October 6, 2022 • 45 mins
Our country and our people are facing a harsh truth… the American education system is failing Black folks. So, what can we do about it? In this episode of Parenting Decolonized, I welcome Kaya Henderson, the Founder and CEO of Reconstruction, a tech-focused company offering a K-12 supplemental curriculum that’s centered around Black people, culture, and contributions. Listen in as Kaya and I talk about the immense value of supplementing your children’s education beyond the classroom.
In this episode, we talk about…
How I discuss race and Blackness with my young daughter.
How Black people reconstructed their communities in the 12 years after emancipation (& why this is powerful information to know/share).
Examples of Reconstruction classes you and your kids can take.
3 tips for supplementing your child’s education at home.
….and more!
Learn more about Reconstruction & Enroll in their classes for $10/class at https://reconstruction.us.
To connect further with Kaya:
Follow Kaya on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HendersonKaya
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayashines
Connect with her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayahendersonconsulting
Listen to Pod Save the People Podcast: https://apple.co/3dtObSt
Don't forget to share, rate, and let me know what you think of this week's episode on Facebook and Instagram!
Read the TRANSCRIPT here: https://parentingdecolonized.com/episode-55-why-you-need-to-supplement-your-childs-education-with-kaya-henderson
This episode was produced by Crys & Tiana.
In this episode, we talk about…
How I discuss race and Blackness with my young daughter.
How Black people reconstructed their communities in the 12 years after emancipation (& why this is powerful information to know/share).
Examples of Reconstruction classes you and your kids can take.
3 tips for supplementing your child’s education at home.
….and more!
Learn more about Reconstruction & Enroll in their classes for $10/class at https://reconstruction.us.
To connect further with Kaya:
Follow Kaya on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HendersonKaya
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayashines
Connect with her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayahendersonconsulting
Listen to Pod Save the People Podcast: https://apple.co/3dtObSt
Don't forget to share, rate, and let me know what you think of this week's episode on Facebook and Instagram!
Read the TRANSCRIPT here: https://parentingdecolonized.com/episode-55-why-you-need-to-supplement-your-childs-education-with-kaya-henderson
This episode was produced by Crys & Tiana.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome to the Parenting Decolonized Podcast.I'm your host, Elonda Williams, entrepreneur,
conscious parenting coach and single mom towant Amazing Tyler. I'm on a
mission to help shine the light onhow colonization has impacted the black family structure.
If you're a parent that wants tolearn how decolonize your parenting, You're
in the right place. Let's dothis. Welcome back to the parent to
(00:37):
de Colonized Podcast. I'm your host, Elanda Williams, and today I have
with me Kaya Henderson. Thank youso much for joining me today. Thanks
so, I'm not excited to behere. Yes, I'm excited to talk
to you about this subject, somethingthat is really important, especially right now
it's going on in history. Sofirst of all, can you do a
brief intro? Sure. My nameis Kaya Anderson. I am an educator.
(01:02):
In fact, this is my thirtiethyear in education. Most people know
me from my time leading DC PublicSchools, where I served as chancellor.
I was deputy chancellor for three anda half years, chancellor for six years,
so in leadership for just about tenyears at DC Public Schools, where
(01:23):
we turned around what was the lowestperforming urban school system in the country.
And now I started a company twoyears ago called Reconstruction that teaches online classes
in African American history and culture tostudents and families all across the nation.
And yeah, I'm a magical blackgirl. Yes, I love to travel
(01:47):
and I love to dance with mycancer. Okay, it's cancer season right
now. Well, you know what, I am so appreciative of the work
that you do. So you specificallyyour business is Reconstruction do us or dot
us that is the url of Kaya'sbusiness. And this is a homeschool curriculum,
(02:10):
No, it is actually a supplementalcurriculum. So we mean it to
be not school, right, Wemean it to be learning for learning's sake.
We mean it to be about thedevelopment of our young people's identity and
culture and history and literature, becauseschool doesn't teach everything that our young people
(02:36):
need to know, especially when wethink about building strong Black young people,
right Frederick Douglas's it's easier to buildstrong children than it is to repair broken
men. And you know, whenwe look at what we ask schools to
do in one hundred and eighty daysand seven and a half hours, we
have schools to do a zillion things, and schools are not systems that were
(02:58):
built for our kids. Right.I presided over the school system in the
nation's capital, and so I knowhow school systems work. I started my
career in New York City public schools. I know how school systems work.
And I know that communities from Chinesepeople to Jewish people to Greek people don't
(03:19):
rely on schools to teach their kidswho they ask and what their history is.
Right, our systems that are notintended to develop strong black children.
And so for us this was youknow, I say all the time,
this is Hebrew school for black kidsor Chinese school for black kids, drawing
on our deep historical precedents like citizenshipschools post emancipation, or like freedom schools
(03:45):
during the Civil Rights era. Likethis is us reclaiming our history of teaching
ourselves and teaching the next generation notjust academic stuff but cultural stuff. Right.
We don't live near our extended familiesanymore, so our young people don't
know how to make macaroni and cheese. They don't know So we thought by
(04:12):
using technology, we could bring thesekinds of classes and experiences two young people
outside of the school context again,because lots of our young people don't have
positive experiences in school. So howdo we create a space, an educational
space that is just for us,that's designed for us, that creates a
space of belonging for us, thatkids would enjoy and that parents would feel
(04:38):
happy sending their kids too. Soyes, some homeschool families use US,
but school districts use US in schools, use us in their after school program
or the summer school program. Parentscan buy classes directly right. We work
with community based organizations, churches,girls out you wherever black kids are,
they can get on reconstruction and takea class. You know, it's so
(05:00):
powerful too because what we're seeing rightnow. So you know, I started
started getting my TikTok on girl,and I have been coming across some of
the like weirdest stuff. I'm justlike I do ow people think and one
of the biggest and you know,I don't even want to say it's TikTok.
We know this from our own upbringing. I'm forty two, and for
a long time, what we weretaught as black people is that we don't
(05:21):
have a history like a Black Americans, African Americans. We don't have a
history. Our history is lost.We have a void, and that is
so beyond false that I don't evenknow how to like just understanding that we
were indoctrinated to believing that right,Like, just because we were you know,
our ancestors were stolen and human trafficdoes not mean we don't know ourselves.
(05:46):
A lot of us can trace ourancestors. We are Americans, first
of all, and we have developedout of all that you know, pain
and angst and trauma, a beautifulculture that is conic. We are the
world's cultural icons African Americans. Sofor us to really be out here talking
about we're we're we're lost people.We have a void, we don't know
(06:11):
our history. It is so false. But this is why we have to
tell our own stories that exactly ourkids who they are, because the world
is going to tell them that different. They keep saying, you don't know
where you're buy it. Yeah,you don't know where you're fus a steady
diet of negativity, of hopelessness,of a lack of it. I mean,
they tell us that that education isnot our birthright, that we don't
(06:35):
value education. They tell us thatour vote doesn't count. They tell us
that you know, we aren't equippedto lead or to own businesses and what
and when you when you deeply lookat our history, even our history in
the United States, all of thatis wildly, wildly inaccurate. But it's
like you said, it's up tous. That's where I just did the
(06:55):
TikTok girl. I just did aone about how I plan on discussing race
with my daughter. And it doesnot start with trauma. It starts with
beauty and art and showing her picturesof Angela Davis, of beautiful black women.
I have a Black Panther newspaper thatI found on Etsy that's like,
(07:17):
it's so delicate, I can't evenbring it out. I want to read
it, but I can't that kindof stuff. I have a Life magazine
that has Angela Davis on the frontof it. I have all this like
this foot behind me is from Belize, That's where she was, That's where
she was conceived. But I Ithroughout my whole house is art, is
(07:38):
books. All of her dolls areblack. The way that I discussed right
to my daughter is through lifting herup, showing her the beauty of blackness.
