Race in the Music Room: Representation

Over the last several weeks I have been tackling the topic of inclusion for traditionally marginalized people and perspectives in music education, and today we're talking about race. My focus in this series is threefold: reflecting underrepresented perspectives and people, responding to the needs and perspectives of marginalized perspectives and people, and respecting those differing perspectives and people as we do so. The topic of race is an enormous one, so I have split it up into 2 posts- last week I wrote about respecting and responding to students of color in this post. Today I want to focus specifically on "reflecting" (representation). I most certainly do not claim to have all of the answers, or to even be raising all of the right questions, but as with all of the topics in this series, my hope is to spark reflection and conversation for music educators so that we can take productive steps forward.

To help me address this topic I sought insight from two people of color who are music teachers I admire: Danielle from Music On a Cart and Czarina from Little Upbeat Class. I've also been doing a lot of reflection, reading, and talking with colleagues and others in the community over the last year in particular, so the thoughts below are a compilation of all of our ideas.

1. Incorporate more equal representation of races in:

a) examples of famous musicians/ music history
This is not a new idea, but when we are presenting examples of famous musicians we need to be including composers, performers, and other musicians from all different racial and cultural backgrounds! Take a careful look at which people (and which people's music) are represented in lessons and on bulletin boards and posters .

b) any pictures of people in general
Music history timelines and bulletin boards featuring musicians are one thing, but what about other visuals in general? If you have posters to demonstrate posture, signs related to behavior management, or other visuals in slides, handouts, worksheets, and letters home, do the people in those visuals represent a wide range of racial backgrounds? One specific personal example: I created posters to show the "give me five" hand signal for us to use school-wide, and I paid extra money to buy a high-quality image of a dark-skinned hand to use on the posters. I didn't know how much of a difference something so minute would make, but I was reassured when, a few weeks into the school year, I overheard a dark-skinned upper elementary student comment to his friend in hush-toned wonder, "I think that's MY hand!". Normalizing and respecting people of color happens in those tiny details!

It's important to note here, too, that not all visual representations are created equal. Textbooks, posters, and other lesson visuals that make an effort to include more diverse representation without taking the time to consult native sources can easily turn into caricature. Thankfully there are a lot more resources that represent people of more varied races in accurate and respectful ways available now, but it's important to check and think carefully before using the first resource you find!

c) song literature sources and topics
I discussed more in-depth my thoughts on using folk songs with racist backgrounds in music lessons in my previous post here. But beyond eliminating racist song choices, we can better represent people of color by including music written and/or performed by musicians of color more regularly in our lesson content and performance material.

d) books, stories, and other examples
There are lots of other little ways we represent and exclude/ignore people groups. If you use books as starting points for lessons, what kinds of people and perspectives are represented in those books? When you use stories to illustrate a point in class, who are the characters? If you are trying to give an example and use a "generic" name for an imaginary person, what kind of name do you pick?

2. Include representation throughout the year, not just during certain holidays

I discussed this idea in my post on avoiding exoticism in world music teaching as well- one important way to normalize different people groups is to represent them, in the many different ways mentioned in the point above, when their background is not the main reason for bringing it up. Don't limit study of African American musicians to February, or Spanish language songs to Hispanic Heritage Month. Make it a regular, normal part of your curriculum throughout the year.

3. Be careful to check sources before sharing

This is definitely a sticky issue but it needs to be addressed: don't blindly share resources and ideas with others without checking to see if they are accurate representations of the people groups they claim to represent! With social media and the internet, the wealth of ideas and resources to which we have access is wonderfully huge. But whether we are getting ideas from others or passing them along to others, we need to take the responsibility to make sure the resource isn't misrepresenting, marginalizing, appropriating, or exoticising people groups. We can't simply take an idea we find in a textbook, TeachersPayTeachers resource, teacher workshop, blog, or online forum and assume it has already been checked for accuracy, no matter how much we trust that source. All of us are learning together. If we can each do our part to make sure our sources are accurate and respectful, we can slow the spread of inappropriate materials. Frankly there are too many resources being shared again and again all over the internet that blatantly misrepresent marginalized people groups, and it is painful to watch them continue to spread into more and more classrooms!

4. Look for, and seek to change, ways that lesson content and assessment strategies favor characteristic skills of one racial/ cultural group over another

When we think about which people groups are represented in our lessons, we need to go beyond the song content and visuals on our walls. What musical skills are we valuing in our curriculum? Sure, maybe we include some hip-hop songs as examples in class, but do we value the ability to rap or manipulate a sample with the same importance that we do reading standard Western music notation? Are we fostering the skills and interests students need to be the next Chance the Rapper to the same degree we foster the skills and interests they need to be the next Mozart?

5. Put students (and others) of color in leadership

Another important way to make sure more people groups are represented in our classroom is to look at who is standing on the podium. The reality is, a disproportionately high percentage of us music teachers are white. It's important for our students to see people of different races taking leadership in our classrooms! Bringing in guest teachers, conductors, and artists, whether in person or even via Ted Talks and other videos or via video conferencing, is an excellent way to diversify the perspectives represented in the leadership of our class. It's equally valuable, and often more realistic (especially for elementary music teachers), to find ways to encourage our students to take leadership in the classroom as well. Because of what they see in their schools, many students of color will have trouble picturing themselves as teachers or conductors. Giving them the experience of doing it for themselves can have a profound impact on the students themselves and their peers who see them at the front of the class! One simple way I have found to get all of my students to take more leadership in lesson activities is through my warmups- read more about how I do that in this post.

Be sure to check out the resources I listed in my previous post on race in the music room here. You'll find several books and articles to read on the topic, as well as websites and social media accounts to follow, to help us all continue to learn, reflect, and talk about this important topic! I hope you'll get involved in the discussion by sharing your thoughts in the comments below. And if you want to stay in touch and get more content delivered straight to your inbox, don't forget to sign up here for the Organized Chaos newsletter!

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Race in the Music Room: Respect

Over the last several weeks I have been tackling the topic of inclusion for traditionally marginalized people and perspectives in music education, and today we're talking about race. This is an emotionally and politically charged topic for many, but also a particularly salient one! I most certainly do not claim to have all of the answers, or to even be raising all of the right questions, but as with all of the topics in this series, my hope is to spark reflection and conversation for music educators so that we can take productive steps forward.

Affiliate links are contained in this post. This does not change any part of the buying or viewing experience for you, nor does it have an impact on my views or on what I choose to share.

To help me address this topic I sought insight from two people of color who are music teachers I admire: Danielle from Music On a Cart and Czarina from Little Upbeat Class. I've also been doing a lot of reflection, reading, and talking with colleagues and others in the community over the last year in particular, so the thoughts below are a compilation of all of our ideas.

My focus in this series is threefold: reflecting underrepresented perspectives and people, responding to the needs and perspectives of marginalized perspectives and people, and respecting those differing perspectives and people as we do so. The topic of race is an enormous one, so I will be tackling the issue of reflecting students of color (representation) in a separate post. Today I want to focus on responding to and respecting a broader range of people and perspectives.

1. Take a hard look at your own biases and listen to people from other perspectives.

I've been saying this all through this series but it's worth saying again! It is impossible to expand our worldviews and perspectives in isolation. Obviously talking to people from differing backgrounds face-to-face is one of the most powerful things we can do in this area, but books and articles, professional learning communities (local or online), and social media are all excellent ways to hear from other perspectives and learn from experts who have been studying the topic as well.

You'll find a list of some specific resources for books and online resources later in this post, but I want to focus here on the idea of listening to people from different perspectives. If you are a white teacher, it can be embarrassingly challenging to find people of color to hear from. Looking for pop/ contemporary music to include in your choir concert that are "school-appropriate"? Whether you're looking on the radio, in a Facebook group for music teachers, or doing an internet search, my guess is (and my experience has been) you'll find a lot more songs performed and written by white people before you'll find anything by people of color. Looking for music teachers to follow on social media, authors to read in professional journals, or other ways to learn from experts in the field? The majority of the ones we'll come across initially are going to be white.

It is our job as teachers to seek out those differing perspectives, particularly those that are marginalized like people of color, and take the time to really listen and learn. This can't be about finding one African-American spiritual or one lesson idea from one teacher of color and patting ourselves on the back. The only way to deepen our own understanding and start to identify our own biases so that we can improve our teaching practice for our students is to listen with open ears over a long period of time and seek to understand.

