Racial incidents and hate speech are on the rise at school campuses across the country. In October alone, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks media reports of hate incidents in schools, found more 90 incidents across 30 states. Many more incidents go unreported.

At one school where I have worked closely for the past two years, the community was shaken by the recent discovery of an Instagram account featuring racist, anti-Semitic, and ableist memes created by students. The account, called “I Hate Jews,” included swastikas plastered across student photos, anti-Black racial slurs, demeaning comments about people with disabilities, and students doing the Nazi salute. The principal and teacher leaders did a heroic job of responding to this incident and ensuring that targeted students and affected staff felt supported.

There is no avoiding this reality. We have a moral imperative to lead courageous conversations about what’s happening in our schools today. As a mother of biracial children who have experienced racial bullying, and as an educator who cares deeply about equity, I believe that implicit bias is one area where we can have a lot of influence. I have written about implicit bias in blogs and in my book The Listening Leader. Through professional development and efforts to challenge dominant narratives about students and families of color, we can create greater awareness, humanity, and an anti-racist climate in our schools.

To this end, I have pulled together an annotated bibliography of 8 fantastic PD resources for addressing unconscious bias and related issues with staff. Reach out if you’re wondering how to best incorporate any of these resources.

How are you addressing incidents like these on your campus?

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash