Related Data:

• Seventeen people were killed in Paris on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week in three separate but allegedly related terrorist attacks. (“Victims of the Terrorist Attacks in Paris” New York Times, January 11, 2015)
• 26 places of (Muslim) worship around France were attacked by firebombs, gunshots or pig heads, with a mosque in Le Mans hit with four grenades since the terrorist attacks last week. (www.news.yahoo.com)
• Amnesty International estimates that 2000 Nigerians were killed in and near the town of Baga in northern Nigeria last week. The attack was claimed by Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group in Nigeria. (The Guardian, “Why Did the World Ignore the Boko Haram’s Baga Attacks?”, January 12, 2015)
• As of January 9^th, the American Freedom Defense Initiative purchased 50 ad spaces on the sides of MUNI buses and at bus shelters. This campaign compares Islam to Nazism. (SFGate, “Anti-Islam Ads Back on SF MUNI Buses—This Time Featuring Hitler”, by Evan Sernoffsky, January 13, 2015)

Possible Frame:

There has been a lot going on in the last few days around the world that, as usual, has something to do with us here at _____________ (school name.) It’s not always obvious how global events connect to our work, so I want to give you my humble take on what we can learn from the events that have unfolded in Paris, in Nigeria, and here in San Francisco.

So, here’s a quick summary. Seventeen people were killed last week in Paris at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper known for printing provocative and sometimes hateful cartoons about various groups, including Muslims, and at a kosher grocery store. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the acts of terror. Three of the alleged terrorists were killed themselves in the interaction with police. One is at large.

Also last weekend, approximately 2000 Nigerians were slain in Baga, Nigeria by Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist organization. Most victims were women, children, and elderly people—those that couldn’t run fast enough to escape the violence.

Over a million French and other nationals marched in Paris in solidarity with those killed in France and in support of free speech. Many government officials from around the world attended and lead the march. There have been many anti-Muslim actions in France since the terrorist attacks and the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, is about to distribute three million of its newspapers (larger than it’s normal 60,000 print run) with a new cartoon of Muhammad on the cover. Hate is flying all around amidst most people defending free speech and condemning the attacks.

Many of you have also seen the anti-Muslim ads on the sides of many MUNI buses in San Francisco. There is a whole story about how that happened which I’ll save for another day, but the fact is that many of our students see the imagery and have read the words. For those of you who haven’t seen these ads, there have been comparisons of Muslims to savages, assertions that fear of Muslims is because of the reality of Muslims, etc.

Here are two things about all of this. First— it’s disturbing, in light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, that the global community and media are deeply upset about the deaths in Paris, as they should be, and seemingly less so about the many more deaths in Nigeria, as they should also be—both at the hands of Islamic extremists. A life is a life is a life—all of the lives lost in the last week to religious extremism are tragic. When we talk about these incidents with our students we must remember that and remind them of that. What happens if we aren’t careful about this? This is one of the many ways that Black children and children of other races subconsciously internalize that people with dark skin are inferior or their lives are less valuable than people with lighter skin. We can actively work against that insidious pattern!

The second thing is about free speech and hateful speech—these are sometimes confusing legally and ethically. We have a constitution that protects free speech. People and commercial enterprises can say, print, promote all sorts of beliefs that espouse hatred and intolerance—that’s not against the law. Charlie Hebdo prints cartoons that sometimes spew hatred or mockery at Muslims and other groups. The American Freedom Defense Initiative buys ad space on MUNI buses to promote intolerance and stereotyping of Muslims. Bill Maher made some comments about Muslims that one could argue perpetuate stereotypes. Hateful words and images fly around – the laws only protect people and prevent such speech in very specific situations.

In schools, however, we have a distinct role and responsibility related to hateful speech. We have the responsibility to protect those targeted by hateful speech and the responsibility to raise the consciousness of those saying hateful things. At our school, like many schools, we draw a boundary when kids say, “That’s so gay!” call each other racist slurs, or otherwise use aspects of identity to insult or assault other students. We say, “We don’t say that here.” Sometimes we give consequences. I want to remind us that what’s even more important than the “We don’t say that here” response is our authentic conversation with a student or with a class that has heard a hateful comment. This is one of our many roles in positive social change. We create the space, over and over and over again to find out what a student meant when they used hateful words, and after truly listening, we offer up other perspectives or we illuminate the consequences of hateful words or we help a student understand the stereotyping nature of their words. Without the conversations, kids learn that we don’t say certain things here at school, but they may say those things out of earshot or on the bus on the way home. Reversing the internalized bias that comes from living in this world only happens through regular dialogue.

So here’s a plug for when you hear a student call a another student wearing a head-scarf a terrorist, take a breath, stop what you’re doing, and take it up. We sometimes don’t take it up because we’re not sure what to say, because we’re ambivalent ourselves about the recent tragedies, because we might say the wrong thing that a student will then tell her or his parents. We work hard on building relational trust so that we can ask each other for help with situations like this. You might say, in the moment, “We don’t say things like that here” and then seek out a colleague to think through with you how to engage in meaningful dialogue with the student or class later that day or the next day. It’s okay to think and talk about it with colleagues and then bring it back up.

What might the conversation sound like? You might say, “The thing about calling a Muslim student a terrorist is that you’re using a stereotype. A stereotype is an over-simplified description of a whole group of people based on the actions or desires or behaviors of a small group within the larger group. The vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. Calling all Muslims terrorists doesn’t give them the freedom and dignity to be the whole humans that most of them are. It’s like when we talk about girls and boys. Not every girl likes pink—assuming that every girl likes pink takes away some of a girl’s freedom to like whatever color she truly likes. Let’s think about the other stereotypes we’ve talked about this year…”

What matters is that our kids are in meaningful and thoughtful dialogue with you and each other about these issues…otherwise the insidious stereotypes flourish. Here’s to our ongoing opportunity to move the world toward more peace, more love, more equity.