I've included a resource list at the end of this post. Take the time to listen to some or all of them, and then, in whatever ways you can, amplify the voices of music educators of color. We need to help other music teachers find these resources and learn from these voices, and we need to better support our colleagues of color as well. Czarina put it this way (quote from her interview with Razan Abdin-Adnani): "As a woman of color in music education, I am the minority. The majority of music directors are white and usually male. Because of this, I have felt pressure to maintain the status quo in order to prove my worth. As I grew in my own voice and resilience, I realized that being a female-music-director of color is my strength. I am representation. This understanding led me to challenge the status quo, to fight injustice, and to be intentional about providing wider representation and a deeper understanding/appreciation of my students' identities in my teaching." When you find excellent resources from people of color, share them with colleagues!

2. Be proactive in eliminating songs that have a racist background as well as practices/ vocabulary that are offensive to certain racial/ cultural groups.

It is amazing how many songs that are part of the standard literature for many elementary music programs have racist backgrounds. Songs like "Jump Jim Joe", "Five Little Monkeys", and "Jimmy Crack Corn" are all songs that have appeared in many elementary music textbooks and resources and have been used in workshops for many prominent methodologies but all have racist backgrounds. If this is new information for you, you're not alone! But it's time to do some research. Here is an article by Aimee from O For Tuna Orff to get you started.

I've seen a lot of discussions on this topic among music teachers: should we or shouldn't we eliminate folk songs and other music that we've used (and loved) for years but find out have racist origins? There are differing opinions on this. Some teachers prefer to teach the song and have a frank discussion about its racist background, using it as a learning opportunity (Danielle has been able to do this successfully with her older private lesson students, for example). Others modify the portions that are racist by changing the lyrics or eliminating certain sections and use the edited version. Although there are some situations where these strategies might be worthwhile, as in Danielle's example, in most cases I (along with Danielle and Czarina) take the approach of replacing repertoire with racist backgrounds entirely. There is so much music out there in the universe- why would I continue to use a piece that is offensive to certain groups of people and promotes a biased, disrespectful perspective? It takes more effort to find new songs to use and create new lesson plans, but in our opinion it is most certainly worth the time and effort.

This concept goes beyond just song material- we also need to make the effort to learn about terminology and specific practices that are offensive to other people groups and eliminate them from our teaching. Yes, it can be exhausting to learn new vocabulary for referring to people groups or changing little habits that we have, but I believe it is our responsibility as teachers (and, really, as humans) to make the effort to change (and not insist that others should "stop being sensitive", as I've heard some say).

The best way to learn about terms and practices that may offend others is to develop open and honest relationships with people in your community and just ask! Different people groups, and even individuals, will have different opinions on what vocabulary is harmful. And there are so many little things we do as teachers that can offend students or parents but can easily be changed! I learned during my time in Korea, for example, that in some cultures it is like a death wish to write a person's name in red. I no longer use red when I correct papers- now I use another color like purple or green (and hey, it's more fun anyway)!

3. Don't be afraid to discuss race in class.

It can be intimidating to even bring up the topic of race in class, especially if you are a white teacher with classes that are primarily students of color. Take the time to do your homework, of course, but you as a teacher will never have all the answers. If you create a classroom environment where everyone can be open and honest in sharing their perspectives and listening to others', productive conversations can happen by learning from each other.

I teach a very short unit on jazz music in my 6th grade classes. As part of my introduction, I show videos of different styles of jazz from different time periods. As we watch Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald and talk about the way jazz changed over time, race naturally comes up. I used to avoid getting into the topic too deeply, but now if a student doesn't bring it up in the first few minutes I raise it myself! It's important for students to have opportunities to have honest conversations about race and become comfortable with the topic. It doesn't have to take over the entire class period- we all know how limited our class time is already- but if we raise it matter-of-factly whenever it is appropriate, we will create a classroom environment where students of all races feel more comfortable.

4. Don't make assumptions about students.

I mentioned this in my post on world cultures, but it applies to racial groups as well: don't assume that a student (or anyone else, for that matter) is of a particular race or identifies with a particular group. There are French people with very dark skin who certainly wouldn't call themselves "African American" (for example)! Avoid putting students on the spot or referring to them as an example of a particular people group- get to know the students and have private conversations with them if there is a reason their personal racial identity would be helpful to bring up in class. Remember that nobody's identity is one-dimensional or straight-forward. We are all multi-faceted individuals with unique perspectives, backgrounds, and stories.

