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Alamada Parents for Racial Equity
Courageous Conversations about Race with Alameda Parents (CCAR)
This group provides parents with educational opportunities and community to build shared understanding of race and racism, including in our families, school and district. Alameda PTA supports this work. With knowledge and experience gained in this group, parents can engage in their own racial equity journey and support racial equity efforts in their school and community.
The effort started in 16-17 and has held 17 gatherings/workshops over the past 3 years. Initially, facilitation support came from staff at PPS Office of Equity and Partnerships. PPS leadership changed, restructured district departments, and that Office ceased to exist as of May 2018. Currently, Alameda parent volunteers coordinate and facilitate the meetings.
Across PPS each school has its own path in racial equity. This critical work addresses the harmful effects of historical and current institutional racism. These dynamics result in children of color experiencing worse academic outcomes than their white peers, and they harm the safety and belonging of children of color in our schools (See All Hands Raised website for data on academic outcomes and PPS Successful Schools Survey website for data on belonging and safety).
Parents for Racial Equity meetings occur 6pm -8pm with dinner and childcare provided, starting at 5:45. Parents typically meet in the Alameda library, with childcare in the cafeteria. During 2019-20, some meetings may take place at Beaumont (to be determined).
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Resources
Listed below are materials used in previous CCAR sessions.
- Introduction to Courageous Conversations about Race framework. A powerpoint presentation prepared by PPS Office of Equity, and additional explanation of the 4 agreements protocol in the framework.
- How unintentional but insidious bias can be the most harmful. Video, featuring a scholar from Oregon, that was used for introduction to Microaggressions.
- Microaggressions in Early Childhood, and Microagressions Matter. Both resources examine the impact of microaggressions on children and youth at different ages.
- Race and Media Literacy. A powerpoint prepared by PPS Office of Equity.
- Your racial autobiography: a tool for reflecting on your racial identity development and awareness.
- Restorative Practice and Community Circles: tools for community building and repairing harm among students and communities.
- Portland area civil rights history: OPB documentary Local Colorexplores history of racism and civil rights in Oregon, while Life Ev'ry Voice takes a more in-depth look at the fight for civil rights in Portland. PSU Professor Karen Gibson journal article, Bleeding Albina, analyzes the legacy of redlining and housing discrimination policies in Portland; those impacts are still playing out today in rapid gentrification.
- Exploring White Identity: Concepts of Privilege, Whiteness, and White silence. And, Seeing White, a 14 episode podcast on the social construction of race, including whiteness, and its impact on policy, law, and US society.
- Understanding the importance of equity in positive School Climate.
- Disparities in school discipline, from preschoolto through the school years, and Dignity in School's national advocacy efforts for reform.
- School Integration: MacArthur Genius Nikole Hannah-Jones work with This American Life and herbook yet to come, examining the relationship between housing segregation and school segregation and options for truly changing the system. A grassroots national organization, Integrating Schools, offers mindful and intentional approaches for school integration.
- Introduction to Courageous Conversations about Race framework. A powerpoint presentation prepared by PPS Office of Equity, and additional explanation of the 4 agreements protocol in the framework.
