Jeffrey Boakye
@jeffreykboakye
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Father. Writer. Educator. MUSICAL WORLD; I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID; MUSICAL TRUTH; BLACK, LISTED; HOLD TIGHT; KOFI series; Add To Playlist. Rep @sarahsuch .
East Yorkshire
Joined December 2010
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Ok let’s begin! Introducing: KOFI and the Rap Battle Summer 🎉🎉🎉 Cover reveal! Preorder NOW for June 2023: The first in a series that is going to make waves.
@FaberChildrens
@FaberBooks
Rep
@SarahSuch
Let’s get this one to where it needs to be!
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Karamo from Queer Eye just blew my mind. He says he doesn't subscribe to the term 'coming out' because it puts the power in the person who is accepting, or rejecting. Instead, he says it's about 'letting in' as in permitting others into your complete self. I really love that.
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Spoke to a class of yr5s about So Solid Crew. Asked if they would cut 29 of their friends into a music deal. Common sense kicked in when they said ‘no’, b/c you’d have to split the money 30 ways. Then I asked why you would do it anyway and humanity kicked in when they said:
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Last week I picked the most disinterested kid in my yr9 class & made him co pilot for all our lessons; my go-to for commentary, task length, opinion, everything. Yesterday he wasn't in. Today, he FOUND me to say that everyone had updated him & asked for his views. His face man 😀
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So underfunded homeless shelters get given cast off blankets (that only exist because of The Queue), while the govt that has overseen a homelessness crisis fails to strategise on how to solve the root problem? Is this a joke?
Hundreds of blankets donated to keep people warm while waiting to file past Queen Elizabeth II are to be donated to homeless shelters.
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It took almost 20 years for only two of his killers to be sentenced. Laws had to be re-written, institutions had to be forced to hold themselves to account, and a grieving mother had to become a campaigner for justice. 22nd April 1993.
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Say what you want but whenever I see news of migrants arriving here by boat I always think 'thank god they made it'.
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Then we talked about Claudia Jones, who, like Megaman, also had a vision - which turned into a community fair that evolved into the Notting Hill Carnival. The busiest free cultural event of its kind in Europe. I think they get it now.
#bhm
👊🏿
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Teaching 5 periods of lessons is easier than setting 5 lessons of cover.
Just me? 😅
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I don’t quite know how to phrase this without seeming to point a finger, but 🤷🏿♂️ we need white people to read this book, buy this book, and share this book, with other white people in particular…
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This is such a genuine red flag. The casual misogyny and implicit racism speaks to a particular part of the British consciousness that is actively dangerous. That’s what Jeremy Clarkson represents. Fragile, dominant masculinity draped in toxic nationalism.
flicking through The S*n while I was waiting in a caff and read this by clarkson. In what world is something so vicious and unhinged allowed to be printed? completely vindicates everything in
#HarryandMeghanNetflix
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And this is one for teachers: if you hear even a passing discriminatory comment, no matter how vague, PLEASE shut down the lesson immediately and tackle it head on. It's the best lesson those kids will learn all day.
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“It would make the music better”
“You could play more instruments”
“It would be more fun”
“There would be more ideas”
“You could reach more people”
“You could probably make more money”
Then I pointed out Megaman
@OFFICIALSOSOLID
…
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If teachers are really going to be deciding final grades, it's time to talk about unconscious bias as a matter of urgency:
there are black kids out there who are about to be undermarked.
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Not having a personal dig at Bill Bryson, but if you were ever wandering what the 'white gaze' was, here it is on full beam:
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It dawns on me daily, with increasing intensity, that we 🌍 are connected in a system of oppression/ inequality that demands ignorance/ inempathy. The world’s fires really do burn us all. I’ve been in suspended grief since October and the gears of our world will only create more.
Presenting
“Your sustainable future with eV batteries”
Brought to you by:
Cobalt Mines of Congo
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Ironic and utterly damning that the hospital being forced to turn away patients due to over-stretched resources is in Greenwich - the very same local authority that Gavin Williamson was threatening to sue for closing schools a few days early.
