This post is excerpted from Blue Jersey and is authored by education activist Okaikor who describes herself as a “Wife. Mother. Teacher. Student. Education Advocate. IDEA Organizer for Schools and School Leaders. Passionate.”

For a little over ten years, I worked as a teacher in an urban high school in Jersey City, that later became a turnaround school toward the end of my tenure there. Unfortunately, black teachers were impacted more by the School Improvement Grant’s turnaround model. The district involuntarily transferred many teachers, many of them black, to other schools and replaced them with predominantly white teachers. This act implicitly posits that black teachers are not qualified or capable to educate students, and white teachers are better suited for the job. No one came out and outright said this, but the actions of the school and district did.

Not surprisingly, this was a trend that we have seen in our country before.  Soon after the courts passed Brown vs. BOE black teachers were forced out of their jobs. Even then, black teachers in the South petitioned the NEA to see them and help protect them from mass firings. Since the ruling, we have seen a consistent decline in black teachers. Many lost their jobs because their segregated schools were closed, and could not find work in the integrated schools; they were considered less desirable than white teachers even though most of them had a master’s degree.

In the first year of the turnaround, I distinctly remember a student asking me, “Ms. Aryee-Price, do you realize that you are my only black teacher? All of my other teachers are white.” As the coordinator for the English department, I remember returning after the summer break and realizing I was the only black teacher in the department. Disturbed by this revelation, I mentioned to one of our vice principals, “You mean to tell me there were no qualified black teachers that could have been hired? None?” The next school year, the administration hired one black teacher and one Afro-Latinx teacher for the English department. I say all of this to show, the more we pretend as if racism is not a problem, continue to operate with a color-blind mindset, the more teachers of color will be disproportionately affected by color-blind policies, and invisibilized by our union.

There is a lot more there, so please read the whole thing. Much of it deals with the need for multiple voices, with the type of history that is critical for these discussions.