Hello there. My name is Allen Broyles, and I will be live-blogging from the NAIS People of Color Conference here in Atlanta, my first time at the conference. I’ll be capturing my thoughts, observations and interactions through Saturday, and thought it’d be helpful to share a little about who I am and the perspectives I’ll be coming from.
I’m a 50 year old white male from the south.
[waiting a moment to let preconceptions activate….]
I’m in my first year as assistant head of school at The Children’s School in Atlanta, though it’s my tenth year at TCS as a parent. With a student body that is nearly half children of color, and a faculty that is nearly a quarter adults of color, TCS is a school known for its inclusiveness and diversity, and has been led by a person of color for over 25 years, with a commitment on the part of the school to reflect the diversity of the broader community. For more than 20 of those years Marcia Spiller headed the school, and for the last four we have been led by Nishant Mehta. Marcia and Nishant are both local committee co-chairs of the POCC conference.
A major draw of TCS for me, both as a parent and as assistant head, is this inclusive community, the visible diversity, and the commitment for everyone to be able to show up as their authentic selves. I’m proud to be a part of it. With that as a backdrop, though, like most schools, even those with strong efforts in inclusivity, ours hasn’t yet figured out how to fully embed diversity and inclusivity throughout our curriculum and classrooms, nor have we reached a place where we as adults fully know and understand each other’s stories and experiences. From this perspective, I’ll have my ear out for how we might move our inclusivity efforts from the realm of optics and special projects, to being fully woven into the fabric of the school, and to fostering equity and justice. I’ll also be listening for how we as adults can bridge the gaps that arise from different lives lived, and become more present with each other’s truths of experience, as a necessary precursor for this work together.
A second, and much more emotionally charged lens for me at POCC, is as a parent of two children, one an 8 year-old transracially adopted African American son and the other a 13 year-old biological daughter. As we all know, it takes only a few minutes of media to see the minefield we are forced to navigate of hateful rhetoric from our most powerful politicians, violence against people of color by a system that purports to protect all of us, and daily micro-aggressions that remind us, despite clear progress, of how far we still have to go. My sense of urgency is clearly heightened because of my son, and it is painful for me to acknowledge that I wonder if I would feel the same sense of urgency without him in my life. This for me shines a glaring spotlight on the complacency of my majority culture, and the luxury I have not to be pushed, unless I explicitly seek it, into the discomfort that many of my friends and colleagues of color unavoidably experience simply as a matter of living. And it underscores the need for us as allies to engage as if it is our sons, our daughters, our family members who are being excluded, overlooked for hiring and promotion, denied lending, and in some cases shot. This is why spaces like POCC are so needed, and why we need to bring this level of challenge, dialogue and engagement into each of our school communities.
I’m looking forward to a powerful conference, and to meeting some of you! Thanks for reading, and please reach out on twitter if you want at @allenbroyles.
Allen