How intelligent we are all of thebooks that she has has black women
and black boys on them. Allof her dolls are black. We sent
her blackness up in here. Andto me, that is how we start
the race discussion, and not withwell we were you know, a stolen
(08:01):
people like now, Absolutely not wehave that. That's not just how we
start the race discussion. That's howwe start the math discussion. That's how
we start the science discussion. Howwe start the Shakespeare discussion. We have
a we have a class called BlackShakespeare that we did in conjunction with the
Folder Shakespeare Library. It is thepre eminent Shakespearean institution in the United States,
(08:24):
and we just won the American ShakespeareAssociation's Public's Award or their Civics Award
for this curriculum that we created,which looks at five Shakespearean plays through the
lens of Africans or African Americans orissues that are important to us. And
so can you can you imagine?I mean a zillion people have encountered Shakespeare
(08:46):
in their regular schooling and never attachedto it, never whatever, And we
have people who are discovering Shakespeare througha black lens and digging deeply. I
mean, first of all, thereis a whole community of shape Grace scholars
who are people of color who studyShakespeare. They are you know, at
(09:07):
academies and institutions all across the world, and who knew that, right,
And we need to show our youngpeople that they are in Shakespeare, that
they are in you know, themuseums in Florence, that they are in
museums in Africa, that they havea place that is beautiful and resilient and
excellent and brilliant right here in America. This is how we start every conversation
(09:31):
at Reconstruction. Yes, I lovethat. That's so powerful. It's so
powerful and uplifting to our youth whoreally need it. You know, they're
hearing we think kids ain't listening tous, and they are hearing these discussions
about quote unquote CRT, which weknow is not being taught in schools,
but they know the implications of this. They hear us adults arguing that white
(09:56):
children need to be protected from thetruth. All the while they feel the
impact of being black all day.We know the stats when it comes to
black children, and it starts inpreschool within being targeted with unconscious biases,
right, so they feel all thatstuff so yeah, go ahead. And
(10:16):
this is why this space was reallyimportant. This is why we decided to
not try to rewrite the curriculum thatis in schools, but to teach this
supplementally, because they need to bein a space where they feel affirmed and
loved and belonging. And I mean, you've seen enough hot mic incidents during
(10:37):
the pandemic where you know, whiteteachers think that they are off camera,
off you zoom, and they sayterrible things about our kids. And so
you know, when we started this, my partner says, oh, we're
going to develop this great curriculum andwe're going to do it in schools.
And I said, one of thereason why we're not going to do it
in schools is because I don't trustpeople to deliver this in a way that
(11:01):
is affirming and uplifting for African Americankids. We want to be very cautious
about who is teaching our kids.We want this space to be a space
of belonging. So we have ourclasses are totally synchronous, right, so
they are online, but they arein real time. It's a tutor who
we call a reconstructor, who hasa meeting with six to ten kids and
(11:26):
we teach everything from academics to culturalstuff to whatever. We have a series
of cooking classes called Cooking for theSoul where you learn the history of five
soul food dishes and then you actuallylearn how to cook them with an amazing
chef from New Orleans. Or there'sa Low Country class where you are learning
(11:48):
the history of dishes from South Carolinaand how to cook them, and the
Caribbean culture a Caribbean cooking class,and West African because it's important for our
kids to know the role that foodhas played the food ways, and how
food has changed as it's traversed acrossthe oceans, and what this food means
(12:11):
to us. Right, all ofthis is super important and we do it
all black Andy Black. We teachkids how red tonics and decoding, you
know with my black is beautiful,right, like we are teaching every book
is about Black people and it's notIt is not trauma drama. Right,
this is about our brilliance, Thisis about our role models, This is
(12:33):
about our joy, our excellence.Right, we don't We're not talking about
the white man stepping on our neckand blah blah blah. Yeah, I'm
talking about what we did in spiteof and in fact, that's why we
named our company Reconstruction. Reconstruction isthe least taught period of history in the
(12:54):
United States, and Reconstruction is incrediblyimportant for us to understand what happened during
that twelve year period and what happenedright after. Right, and so in
the twelve years post emancipation, weas newly free people. Remember we were
lazy, we were stupid, Wecouldn't do anything right. But as soon
(13:16):
as they set us free, orlet us free, or told us we
were free, or whatever, westarted thirty seven historically black colleges and universities
twelve years. This is all.In twelve years, we founded five thousand
community schools, including citizenship schools,to teach people how to read so that
they could vote. Five hundred thousandblack men voted in the presidential election of
(13:41):
Ulysses Grant, and he only wonby three hundred thousand votes. So you
tell us our vote doesn't count.Our voting countant since the day we got
it. That's why I keep tryingto take it. We owned twenty four
percent of the farm owned, notsharecropped. All they want. They wanted
to tell you that we were slaves, and then we were sharecroppers. We
owned twenty four percent of the farmlandin the United States post emancipation. We
(14:03):
created businesses, we incorporated towns,we started banks. Right we were crushing
it twelve years, just twelve years, and white people were like, wait
a minute, hold it, holdit, hold it, hold it.
This is not what it's supposed tohappen. That's right there. I just
want to zero in because I havea very I have a large white audience,
(14:26):
and I just I just want y'allto understand, like, we're gonna
talk about this from a black perspective, but I just want the white audience
understand that little snippet white people lookingat us and being like, you guys
aren't supposed to be successful. Youwere not human just a minute ago.
That's right. So now you're hereand we can't have that ship. And
(14:46):
so you see the rise of blackcodes, you see the ends to the
Jim Crow laws, you see therise of the clue Klux Klan. All
of this is in direct response.You see, you know, poll taxes
and literacy tests at poll all ofthis is in direct response to twelve years
(15:07):
of us being free and getting ourwhole entire lives, and so we need
to help our young people understand thatour history here is not just about slavery
and civil rights. We have ahistory of creating our own and doing for
ourselves. We have our history oflandownership here. We have a history of
(15:28):
educational self determination. We have ahistory this is this too, is part
of American history. And we thoughtevery time somebody sees our company on a
T shirt or has to write ouremail address, they are forced to ask
themselves way reconstruction? Why reconstruction?And to revisit this time of incredible prosperity
(15:52):
and success for black people in Americathat we just gloss over in our history
books. I mean, so ify'all understand what's happening now is mirroring what
happened back then, right because justlike Kaye said, after those twelve years,
well during the twelve years we sawthe rise of all this terrible,
(16:17):
inhumane racial anti blackness violence. Wesee that happening now. We saw the
white lash after President Obama was elected, and it's still continuing now because it
is again, y're not supposed tobe here. What do you mean?
Black women are some of the mosthighly educated people in the United States.
What are you talking about? Y'allnot supposed to be here. Y'are not
(16:38):
supposed to be doing well? Whatdo you mean black women are? Because
I keep saying black women because weare to ship? What do you mean
that we keep We are the likenumber one of people who are creating small
businesses. Like what are y'all talkingabout? It is in direct response to
and black women showing up at thepolls. We show up and we show
out like like no other to tryto say this country soul Okay, every
(17:03):
election, We're not supposed to behere. That's what it's going on.
Y'all don't even know that it's goingon, but that's the underlying the undercurrent
of what's happening. It's just marrying. And it's because it never was addressed.
It was never addressed. And whenyou think about all of the stuff
that shows that how depressed kids areand how hopeless kids are right now,
(17:25):
how kids are facing more mental healthissues than they've ever faced in their lives.
You've heard the phrase, you know, when America catches a cold,
we catch pneumonia. Right our kidsare dealing with even more than regular America
and the kids are, and soit's important to teach our young people this
ain't the first time that the policehave been brutalizing us, and we've overcome
(17:51):
that. This isn't the first timethat they've changed the rules on us to
not allow us to do the thingsthat would help us get free. But
there are periods of history and peoplein history who worked around, worked overworked
under, and came out on top. Like understanding our history of resilience,
our history of excellence, this iswe've we've been here before, right we
(18:15):
are. I'm fifty two, soI just got ten years on you.
But like you know, we missedthe civil rights movement, We missed people
posing our ancestors down and putting dogson in the one eye. But you
know, my older folks are like, Hi, this ain't nothing new.
Right, We've been here and we'vesurvived this. We have to teach our
young people that this ain't nothing new. We've been here, we've survived this,
(18:37):
we've overcome this, we've thrived,and so we're gonna point you to
those examples and teach you how tolearn math by looking at the great entrepreneurs
in blackness and helping to you know, simulate starting a business so that you
can do what they've done. Right, We're going to teach you by helping
(19:00):
you solve problems. You know,one of my favorite math lessons that we
have is around planning for a breakfastprogram right for your community, and we
teach our young people at the BlackPanthers started the first breakfast programs feeding programs
in the United States. Right,And so you got a plan. You're
running a site and you have toplan for how many kids are coming,
(19:22):
how many kids are registered, howmany kids might come, how many lunchings
do you need, how many you'redoings solving. It's a lot of math.
You're solving problems for the black community. I'm teaching you how to code
by helping you develop apps for nonprofitorganizations that are serving the black community.
(19:42):
Right, I'm I'm teaching you youknow how to write poetry by looking at
five African American women poets from PhyllisWheatley to Amanda Gorman, Right, like
I am. You know, Ihave like got one hundred and fifty different
class I'm teaching you how to stepbecause that is part of our history and
(20:04):
connecting it to South African Gump shoedancing, and we get to do that
with Step Africa, which is theonly professional step company in the world.
Like it's these are our people.And when our young people see black people.
