She emphasized that the Buffalo incident is not isolated from other similar incidents
Fatima Morell: Addressing murder in America begins with anti-racist approaches
Ketma Morell, archive
The Texas school crime won't be the last.
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After 10 people, eight of them black, were killed in a racist shooting at a Buffalo supermarket late this month, Buffalo Public Schools' cultural and language initiative supervisor Fatima Morell realized that city teachers couldn't avoid discussing the tragedy with students. .
"We cannot be ashamed of the facts of the case," Morrell says, "and for all of our children, we must dismantle white supremacy, which many avoid talking about."
The Buffalo gunman, who is white, has targeted black shoppers, espouses views of white supremacy and cites a baseless racist conspiracy theory about his claim to "replace" white Americans with Jews, immigrants and people of color.
Morell wrote the "Liberation Curriculum" for district school instruction in 2020, with the goal of promoting equality in schools, enriching debate about the legacy of racism in the United States, offering students diverse perspectives and more lessons about the historical contributions of the Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities.
Here are excerpts from an interview with Time magazine:
Does this attack underscore the importance of anti-racist education, such as the emancipation curriculum?
• The liberation approach is very important in this regard, and it is necessary for us to humanize people of color in the eyes of the world, because I see that color is a common denominator in all the killings of defenseless black and colored men, women and children, and in this racist attack, and many Another attack occurred because of the color.
With the recurrence of these attacks, we must begin to reprogram our youth, teaching them about humanity and love for one another.
We need to talk about what we have in common, that we are all special, and we must act fairly, making sure that our students know this from their early years.
There are efforts across the country to restrict how teachers discuss racism in the classroom, which makes it difficult for teachers to discuss this shooting incident with their students. What's your comment on that?
• I think we should stop being politically exaggerated.
All that is taught is not critical race theory.
The facts and historical facts are firm things.
It is our history as one nation.
The atrocities that have occurred and are being committed against people of color have long roots that stretch back to the days of slavery.
Our young people, especially our white children, need to know all about this, so that they don't end up being like this young man who committed this horrific act.
They need to be educated.
Another very dangerous thing is for others to tell us what we should and should not read, and to be censored in classrooms and schools about what we can tell our children.
This is not a democratic principle, it is not freedom.
There are some teachers who may want to avoid discussing the shooting. Why do you think it is important for teachers to have these difficult conversations?
• I believe that such incidents should constitute an ongoing debate in all of our schools.
It should be a mandatory part of the curriculum. We are talking about racism, systemic racism and how dangerous it is.
And when you look at what happened to Ahmaud Arbery (a black man killed by a white jogger), Trayvon Martin (another black murdered in cold blood), George Floyd (who died at the hands of the police), and then what happened here in Buffalo - we see That racism and hatred is dangerous.
I believe that such incidents are handled by education, and I call on all our districts across the country to teach our children to love man and what his contributions are. Children are watching us and watching what is happening, and we must remember that.
And what we as adults do is set an example for our young people to follow.
The atrocities that have occurred and are being committed against people of color have long roots that stretch back to the days of slavery. Our young people, especially our white children, need to know everything about this, so that they don't end up being like this young man who committed this horrific act.
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