Moving Beyond Words: GLISI’s Resolve and Commitment to Eradicating Racial Injustice Endures

To our partners and friends,

If your inbox looks like mine, it’s flooded with statements of outrage and commitments to racial justice. I hope you read them—many have been exquisitely crafted and thoughtfully researched.

It has been an emotionally draining two weeks as an American, as a person of color, as mother of a Black son, as wife of a Black man. These past days have been a time to deliberately search my own heart, invite GLISI’s board and team into self-reflection, and push ourselves past surface level allyship. The ocean of emails leaves me longing for fewer words and more action to effect change.

Before viral videos illuminated the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, the purpose of GLISI’s work had been to build more excellent and equitable schools. Why? As parents and educators, we have seen Black and brown students dehumanized by often unconscious social norms that devalue, derail, and silence students and families based on the color of their skin. GLISI works directly with leaders to embolden their agency to make the unconscious conscious. To disrupt the “norm.” To build cultures of belonging and learning together.