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Schools: Calling fully grown adults 'Miss' as a would-be mark of respect while the men get called 'Sir', which is basically a knighthood, makes me look at the floor and pinch the bridge of my nose.
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@Sejthejourno
I asked if any of them could spit bars. One kid nods vigorously then goes “Boots and cats and boots and cats” 😂 Love these kids!!
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People having the temerity to contact us about Black History Month events in late September and not even mention fees?? It’s about to turn into BLOCK History Month I’m telling you.
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Please unfollow me if you have a problem with hearing that white supremacy exists openly and structurally in the UK. I’m serious.
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And explained how he always had a vision for So Solid beyond the money. Wealth, safety, community empowerment…
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BIG news: Earlier today I was awarded an honorary doctorate from
@uniofleicester
. I want to publicly thank everyone at the university for this incredible act of recognition, and as I said in my speech, we must believe in each other the way that others believe in us. THANK you! 🎉
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What people need to realise is that any disruption caused by teachers striking is nothing compared to the ongoing disruption to education by teachers and TAs leaving the profession, or not joining in the first place, due to pay, conditions and culture. The crisis is happening.
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So today is the 21st day and 21st week of the 21st year of the 21st century.
You know what to do:
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I'm telling you: The low key trauma of being the only black teacher in the whole school. I go through my day with a whole bag of emotional burden thinly veiled by professional excellence. The week I've had.
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The queue for the women’s toilets at King’s Cross is more than 3x the queue for Platform 9 and 3 quarters, and there’s NO queue for the men’s at all.
The sexism is structural, open and unapologetic. Just make more women’s toilets man what is this.
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Can I just publicly say a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to
@DapsDraws
for creating characters that invite black representation so joyfully. Seeing all the ‘Look Up’ and ‘We’re Going to find the Monster’ costumes today has made me all 🥹 Here’s my 5yo son as Rocket!
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I will say this:
The one thing that a lot of mainstream dominant people don't seem to realise is that the rest of us? We get it: we understand you, where you come from and the language you speak, because that language is the oxygen we have been forced to breathe our whole lives.
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The 1880s Berlin Conference should be taught to school age children like the names of planets, but sadly, it’s hidden knowledge that even I didn’t know about until my LATE 20s
The day I realised that the majority of educated Europeans know little about their colonial history.
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At 19, repeat, *nineteen*, Jude Bellingham knew that the most important thing to do in that moment was to RUN to Kane and console him. He didn’t flinch. Whatever his own feelings were, he prioritised the well-being of someone in need. What an example. The future is healthy.
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I’ve spent today, as I did last Thursday, helping out at a clothes donation drive for refugees and asylum seekers being housed at a nearby hotel. Here’s some of what I’ve learned:
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THIS is why I'm spending every waking minute writing books about race and education.
THIS is why I'm staying in the classroom.
THIS is what ideology looks like and it's toxic.
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Cover reveal!🚨
I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID, June 9th. I’ve poured everything into this, so thank you for being with me this far. Education is the bedrock. Pls share, pls preorder below and let’s spark the conversations we need to have.
@picadorbooks
@SarahSuch
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Over the past week I've seen a lot of white people stuck at step 3 and many others thinking they can go from step 3 straight to step 13. There's a lot more to do.
#decolonise
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The Sun refers to Daniel Anjorin, RIEP, as ‘sword lad’. The Metro goes out of its way to humanise his killer.
…
It’s beyond disrespectful. It’s callous, dismissive, dehumanising for young Daniel, and a cold reminder of socially embedded white supremacy.
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The optics tell you EVERYTHING.
The victim unnamed, sidelined and dismissed, the killer shown in hero poses and made intriguing. Why? because white supremacy SEES the world in this way.
If you aren’t disgusted by this I have nothing for you. RIEP Daniel Anjorin.
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Anyone saying ‘but would you cast MLK/ Mandela/ etc as white?’ is being deliberately obtuse/ ignorant. The power of Shakespeare’s legacy is in its establishing of archetypes & psychological profiles that speak to the human condition; that’s why his work lives on. The problem is
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The headteacher came in while I was teaching this notorious class and they were working so well and he said such lovely things and they were so pleased and we were playing countdown and the TA was so proud and now we all want to cry 😭
#thisjob
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Working as the only black male teacher in a majority white school, I cannot explain how powerful it is when I see the few black students seeing me. I can't help but think, what if I wasn't here? It's so humbling.