Step Africa right now is in Denmarkor somewhere Slovenia, right teaching people
our history and our culture. Thisis the expectation. The expectation is not
(20:29):
sagan genes, because that's what theyteach you in prison. The expectation is
cultural icon fashion, you know,creator, mathematician, physician, university president,
scientists like these are our community leaders. These are our people. I
(20:49):
want you know, when we lookat history and we see, like you
said, how we have overcome alot. You know, sometimes I think
about, especially after Juneteenth, oneof that the recurring thoughts in my head
was how confusing, terrifying, butalso like just this mix of emotions of
like joy and fear and anger andall these things because now, after all
(21:14):
these hundreds of years, I havemy freedom, Well what but with no
support, like understanding that they hadzero support and yet and still yet,
and still we had things like youknow, Tulsa, we had the people
in New York that is now knownas near Central Park. All these beautiful
neighborhoods, Seneca Village. We teachabout Seneca Village. Yes, we teach
(21:40):
about mounds. It's gonna mound somethingin Mississippi, right there are all these
free black communities where people owned landand businesses, and we're like, you
know, we're gonna do this ourselves. We're gonna do it ourselves. And
my friend Crystal Mensies that was onhere and she spoke about the Maroon colonies,
which I had I had, youknow, I was raised in California,
(22:03):
but she was saying all throughout theUnited States there was maroon colonies.
Before she said that, I waslike, what the hell. I started
Google while we were on the podcastjaw okay, and I just started learning
about reconstruction I want to say,in my thirties, and that pissed me
off. But that was literally notI mean when I say it was like
slaves were freed, civil rights likethat whole era is completely forgotten and erased.
(22:30):
And it's for this reason. Butalso and also I think also it
was because of the immense amount ofdomestic terrorism that took place during that time
as well, that means being violence. I would tell you my experiences.
I didn't learn about the history ofHaiti until Yes, I was in my
late forties and I took a tripto Haiti, and the question I kept
(22:53):
asking myself is why can't Haiti getit together? Like why it always you
know, why is it the pointsor whatever? And we think. The
other thing that I knew about Haitiwas that it was the only successful slave
rebellion in history of the world.And had not connected the two things until
I got to Haiti and began tounderstand the history and how the world literally
(23:15):
sat down in a room, theAmericans, the British, the Portuguese,
the Spanish, the Dutch, theFrench, and said this cannot have been
anywhere else, and so we will. We will debilitate Haiti so much that
it cannot recover, so that noother colony ever thinks about uprising. And
(23:37):
that's what they did, including makingHaiti pay to French to day they lost.
If the payments have stopped now,but it was, it was until
the nineties, it was until ninetyfour, ninety five, and literally the
payment was more than the girls domesticproduct of Haiti, I mean. And
the implications for the United States suchthat those people who lost land that the
(24:04):
French who lost land and you can'tsee my air quotes, but air quotes
the French who lost their wealth inHaiti, where did they move to the
next closest French colony, which waswhat Louisiana, and those people fresh off
of their slaves getting up on them. We're like, you know what,
(24:26):
we are going to make sure thatthis doesn't happen again. But when you
look at why American slavery in theSouth is so brutal, it is because
these French people designed and engineered newimplements to torture and to literally make sure
that the Haitian Revolution did not haveit again. We don't connect these dots
(24:47):
right way on purpose, but butbest believe we have a class called Protests
and Movements at Reconstruction that looks atfive different protests and movements from the continent
to Haiti to the United States,so that our young people understand that this
stuff is not serendipitous. This isby design. And unless you understand the
(25:11):
history, you don't understand what's happeningto you right now because it's a lot
of the same thing. You knowwhat, I'm listening to you and I'm
thinking also just how if we don'tas adults, because a lot of us
as adults don't know this information.Right. I remember speaking about some stuff
on my page and so many peoplewere like, I never knew this,
(25:33):
I never knew this, And I'mjust like it was purposely kept from you
for a reason. And I'm thinkingabout even when we start talking about Cuba,
we start talking about all the differentLatin America, Latin American and Center
American. Yes, we start talkingand just looking at things that are happening
(25:53):
even now, and then you startto I started connecting dots, and I
to just be like the US man, there's blood, us blood everywhere all
across the place, and we aren'tbeing indoctrinated to not ask questions, to
not to really just rely on whatwe are being told and not ask why
(26:15):
why is that country like that?Why do they keep overthrowing these why do
they keep having civil unrest? Andwe don't under most people don't understand that
the US has played a major rolesin a lot of these countries downfall or
upgrade. But this is why it'simportant. Like I love that your podcast
is called Parenting Decolonized, because colonizationis about a lack of self determination.
(26:42):
It is somebody else imposing their will, their values, their culture on you.
And I think about decolonizing education,right, not just taking what the
system gives you, but real selfdetermination, real liberation. Is about teaching
our young people this stuff that nobodyelse is teaching, right. And parents
(27:07):
have a significant responsibility here. Andthis is where you know, I challenge
our community. I think parenting ishard, and we're so tired like its
sometimes it's the best we can doto get our kids fed. Yes,
and that's my design too, andkeeping safe and whatnot. But the truth
of a matter is the education systemis built on the expectation that educators are
(27:33):
the experts. That parents are supposedto drop their kids off in kindergarten,
our first grade. We know what'sbest, and we'll turn them out intoelth
grade and they'll behold people and it'llbe fine, ignoring parents key role as
kids first, teaching the people whoknow their children the best, the people
who have a vision for what theywant for their kids, and our active
(27:59):
participants and co creators and the idealeducational experience. And parents have got to
demand that role because the education systemis counting on you not being engaged is
counting on you. I mean,we everything that I did at GC public
schools, I wouldn't do anything major. You know, people would say,
well, what's your strategic plan goingto look like my strategic plan? These
(28:19):
are not my schools, these areour schools. So this community is going
to say what it wants from DCPs, and that's going to be my strategic
plan or whatever the community tells me. If we want to change report cards
because we don't think they're good,we're going to ask parents in the community,
what do you want to see inreport cards? If we're going to
close schools or open schools, we'regoing to ask parents what do you want
to see? And that we can'trely on a leader who happens to value
(28:42):
that to see our community as valuableand brilliant and bright and equal to you
know, the expertise that educators arebringing. That doesn't happen often, and
so parents have to demand a rolein their kids education. Parents have to
supplement their kids education because even whenyou ask schools to do it, you
(29:03):
see what's happening across the country.You haven't been paying attention to school board
elections, and so we've We've electeda whole bunch of people to school boards
who don't share your values, andthey are making as sense about what your
kids are learning, about what yourkids are not learning. And you know
we're behind the a ball. Howdid this happen? How did they ban
in these books? It's because wehave not been active the way we need
(29:26):
to be. And everybody don't haveto run for school board, but everybody
does have to pay attention to whattheir kids are learning and make sure that
they are intentional about supplementing their kidsexperiences with the things that are important to
them. I saw a homeschoolers.She looked like a white presenting Latina,
and she was just talking about howshe did a thing, and she was
(29:48):
like public school parents and she waslike banging on the wall and they were
frantic. And then she was likeand now homeschool parents in their little bubble,
and she had like headphones on andshe was so content, and I
was just like, girl, wecannot do that. I plan on unschooling
my child. I still plan onadvocating for children in the public school system.
It is not okay for us tobe in our bubbles. I don't
(30:11):
care if you're unschooling, homeschooling,or in public school. We have to
advocate for the children, for theeducators who are trying to make a difference
in this in the school system.We cannot be like, I'm homeschooling,
that's the only way forward and thenleave these other kids in the dust.
That's not community. Well, butthat's but this is also a lack.
(30:33):
You don't know your people, youdon't know your cultural We are not individual.
