RTSB FOR
BLACK LIVES
MATTER
George Floyd | Breonna Taylor | Tony McDade | Sean Reed | Ahmaud Arbery | Stephon Clark | Eric Garner | Sandra Bland | Oscar Grant | Trayvon Martin | Mike Brown
And countless others who have been murdered and killed by state-sanctioned violence. Rock The School Bells remembers you, sees you, honors you, loves you. We stand in solidarity with Black communities, both locally and globally, rising up against the countless racial acts of violence on Black lives. We acknowledge that these are not isolated events but of over 400 years of racism and systemic oppression rooted in white supremacy. Rock The School Bells exists today because of the birth of Hip Hop 40+ years ago created to express the pains and struggles of many Black and Brown youth in the South Bronx. It comes from a history that is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Nationalist Movement, and the Black Arts Movement. Hip Hop culture is unapologetic and makes its presence known. Hip Hop is heard and amplified loudly in a society where Black lives are marginalized, silenced, and invisibilized. It’s not enough to love a culture, namely Hip Hop, that is rooted in the Black experience; we need to love Black lives.
As all of the Rock The School Bells chapters join together, we collectively:
Condemn the murders of Black lives at the hand of militarized state-sanctioned violence
Stand in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and the Black community in the fight for justice and Black liberation
Commit to centering Black lives and Black voices by holding intentional spaces that allow youth and educators to PAUSE - Process, Acknowledge, Understand, Self-reflect, and Educate.
PAUSE is an action, an intentional stillness rooted in purpose and deeper reflection. It is a necessary and critical part of the movement. It can be the bridge from inaction to action. Similar to a b-boy freeze to accentuate the end of a routine or the moment before the DJ drops the beat, pauses practiced by educators can be impactful in breaking the cycles of systemic racism and oppression that exists in educational spaces. There are multiple valid ways to fight for racial justice. We at Rock The School Bells invite educators to show their love and solidarity by actively engaging in these five practices.
Process: Notice what’s coming up for you. Ask questions of yourself. Ask yourself why you are feeling this way. Ground yourself in your values. Be open to perspectives while staying critical of what you read and hear.
Acknowledge: Acknowledge the unseen and the unheard in our students’ stories, experiences, and wisdom. What has society presented to us and what has it hidden from us in the media, in history books, in policies? By critiquing dominant narratives, we acknowledge the wholeness and humanity of our students.
Understand: How did we get here? What are the root causes? These events are not isolated incidents, but rather the culmination of generations of racism, slavery, and oppression.
Self-reflect: What is your role in dismantling these systems of oppression? How can we push back against our own complicity? How can we utilize our individual and collective privilege and power to critique and transform spaces of education to center anti-racism and specifically address anti-blackness?
Educate: The word “educate” is rooted in the word “educe.” To educe means to bring out and develop. How do we draw out knowledge from our students and develop the conditions to engage them in critical consciousness? In what ways can we learn about anti-racism and anti-blackness, in particular and learn about resources that can help us better address racial injustices and inequities? How can we call in folks who may not be as familiar with this work? Education is for the self and the community.
We have witnessed and have been part of numerous peaceful protests against systemic oppression and racial acts of violence in our communities and around the world. Let’s PAUSE and appreciate this moment in history. While so much work needs to be done, these historical demonstrations of people power have led to immediate changes and necessary conversations. Rock The School Bells celebrates Black joy and love as forms of resistance against systemic oppression. It is in that spirit we celebrate and honor the lives of George, Breonna, Tony, Ahmaud, Stephon, Oscar, and countless others. We will never be free until our Black communities are free.
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