鈥淭he writer James Baldwin defined a liberal as 鈥榮omeone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do鈥� 鈥� and white liberals who think they know best may pose the greatest barrier to 鈥渁nti-racist, culturally responsive, and equitable approaches to education鈥� in America, writes Teachers College鈥檚 Sonya Douglass Horsford, founding director of the Black Education Research Collective (BERC), in in Education Week.
鈥淯nder the guise of school improvement and education reform, the 21st-century white architects of urban education have effectively defunded traditional public schools to finance their own top-down vision of how and for what purposes low-income students of color should be educated,鈥� argues Horsford, Associate Professor of Education Leadership. Meanwhile, 鈥渢he voices, experiences, and perspectives of people of color on the education of their very own children, no less, have historically been absent from the research, practice, and policy conversations that have and continue to determine their fate.鈥�
Under the guise of school improvement and education reform, the 21st-century white architects of urban education have effectively defunded traditional public schools to finance their own top-down vision of how and for what purposes low-income students of color should be educated.
鈥擲onya Douglass Horsford, Associate Professor of Education Leadership
Yet, ultimately, Horsford asserts, 鈥渋f Black lives matter, so should Black thought, especially when it comes to any agenda for educational equity or social justice in schools.
鈥淏lack people have the answers,鈥� she concludes. The question is: 鈥淲ho will listen?鈥