America taught us rugged individualism. Americahas taught us pull yourself up by
your bootstraps. It's what you doin your own individual merit. That's not
who we are as of now.Our community people are collective, your collective
community. This is the only waywe have survived is by taking care of
(30:55):
one another. So for you tosay I'm just gonna make sure that me
and mine are good, that's actuallynot even reflecting black culture. Listen,
and you know that was it wasonly one It was one black woman in
my comments, and she was theone fighting for this person to be in
a bubble. I was like,Sis, that's that's colonization. And so
I've just been looking at because oneof the things that I fight against having
(31:18):
decolonized in the name of my businessis people who were just like, hey,
colonization means I mean de colonizing meansland back. But yes, it
does mean land back. And italso we have to we have to also
discuss the psychological impact of colonization,like that's where it's of course your land
was taken, land was landback.I'm all for it, right, That
(31:40):
is that is the least of thedamage that land is the least know that
the psychological, emotional, and throughthe generations. So what I what I
just learned is a term called medicalmedicalonialism. And it is a guy and
(32:00):
I believe he's in Egypt. ButI'm gonna put this link in the show
notes because it's so good. Inever thought about it like this. What
he says is part of metaclonialism iscontested reality and memory. I'm gonna gonna
read this real quick. The contestof a reality and memory becomes the most
(32:21):
intense and conditions of oppression were bothreality and memory distort to preserve the status
quo of domination exploitation. Medicalonialism,in the way I define it, enlarges
the distortion of events in memory.Because written history is mostly about the valor
and benevolence of the European colonizer.Students continue to learn this history in school,
libraries, preserve its statutes, freezeit in time, and public and
(32:44):
professional media disseminated in short, theword, the worlds of things and people
exude, reflect, and perpetuate thestory story of the European colonizer. And
it's still happening. So we arestill being colonized in our minds if we
are not careful, if we arenot doing what Kaya is saying, which
is taking control, like not relinquishingit because we are so tired. Because
(33:08):
I'm gonna tell y'all right now,the feelings of hopeless is hopelessness that we
have as adults and as parents.The tired, the feelings is just like
I can't do this no more.That is all by design too. Capitalism
and white supremacy delusion is meant tocrush the lost, distract, all of
(33:30):
it is doing this job. Sowe then have to figure out, like
how do I resist in order forour children to learn this information from us?
And if you have time to doit, something like reconstruction dot us
okay is here for you because alot of us don't have time to do
it. We gotta work. You'retired. But you can say you know
(33:52):
what, I don't know, andyou may not even know the information because
we don't know it a lot ofus. So go to an expert or
who can point you to the directionof a bunch of experts who can give
your children and you because I wantto take some of these classes, child,
Yeah, I want to learn someof these recipes. Okay. We
have classes for families and our cookingclass was the first family class that we
(34:15):
did. We have book clubs andadults have said, you know what,
I want to read this book witha bunch of other adults. We did
a great book club not too longago on Between the World and Me um
Tonahisi Coates' is you know, kindof letter to his son making sense to
the world and all of its craziness. And we had parents, some had
(34:37):
read it before, right, somehad never read it. But what they
said to us was talking with otherblack parents about what you're saying to your
young people in this particular moment wascatalytic for us. And so you know,
we not only work with individual parents, we work with whole communities.
Um. We were. We workwith a community, with the BLA community
(35:00):
in Pittsburgh, and we did that. We did what we call Soul Food
Summer Camp for them last summer wherefor a week, every night they they
took the cooking class for five daysand every night kids and parents were cooking
together and learning together. And thoseparents said to us, like, we
don't do this with our kids atall. Grandma's and grandpa's were coming,
(35:22):
you know, to participate. Wehave a Facebook page. Four hundred people
were posting videos of their kids cookingand family interacting and stuff. And that
community said, look, we wantmore of this, right, and so
they take they take our courses.Ongoing they've taken our We have a course
called a Safe Space for Spades,right because that's it will Because here's the
(35:49):
thing, if you didn't learn spades, first of all, you need to
learn spades, but nobody wants toteach you. Talk about you know space.
We create a safe space for kidsto learn space. Um, we
we've got you know, steam courseswhere kids are creating things. We've got
(36:09):
history. We did a history ofBlack Pittsburgh with that group, and and
so you know, it's about students, it's about families. But it's also
about reinforcing community because that's who weare as a people. So as we
wrapped this up, is there canyou give the people like maybe like three
(36:30):
tips. I always surprise my guestsbecause I never I never give them questions,
y'all, so they always have tocome up with the stuff on top
of their heads. But like threetips on how if they are unable to
like that, do a you reconstruction. By the way, how much are
the courses? Generally courses are forregular just families going on to the platform
(36:52):
one hundred bucks for a course.Each course as ten classes, ten sessions,
ten dollars a session. It's okay, eminently affordable and if you can't
afford it, we also have scholarshipsavailable, so you just let us that
because we don't want money to keepthis our folks. Three tips, I
(37:12):
would say. The first thing islike read Read, Read with your kid
to your kid and reconstruction. Wehave we put out for free a Great
Black Books List, which is alist of books that your kids should be
exposed to at every grade level.There's something for everybody, Like you need
(37:34):
to surround your kid with the storiesof our people and our culture to help
build a strong foundation. The secondthing I would say is pay attention to
what's happening in your kids class.Ask questions. I mean, one of
the things great things about the pandemicis parents got a front row seat to
see what was actually happening in schooland they were shocked and amazed at how
(38:00):
school was not meeting many kids needs. And we need to harness that and
stay in people's business around schools.We can't just expect that school is going
to do what we wanted to do. We have to demand what we want
for our young people and fight untilwe get it. And then the third
thing that I would say is,you know, go to the family reunion,
(38:23):
Go visit the aunties and the uncles, connect with the cousins. Like
we, our family and our communitybonds are really really important to everybody.
I mean, you don't have toteach your child everything. The encounters with
other folks like us. Don't forsakethe calling together the folks like you need
(38:46):
your kids need to be exposed toblack people. And you know, we
get a lot of kids who comefrom predominantly white schools taking reconstruction classes because
they don't see them themselves in thecurriculum. And there's a whole bunch of
research that shows when kids see themselvesand what they're learning when they see other
(39:06):
people who look like them, thelearning is accelerated. The engagement has hired
a confidence to hire the leadership tohire all of these things. And so
this you know idea of you know, the bubble or the bubble, Yeah,
we need to draw on the strengthof the black community that has brought
us over all of this garbage forgenerations and reclaim that. Yes, thank
(39:34):
you so much for that. Iam all for it, and I will
be looking up how to take afew of yours my daughters for she ain't
gonna sit with me right now.She's also look at our kindergarten through second
grade reading curriculum is super good andit's for the babies, right, Okay,
I'm gonna check out if it is. Yeah, And I'm gonna also
(39:54):
hit you up about possibly doing somethingwith the parents E colon I community,
because I'm pretty sure after people listento this or like, they're gonna be
like, how can I be down? Yeah? So how can they be
down? Where can we find?I mean, you can find me?
I'm on all the socials on Facebook, Kaya Henderson. There's two of us,
(40:15):
but one has on a yellow jacket. That's how you can find me
on Facebook, on Twitter, I'mat Henderson Kaya. On Instagram, I'm
Kaya Shines. I do a podcastweekly called Pod Save the People that comes
out every Tuesday. You can getit on Apple, Spotify, wherever you
get your podcasts, and that isweekly commentary on news and culture and sports
(40:39):
and whatever whatever with three other awesomeco hosts. And yeah, I'm around.
You can google me Kaya Henderson andyou can find me. You can
email me directly at Kaya Henderson atreconstruction dot us. Does reconstruction dot us
have its own website? I meanon social media? Yep? Yeah,
absolutely. Instruction is on the Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, on
(41:04):
TikTok. Did you hear me sayI'm not on TikTok. I mean,
I'm on tiknok. Listen, there'sone more rabbit hole for me to fall
back. But I'm glad you didbecause you're just gonna hit me up with
whatever I need to know. No, I mean it's yes, that's just
really be trying to get over myvideo shitness. But no, this has
(41:25):
been amazing. I'm so thankful forthe work that you're doing. And you
know, when I think about allthese people who I'm coming into contact with,
and you know, we talk abouthow these systems of oppression are designed
to keep us down, to makeus hopeless, to make us tired.
But I'm thinking about all the peoplewho are tired af but are still willing
(41:49):
to put this out there because weknow that is necessary for our children.
Myself, all the black parenting coaches, all the black educators doing this type
of work, And I'm so thankfuland happy for our kids because I just
feel like we are really working hardto give them a much more black future,
black and bright and excellent future,and also readefining what excellence is because
(42:13):
for me, black excellence is reallyrooted a lot of it in capitalism,
in respectability, politics, and Idon't do none of that. But I
feel like as we learn about whowe are as a as a people and
really embrace that we are not abroken people, we are not void of
anything. We have a rich andbeautiful culture that we should be so proud
(42:34):
of, and as we teach thatto our kids, I wish I had
this growing up. You know,and so thank you so much. Before
we end, I ask everybody thesame question, what does the colonizing parenting
mean to you? De Colonizing parentingto me means you being in charge of
what your kids learn and experience,not leaving that up to the systems.
(42:58):
The institution is the media, theinputs that kids interact with on a day
to day basis. But it reallyis about being intentional about the kinds of
kids you want to raise and howyou raise them, and assuming responsibility for
that. And as you say that, what comes to my mind is children,
(43:20):
especially Black children. The rate ofsuicide has increased exponentially over the past
few years for black children, andsome men on Twitter was talking about how
a lot of that is race based, how a lot of that is because
of how they have been treated inschools, in the race they experience in
the curriculum, the violence they experienceoutside of school. But I also truly
(43:43):
believe that how we parent them playsa part in that too. So we
have to understand that these children needa safe space. Reconstruction dot us is
a safe space. Home should bea safe space, school should be a
safe space. But if they don'thave school of SA because I mean,
we can't come troll what's going onin that school, right. We know
that most teachers are white women.We know that, and that is even
(44:07):
in predominantly black spaces, a lotof the teachers are white women. Even
though they might have the best intentions, sometimes they can still be really harmful.
