Highlights Symposium, White Fragility and Some Other Things

Last week, Mary Lee and I attended the Highlights Foundation Building Cultural Competency Symposium. It was an incredible 3 days and I can't thank the presenters and the Highlights staff enough. Such an amazing group of people to learn and think with. Thank you Edi Campbell (@crazyquilts), Debbie Reese (@debreese), Laura Jiminez (@booktoss ), Paula Yoo (@PaulaYoo), Renee Watson (@reneewauthor), and Marilisa Jiminez Garcia (@MarilisaJimenez). If you aren't already following each of these women, you should do that now--so much to learn from this amazing group.

The required reading for the book was White Fragility. I had read the book but was glad to have the opportunity to reread it and have conversations with others who had read it. Laura Jiminez did a brilliant job at leading this discussion and talking to others with a facilitator like Laura made the reading experience transformational. If you have not read White Fragility, I'd highly recommend it.

I've been working to read and study issues of equity over the past year. I created this Padlet of resources as I read, adding posts and articles that I knew I'd want to return to--that were important to my learning. I've shared this a few times on Twitter as there are great resources if you are thinking about this and are just not sure where to start.  I love Debby Irving's idea for a 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge--"For 21 days, do one action to further your understanding of power, privilege, oppression and equity."  I would say from my own experience, 21 days is not enough--it is a great starting point but then keep going--I try to read or listen to something each day that builds my understanding in some way. Hopefully this Padlet helps others who are also trying to learn.

Link to Padlet

I bought a Highlights mug while at the Symposium.  I find that if I use a mug from an event, it reminds me of the thinking and work I did while there so the mug is a nice reminder of the thinking that happened at the symposium.  I also ordered this shirt from Laura Jiminez because this work is not so easy and the shirt will remind me of that when I wear it:-) (I ordered a purple v-neck and can't wait until it arrives! Proceeds from this shirt go to Grace Lin's #KidlitWomen and We Need Diverse Books.

Building Cultural Competency

Franki and I spent an amazing weekend at the Highlights Foundation at the Building Cultural Competency Symposium. The required reading was WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo, and processing this text with and without the participants who self-identified as not-white was a huge learning experience. We also listened to and learned from these remarkable speakers:

Edith Campbell who blogs at CrazyQuiltEdi and tweets @crazyquilts

Dr. Debbie Reese who blogs at American Indians in Children's Literature and tweets @debreese

Renée Watson who wrote the Newbery Honor/Coretta Scott King Award-winning PIECING ME TOGETHER and who tweets @reneewauthor

Dr. Marilisa Jiménez García  assistant professor at Lehigh University who specializes in Latino/a literature and culture and who tweets @MarilisaJimenez

Dr. Laura M. Jiménez  who blogs at BookToss, is a professor of preservice teachers at Boston University, and who tweets @booktoss 

 
Paula Yoo  who is an author, journalist and screenwriter and who tweets @PaulaYoo

Check out these blogs and Twitter feeds. Join the conversations. Join the learning.