspire for sustaining the movement.

WHAT: An opportunity for structured conversation and collaborative reflection as a means of synthesizing experiences and making plans for future work in regards to Black Lives Matter at SchoolWHERE: World of Inquiry School, 200 University Ave.WHEN: Saturday, March 11, 9:00am 12:00pmWHY: To capture and build on the wide range of experiences that took place across RCSD on February 17th

*** IMPORTANT***Please use this form to register for the Black Lives Matter at School Reflection and Action Planning Session:

This event is open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there. Please be sure to register ahead of time so we can order refreshments.

Parking available in the school lot on Scio Street. Additional parking is available in the Downstairs Cabaret parking lot on the corner of University Ave. and Scio St.

Please send any questions to blacklivesmatteratschool@gmail.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Join us on February 17th, 2017 in Rochester, NY and around Monroe County for a day of understanding and affirmation of Black lives in our schools. This day and event is made possible by the collaboration of educators, parents, community members, and BLM local activists.

About This Event

Relationships begin with taking time to ask questions and listen to the stories others have to tell. We, as Americans, are grappling with the past, present and future status of Black lives in our nation and every member of our community has an obligation to understand how and why Black lives matter. We must have the courage to affirm that Black lives matter in all of our lives. This day of action has been organized by a group of educators and parents to be a starting point for some, a path to restoration for others and spark to action for all.

Mission

Schools are a place to practice equity and the active engagement of teachers and students in building understanding and affirming that Black lives matter will lead to sustainable progress towards freedom and justice for all people.

Vision

Diverse community partners will come together to create a day of education, dialogue and action that will actively engage a significant number of educational communities throughout Monroe County in activities that support understanding and affirming Black Lives Matter.

Please feel free to contact us via email blacklivesmatteratschool@gmail.com or visit our website at http://www.blacklivesmatteratschool.org.

Contact Information:

Black Lives Matter at School

blacklivesmatteratschools@gmail.com

GREAT NEWS ABOUT BLM@SCHOOL T-SHIRTS!!

Thanks to our WONDERFUL partners at Positive Printz, the deadline to order has been extended!!!

You now have until MIDNIGHT on SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4th to get your order in for the official Black Lives Matter at School t-shirt!

HOWEVER please note!!! All shirts that are ordered after midnight tonight will be delivered to Rochester City School District Central Office! Members of our organizing team will be coordinating with customers to arrange distribution of the shirts.

All orders placed after midnight Feb 2 until the new deadline (midnight Feb 4th) will be delivered to Central Office and distribution will be handled by our team and they will be in contact with you. Shirts will be delivered to Central Office around 2/14.

Customers who have already placed their orders will begin receiving their shirts by mail this weekend.

So you still have a chance to get your t-shirts!! Thank you to Positive Printz for working with us and helping us to fulfill our commitment to the BLM@School community!

This afternoonwe facilitated our second professional learning workshop related to Black Lives Matter at School.The materials below are for educators that have participated in these workshops or would like to learn more on their own.

A Day of Understanding to Affirm Black Lives Matter in Schools

Learning Targets:

Introduction

Teaching Tolerance: Lets Talk about Black Lives Matter Webinar

Discussion

Action Planning Template

Additional Resources

See the original post here:
Black Lives Matter At School | A Day to Understand and ...

The Black Lives Matter movement slammed the National Rifle Association on Friday after the group filed a lawsuit against the Florida legislation that would raise the age to buy rifles to 21.

The civil rights organization retweeted the Associated Press and called the NRA a terrorist organization.

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The NRAs decision to file the lawsuit comes after Florida Governor Rick Scott signed off on the Senate Bill 7026 in the wake of the Parkland school shooting when a 19-year-old entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle and killed 17 people.

"This bill punishes law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a deranged individual," executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action Chris W. Cox said. "Securing our schools and protecting the constitutional rights of Americans are not mutually exclusive."

The NRA and the Black Lives Matter organization have never seen eye to eye, and have attacked one anothers organizations before.

