Complete it!
“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” - Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison’s words resonate with me and I revisit them often, especially when I contemplate starting a new venture. Today, I’m beginning a daily blog with adult learners in independent schools at the center. I envision a community, throughout the United States and beyond, learning, unlearning and reimagining what equitable communities can look and feel like so that all members experience a deep sense of belonging - being seen, heard, valued and loved.
The blog posts will be relatively short and digestible (300 word limit), hopefully resulting in active engagement in the comments section. There will also be a podcast episode released each Saturday, again with the intention to spark conversation. Check out episode one.
Today’s post highlights a mantra that I wish independent schools would adopt around their equity initiatives: “Complete it or dead it.” Most schools’ equity work is filled with half-commitments, false timelines, and delayed reactions that get buried under the “busyness” of the school year, resulting in business as usual. The majority of equity practitioners, those with official titles and those without them, did not have a summer because they were inundated with requests of their time and knowledge to address the heightened racial climate, sparked by the deaths of Breanna Taylor, George Floyd and others. And then the students and alumni added gasoline with the “Black@” pages. What a summer!
The majority of schools responded the way independent schools tend to respond to racism and other -isms and -phobias:
“we are shocked because we didn’t know”
“here are some resources”
“our new task force will draft recommendations”
“welcome our speaker who teach us about racism during diversity day/week”
And…what policy was changed? What procedure was reexamined? What will be done differently?
Crickets.
Complete it or dead it.
