The Silence Of Our Friends Is Violence

From our EduColor newsletter. Be the first to get these words and more here.

These are the times we refuse to remain silent.

Latoya Peterson of Fusion recently said that the silence of our friends is violence, and nowhere is that truer than the field of K-12 education. Educators can’t refuse the tide of the national zeitgeist. In this issue, we’ve chosen to flip the idea that we only talk about standards, content, and iPad apps. With the recent hate crime (terrorist attack) on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, the suicide of Kalief Browder, First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech honoring Hadiya Pendleton at what was supposed to be her graduation, and the silencing and mocking of Black women through the lie that is Rachel Dolezal, it’s important for educators to create safe spaces for their students to share their opinions, not simply impose ours.

EduColor was built on shining a heavy-duty flashlight on the most pressing racial issues of our time, and we continue to push the dialogue towards dealing with race intersectionally, honestly, restoratively. We can’t #AllLivesMatter these issues hoping our silence will eventually cause justice to happen. We have to speak on it from where we sit / stand / teach and elevate our voices henceforth.

Yes, follow our new EduColor Twitter, where we retweet the latest and greatest from around the EduColor universe. Also, read our handy new guide for using our hashtag on Twitter and elsewhere. But also, work towards justice. Ultimately, silence isn’t just denoted by quiet, but about talk that’s neither relevant nor uplifting to this mission. My friends, we must work towards peace.

In solidarity,

Jose Luis Vilson
Founder, EduColor

p.s. – Please check out EduColor members recent post on this silence as well: Zac Chase’s post on the silence of his friends in the ed-tech world and Chris Lehmann’s perspective on the events in Charleston, SC.

Photo c/o The Portland Press Herald