Black Lives Matter activists responded to an NRA video that was aired in 2017 featuring images and videos of protesters in Baltimore over the in-custody death of Freddie Gray. The civil rights chapter from Los Angeles fired back with their own video, mocking the NRAs advertisement by copying their ominous music and lighting.

When the NRA issues a public call to their constituents, inciting violence against people who are constitutionally fighting for their lives, we dont take that lightly, says BLM LA member Funmilola Fagbamila in the response video.

BLM activists also slammed the NRA for not responding to the death of Philando Castile, a black gun owner, who was shot on July 6, 2016, in St. Anthony Minnesota after Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot him. The association eventually commented on Castiles death a few days later on CNN.

I think its absolutely awful. I dont agree with every single decision that comes out from courtrooms of America. There are a lot of variables in this particular case, and there were a lot of things that I wish would have been done differently, said NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch said of Castiles shooting. Do I believe that Philando Castile deserved to lose his life over a (traffic) stop? I absolutely do not.

A year later, Loesch argued on Twitter that Castile was not legally carrying his handgun when he was shot because he had marijuana in his possession.

Go here to read the rest:
Black Lives Matter Calls the NRA a 'Terrorist Organization ...

BLM DC is a radical collective of Black artists, infrastructure builders and movement healers and strategists from the future, organizing in the here and now around two movement equations. These equations inform how we live as our highest selves while dismantling White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Capitalism, Imperialism and the role the state plays in supporting them.

The first is BLM DC believes Organized Resistance + Continual Healing + Consistent Spaces for Centering Black Joy = Liberation. This means we believe that we can be liberated right now through centering healing and joy in our daily lives. We also think there are obstacles like state sanctioned violence that limit our ability to live as the liberated people we are capable of being and thus organized resistance is necessary. The other side of this equation is one we have borrowed from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, it helps us frame the way we integrate healing with organized resistance. It is a similar equation of Building + Blocking + Being. Our organized resistance BUILDS campaigns to dismantle systems of oppression while BUILDING liberated spaces, our healing spaces BLOCK oppressive beliefs and racial trauma while BUILDING resilience, our centering of Black Joy reminds of why we fight and lets us BE resilient and free together thereby making us stronger BUILDERS.

BLM Programs that Build: M4BL DC Steering Committee, Black Organizer Dinners, Emotional Emancipation Circles, #KeepDC4ME, Black Joy Sunday, Re-Envisioning Masculinity Workshops

BLM Programs that Block: direct actions [occupations, highway shut downs, disruptions, blockades etc], Non-Profit Accountability Campaigns, Weeks of Action.

BLM Programs that Sustain and Elevate our BE: Emotional Emancipation Circles, Men of Color Consciousness Building Groups, Black Joy Sunday, Black Organizer Dinners, visioning sessions, Well Examined Life analysis building.

Contact us blacklivesmatterdmv@gmail.com

Read more here:
Black Lives Matter DMV | A collective of Black Lives ...

On May 11, 2017, the District Attorneys Office announced that they would not be filing charges against Officer Joshua Lippert for the death of Jocques Clemmons. This decision comes nearly one month after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation completed its investigation of the shooting of Jocques Clemmons by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Officer Joshua Lippert.

While this announcement is disheartening, we know fully the long history of charges being dropped, cases dismissed, or officers not being indicted when it comes to Black people being murdered by the police. For this reason, many in the city are not shocked, but instead angry. Angry that despite someone being shot in the back and killed by an officer who has a record of excessive force- the officer walks free. Angry that a police officer can murder a human being and be comforted by the fact that they will be investigated by their fellow officers in blue. Angry that in the days leading up to the no surprise announcement, MNPD and Megan Barry have beefed up police forces all around the city to quell any form of outrage. Angry that Chief Anderson himself stated Nashville is not Ferguson and yet here we are. Jocques murder is a function of the continued occupation and over-policing of communities of color in Nashville. To pretend otherwise would be morally disingenuous.

