Episode 3: Black (Student) Lives Matter
Welcome to Episode 3 of eRaced with Collette Bowers and Lisa Johnson!
In this episode, we talk to Janine Hancock Jones, Harvard WestLake’s first Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In addition to that role, she serves as an associate director of admissions. Prior to joining Harvard Westlake, Jones worked as a management side, labor, and employment lawyer at several law firms. She has taught several classes at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Jones also formerly served as a senior advisor and Deputy Legal Counsel to former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
We discuss:
- How to support diversity, equity, and inclusion for students in school.
- Difficulties between the ties of racism and politics.
- Her anti-racism plans for Harvard WestLake.
…and more!
Here are some highlights:
How Harvard Westlake Is Committed To Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
“We started this work before everything happened this summer,” said Jones. “... in 2017, our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion started. We’re entering into our fourth year, so we're in toddlerdom with the DEI work in a formal way at Harvard Westlake, and we have really tried to approach this work from an educational perspective. We've also tried to approach it from a systemic perspective, which I think is directly relevant to the piece of it that is anti-racism right now, which is, we're not gonna just try to throw programs at this, we're not just gonna try to throw a listening session at this, we are really thinking about the ways in which we as an institution perpetuate systemic racism through our policies and our practices and our procedures, and so it's not just about: ‘Let's bring in more black and brown kids, let's bring in more students from underrepresented populations,’ it really is thinking about what is the experience and how are we perpetuating systemic racism…” Jones
Approaching Racism In A Non-Political Way
“One approach we've taken, that I think is the right approach, is that we don't take a political approach to this. Even if people want to invite us into a political conversation, this is education, and we know that research shows that a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment benefits all students. 100% of our student population. And when people want to accuse us of having some liberal agenda, because we want to create an inclusive environment, because we want to be diverse, because we want to be equitable..I always ask a lot of questions and say let's remove politics from this equation for the purposes of this conversation. I'm happy to have a political conversation, but let's be clear about the fact that we're talking about politics. We wanna talk about economic policy, whatever, we can have that conversation, but when we are talking about the experience of our students, and when we're talking about that equal sense of belonging, it's in our mission statement. In 2014, Harvard Westlake changed a mission statement, and so it starts, Harvard Westlake strives to be a diverse and inclusive community united by the joy pursuit of educational excellence, and it goes on, but I always stop at excellence. I don't stop at diverse and inclusive because in order to be truly excellent in 2020 and beyond, you have to be diverse, you have to be equitable, you have to be inclusive, and you have to think about where we are at this moment in this country. We are not the same institution... we're not even the same country that we were 100 years ago. We're not the same country that we were 20 years ago.”
How Identity and The Work of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are Separate
“Your identity does not equal a skill set, and so you may be African-American, you may be a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but that doesn't mean that you have the skill set to engage in the work of diversity equity and inclusion” said Jones referring to advice given by a colleague.
Shifting From Non-Racist To Anti-Racist
“I think the way the conversation is moving, in a good way, is that we are all racists in a certain way.” Jones said. “And so we need to get comfortable with that, or at least we have perpetuated a system of racism, and so we need to think about it outside of the context of the individual and not just go looking for those card-carrying members of the KKK. And that we can be non-racists, but we need to shift into anti-racism, and we have to be anti-racists. We have to be active in our efforts to dismantle systemic racism from all levels. The National Equity Project has a really great visual for explaining this, where they're overlapping lenses, and you think about the four different categories of systemic racism. It's the individual, the interpersonal, the institutional and the structural. And you have to think about the interplay between all four of those and how they overlapped to create the system of racism. So it's not just about the member of the KKK. ‘Cause quite honestly, I'm okay with saying that person cannot be a member of the Harvard Westlake community, and I think Rick Commons would go on record saying, ‘If you are a member of the KKK, you're not welcome here’.”
How To Educate Instead of React
“Jay Smooth is a comedian and has a great video out there that talks about how to tell someone that something they said sounded racist, and I think we get lost in the details of whether or not we label something is racist or not. And he does it in a comedic fashion, so it's really, really funny, but actually, if you actually are racist, I don't want you in my community.” said Jones. “I think we have to be able to talk about what is the action. And is the action inappropriate or not, and I think we get lost in the details of, ‘do I have to label this racism or not?’ How about I label it as inappropriate and unacceptable. This is not acceptable behavior in our community. We're not gonna tolerate that. And have a discussion around that. But we are an educational institution. These are not fully formed, at least from a children standpoint, from the student standpoint, these are not fully formed adults.”
Harvard Westlake’s Anti-Racist Plan
“It includes so many different aspects of the school, and I think the point that I was making earlier about this, racism being a system of oppression, and so we're not looking at it as just interactions between students on that individual and interpersonal level, but really thinking about it from a structural standpoint and thinking about it from an institutional standpoint. And so we have a curriculum addressed in this plan. We have hired a company to come in and do a DEI curricular audit for us 7 through 12. In addition to that, we have also made changes to some of our courses so that we have a more equitable and inclusive curriculum.” said Jones.
“So for example, the easy targets are English and History. Where in English class, we are making sure that we are not just reading texts written by white authors, white male authors, white male dead authors, because that's usually the “cannon”, and so really making sure that we are diversifying the work that our students are reading because you're unintentionally sending messages when you just have works that are written by dead white male authors, that those are the only voices that matter. And so that's not in your explicit behavior, I'm sure some would argue with me that that is explicit behavior, but the implicit message that you are sending to your students is that the white male dead voice is the only voice that should be listened to. So thinking about that, thinking about not having a Eurocentric-focus to your History curriculum. We've spent a lot of time over the past few years, not just this summer, really thinking about: how are we teaching history? Are we teaching it from a westernized or. European perspective? Or are we really thinking about history as the entire world and from a global perspective. And so we've made some progress there that is implemented for this fall. So starting on August 24th when our 11th graders go back to school. Their US History course has been completely redesigned through a critical race theory lens, through one of our newer teachers in the upper school History department. He's now going into his third year, but he's the team lead for US History in 11th grade. So different things like that, but really also not stopping there though, that's why this curricular audit is really important to think about, because we are looking at it 7-12 in every single class. I think there's a tendency for schools to just look at it as one class and stop there. If I change 11th grade history, then we're done. We don't have to look at anything else, or if I throw a Black author into 8th grade English, then we're good. We don't have to talk about it anymore, and that's just not comprehensive enough. That's not understanding the system of racism.”
Jones’ Advice To Parents Who Want To Help Better Support Their School’s Diversity Programs and DEI Directors
“I think that what's most important is that parents are vocal, that you're not quiet about this.” said Jones. “You have to be strategic about it. And I definitely think there is a way to go about it where people will just naturally, human nature, just shut down and not listen to you. And so that's more kind of the psychology of how you approach people, but I definitely think that parents have to be strategic and vocal... And not only when there's a problem though, right? Like, have it be a partnership, because there are few things worse than only hearing from parents when there's a huge problem. It's like any relationship. Tomorrow is my 21st wedding anniversary. So with my husband, if I just always went at him when there was a problem, or let's say when we were first together, if I started bringing up problems before we had any sort of foundation to our relationship established, we wouldn't be 21 years tomorrow. So you have to establish that relationship with the adults in your child's community. Spend time on the front end, getting to know them. If there is an event, go to that event. Get to know the teachers. Get to know the administrators at your school and build that relationship. So that when there might be an occasion where something goes wrong, they already know you, they already trust you, they already respect you. So it goes both ways.”
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Here is the link to Harvard Westlake’s DEI commitments that we referenced in our conversation: https://www.hw.com/about/Diversity-Equity-Inclusion