5. Look for, and seek to change, ways that you favor the characteristic behaviors of one racial/ cultural group over another.

To truly respect and respond to students from varied backgrounds, we have to think beyond just racist songs and terminology. One area of ongoing reflection for me has been taking a hard look at the kinds of behaviors I encourage and discourage in my classroom (and in my school building as a whole). Are the behaviors I see as "negative" actually detrimental to student learning, or are they just harder for me to manage or uncomfortable for me personally? A simple example is hoodies. In the past I would automatically tell any student with a hood on to take it off in school. Now I only do so if the students are covering their mouths with it while singing, playing with the ties, or otherwise inhibiting their learning in some way. I have found that for some students, they put their hood on when they are upset and it helps them feel safe, which actually improves their ability to remain in class and participate. For others it is simply what they're used to, and by allowing those students to keep their hoods on they feel more comfortable in my class and feel their identity is more accepted. Perceiving the difference between those for whom putting their hood on is a distraction or a means to "check out" from the class, and those for whom it improves their learning, comes down to intentional relationships with my students (isn't that what it always comes down to?).

Another example is the way students enter my classroom. I used to be extremely strict about having classes enter the room silently so that their focus was immediately on the first lesson activity I had planned. Now in some classes (particularly the older grades) I allow students to come in having a quiet conversation or greeting with another student or (more often) with me, and I start our student-led warmup activity while a certain amount of chatter is still happening. I find for certain classes, students are much more comfortable and engaged this way and we get started just as quickly. Am I still a drill sergeant when it comes to walking silently in the hallway? Yep. Do I still have very clear expectations and structure for how students come into my room? Absolutely. None of this is possible without a foundation of structure and high expectations that are consistently enforced. But with that foundation established, I have found that students can handle a certain amount of freedom and, again, feel more welcomed in my classroom (which leads to increased engagement throughout the rest of class).

What about helping other students with answers? Of course there are times when I need to be able to assess each individual student's understanding of a particular concept so I cannot have students helping each other. But I have found shared/ cooperative learning opportunities to be tremendously helpful, whether they happen to be struggling with the topic or are able to help others! The point is to be open to the idea that behaviors we may be trying to prohibit may actually be ones that can help some of our students learn more effectively and give more equal importance to values of different people groups. Often it is a matter of finding different ways to manage the behaviors in a classroom setting. In every case it can only work with a foundation of high structure and clear expectations, combined with intentional relationships with each individual student.

RESOURCES

Here is a list of some books, articles, websites, and social media accounts that can serve as resources for further thought and discussion. This is certainly not an exhaustive list! If you have other resources or people you are aware of, please share them below so we can all learn from each other!

“Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application” by Vicki R. Lind, Constance McKoy

“So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" by Beverly Daniel Tatum

"For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too" by Christopher Emdin 

"Social Justice and Music Education - the Call for a Public Pedagogy" by Randall Everett Allsup, Eric Shieh

https://www.littleupbeat.com/ @littleupbeatclass

https://www.tolerance.org/ @teachingtolerance
https://www.facinghistory.org/ @facinghistory
https://www.britthawthorne.com/ @britthawthorne

https://www.teachandtransform.org/ @teachandtransform

https://anti-biasmontessori.com/ @antibiasmontessori

http://razanabdin.com/ @razanabdinadnani

http://chrisemdin.com/ @chrisemdin

http://www.hiphopmusiced.com/ @hiphopmusiced

I hope that this post serves to spark thought and discussion and that we can continue to learn from each other to better serve all of the students in our classrooms! To stay in touch and get more content delivered straight to your inbox, be sure to sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter.

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Planner Setup Tip: Simplifying Weekly Lesson Planning

I made a small but significant change to my planner setup this school year and after test-driving it for a couple of months I'm officially in love!