Today Nashville, the liberal stronghold of Tennessee, joins the other numerous localities that fail to find fault or even recognize criminality in police officers when their violence and brutality takes the lives of Black people. It is troubling to imagine that an incomplete stop, for Black people, may culminate in death at the hands of MNPD. Community members have been warning city officials for years about the unique risks, vulnerabilities, and dangers that Black people experience at the hands of MNPD as detailed in the Driving While Black report on racial profiling in Metro Nashville. The same police department also sought to dehumanize Jocques Clemmons following the killing by calling him a gunman, releasing mugshots, and obtaining a warrant to search Mr. Clemmons social media accounts after his death in an effort to slander his character. Age old tactics used by police to villainize Black people.

Worse yet, Officer Lippert is STILL employed by MNPD and free to continue his well documented pattern of excessive use of force on other members of this community. Many of us are not safe while he is still employed, hiding behind a shield and carrying a gun Unfortunately, the death of Jocques Clemmons is only one instance of excessive force, in a city where according to data produced by Metro Legal in response to a civil rights lawsuit, roughly 700 complaints are filed per year against MNPD. The majority of these complaints go without discipline. It is past time for the COMMUNITY to have oversight and for the city to do something about MNPD other than offer the department more money, continue to host townhalls, visit Black barbershops to talk, and deliver lip service. If the city of Nashville, its council members, and police department are serious about making our city safer for ALL citizens they will strongly and visibly support the following demands created by community members who organized to form the Justice For Jocques Coalition together with Clemmons family members:

These demands are only what an initial step towards justice for Jocques Clemmons looks like. We recognize that even if all of the demands are met, it is still no victory for communities of color. For communities of color, there is no victory in police violence- there is only justice through accountability and shifting our ideologies and practices on policing to ensure that these killings never happen again. We fully acknowledge that these demands will never bring Jocques Clemmons back home. A mother is left without her child, sisters without a brother, and children without their father. A family left trying to cope, knowing that they are up against a system that historically does not lose. These are the devastating realities that create trauma and distrust in Black communities.

In these times, and considering the history of violence in this country- a history that some of us are reminded of daily- hope seems hard to find. Justice seems unreachable. But we push back and we fight for justice, we fight to keep hope, realizing that these things, that justice and hope are intimately tied to our humanity. The moment that we stop fighting for justice, we lose our humanity. Jocques Clemmons should be alive today. And through the trauma and anger, we will continue to fight for justice.

Rest in Power, Jocques.

###

See more here:
#BlackLivesMatter | Black Lives Matter Nashville

As Black Lives Matter and other social justice campaigns focus more on economic inequality, unions see an opportunity

After decades of decline unions have found a new champion in efforts to organize workers: the Black Lives Matter movement.

Unions have suffered as manufacturing has moved south away from their old strongholds in the north of the US. Membership rates were 10.7% in 2016, down from 20.1% in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time the shift from manufacturing to service industry jobs has hurt them too.

But as the Black Lives Matter and other social justice campaigns increasingly focus on economic justice, unions see a new opportunity. And ironically, a series of defeats for labor in the south is helping to fire up recruitment drives and attracting international support in the process.

Last Augusts bitterly fought attempt to unionize Nissans plant in Canton, Mississippi is a case in point and one that labor leaders say has made multinationals wary of becoming embroiled in high-profile union-busting drives lead primarily by black workers.

The fight at Nissan, where 80% of the workforce is black, drew international attention as Americans for Prosperity, the rightwing Koch Brothers-backed lobby group, ran ads blasting the United Auto Workers, and the former Democrat presidential hopeful senator Bernie Sanders and the actor and activist Danny Glover descended on the plant to lobby for unionization.

After a narrow defeat, labor leaders charged Nissan not only with illegal anti-union conduct, but with racism. The company denies the charges of racism and illegal anti-union busting. But already labor leaders say they are starting to see a shift and that multinationals, particularly European companies, are concerned about being seen as racist when they move their operations to the South.

Nissan has been a warning sign. The bad PR, the money lost, the sense that they are racially insensitive

Nissan has been a warning sign on the road. The bad PR, the amount of money that has been lost, the tarnishing of the brand, the sense that they are racially insensitive to the community, no company domestic or foreign wants to be labeled racist, said Marc Bayard, director of the Black Worker Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, who has spent more than two decades attempting to organize multinationals.