So we can't always protect them fromthat. But what we can do
is offer them really affirming supplemental educationat home, as well as the safe
space to ask questions, to bethemselves, to show their full range of
(44:29):
humanity and emotions and be able toshow that they matter. Like we show
them that they matter and that theireducation matters, their mind matters, are
culture matters, Like it's really onus to help our children not feel so
hopeless, because that's what's happening rightnow. Yeah all right, well then,
yeah, well, thank you somuch again for joining me today.
(44:50):
This is a lovely conversation. Thanky'all for listening. Please make sure leave
a reading and review and let meknow what you think about this episode on
social media. And until next timeyou're conscious. Thank you. M
Welcome to the Parenting Decolonized Podcast.I'm your host, Elonda Williams, entrepreneur,
conscious parenting coach and single mom towant Amazing Tyler. I'm on a
mission to help shine the light onhow colonization has impacted the black family structure.
If you're a parent that wants tolearn how decolonize your parenting, You're
in the right place. Let's dothis. Welcome back to the parent to
(00:37):
de Colonized Podcast. I'm your host, Elanda Williams, and today I have
with me Kaya Henderson. Thank youso much for joining me today. Thanks
so, I'm not excited to behere. Yes, I'm excited to talk
to you about this subject, somethingthat is really important, especially right now
it's going on in history. Sofirst of all, can you do a
brief intro? Sure. My nameis Kaya Anderson. I am an educator.
(01:02):
In fact, this is my thirtiethyear in education. Most people know
me from my time leading DC PublicSchools, where I served as chancellor.
I was deputy chancellor for three anda half years, chancellor for six years,
so in leadership for just about tenyears at DC Public Schools, where
(01:23):
we turned around what was the lowestperforming urban school system in the country.
And now I started a company twoyears ago called Reconstruction that teaches online classes
in African American history and culture tostudents and families all across the nation.
And yeah, I'm a magical blackgirl. Yes, I love to travel
(01:47):
and I love to dance with mycancer. Okay, it's cancer season right
now. Well, you know what, I am so appreciative of the work
that you do. So you specificallyyour business is Reconstruction do us or dot
us that is the url of Kaya'sbusiness. And this is a homeschool curriculum,
(02:10):
No, it is actually a supplementalcurriculum. So we mean it to
be not school, right, Wemean it to be learning for learning's sake.
We mean it to be about thedevelopment of our young people's identity and
culture and history and literature, becauseschool doesn't teach everything that our young people
(02:36):
need to know, especially when wethink about building strong Black young people,
right Frederick Douglas's it's easier to buildstrong children than it is to repair broken
men. And you know, whenwe look at what we ask schools to
do in one hundred and eighty daysand seven and a half hours, we
have schools to do a zillion things, and schools are not systems that were
(02:58):
built for our kids. Right.I presided over the school system in the
nation's capital, and so I knowhow school systems work. I started my
career in New York City public schools. I know how school systems work.
And I know that communities from Chinesepeople to Jewish people to Greek people don't
(03:19):
rely on schools to teach their kidswho they ask and what their history is.
Right, our systems that are notintended to develop strong black children.
And so for us this was youknow, I say all the time,
this is Hebrew school for black kidsor Chinese school for black kids, drawing
on our deep historical precedents like citizenshipschools post emancipation, or like freedom schools
(03:45):
during the Civil Rights era. Likethis is us reclaiming our history of teaching
ourselves and teaching the next generation notjust academic stuff but cultural stuff. Right.
We don't live near our extended familiesanymore, so our young people don't
know how to make macaroni and cheese. They don't know So we thought by
(04:12):
using technology, we could bring thesekinds of classes and experiences two young people
outside of the school context again,because lots of our young people don't have
positive experiences in school. So howdo we create a space, an educational
space that is just for us,that's designed for us, that creates a
space of belonging for us, thatkids would enjoy and that parents would feel
(04:38):
happy sending their kids too. Soyes, some homeschool families use US,
but school districts use US in schools, use us in their after school program
or the summer school program. Parentscan buy classes directly right. We work
with community based organizations, churches,girls out you wherever black kids are,
they can get on reconstruction and takea class. You know, it's so
(05:00):
powerful too because what we're seeing rightnow. So you know, I started
started getting my TikTok on girl,and I have been coming across some of
the like weirdest stuff. I'm justlike I do ow people think and one
of the biggest and you know,I don't even want to say it's TikTok.
We know this from our own upbringing. I'm forty two, and for
a long time, what we weretaught as black people is that we don't
(05:21):
have a history like a Black Americans, African Americans. We don't have a
history. Our history is lost.We have a void, and that is
so beyond false that I don't evenknow how to like just understanding that we
were indoctrinated to believing that right,Like, just because we were you know,
our ancestors were stolen and human trafficdoes not mean we don't know ourselves.
(05:46):
A lot of us can trace ourancestors. We are Americans, first
of all, and we have developedout of all that you know, pain
and angst and trauma, a beautifulculture that is conic. We are the
world's cultural icons African Americans. Sofor us to really be out here talking
about we're we're we're lost people.We have a void, we don't know
(06:11):
our history. It is so false. But this is why we have to
tell our own stories that exactly ourkids who they are, because the world
is going to tell them that different. They keep saying, you don't know
where you're buy it. Yeah,you don't know where you're fus a steady
diet of negativity, of hopelessness,of a lack of it. I mean,
they tell us that that education isnot our birthright, that we don't
(06:35):
value education. They tell us thatour vote doesn't count. They tell us
that you know, we aren't equippedto lead or to own businesses and what
and when you when you deeply lookat our history, even our history in
the United States, all of thatis wildly, wildly inaccurate. But it's
like you said, it's up tous. That's where I just did the
(06:55):
TikTok girl. I just did aone about how I plan on discussing race
with my daughter. And it doesnot start with trauma. It starts with
beauty and art and showing her picturesof Angela Davis, of beautiful black women.
I have a Black Panther newspaper thatI found on Etsy that's like,
(07:17):
it's so delicate, I can't evenbring it out. I want to read
it, but I can't that kindof stuff. I have a Life magazine
that has Angela Davis on the frontof it. I have all this like
this foot behind me is from Belize, That's where she was, That's where
she was conceived. But I Ithroughout my whole house is art, is
(07:38):
books. All of her dolls areblack. The way that I discussed right
to my daughter is through lifting herup, showing her the beauty of blackness.
How intelligent we are all of thebooks that she has has black women
and black boys on them. Allof her dolls are black. We sent
her blackness up in here. Andto me, that is how we start
the race discussion, and not withwell we were you know, a stolen
(08:01):
people like now, Absolutely not wehave that. That's not just how we
start the race discussion. That's howwe start the math discussion. That's how
we start the science discussion. Howwe start the Shakespeare discussion. We have
a we have a class called BlackShakespeare that we did in conjunction with the
Folder Shakespeare Library. It is thepre eminent Shakespearean institution in the United States,
(08:24):
and we just won the American ShakespeareAssociation's Public's Award or their Civics Award
for this curriculum that we created,which looks at five Shakespearean plays through the
lens of Africans or African Americans orissues that are important to us. And
so can you can you imagine?I mean a zillion people have encountered Shakespeare
(08:46):
in their regular schooling and never attachedto it, never whatever, And we
have people who are discovering Shakespeare througha black lens and digging deeply. I
mean, first of all, thereis a whole community of shape Grace scholars
who are people of color who studyShakespeare. They are you know, at
(09:07):
academies and institutions all across the world, and who knew that, right,
And we need to show our youngpeople that they are in Shakespeare, that
they are in you know, themuseums in Florence, that they are in
museums in Africa, that they havea place that is beautiful and resilient and
excellent and brilliant right here in America. This is how we start every conversation
(09:31):
at Reconstruction. Yes, I lovethat. That's so powerful. It's so
powerful and uplifting to our youth whoreally need it. You know, they're
hearing we think kids ain't listening tous, and they are hearing these discussions
about quote unquote CRT, which weknow is not being taught in schools,
but they know the implications of this. They hear us adults arguing that white
(09:56):
children need to be protected from thetruth. All the while they feel the
impact of being black all day.We know the stats when it comes to
black children, and it starts inpreschool within being targeted with unconscious biases,
right, so they feel all thatstuff so yeah, go ahead. And
(10:16):
this is why this space was reallyimportant. This is why we decided to
not try to rewrite the curriculum thatis in schools, but to teach this
supplementally, because they need to bein a space where they feel affirmed and
loved and belonging. And I mean, you've seen enough hot mic incidents during
(10:37):
the pandemic where you know, whiteteachers think that they are off camera,
off you zoom, and they sayterrible things about our kids. And so
you know, when we started this, my partner says, oh, we're
going to develop this great curriculum andwe're going to do it in schools.
