On January 24, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that have upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The cases, one filed against Harvard University and one against the University of North Carolina (UNC), have been organized financially and in media by Edward Blum, a legal strategist who has worked for years…
With deep inspiration from Sara Ahmed’s profound words that a book can be a thank you note, I share below the love and gratitude letter I wrote and shared as part of the Leading with Justice series. The session was organized around my recent book from Beacon Press, No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism…
On Friday, June 4, the remains of two Black girls, Delisha and Katricia “Tree” Africa, were to be collected from the home of physical anthropologist Alan Mann, an emeritus professor associated with both the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Delisha and Tree were members of the Black liberation community in Philadelphia known as the…
Jim Clyburn, Congressional representative from South Carolina and the majority whip, has an office in the Congressional Chambers with his name title displayed clearly. However, Clyburn does not work out of that office, instead working from an unmarked one with this staff. On January 6, the day of the storming of the Capitol building, some…
Below is the final in a series of essays for the Pittsburgh’s School of Education while I have served as Associate Dean for Equity and Justice. Intentionally NOT diversity and inclusion. This a form of public pedagogy. Read, write, reflect, talk, take action. Not in that order necessarily. There are myriad ways to do the…
As is necessary these days and a reminder of how should all slow down to truly listen to the answers from the question, “How are you?” How we are with each other is one consistency amidst so much destabilization. The fact that we all interconnected is undeniable. This past month, and much longer for many,…
“Everything we do is pedagogic” Dr. Sabina Vaught “Young people are learning from us constantly. They are always watching and learning.” Dr. Susan Wilcox In 1992, Malcolm X, the 3hour, 22 minute film directed by Spike Lee was released. In 1993, Walter Dean Myer’s biography, written for youth, By Any Mean Necessary,…
The College Board recently revealed a new “adversity score” that it plans to use as part of the SAT in order to reflect students’ social and economic background. The mere fact that the College Board sees a need for an “adversity score” is a tacit admission that the SAT isn’t fair for all students. But will the…
Community like to hear about it, talk about it? Here it go (En Vogue) Although not an even split, I devote my awake working hours to two very different kinds of institutions: the academy and a grassroots education for liberation organization. Higher education is a hierarchical institution, in which people, schools, and programs are…
I provided some answers to questions from Teachers College Press, along with Karen Gross, about the logic and consequences of separating migrant children from their families, and more fundamentally, the what happens to human dignity when incarceration is a political tool. Read the full Q&A here. Many thanks to @TCPress
We went to the public hospital but it was private, but we went through the marked ‘private’ to the nurses’ coffee room, and it was public. We went to the public university but it was private, but we went to the barber shop on campus and it was public. We went into the hospital,…
“If they come for you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.” James Baldwin to Angela Y. Davis The shock and awe presidency of Donald Trump carries on. With its/his daily eruptions of formal and informal initiatives, the two consistent themes are destabilization of societal institutions and increased vulnerability…
Narratives have material impact. They shape what is possible, and even who is possible. Not completely, never permanently, but undeniably. A June 4 op-ed published by the New York Times started with the header, “campus inquisitions must stop.” An inquisition is an investigation that holds no regard for individual, or purportedly, collective rights.…
I am fortunate to be a mentor to several amazing, vibrant scholars. I tell them that I am not always sure that I’m good for their careers, but I’m positive I’m good for their hearts. This may sound like a demurring humility or perhaps the emotional (uncompensated) labor that a woman is expected to provide, but it…
After a meeting on February 27 with the leaders of the nation’s HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued a press release, in which she stated that due to an “absence of opportunity,” “HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” DeVos was immediately and rightfully critiqued for…
Leigh Patel 
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