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Education

A boy told his teacher she can't understand him because she's white. Her response is on point.

'Be the teacher America's children of color deserve, because we, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.'

Photo by John Pike. Used with permission.

Emily E. Smith is no ordinary teacher.



Fifth-grade teacher Emily E. Smith is not your ordinary teacher.

She founded The Hive Society — a classroom that's all about inspiring children to learn more about their world ... and themselves — by interacting with literature and current events. Students watch TED talks, read Rolling Stone, and analyze infographics. She even has a long-distance running club to encourage students to take care of their minds and bodies.

Smith is such an awesome teacher, in fact, that she recently received the 2015 Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.

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Joy

Mom wanted her son to see toys that looked like him. Fisher-Price delivered.

"If you ever decided to design a Little Person with brown skin and red hair, please let us know."

Courtesy of Niki Coffman

Fisher-Price creates new toy to look like a young customer.

When kids look around at television shows or toys on the shelves, they instinctively look to see if there's someone that looks like them. It's a natural desire to want to see yourself represented in different areas of life, and for kids, play is life. Mom Niki Coffman knew that, so she decided to go out on a limb and write to Fisher-Price to gently hint at a favor.

Coffman has a 5-year-old son named Archer, whom she adopted as an infant. The mom explained to Today.com that her family is white and her son goes to a predominantly white school, so there was very little representation of Black people, let alone Black people with red hair, like Archer.

"The thing is, if you feel like, 'you should just be grateful to have a toy,' it's probably because your toys did look like you. It's probably because my princesses did look like me, and once you know someone it matters to who doesn't have that, how could it not matter to you?" Coffman told Upworthy. "Archer identifies with all the toys with brown skin, but to have something that looks like him so that he sees himself in the world, it's not just about a toy. It's really about the rest of the world seeing you, too."

So Coffman went on a mission to make sure her son felt represented in the world around him, even going as far as asking for donations of diverse books and dolls to be sent to the school.

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Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

Radio City Music Hall is the home of the Tony Awards.

The 2022 Tony Awards was billed as one of the most diverse Tony Awards in history. And that’s not totally untrue. The show saw its first nonbinary winner, “Six: The Musical” writer Toby Marlow. Additionally, there were seven plays written by Black playwrights during this Broadway season, a fact that host Ariana DeBose pointed out in her opening number/monologue. She quipped that it was nice to see that “‘The Great White Way’ is becoming more of a nickname as opposed to a how-to guide.”

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Students at Ohio high school take matters into their own hands.

In elementary school we had a day where everyone would bring a cultural dish, come dressed in their culture’s traditional garb and present to the class about where you came from. The day was always a mix of kids talking about their German, Italian or Polish traditions while the Black kids were left a bit uncomfortable because the link to our heritage had been broken. Sure we brought food that some of us looked up in the encyclopedia. You know, back before the days of the internet. I remember being slightly mortified when my mom suggested bringing cornbread or collard greens because I knew none of the other kids would be bringing southern staples that day.

While the school attempted to check off the box for diversity, it was not a well-thought-out plan and caused a bit of embarrassment and harm. So when a school works to get it right and use their diversity day to discuss social issues and include interactive activities, you want to see it succeed. Turpin High School in Anderson Township, Ohio, had a tradition of holding diversity day where they did just that. Students and staff talked about hard topics and participated in activities where students were required to opt in with a permission slip from their parents. But this year, the school board postponed the much-anticipated day less than 24 hours before the event was to take place and then canceled it altogether.

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