And I said, one of thereason why we're not going to do it
in schools is because I don't trustpeople to deliver this in a way that
(11:01):
is affirming and uplifting for African Americankids. We want to be very cautious
about who is teaching our kids.We want this space to be a space
of belonging. So we have ourclasses are totally synchronous, right, so
they are online, but they arein real time. It's a tutor who
we call a reconstructor, who hasa meeting with six to ten kids and
(11:26):
we teach everything from academics to culturalstuff to whatever. We have a series
of cooking classes called Cooking for theSoul where you learn the history of five
soul food dishes and then you actuallylearn how to cook them with an amazing
chef from New Orleans. Or there'sa Low Country class where you are learning
(11:48):
the history of dishes from South Carolinaand how to cook them, and the
Caribbean culture a Caribbean cooking class,and West African because it's important for our
kids to know the role that foodhas played the food ways, and how
food has changed as it's traversed acrossthe oceans, and what this food means
(12:11):
to us. Right, all ofthis is super important and we do it
all black Andy Black. We teachkids how red tonics and decoding, you
know with my black is beautiful,right, like we are teaching every book
is about Black people and it's notIt is not trauma drama. Right,
this is about our brilliance, Thisis about our role models, This is
(12:33):
about our joy, our excellence.Right, we don't We're not talking about
the white man stepping on our neckand blah blah blah. Yeah, I'm
talking about what we did in spiteof and in fact, that's why we
named our company Reconstruction. Reconstruction isthe least taught period of history in the
(12:54):
United States, and Reconstruction is incrediblyimportant for us to understand what happened during
that twelve year period and what happenedright after. Right, and so in
the twelve years post emancipation, weas newly free people. Remember we were
lazy, we were stupid, Wecouldn't do anything right. But as soon
(13:16):
as they set us free, orlet us free, or told us we
were free, or whatever, westarted thirty seven historically black colleges and universities
twelve years. This is all.In twelve years, we founded five thousand
community schools, including citizenship schools,to teach people how to read so that
they could vote. Five hundred thousandblack men voted in the presidential election of
(13:41):
Ulysses Grant, and he only wonby three hundred thousand votes. So you
tell us our vote doesn't count.Our voting countant since the day we got
it. That's why I keep tryingto take it. We owned twenty four
percent of the farm owned, notsharecropped. All they want. They wanted
to tell you that we were slaves, and then we were sharecroppers. We
owned twenty four percent of the farmlandin the United States post emancipation. We
(14:03):
created businesses, we incorporated towns,we started banks. Right we were crushing
it twelve years, just twelve years, and white people were like, wait
a minute, hold it, holdit, hold it, hold it.
This is not what it's supposed tohappen. That's right there. I just
want to zero in because I havea very I have a large white audience,
(14:26):
and I just I just want y'allto understand, like, we're gonna
talk about this from a black perspective, but I just want the white audience
understand that little snippet white people lookingat us and being like, you guys
aren't supposed to be successful. Youwere not human just a minute ago.
That's right. So now you're hereand we can't have that ship. And
(14:46):
so you see the rise of blackcodes, you see the ends to the
Jim Crow laws, you see therise of the clue Klux Klan. All
of this is in direct response.You see, you know, poll taxes
and literacy tests at poll all ofthis is in direct response to twelve years
(15:07):
of us being free and getting ourwhole entire lives, and so we need
to help our young people understand thatour history here is not just about slavery
and civil rights. We have ahistory of creating our own and doing for
ourselves. We have our history oflandownership here. We have a history of
(15:28):
educational self determination. We have ahistory this is this too, is part
of American history. And we thoughtevery time somebody sees our company on a
T shirt or has to write ouremail address, they are forced to ask
themselves way reconstruction? Why reconstruction?And to revisit this time of incredible prosperity
(15:52):
and success for black people in Americathat we just gloss over in our history
books. I mean, so ify'all understand what's happening now is mirroring what
happened back then, right because justlike Kaye said, after those twelve years,
well during the twelve years we sawthe rise of all this terrible,
(16:17):
inhumane racial anti blackness violence. Wesee that happening now. We saw the
white lash after President Obama was elected, and it's still continuing now because it
is again, y're not supposed tobe here. What do you mean?
Black women are some of the mosthighly educated people in the United States.
What are you talking about? Y'allnot supposed to be here. Y'are not
(16:38):
supposed to be doing well? Whatdo you mean black women are? Because
I keep saying black women because weare to ship? What do you mean
that we keep We are the likenumber one of people who are creating small
businesses. Like what are y'all talkingabout? It is in direct response to
and black women showing up at thepolls. We show up and we show
out like like no other to tryto say this country soul Okay, every
(17:03):
election, We're not supposed to behere. That's what it's going on.
Y'all don't even know that it's goingon, but that's the underlying the undercurrent
of what's happening. It's just marrying. And it's because it never was addressed.
It was never addressed. And whenyou think about all of the stuff
that shows that how depressed kids areand how hopeless kids are right now,
(17:25):
how kids are facing more mental healthissues than they've ever faced in their lives.
You've heard the phrase, you know, when America catches a cold,
we catch pneumonia. Right our kidsare dealing with even more than regular America
and the kids are, and soit's important to teach our young people this
ain't the first time that the policehave been brutalizing us, and we've overcome
(17:51):
that. This isn't the first timethat they've changed the rules on us to
not allow us to do the thingsthat would help us get free. But
there are periods of history and peoplein history who worked around, worked overworked
under, and came out on top. Like understanding our history of resilience,
our history of excellence, this iswe've we've been here before, right we
(18:15):
are. I'm fifty two, soI just got ten years on you.
But like you know, we missedthe civil rights movement, We missed people
posing our ancestors down and putting dogson in the one eye. But you
know, my older folks are like, Hi, this ain't nothing new.
Right, We've been here and we'vesurvived this. We have to teach our
young people that this ain't nothing new. We've been here, we've survived this,
(18:37):
we've overcome this, we've thrived,and so we're gonna point you to
those examples and teach you how tolearn math by looking at the great entrepreneurs
in blackness and helping to you know, simulate starting a business so that you
can do what they've done. Right, We're going to teach you by helping
(19:00):
you solve problems. You know,one of my favorite math lessons that we
have is around planning for a breakfastprogram right for your community, and we
teach our young people at the BlackPanthers started the first breakfast programs feeding programs
in the United States. Right,And so you got a plan. You're
running a site and you have toplan for how many kids are coming,
(19:22):
how many kids are registered, howmany kids might come, how many lunchings
do you need, how many you'redoings solving. It's a lot of math.
You're solving problems for the black community. I'm teaching you how to code
by helping you develop apps for nonprofitorganizations that are serving the black community.
(19:42):
Right, I'm I'm teaching you youknow how to write poetry by looking at
five African American women poets from PhyllisWheatley to Amanda Gorman, Right, like
I am. You know, Ihave like got one hundred and fifty different
class I'm teaching you how to stepbecause that is part of our history and
(20:04):
connecting it to South African Gump shoedancing, and we get to do that
with Step Africa, which is theonly professional step company in the world.
Like it's these are our people.And when our young people see black people.
Step Africa right now is in Denmarkor somewhere Slovenia, right teaching people
our history and our culture. Thisis the expectation. The expectation is not
(20:29):
sagan genes, because that's what theyteach you in prison. The expectation is
cultural icon fashion, you know,creator, mathematician, physician, university president,
scientists like these are our community leaders. These are our people. I
(20:49):
want you know, when we lookat history and we see, like you
said, how we have overcome alot. You know, sometimes I think
about, especially after Juneteenth, oneof that the recurring thoughts in my head
was how confusing, terrifying, butalso like just this mix of emotions of
like joy and fear and anger andall these things because now, after all
(21:14):
these hundreds of years, I havemy freedom, Well what but with no
support, like understanding that they hadzero support and yet and still yet,
and still we had things like youknow, Tulsa, we had the people
in New York that is now knownas near Central Park. All these beautiful
neighborhoods, Seneca Village. We teachabout Seneca Village. Yes, we teach
(21:40):
about mounds. It's gonna mound somethingin Mississippi, right there are all these
free black communities where people owned landand businesses, and we're like, you
know, we're gonna do this ourselves. We're gonna do it ourselves. And
my friend Crystal Mensies that was onhere and she spoke about the Maroon colonies,
which I had I had, youknow, I was raised in California,
(22:03):
but she was saying all throughout theUnited States there was maroon colonies.
