Tag: Class

Who Are We, Really? The Five Questions Every College or University Should Ask Itself (PART TWO OF A FIVE PART SERIES)

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Support and love are interchangeable words. And like love, support is an action word. Love without action is empty. It’s just fondness. Or maybe the absence of intentional harm. To this end, many organizations think support means to have good thoughts about, or good feelings toward, or not to b...

Are We Racist? The Five Questions Every College or University Should Ask Itself (A FIVE PART SERIES)

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
I have taught at colleges and universities for 15 years — art schools, community colleges, universities, even college age students in a prison — and what I’ve come to realize is that the U.S. system of colleges and universities or “The Academy,” as we like to call it, operates as a citizen in...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #14: #blackpoetsspeakout

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
The #blackpoetsspeakout movement was started by Jericho Brown, Mahogany Brown, and Amanda Johnston in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri. This episode finds me traveling to participate in a #blackpoetsspeakout reading in Columbia, Missouri. The reading featured poets from the...

Top 5 Reasons Why I Prefer an Anti-racist ACCOMPLICE to an “Ally.”

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In this podcast I breakdown why anti-racist ACCOMPLICE is preferable to “ally.”  I would love to hear your feedback!   _________________________________________________________________________ Paulo Friere wrote, “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless mea...

The FEMININE PRONOUN Series #13: The Kids Are Alright!

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
In this episode I prove that poetry works with seasoned adults, college aged readers and writers, and high school “novices.” I travel from Illinois’s capitol, where I read for the state legislators, and the Illinois Humanities administration, to McKendree University,  and I end with the brillian...

Is there Such a Thing as a Poor White Progressive?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
“We po’.” Almost everyday, my grandmother would say this simple sentence. The missing verb served to make it more immediate, like a simple equation. “We po’.” We equaled poor. Sometimes she said it in response to the evening news when groups of white men argued in Washington, DC about...

Intimate Partner Violence as an Issue of Workplace Diversity

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
It wasn’t this picture that fell out of the dead man’s pocket, but it was one very much like it. When I was in the first grade, a friend of my mother’s boyfriend, a man who had sat at our table and had eaten in our home, murdered his girlfriend and then committed suicide. My […]

What Do Black Childhood, Charter Schools, and Tamir Rice Have in Common?

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Hint: Harriet Ball was her name, and she passed away in 2011. A veteran teacher from Texas, Ball was observed in the early 90s by two novice teachers, two young white men who were impressed by the way she infused the curriculum with rhythm and mnemonics that engaged the children thoroughly; much...

When Your Colleagues Just Don’t Get Diversity & Inclusion

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
Your company, or your school, or your non-profit claims they are “committed to diversity,” but by the look of things you can’t tell.  And the truth is, the “Strategic Plan” seems to be to talk about diversity until it’s time to revisit the strategic plan. Or even worse, your colleagues thinking...

No, People of Color are Not Here to “Spice Things Up”

Posted on by treasureshieldsredmond
In the days after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, I posted the following on Facebook: “I wake up to a world where a black led group I was a part of told the white governor to his face: we don’t trust you. I wake up to a black president who delegated a […]