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Writers! 👀 If you’re a writer of fiction or narrative non fiction: x3 bursaries worth £15k each are now available through the Early Career Bursary scheme. Apps open until 1 Nov and I’m one of this year’s judges. Tell a writer or get involved. Info below
…
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The people taking advantage of this country are not refugees and asylum seekers arriving on boats.
The people taking advantage do things like fast track govt contracts to their friends, dodge millions in tax and vote themselves pay rises in the middle of an economic downturn.
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The fact that she has been arrested, while he has not, speaks volumes to the institutional sexism and implicit racism in policing. She is the victim of an assault, end of. It’s unlawful, and that needs to be recognised.
Solidarity with everyone protesting in Peckham today.
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Just had a flashback to the time my new rucksack broke, and I got my year 8 class to write complaint letters, then we voted for the best one and collectively improved it, I sent it, and two weeks later? I got sent a new more expensive rucksack
#Teaching
😅
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Remember: Black History Month is three component parts
Celebrating black culture(s)
Recognising marginalised narratives
Addressing oppression & resistance
and you need all three for it to have any real impact. Thanks 👍🏿
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Anti-racism starts on children's bookshelves. It takes work. It takes investment. It's a start. Your kids won't grow up 'woke' by accident. Show them that
#BlackLivesMatter
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@MannyAwo
You and poo are about to get into a three year long entanglement. Welcome to the 💩 club!
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When I tell you that Sidney Poitier unconsciously and then very consciously impacted my whole perception of black masculinity in white spaces... His films were in the swirl of my childhood, showing nobility, honour, strength and style. I hope he knew the impact he had on us all.
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Has Boris Johnson said anything about Dea-John Reid yet?
Has outrage been seen outside of the black community?
Do our children understand this isn't something you can scroll past?
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Me again. Thread again:
No doubt: These players are the walking epitome of integrity. To step up and risk it all in the name of a country that will openly reject you the minute you slip... it's a whole other kind of nobility.
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Ok, deep breath, an announcement… I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID has been optioned for television! “Excited” is an understatement: I can’t wait to see how this develops. Details below, let’s go! Huge thanks to my agent
@SarahSuch
and everyone at Stigma Films 💫
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Teachers: PLEASE. Play this speech to your students. You can frame it as a ‘debate’ or analyse rhetoric or whatever but the kids *need* to hear these words. There is time in the school day for this. No excuses. It’s essential.
OUTSTANDING SPEECH
Mhairi Black delivered the most honest critique about this Tory government, in the last 12 years
She covers everything.
It will leave you speechless
This will definitely go down in history.
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It’s not often I come on this app to commend a whole country, but I’m reading through the Wales govt website and, boy, the efforts they are making to become an anti-racist nation are inspiring.
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You know when you meet that student in the corridor that you've had a few historic run-ins with? The most powerful thing to do is to enthusiastically greet them like an old friend.
A school is no place for grudges, and trust me: the mutual respect goes such a long way.
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They straight rejected proposals for an inclusive, diverse, and let's face it, honest curriculum. I don't even want a seat at the table no more*. I'm making my own table.
(*and yes that was a deliberate grammar slip. I'm too angry for RP)
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With a whole year group of school leavers about to have their grades decided by teachers and previous non-anonymous assessment, now is the time to start a serious conversation about unconscious bias and structural racism. Like, right now.
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I don't get linguists who aren't into rap music. I mean, who's messing with language more than rappers?
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My annual reminder to remember just how absolutely ridiculous these lyrics are.
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Having thought about it carefully for the past 18 months or so, I think the solution is clear: more white people need to find the security of self to be critical of the whiteness that has been constructed around them. [Friday thoughts: a thread ⬇️]
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Got into a HEATED debate with an 11 yr old today trying to explain how Rap is an element of Hiphop. He had me on the ropes when he went "well facts change - Pluto used to be planet." 😅
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When I said that racism is a safeguarding issue, I wasn’t playing. A 14 year old boy was punched and kicked, read that again, by TWO police officers who went on to lie about the attack. Our black youth are not safe, here at the hands of the police.
