Episode 37: Disrupting Anti-Blackness & The School to Prison Pipeline
What’s going to dismantle the parent and school to prison pipelines? The answer isn’t simple, but it’s powerful: Disrupting classrooms, disrupting anti-blackness, and disrupting all the other things that keep Black children from living their best, most liberated lives.
Anashay “Teach Em” Wright is a mother, wife, national award-winning educator, speaker, consultant, and Founder of Authentic Disruption and Disruptive Partners, a community-based leadership development program. Anashay helps people “embrace their power to influence and impact real change,” something we definitely need more of in this world!
Anashay and her team are working to disrupt the school to prison pipeline and, by doing that work, they’re also disrupting the parent to prison pipeline.
While she was working in the school system, she noticed the lack of love, joy, peace, and power in the school’s leaders, specifically the white educators. This left her wondering, “Do you really love Black children?” and then, “Do you love yourself?”
Inferiority and favoritism has infected us and white supremacy dehumanizes all of us, not just Black people. The American school system wasn’t even built for everyone in the first place. Sure, we’ve come a long way since school was only for the “bright” white boys, but we still have a long way to go to achieve justice, equality, and empowerment in schools for every single child.
Schools mirror prison culture by maintaining the current economy, mass producing compliant participants, and perpetuating harmful social and racial inequality. Most teachers in the US are white and they carry their biases and privilege into the classroom. That’s why we must implore all teachers to self-evaluate what they’re bringing into schools and how that’s affecting our future generations.
Anashay emphasizes the importance of shifting our focus from the problem to the promise. It’s not about white supremacy, but it’s about what we want for our Black community. How do we shift the focus to the solutions we must put in place to redesign the system? “Without the collective demand,” Anashay says, “we’re never going to get to the disruption.”
Your demands need to be voiced and heard. Change needs to happen.
We’re tired of talking about the issues and the trauma… aren’t you too? What can we do to actively disrupt the school to prison pipeline and parent to prison pipeline?
- It starts with the SOLE SELF. Disrupt your own thinking first.
- You need to be in community and in a diverse community.
- What’s the story you’re telling yourself? Unpack your stories and narratives about people of color, our brilliance, our collective peace, and your proximity to that. Do you love people? Do you love yourself?
- Be an ally and be conscious of what you say about your people. Be pro-Black, pro-Latinx, pro-indigenous, and pro-LGBTQ+.
- Don’t shame people who are trying to learn and change. It’s all about working together.
- Be willing to lean into discomfort, fail, and apologize when you make mistakes.
As much as we try to protect our children from the harmful messages from society, they’re time at school will inevitably expose them to some. Let’s do some harm reduction here.
What can a parent do to disrupt these harmful societal messages at home?
- Start with teaching them about what makes them Black and why that’s beautiful. Teach them about the power and brilliance of melanin. Do not center oppression in your home.
- Encourage them to critically question anything that dehumanizes you and anyone else. Your home is a place to practice conscious communication and challenging the status quo.
- Break out of the either/or mentality. Be open to new ideas, collaborating with community, and infusing love into everything you do.
Ready to become an AUTHENTIC DISRUPTOR? Listen in to this powerful discussion to learn more.
PLUS, get your FREE Guide on How to Be a Disruptive Partner by texting DISRUPT NOW to 33777!
About Anashay Wright:
Anashay “Teach Em” Wright is a mother, wife, national award-winning educator, speaker, consultant, and founder of Authentic Disruption and Disruptive Partners, a community-based leadership development program. As a Strategist, Speaker, Lyricist, Coach, and Educator, Anashay helps people “embrace their power to influence and impact real change.”
Anashay brings over two decades of expertise and experience in creating diverse, empowering & inclusive learning spaces and growth experiences. Each day she lives her best life as a thriving Black Woman constantly seeking to use her power to do good, yet she remains aware that she lives in a world that works in direct opposition to this. This conundrum is what makes Anashay so authentic and real, she deeply understands how to connect with a wide variety of people in a way that speaks to the specific support they need to harness their power to do good and influence real change.
To connect further with Anashay:
Visit her website: www.anashaywright.com
Follow her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/anashaywright
Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/anashaydisrupts
Learn more about Disruptive Partners: www.disruptivepartners.org