Before she said that, I waslike, what the hell. I started
Google while we were on the podcastjaw okay, and I just started learning
about reconstruction I want to say,in my thirties, and that pissed me
off. But that was literally notI mean when I say it was like
slaves were freed, civil rights likethat whole era is completely forgotten and erased.
(22:30):
And it's for this reason. Butalso and also I think also it
was because of the immense amount ofdomestic terrorism that took place during that time
as well, that means being violence. I would tell you my experiences.
I didn't learn about the history ofHaiti until Yes, I was in my
late forties and I took a tripto Haiti, and the question I kept
(22:53):
asking myself is why can't Haiti getit together? Like why it always you
know, why is it the pointsor whatever? And we think. The
other thing that I knew about Haitiwas that it was the only successful slave
rebellion in history of the world.And had not connected the two things until
I got to Haiti and began tounderstand the history and how the world literally
(23:15):
sat down in a room, theAmericans, the British, the Portuguese,
the Spanish, the Dutch, theFrench, and said this cannot have been
anywhere else, and so we will. We will debilitate Haiti so much that
it cannot recover, so that noother colony ever thinks about uprising. And
(23:37):
that's what they did, including makingHaiti pay to French to day they lost.
If the payments have stopped now,but it was, it was until
the nineties, it was until ninetyfour, ninety five, and literally the
payment was more than the girls domesticproduct of Haiti, I mean. And
the implications for the United States suchthat those people who lost land that the
(24:04):
French who lost land and you can'tsee my air quotes, but air quotes
the French who lost their wealth inHaiti, where did they move to the
next closest French colony, which waswhat Louisiana, and those people fresh off
of their slaves getting up on them. We're like, you know what,
(24:26):
we are going to make sure thatthis doesn't happen again. But when you
look at why American slavery in theSouth is so brutal, it is because
these French people designed and engineered newimplements to torture and to literally make sure
that the Haitian Revolution did not haveit again. We don't connect these dots
(24:47):
right way on purpose, but butbest believe we have a class called Protests
and Movements at Reconstruction that looks atfive different protests and movements from the continent
to Haiti to the United States,so that our young people understand that this
stuff is not serendipitous. This isby design. And unless you understand the
(25:11):
history, you don't understand what's happeningto you right now because it's a lot
of the same thing. You knowwhat, I'm listening to you and I'm
thinking also just how if we don'tas adults, because a lot of us
as adults don't know this information.Right. I remember speaking about some stuff
on my page and so many peoplewere like, I never knew this,
(25:33):
I never knew this, And I'mjust like it was purposely kept from you
for a reason. And I'm thinkingabout even when we start talking about Cuba,
we start talking about all the differentLatin America, Latin American and Center
American. Yes, we start talkingand just looking at things that are happening
(25:53):
even now, and then you startto I started connecting dots, and I
to just be like the US man, there's blood, us blood everywhere all
across the place, and we aren'tbeing indoctrinated to not ask questions, to
not to really just rely on whatwe are being told and not ask why
(26:15):
why is that country like that?Why do they keep overthrowing these why do
they keep having civil unrest? Andwe don't under most people don't understand that
the US has played a major rolesin a lot of these countries downfall or
upgrade. But this is why it'simportant. Like I love that your podcast
is called Parenting Decolonized, because colonizationis about a lack of self determination.
(26:42):
It is somebody else imposing their will, their values, their culture on you.
And I think about decolonizing education,right, not just taking what the
system gives you, but real selfdetermination, real liberation. Is about teaching
our young people this stuff that nobodyelse is teaching, right. And parents
(27:07):
have a significant responsibility here. Andthis is where you know, I challenge
our community. I think parenting ishard, and we're so tired like its
sometimes it's the best we can doto get our kids fed. Yes,
and that's my design too, andkeeping safe and whatnot. But the truth
of a matter is the education systemis built on the expectation that educators are
(27:33):
the experts. That parents are supposedto drop their kids off in kindergarten,
our first grade. We know what'sbest, and we'll turn them out intoelth
grade and they'll behold people and it'llbe fine, ignoring parents key role as
kids first, teaching the people whoknow their children the best, the people
who have a vision for what theywant for their kids, and our active
(27:59):
participants and co creators and the idealeducational experience. And parents have got to
demand that role because the education systemis counting on you not being engaged is
counting on you. I mean,we everything that I did at GC public
schools, I wouldn't do anything major. You know, people would say,
well, what's your strategic plan goingto look like my strategic plan? These
(28:19):
are not my schools, these areour schools. So this community is going
to say what it wants from DCPs, and that's going to be my strategic
plan or whatever the community tells me. If we want to change report cards
because we don't think they're good,we're going to ask parents in the community,
what do you want to see inreport cards? If we're going to
close schools or open schools, we'regoing to ask parents what do you want
to see? And that we can'trely on a leader who happens to value
(28:42):
that to see our community as valuableand brilliant and bright and equal to you
know, the expertise that educators arebringing. That doesn't happen often, and
so parents have to demand a rolein their kids education. Parents have to
supplement their kids education because even whenyou ask schools to do it, you
(29:03):
see what's happening across the country.You haven't been paying attention to school board
elections, and so we've We've electeda whole bunch of people to school boards
who don't share your values, andthey are making as sense about what your
kids are learning, about what yourkids are not learning. And you know
we're behind the a ball. Howdid this happen? How did they ban
in these books? It's because wehave not been active the way we need
(29:26):
to be. And everybody don't haveto run for school board, but everybody
does have to pay attention to whattheir kids are learning and make sure that
they are intentional about supplementing their kidsexperiences with the things that are important to
them. I saw a homeschoolers.She looked like a white presenting Latina,
and she was just talking about howshe did a thing, and she was
(29:48):
like public school parents and she waslike banging on the wall and they were
frantic. And then she was likeand now homeschool parents in their little bubble,
and she had like headphones on andshe was so content, and I
was just like, girl, wecannot do that. I plan on unschooling
my child. I still plan onadvocating for children in the public school system.
It is not okay for us tobe in our bubbles. I don't
(30:11):
care if you're unschooling, homeschooling,or in public school. We have to
advocate for the children, for theeducators who are trying to make a difference
in this in the school system.We cannot be like, I'm homeschooling,
that's the only way forward and thenleave these other kids in the dust.
That's not community. Well, butthat's but this is also a lack.
(30:33):
You don't know your people, youdon't know your cultural We are not individual.
America taught us rugged individualism. Americahas taught us pull yourself up by
your bootstraps. It's what you doin your own individual merit. That's not
who we are as of now.Our community people are collective, your collective
community. This is the only waywe have survived is by taking care of
(30:55):
one another. So for you tosay I'm just gonna make sure that me
and mine are good, that's actuallynot even reflecting black culture. Listen,
and you know that was it wasonly one It was one black woman in
my comments, and she was theone fighting for this person to be in
a bubble. I was like,Sis, that's that's colonization. And so
I've just been looking at because oneof the things that I fight against having
(31:18):
decolonized in the name of my businessis people who were just like, hey,
colonization means I mean de colonizing meansland back. But yes, it
does mean land back. And italso we have to we have to also
discuss the psychological impact of colonization,like that's where it's of course your land
was taken, land was landback.I'm all for it, right, That
(31:40):
is that is the least of thedamage that land is the least know that
the psychological, emotional, and throughthe generations. So what I what I
just learned is a term called medicalmedicalonialism. And it is a guy and
(32:00):
I believe he's in Egypt. ButI'm gonna put this link in the show
notes because it's so good. Inever thought about it like this. What
he says is part of metaclonialism iscontested reality and memory. I'm gonna gonna
read this real quick. The contestof a reality and memory becomes the most
(32:21):
intense and conditions of oppression were bothreality and memory distort to preserve the status
quo of domination exploitation. Medicalonialism,in the way I define it, enlarges
the distortion of events in memory.Because written history is mostly about the valor
and benevolence of the European colonizer.Students continue to learn this history in school,
libraries, preserve its statutes, freezeit in time, and public and
(32:44):
professional media disseminated in short, theword, the worlds of things and people
exude, reflect, and perpetuate thestory story of the European colonizer. And
it's still happening. So we arestill being colonized in our minds if we
are not careful, if we arenot doing what Kaya is saying, which
is taking control, like not relinquishingit because we are so tired. Because
(33:08):
I'm gonna tell y'all right now,the feelings of hopeless is hopelessness that we
have as adults and as parents.The tired, the feelings is just like
I can't do this no more.That is all by design too. Capitalism
and white supremacy delusion is meant tocrush the lost, distract, all of
(33:30):
it is doing this job. Sowe then have to figure out, like
how do I resist in order forour children to learn this information from us?