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Roy Keane said the Brazilian team’s celebrations were “disrespectful” 😔My heart goes out to him and any other straight white man who doesn’t know what dancing is or why you do it.
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I’ve spent the past 18 months doing focused anti-racism work and I’m telling you now: racism in this country is pervasive, entrenched and takes no days off. It’s a daily tragedy, urgent. Think about HOW this could possibly happen. We must act.
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The year 7 register in 2029:
Gareth. Here sir.
Pickford. Here sir.
Kane. Here sir.
Harry. Here sir.
Harry. Here sir.
Harry. Here sir.
Harrina. Here sir.
#ENGSWE
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A ban on Muslim prayer in one school is not “a victory for all schools”. It’s a failure of conversation and blunt reminder of the insecurity/ insensitivity of mainstream power identities.
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Being asked to do Black History Month events
where I might talk about colonialism and the legacy of transatlantic slavery
with absolutely no fee offered or even mentioned.
The irony isn't lost on me.
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I stand by everything I’ve said, and I stand with anybody looking in the same direction. I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID, out this week. Thank you for joining the conversation 👊🏿
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Hard to know what to say or where to begin. Benjamin Zephaniah has travelled with me throughout my career as an educator, a guiding light and giant for Black Britain, all Britain, all of us. Prayers and thoughts with his family. He leaves a legacy that will never fade.
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“But Jeffrey, What can I do?
“Where can I start?”
“I’m scared of getting it wrong”
I Heard What You Said has been helping so many educators find a way forward in their anti-racism journey. With the paperback out this May, I thought I’d compile a list of other recommendations:
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Someone somewhere taught these kids to end their stories with 'and it was all a dream' and I need to know who because I'm marking these things like 😫
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Watching
#Uprising
and getting flashbacks to all the NF graffiti I saw growing up in the 80s.
Realising how much of this I've blocked out.
Steve McQueen has done the hard work in making this. All we have to do is take it into school and press play.
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Yo save the date: 21st July I'm honoured to be sitting on for
@MichaelRosenYes
on BBC Radio 4 Word of Mouth. My first guest is
@ieshasmall
🙌🏿 and we're having the realest conversation about race, education, identity and equity. Yep.
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It's not just irritating, it's not just wrong and it's not just upsetting for this govt to claim no evidence of institutional racism.
It's an act of ideological violence.
In a country where:
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Meanwhile, I saw the only other black dad at my kid's school pick up today, for the first time. I gave him 'the nod', he said 'easy brother', and my heart did this 😭
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Us 'others', not white, not straight, not male, not neurotypical, not middle class, we live in YOUR blindspots. We walk a daily tightrope with annihilation on one side and obscurity on the other. Our lives, conceptually, are precarious, through no fault of our own.
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UK wealth is inextricably linked to transatlantic slavery. Some of the biggest banks began as slave trading coffee houses. Industrialisation came on the back of a need to manufacture cotton picked on plantations. The desire for coffee, sugar, tobacco x greed led to the dystopia.
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Morning British government,
Hope all is well.
Slavery was ALL about profit and suffering.
Best,
Someone with access to Google
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Mad to think that with 5 books and counting, 15 years in teaching, a consultancy business and a radio show, I still get asked to do unpaid work during BHM. What, for the exposure? I dread to think what less prominent black creatives are facing out there.
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I dedicate this thread to
@chimenesuleyman
@DrPragyaAgarwal
@ProfSunnySingh
and all others who have put recent time and energy into saying what needs to be said, not to mention the many others who live this on the daily. It hasn't gone unnoticed.
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It's staggering that when it comes to racism, you have to sit some fully grown adults down like 'If John has eight apples...'
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Save the date! 🎉🎉🎉 Proofs are in! Get ready to meet KOFI. Adventure, nostalgia, music, excitement, new worlds, new friends and pure joy. I’m so proud of this one and trust me, it’s the beginning of a series that is going to make waves. This June. Let’s go! 👊🏿
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Visited my auntie in Brixton. She tells me she goes all the way to East Street or Peckham to buy yam because Brixton market is, quote, 'not really the place for our black community any more'.