So let me show you what I did and then I'll explain what it is, how I use it, and why it's awesome :)

For those who don't know, I designed a planner years ago where I can keep everything in one place, from lesson plans for my elementary general music classes to meal planning, from concert organization to birthdays and anniversaries, and everything in between. If you aren't familiar with what my planner is like, here's a video "tour" from a couple of years ago, which takes you through all of the different sections of the planner:

I've had a section for "curriculum" since I first started this planner system, and as my lesson planning systems and resources have changed, the contents of that section have changed as well. A couple of years ago I started creating and using monthly lesson banks to more effectively fill the gap between my long-range yearly plans and my day-to-day lesson planning. If you aren't familiar with that system, stop everything you're doing and go read the post below- it has been life-changing for me!

Until this year, I was referencing those all-important monthly lesson banks in two ways: 1) on my computer, and 2) a hard copy of the current month, which I kept in the back pocket of my planner. As I completed each month's plans I would print out the next month and throw away the old one.

The problem was I found myself referencing those monthly lesson banks so often that it was sometimes inconvenient not to have a hard copy of every month at my fingertips! And as I reflect on my curriculum and lesson plans this school year to dig deeper into how to better represent and respect all of my students from differing backgrounds and perspectives, I have wanted to have a hard copy where I can jot down ideas when I think of them, and pull out several months at a time to look at them side-by-side.

Enter my planner setup update: the grade level tabs within the curriculum section of my planner!

For each grade, I printed out the yearly outline for which skills and concepts I plan to cover each month, with the curriculum overview for each grade level based on the standards on the back of that page. Behind that, I have each month's lesson bank:

I was avoiding having everything printed and included in my planner because I never want to add unnecessary bulk, but these monthly plans have become such a critical part of my planning process that it is worth it for me! If you want to get a closer look at what my monthly lesson banks are like, you can download the September plans for 5th grade for free right here, and you can get all the templates I used to set up everything from my long-range curriculum documents to my specific lesson plans, plus the directions for how I did it, in this free email course.

I love having everything organized this way, and having the tabs-within-tabs makes it easy to find what I need when I'm writing up my lesson plans. Anything that saves me time with all those different lessons is a huge win for me! If you don't want to add too much bulk to your regular planner, this would also be a great binder to set up separately with tabs for each grade and the grade level overviews and monthly plans organized within each grade.

I hope you found some fresh inspiration and new ideas to help you simplify your general music lesson planning! If you want more ideas like this sent straight to your email, be sure to sign up here for the Organized Chaos Newsletter so you can stay up to date on the latest happenings around these parts :)

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Females in the Music Room

As we continue our conversation on better inclusion for marginalized people groups in our music rooms, today I want to focus on women and girls. With such a high percentage of females in the teaching profession in general, it is in many ways surprising to think that girls are marginalized in any way in our classrooms, but when we consider the structures and issues of our societies in general it shouldn't come as a surprise at all. In keeping with the theme of this series, today I want to focus on ways in which we can better reflect, respect, and respond to the needs of females in the music room.

First it's important to note that gender is not binary, and there are many students who struggle with the issue of gender identity itself. Although that topic is beyond the scope of this post, I do not want us to ignore the struggles or needs of those students as we focus on females today. As we reflect on how to better reach and teach all of our students, it's important to avoid limiting ourselves to binary gender identities.

To help me tackle this topic, I reached out to fellow music teacher Michelle Warshany from Music with Miss W. She has been talking about the need for better female representation in music education for a while now and she has some excellent thoughts, ideas, and resources to share! Here is the conversation we had:

1. What are some of the specific areas where you have noticed lack of female representation in music education, whether as a student or as a teacher?

As a student, I started playing flute in 5th grade but did not play any music written by a female composer until I was in college. I did not meet a female high school band director until my junior year of college. As a student teacher, I attended a meeting with my co-operating teacher for all of the high school band directors in the district. I was the only female there. This summer I took an advanced conducting course as part of my masters and there was not a single female conductor featured as an example of great conducting in the entire course. 

As a teacher, I encountered a huge lack of female representation at the high school band level and at the secondary level in general. I have also encountered quite a bit of sexism and I know I am not alone. The Good Ol' Boys Club definitely still exists in many places, especially in the band world. Do a quick search of "sexism" in any band director Facebook group and you'll find many stories.

As a teacher, I have also noticed many band programs don't program any music written by female composers. It's not even just an issue at the K-12 level. Of the 1,445 classical concerts performed by orchestras, only 5% of the concerts include at least one piece of music written by a female composer. Most often, I see teachers rarely displaying female composers in their "composer of the month" series. If there are female composers, conductors, and musicians displayed or used, they are most often white women and very rarely feature BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color).

