A few weeks ago, I found myself underneath a dead whale.

For New Yorkers, they know I’m talking about the American Museum of Natural History where the taxidermied mammal hangs above other exhibits in the Hall of Ocean Life. That night, Mayor Zohran Mamdani had invited people from across multiple sectors of the city to celebrate the Black History Month Centennial. Amidst criticisms about the lack of Black deputy mayors, this event felt particularly timely. Attendees heard a mix of singers, poets, historians, and public officials offer slivers of the Black experience in New York City.

Mamdani himself spoke to the history of Black New Yorkers in the formation of the city itself. In an interview with LaToya Coleman, the mayor even apologized for his remarks asserting that “immigrants built this country.” Even his apology felt like a stark departure from previous administrations where moments of sympathy felt sparse.

At the same time, New York City found itself embroiled in yet another school controversy. According to multiple sources, a Black student testified in front of his community education council (CEC) in defense of his school amidst plans to close the school. Allegedly, an attendee uttered some racist remarks virtually. She allegedly said that the student was “too dumb” to know how “bad” their school was. She then mis-cited (yes, I’m making up a word) Carter G. Woodson’s Mis-Education of the Negro and said “If you train a Black person well enough, they’ll know to use the back. You don’t have to tell them anymore.”

Education advocates felt the shockwaves immediately. The professor who allegedly made those comments put out a statement to clarify her intent, but the damage was done. Organizations such as Parents Supporting Parents, multiple CECs from across the city, and other individuals mobilized to correct the harm. To their credit, New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, of which I am a part, also put out a statement. CEC30 parent leader Whitney Toussaint put up a few informative videos that circulated among many media news outlets decrying the reprehensible behavior.

This incident sent shockwaves across the cities via e-mails and text chains. I know this not because I’m an education advocate, but because I am also a parent within that CEC. And I finally have the words for this.

Over the last decade, I’ve been troubled over how we talk about “parent” voice. Parents, like teachers and just about any group, are not a monolith. As someone who’s listens intently, I find myself sympathetic to multiple groups. I agree that the vast majority of families wants what’s best for their individual child. Parents tend to know what’s “best” for their child depending on a host of factors including value systems and beliefs. This gets even more complex when we attend to identity, particularly race, disability, and gender. Many of New York’s most toxic battles for educational equity rested at the feet of historic and seemingly insurmountable injustice.

Sadly, some New Yorkers bristle whenever education activists have mentioned anti-Blackness as a structural function of our society. But here, my question remains, “What is the role of dignity in our schools?”

Dignity as a framework for understanding education in the United States is at the heart of too many battles. Often, it becomes synonymous with respect, but I would implore us to explore the deeper meaning: worthiness. For me, dignity points to at least three levels in which students deserve worthiness. (Shout-outs and deference to the organization under this name):

• the rights of students to be seen as full human beings
• the rights of students to get an education
• the right of students to receive a great education regardless and because of their contexts

In NYC, educational equity depends too much on whether a small powerful group of parents have say over the matter. Whether Black parents sought either integration as shared power or self-determination in the form of community schools, severe resistance came shortly after. Anyone from a public office who points this inequity out faces more tabloid fodder and unceasing pettiness.

In other words, the history of NYC and schools from a racial justice perspective looks similar to all the places we get told are more racist.

But when we use the word “dignity,” we see something more akin to empathy, compassion, and justice. Dignity, in this respect, means that we see value in our students as full human beings. To wit, every racially marginalized group in America has found inspiration from movements led by Black people, particularly women whose labor goes unrecognized. In the policy world, the race-neutral language sometimes meant to advance civil rights gets employed to erase the contributions of Black people in New York historically and contemporarily.

In my lived experience as a Black man has also reflected much of the desires of fellow Black education activists. When I was still teaching, I’d listen to them and others talk up a grounded version of a culturally responsive education. In these conversations, they focused on the idea that, in order for us to truly have a just society, we would both need for every student to see themselves better, but also for them to see each other as full human beings.

In other words, learning about ourselves and each other points to a shared humanity.

Currently, people from the federal government on down continually find ways to subvert such a dignified agenda, but we must persist. To NYC School Chancellor Kamar Samuels’ credit, he has sought to elevate Black studies in K-12 schools. But how long will such a curriculum take effect? How will we counter the effects of repression and fascism on our students? How many people will pay lip service to a culturally responsive curriculum, but rely – again – on achievement scores and such? Will educators drive home the idea that we all deserve to live a life with collective dignity?

As always, the way out of the tunnel may not be a light at the end of it. Within that tunnel, we should look to be that light source, and see the luminosity. Even in a room with a whale of the world hanging over us.