And if you have time to doit, something like reconstruction dot us
okay is here for you because alot of us don't have time to do
it. We gotta work. You'retired. But you can say you know
(33:52):
what, I don't know, andyou may not even know the information because
we don't know it a lot ofus. So go to an expert or
who can point you to the directionof a bunch of experts who can give
your children and you because I wantto take some of these classes, child,
Yeah, I want to learn someof these recipes. Okay. We
have classes for families and our cookingclass was the first family class that we
(34:15):
did. We have book clubs andadults have said, you know what,
I want to read this book witha bunch of other adults. We did
a great book club not too longago on Between the World and Me um
Tonahisi Coates' is you know, kindof letter to his son making sense to
the world and all of its craziness. And we had parents, some had
(34:37):
read it before, right, somehad never read it. But what they
said to us was talking with otherblack parents about what you're saying to your
young people in this particular moment wascatalytic for us. And so you know,
we not only work with individual parents, we work with whole communities.
Um. We were. We workwith a community, with the BLA community
(35:00):
in Pittsburgh, and we did that. We did what we call Soul Food
Summer Camp for them last summer wherefor a week, every night they they
took the cooking class for five daysand every night kids and parents were cooking
together and learning together. And thoseparents said to us, like, we
don't do this with our kids atall. Grandma's and grandpa's were coming,
(35:22):
you know, to participate. Wehave a Facebook page. Four hundred people
were posting videos of their kids cookingand family interacting and stuff. And that
community said, look, we wantmore of this, right, and so
they take they take our courses.Ongoing they've taken our We have a course
called a Safe Space for Spades,right because that's it will Because here's the
(35:49):
thing, if you didn't learn spades, first of all, you need to
learn spades, but nobody wants toteach you. Talk about you know space.
We create a safe space for kidsto learn space. Um, we
we've got you know, steam courseswhere kids are creating things. We've got
(36:09):
history. We did a history ofBlack Pittsburgh with that group, and and
so you know, it's about students, it's about families. But it's also
about reinforcing community because that's who weare as a people. So as we
wrapped this up, is there canyou give the people like maybe like three
(36:30):
tips. I always surprise my guestsbecause I never I never give them questions,
y'all, so they always have tocome up with the stuff on top
of their heads. But like threetips on how if they are unable to
like that, do a you reconstruction. By the way, how much are
the courses? Generally courses are forregular just families going on to the platform
(36:52):
one hundred bucks for a course.Each course as ten classes, ten sessions,
ten dollars a session. It's okay, eminently affordable and if you can't
afford it, we also have scholarshipsavailable, so you just let us that
because we don't want money to keepthis our folks. Three tips, I
(37:12):
would say. The first thing islike read Read, Read with your kid
to your kid and reconstruction. Wehave we put out for free a Great
Black Books List, which is alist of books that your kids should be
exposed to at every grade level.There's something for everybody, Like you need
(37:34):
to surround your kid with the storiesof our people and our culture to help
build a strong foundation. The secondthing I would say is pay attention to
what's happening in your kids class.Ask questions. I mean, one of
the things great things about the pandemicis parents got a front row seat to
see what was actually happening in schooland they were shocked and amazed at how
(38:00):
school was not meeting many kids needs. And we need to harness that and
stay in people's business around schools.We can't just expect that school is going
to do what we wanted to do. We have to demand what we want
for our young people and fight untilwe get it. And then the third
thing that I would say is,you know, go to the family reunion,
(38:23):
Go visit the aunties and the uncles, connect with the cousins. Like
we, our family and our communitybonds are really really important to everybody.
I mean, you don't have toteach your child everything. The encounters with
other folks like us. Don't forsakethe calling together the folks like you need
(38:46):
your kids need to be exposed toblack people. And you know, we
get a lot of kids who comefrom predominantly white schools taking reconstruction classes because
they don't see them themselves in thecurriculum. And there's a whole bunch of
research that shows when kids see themselvesand what they're learning when they see other
(39:06):
people who look like them, thelearning is accelerated. The engagement has hired
a confidence to hire the leadership tohire all of these things. And so
this you know idea of you know, the bubble or the bubble, Yeah,
we need to draw on the strengthof the black community that has brought
us over all of this garbage forgenerations and reclaim that. Yes, thank
(39:34):
you so much for that. Iam all for it, and I will
be looking up how to take afew of yours my daughters for she ain't
gonna sit with me right now.She's also look at our kindergarten through second
grade reading curriculum is super good andit's for the babies, right, Okay,
I'm gonna check out if it is. Yeah, And I'm gonna also
(39:54):
hit you up about possibly doing somethingwith the parents E colon I community,
because I'm pretty sure after people listento this or like, they're gonna be
like, how can I be down? Yeah? So how can they be
down? Where can we find?I mean, you can find me?
I'm on all the socials on Facebook, Kaya Henderson. There's two of us,
(40:15):
but one has on a yellow jacket. That's how you can find me
on Facebook, on Twitter, I'mat Henderson Kaya. On Instagram, I'm
Kaya Shines. I do a podcastweekly called Pod Save the People that comes
out every Tuesday. You can getit on Apple, Spotify, wherever you
get your podcasts, and that isweekly commentary on news and culture and sports
(40:39):
and whatever whatever with three other awesomeco hosts. And yeah, I'm around.
You can google me Kaya Henderson andyou can find me. You can
email me directly at Kaya Henderson atreconstruction dot us. Does reconstruction dot us
have its own website? I meanon social media? Yep? Yeah,
absolutely. Instruction is on the Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, on
(41:04):
TikTok. Did you hear me sayI'm not on TikTok. I mean,
I'm on tiknok. Listen, there'sone more rabbit hole for me to fall
back. But I'm glad you didbecause you're just gonna hit me up with
whatever I need to know. No, I mean it's yes, that's just
really be trying to get over myvideo shitness. But no, this has
(41:25):
been amazing. I'm so thankful forthe work that you're doing. And you
know, when I think about allthese people who I'm coming into contact with,
and you know, we talk abouthow these systems of oppression are designed
to keep us down, to makeus hopeless, to make us tired.
But I'm thinking about all the peoplewho are tired af but are still willing
(41:49):
to put this out there because weknow that is necessary for our children.
Myself, all the black parenting coaches, all the black educators doing this type
of work, And I'm so thankfuland happy for our kids because I just
feel like we are really working hardto give them a much more black future,
black and bright and excellent future,and also readefining what excellence is because
(42:13):
for me, black excellence is reallyrooted a lot of it in capitalism,
in respectability, politics, and Idon't do none of that. But I
feel like as we learn about whowe are as a as a people and
really embrace that we are not abroken people, we are not void of
anything. We have a rich andbeautiful culture that we should be so proud
(42:34):
of, and as we teach thatto our kids, I wish I had
this growing up. You know,and so thank you so much. Before
we end, I ask everybody thesame question, what does the colonizing parenting
mean to you? De Colonizing parentingto me means you being in charge of
what your kids learn and experience,not leaving that up to the systems.
(42:58):
The institution is the media, theinputs that kids interact with on a day
to day basis. But it reallyis about being intentional about the kinds of
kids you want to raise and howyou raise them, and assuming responsibility for
that. And as you say that, what comes to my mind is children,
(43:20):
especially Black children. The rate ofsuicide has increased exponentially over the past
few years for black children, andsome men on Twitter was talking about how
a lot of that is race based, how a lot of that is because
of how they have been treated inschools, in the race they experience in
the curriculum, the violence they experienceoutside of school. But I also truly
(43:43):
believe that how we parent them playsa part in that too. So we
have to understand that these children needa safe space. Reconstruction dot us is
a safe space. Home should bea safe space, school should be a
safe space. But if they don'thave school of SA because I mean,
we can't come troll what's going onin that school, right. We know
that most teachers are white women.We know that, and that is even
(44:07):
in predominantly black spaces, a lotof the teachers are white women. Even
though they might have the best intentions, sometimes they can still be really harmful.
So we can't always protect them fromthat. But what we can do
is offer them really affirming supplemental educationat home, as well as the safe
space to ask questions, to bethemselves, to show their full range of
(44:29):
humanity and emotions and be able toshow that they matter. Like we show
them that they matter and that theireducation matters, their mind matters, are
culture matters, Like it's really onus to help our children not feel so
hopeless, because that's what's happening rightnow. Yeah all right, well then,
yeah, well, thank you somuch again for joining me today.
(44:50):
This is a lovely conversation. Thanky'all for listening. Please make sure leave
a reading and review and let meknow what you think about this episode on
social media. And until next timeyou're conscious. Thank you. M
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!