2. Besides representation, what are other ways in which females are underprivileged in music classrooms (of any types/ grade levels)? 

Females often face more challenges as leaders. Check out this interview that talks about some of the challenges women face, "for example the ‘master stereotype’ that men have emotion while women are emotional." It is important to recognize that female leaders face unique challenges. This is something to be mindful of, especially if you have female students who are drum majors, section leaders, etc. 

In the same vein of leadership, girls may be less likely pursue leadership positions, despite the fact that research finds girls are just as predisposed to be leaders as boys. If you see leadership potential in female students, be aware they made need a little extra encouragement and be sure to expose them to female leader role models.

If you have self evaluation/reflection on their playing/singing as a part of grading, be aware that female students may often rate themselves lower than their actual performance level. For example, this study found "when self-ratings are examined, men rate themselves as significantly more effective than women rate themselves."

3. What are some specific ways for music teachers to make sure there is more female representation in their lesson content, repertoire, classrooms, materials, etc?

First, I suggest looking at the small things. If you're showing a video of someone playing an instrument, can you find a video that features a female musician? If you have bulletin boards or displays, can you add more females (be sure that they are inclusive of BIPOC)?

Be intentional about the music you program and make a goal to program at least one piece composed by a female composer each year. The composer diversity project has done an AWESOME job of collecting tons of female composers and putting them all in one database.

Don't be afraid to call out or talk about something that a male musician, composer, or conductor did. Russell Simmons is featured in my high school general music curriculum. Instead of side stepping the issue of the rape allegations, I talked about #metoo and gave resources for victims of sexual assault. It is okay to call out something that is wrong. Students need to know what is wrong.

Male teachers/directors - speak up when you see something or hear something.

Take a look at who you follow on social media. Are you listening and learning from voices who are different than your own?

4. What are some specific ways for music teachers to better respect and foster female students and their values in their classes?

Make female representation a normal part of your classroom. Featuring female composers, conductors, and musicians during women's history month is simply not enough. Students need to see themselves regularly in class. If you want to read more on why this important, you can check out this post.

Bring in female guest conductors so students can see other females leading ensembles. Support your female student teachers and talk about the specific challenges they may face. Encourage your female student leaders and be on the lookout for any sexism that may happen.

5. What resources would you suggest for music teachers who want to better represent females in their classes?

https://composerdiversity.com/

Brass Chicks Blog

Project eGALitarian

Girls March

Women Rising to the Podium Facebook Group

If you're looking for grade 3 and below pieces for band and orchestra, check out Yukiko Nishimura.

You can also check out my Instagram highlights - I have a few featuring female composers and conductors.

Points to Consider

Reflect: Finding ways to better reflect females in our classrooms goes beyond including Clara Schumann in our music history lessons! We need to include music written by female composers in the repertoire we use, show examples of female composers, conductors, performers, and other musicians in our posters, visuals, and video examples, and make sure students have opportunities to interact with female leaders in music, whether they're guest conductors, visiting artists, teaching colleagues, or other musicians from the community.

Respond: It's important to take into account the specific ways that female students handle self-evaluation compared to their male peers. We also need to be conscious of the barriers to leadership that our female students often encounter, and provide them with the support and role models they need to take on leadership roles in our classrooms.

Respect: We can't ignore the specific challenges that girls face in taking on leadership in our classrooms. It's important to encourage female students to take on leadership roles and be aware of (and counteract) any sexism they may encounter when they do. And when we talk about people, events, and ideas that are disrespectful of females in some way, it's important not to ignore the issue but to address it (in an age-appropriate way) with our students. We can also model respect as teachers ourselves, whether male or female.

I hope you found some thought-provoking ideas and resources to help you better reflect, respect, and respond to female students in your classroom! I have to thank Michelle for sharing her thoughts with us. If you want to hear more from her, you can find her on Instagram, Facebook, TeachersPayTeachers, and on her website.

If you haven't yet, I encourage you to read through the introductory post for this series on making room for every student in our classrooms. I hope you'll take some time to read my thoughts on ways to better teach other marginalized people and perspectives in my other posts in this series as well.

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