On Friday, the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly heard the names of the nine Charleston victims. They then attended to New Business Item B, which read in part:

We, the members of the National Education Association, acknowledge the existence in our country of institutional racism–the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based upon race. This inequity manifests itself in our schools and in the conditions our students face in their communities.

The rest of the NBI reads like a well-intentioned yet vague plan for what the NEA may or may not do to help teachers, schools, and local chapters on the path towards cultural competency. As proud and thankful as some of us were that the item was voted in unanimously, we also knew the history of working with said members on a daily basis. The sorts of comments we get on and offline for just mentioning the word race would shock the inattentive.

Yet, it still felt odd because institutional racism wasn’t just the edifices and direct policies that affect people of color, but also the actors within that system that perpetuate it. Thus, EduColor came out with its own statement which also made its way around the web. The work done to move the dialogue from “We can’t do this race thing” to “We need to pass this bill for the betterment of our organization” shouldn’t be overlooked, but we have to recognize that many of our colleagues aren’t ready to hear that they may be part of the problem, too.

Blogger and friend of the program Fred Klonsky reads NBI 11, calling for the removal of the Confederate battle flag and all symbols from public schools and spaces. This NBI came out the day after NBI B, and happened an hour after we released our statement. In some ways, it proved EduColor’s point, and after an hour and a half of debate, pushed the bulk of the other NBIs to the next day.

Of course, I tweet this:

It passed, but amended, so only the removal of the battle flag makes it. So the flag stays, but General Lee and the other clandestine KKK members’ names stick on schools, and the “strange fruit” of the past are now the students in those schools. Educators proceed by comparing, not contrasting, what Fred did with what Bree Newsome did in taking down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state house in words and inappropriate graphics. I was secretly happy that the bill came from someone who also had no risk involved in putting a racial issue on the floor.

As Fred and I both said on Facebook said later on, the NEA RA can’t be business as usual.

NBI 17 calls for more resources to address historical inaccuracies about the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. This passes with about a 10K price tag. Ta-Nehisi Coates seemed to do this at a smaller price tag, but the sort of reconstruction needed to re-teach social studies teachers in developing critical history thinkers might be more than 10k.

NBI 94 calls for a boycott of racist (specifically towards Native Americans) mascots, including but not limited to Redskins. This is defeated. Mascots like a Redskin or Robert E. Lee are symbolic renditions of institutional racism, but it took only two days for voters to forget that.

NBI 122 calls for support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and for examining concepts of justice within classrooms, a presumed corrolary to NBI B. The measure passes, which sounds great except only $2K is dedicated to this effort, and the measure only includes young black men as the victims of police crime. Alicia Garza and Patrice Cullors, two black women, created Black Lives Matter. Obvious disconnect.

In our statement, EduColor intentionally said we wanted to make sure people voted for the NBI on institutional racism with good intentions, and not because they didn’t want to appear racist after mourning / being shamed into recognizing the nine Charleston victims. I’m not of the opinion that all teachers are racist, absurd on its face. I am of the opinion that we all have more work to do before we reduce the effects of the school to prison pipeline, increase achievement for students of color, and create equitable systems for dealing with cultural issues that all of our students deal with on a daily basis.

More importantly, we hope the work can move forward for all of us who truly believe in social justice, not just parrot the cool kids who mobilize around it. People have found ways to profit off our current protest movement, and, with a lens so hot on the issue, it seems worth it lest you lose relevance. The NEA RA managed to introduce and pass some bills in session that I wouldn’t have thought possible even a few months ago, but the struggle to assure that these bills made it across felt strained in ways. If we’re really about moving forward, let’s make this a core value of what we do.

We can’t have business as usual. This I believe.

c/o Fred’s blog