I have had conversations with companies and local Chambers of Commerce, who saw what happened at Nissan and are concerned about being seen as anti-union, anti-community, and racially insensitive, said Bayard.

In the meantime, Black Lives Matter is using the voice it has built in social justice campaigns to expand its remit. On 12 February, the Black Lives Matter movement and the low wage workers campaign Fight for $15 are combining for a series of strikes in cities across the US in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Memphis sanitation strike.

The union-backed Fight for $15 has been pushing for more union representation in the fast food industry and has successfully pressed for increases in pay in states across the US but, once again, the southern states have proved harder to crack.

The fight will not be easy. Labor leaders like Maria Somma, the first Asian American to act as director of organizing for the Steelworkers, says that multinationals go down south to take advantage of racist power structures that make people of color afraid to speak up in the workplace.

Its a known fact that African Americans make less than their white counterparts doing their same jobs, said Somma. Their work isnt valued and they know it. This creates a sense of fear because you know the people who are your bosses dont value you. I believe that employers understand that psychological impact and take advantage of it.

Somma recently helped lead a union drive of Kumho tire plant in Macon, Georgia, where more than 80% of the workers signed cards indicating they wanted to join the union. But the majority black workforce was again subjected to intense anti-union pressure with daily, hour-long, one-on-one anti-union meetings by a team of seven full-time anti-union consultants for more than two weeks.

The union alleges that Kumho repeatedly threatened to close the plant if workers unionized and to fire workers if they caught them advocating for the union. Kumho defeated the Steelworkers organizing attempt by a margin of 164-136 and the union alleges that Kumho tried to quash further organizing by firing one of the organizers of the drive, Mario Smith, a mere two days after the vote.

Young workers get it that you cant organize without a social justice approach

The news of his firing sent chills throughout the plant and attendance at union meetings dropped precipitously.

Its hard: nobody wants to hear it right now because nobody wants to get caught scared talking about it, said Kumho Tire worker Alex Perkins. They are scared for their job and its really hard to get people to talk.

The United Steelworkers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Kumho over Smiths firing and other alleged abuses.

They have also reached out to their allies in the Korean labor movement to help put pressure on Kumho in Korea.

It is a tactic that has already had some success. In 2015, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) attempted to organize the Swedish manufacturer Electroluxs brand new 800-person plant in Memphis, Tennessee.

Like Nissan, Electrolux is unionized outside the US, but management in Memphis decided to hire the notorious anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson to run a hardball anti-union drive at the majority African American plant.

Free T-shirts with a slash through the IBEW logo were distributed throughout the plant while TV screens broadcast anti-union messages.

Supervisors at Electrolux forced workers to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings, where they were grilled about their views on union membership and their work performance. Managers also warned workers that if they unionized, the plant could close. Workers voted against the union by a narrow margin of 57 votes in February of 2015.

After the vote Randall Middleton, the IBEWs director of manufacturing, flew to Stockholm to meet with IF Metall, the 325,000-strong union that represents Electrolux in Sweden, and brief them on the tactics that had been used to scare workers.

Under pressure from the union, Electrolux reigned in anti-unionization tactics, and workers planning a new vote found support from the Black Lives Matter activists marching in the streets. In July 2016, during the lead up to the election, some workers took part in a protest occupying the Hernando De Soto Bridge over the Mississippi river.

When they saw us occupying that bridge, they knew that power, and that people in the community had their back, said Keedran TNT Franklin, an organizer with Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

The IBEW subsequently won a landmark victory at Electroluxs plant by a margin of 461-193.

While such victories are currently the exception to the rule, unions are looking closely at the success of social justice movements. Younger union activists are increasingly focused on not just organizing a campaign based solely on justice for workers, but around race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation, said Somma.

Young workers get it that you cant organize without a social justice approach, said Somma. Ive been in the movement for a good number of years and I believe its a big change. Its not coming from union, its coming directly from our members and I love it.

See the article here:
Justice in the factory: how Black Lives Matter breathed new ...