Restorative Practices and the Movement for Racial Justice: P2RC Responds to This Moment
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
As we are all witnessing the horrible events of the past week, we grieve for the family and friends of George Floyd and all those lost to police violence. We grieve for our country that has for too long avoided the difficult work of truth-telling and healing the deep wounds caused by genocide and chattel slavery. Many of us, especially those of us who are white, are wondering what can I do? The task before us is daunting.
Restorative Practices can begin to create racial equity by building authentic relationships and through listening to the experiences and stories of those harmed by systemic racism. At this critical time, it is especially important to make space for the stories of our black, brown and indigenous brothers and sisters. Community Building Circles are a powerful tool to do that and create change in school culture. The circle process can create the space for having difficult conversations and addressing harm that people in the community are experiencing. The more aware individuals are of their own biases, the more aware they are of the history and experience of others in the community, the more productive, supportive and transformational circles can be.
Schools often think that they can address racial inequality quickly with a new initiative and many turn to restorative practices as a panacea. It is not. It is a set of tools for entering into dialogue around these issues. Restorative Practices offer an alternative to exclusionary discipline but it doesn’t change who is singled out for disciplinary action. Schools need to ask if implementing restorative practices is just a softer, gentler way to police the behavior of the same black and brown students. We have shared action steps below to help schools make a plan to address racial disparity.
Here are action steps schools can take:
Make a budgetary commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Hire experts, preferably people of color (POC), to come work with your school/district to create an action plan for addressing disparities.
Make a budgetary commitment to implicit bias training for ALL school personnel.
Make a budgetary commitment to hiring outside consultants, preferably POC, to help address diversity in hiring. Make a commitment to and an action plan for hiring POC into teaching and leadership positions.
Examine curriculum, make a commitment to include black voices, contributions and perspectives. Make sure that this is integrated into the curriculum throughout the school year, not just during Black History Month.
Train and support staff in having difficult conversations around race and racism especially as they arise in your school community.
Make a commitment to dig into disciplinary data and ask yourself hard questions about any disparities. Continue to monitor this data even after you have implemented Restorative Practices, which kids are you seeing in chats and conferences?
While this is an extremely trying time for adults, it is equally stressful and confusing for our children. Finding ways to help students grapple with these issues adds to the challenges already placed on the shoulders of educators dealing with the pandemic and virtual classrooms.
Here are some resources that can help guide classroom conversations about race and inequality:
The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice by Fania E. Davis
Talking About Race from the The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
PBS NewsHour’s lesson plan for grades 6-12 about the death of George Floyd
Discussion questions on protests from The New York Times' Learning Network
The 1619 Project Curriculum for all grade levels observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery from the Pulitzer Center
Teaching About Race, Racism and Police Violence from The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance.
In a perfect world, Racial Justice and Restorative Justice would work hand-in-hand. There is much work to do before that can happen and everyone has a role to play.
We look forward to working together to help bring about much needed change.
Candace, JJ & Beth