Gentrification is a crime.
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This video came up on my timeline. I watched it. And I became Welsh. 🏴
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Proofs are in… We’re getting closer… Big up all the support and everyone who’s shared or preordered already 🙌🏿 The whole point of this is for my journey, as a black teacher in a white system, to hopefully help inform yours. 9th June.
#IHeardWhatYouSaid
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My 5yo has started writing songs that CLEARLY would have been hit singles for Oasis back in ‘95.
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When 4 words from your 100,000 word book are big enough to dominate the
@guardianreview
front cover. SATURDAY 👊🏿
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If you are ‘white’, white supremacy says that to destroy whiteness is to destroy YOU. It’s not true. In the same way that as a man I need to challenge masculinity in the knowledge that I won’t be obliterating myself. Think about that today, and let’s take it forward from there.
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For the record, I hate the fact that the only black literary character that many secondary school students will ever meet is the busted back 'stable buck nigger*' in Of Mice and Men.
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Ofsted ratings need to go. They represent a particularly toxic accountability culture that pretends it can assess a school community objectively. If a school is unsafe, it must close. But the anxiety created by the currency of judgement is too much. Good teachers are suffering.
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The most energising thing about delivering my very own PGCE courses is inviting new teachers to become ‘Trojan mice’ for social justice. I make no apology. The Home Secretary is out there fighting in the opposite direction; we, as a society, can do so much better.
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The arts, the arts, the arts, the arts the ARTS. If the question is what will save education? What must we invest in? Where does the future lie? What allows us to flourish? What prevents exclusion and creates INCLUSION.
A wonderful speech- truth and joy. Big up
@EzraCollective
"This moment that we're celebrating right here is testimony to good, special people."
@EzraCollective
take a moment to shout out all the aspiring young musicians out there as they win the 2023 Mercury Prize with
@FreeNow_UK
!
#MercuryPrize
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I’m out here delivering PGCE courses telling new teachers to think hard about sexism, homophobia, racism and identity based discrimination, while the HOME SECRETARY is recommending the exact opposite. When I tell you that we’re out here fighting gravitational forces…
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It's time for Wiley to be led away by the elbow. The racist conspiracy theories and open hatred is toxic and unacceptable. Worst of all, it plays into a toxic myth of jewish global control that's essentially rocket fuel for anti-semitism.
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New bars!! "The truth is, our prime minister's a racist" Yes Dave!
"Grenfell victims still need accommodation"
"We need more conversation, less deforestation"
My mind's spinning right now 👊🏿
#Brits2020
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So: tomorrow I teach *that* part in Of Mice and bloody Men where Curley's Wife calls Crooks the N-word multiple times and threatens to string him up...
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For all those people saying 'What next, a whole day for gay people, a Jewish day, a transgender day, an Indian day, disability day?' YES THAT WOULD BE AMAZING TOO 🙌🏿
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One of the most profound things I've seen on TV a few weeks back: AJ's reaction to Craig saying he wished she'd starting dancing aged 4. She was in tears because she always wanted to perform, but her family couldn't afford lessons. It's so deep
#strictly
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It's official! Absolutely amped to be bringing my next book to the world with none other than
@picadorbooks
. It's 11 years in the making, it's about race and education, and it's called I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID. Get ready 👊🏿
We are thrilled to welcome brilliant educator and writer
@jeffreykboakye
to Picador.
'I Heard What You Said' is a brilliant and vital book which investigates, and has the power to dismantle, racism in our education system.
- via
@thebookseller
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Teachers: if you haven't been shaken up by the events of this week, well frankly, you should have. The world is locked into a conversation surrounding racism & race politics. It's not always a well handled conversation but we do our kids a disservice by not inviting them into it.
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ONE of the reasons I talk *so* openly about my various privileges (male, straight, British, English speaking, able bodied, neurotypical, etc) is to *show* white people how to accept, understand and tackle their white privilege.
Please get the memo.
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