EdFix Episode 22: Anti-Hair Discrimination, Educational Equity, and Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline

TRANSCRIPT

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Having climates where you go into the school and you're walking through metal detectors and you're told that the way you speak is wrong, your hair is wrong, your clothes are wrong, the level of education of your parents is wrong, the community that you come from is wrong. That does something to students.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
Welcome to EdFix. I'm Michael Feuer, your host and this is your source for insights about the practice and promise of education. It's a special delight for me today to introduce Adjoa B. Asamoah, founder of the ABA Consulting Group, an authority on racial equity, expertise in organizational and leadership development, a friend of GW and GSEHD. In fact, a distinguished honored doctoral degree candidate in our Graduate School of Education. Welcome, Adjoa.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Thank you so much

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
While Adjoa is working on her advanced degree in education, she is very active in a range of issues regarding in particular, the role of black people and black women in American politics and society, has been active for many years in a number of very important political and policy developments. And why don't we just start, Adjoa with an update on something called the CROWN Act?

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Well, thank you so much, Dean for having me. It is truly my honor to be able to spend this time with you chatting. The CROWN Act is something that I am very proud of. I wear a few hats, which you mentioned, and that includes being a political and social impact strategist. But as it relates specifically to the anti hair discrimination movement, I am all things racial equity champion who developed the legislative strategy for, and who leads the advocacy efforts nationwide to pass the CROWN Act. There is a very long-standing history and problematic practice of racial discrimination, including hair discrimination. For most of this country's existence discrimination has been legal. So, I view my contribution to fight towards actualizing liberty and justice for all, as working at the intersection of both policy and politics. As it relates specifically to hair discrimination, there have been countless cases where black people have been discriminated against for wearing natural hair and or protective styles, which include braids, locs, twists, Bantu knots, etc.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
This prevalent form of discrimination includes being fired, being passed over for promotions and even having offers of employment rescinded. It impacts the upward mobility of the individuals and families that are affected and it has been the reason far too many of our children have missed what should be valuable instruction time, and have had negative educational experiences. As I think about the work that I've done at the local state and federal levels, I think about a student who was sent home in tears because she wore beautiful braids that were deemed a violation of school rules. I think about a student who was told he could not participate in his graduation ceremony with his friends due to wearing locs, which were for him a display of cultural pride. I also think about a student wrestler who was forced to have to choose between having his locs cut and his identity attacked or forfeiting them that she had earned the right to participate in.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Now, I've mentioned wearing a few hats. One of those is as a clinician and as someone who started out in K-12 education, having our credentials as a people personnel worker and a psychometrist, and I'm still a licensed behavior specialist. And I share that only because I have witnessed the harm that negative school climate and cultures can do. And I know the psychological impact of being told essentially that the way you were born and how you show up in schools is not okay. That's something no child should have to endure. The damage to one's self-esteem can be long-lasting and the perceptions of self-worth can be impacted all in ways again, simply shouldn't exist. So to put a button on this, because I could literally talk about this all day with you, because it just so happens to be part of my research. I've personally worked with and supported elected officials to pass the CROWN Act in more than 20 state legislatures across the country.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, it hasn't been passed in all states, but I am working with members in a number of different states. I got a chance to work directly with my friend, former Congressman, Cedric Richmond to pass the CROWN Act in the US House of Representatives. And I'm still working with my friend, Senator Booker to ensure that it passes in the Senate. The CROWN Act is the legislative fix to the issue of hair discrimination. Now, we must both work to shift both policy and culture, but the CROWN Act essentially extends statutory protection by amending the definition of race to include those traits that are historically associated with it, such as hair texture and hairstyle. So, it's critically important and it's a movement that has taken the nation by storm. And I'm very proud to do this work.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
This is one example of your work on the big problem of racial equity, racial inequity, racial injustice. Give us some other examples of work you've been doing to try to improve racial justice.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, I have done quite a bit at the risk of sounding far less humble than I actually am. I worked to lead the community efforts to codify the nation's first office on African American affairs here in the nation's Capitol. It wasn't a mayoral order, I should note that, but an acknowledgement that the demographics in DC were changing considerably, I thought it was necessary to have a permanently established, a legislatively established office on African American affairs. And so in bringing together and building a coalition, if you will, of people from the academia, to activists, to organizations, our 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(7) membership-based organizations, bringing together really a coalition of support for something like establishing the nation's first office on African American affairs is just one example.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
I provide training to a number of different entities on racial equity and what that means. We are hearing a lot more about that, but we are hearing it sort of in the context of DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion and there are very nuanced differences. And so I worked to help leaders and those who are leading organizations and then subsequently members of those organizations to understand the very distinct differences between those. And focusing on tackling systemic racial inequity has been my life's work and my passion, but in terms of my advocacy work, it includes furthering the movement to reform and re-imagine, if you will policing and developing partnerships with community members and by re-imagine policing I mean to think about it in the context of public safety. Educational equity has been and continues to be my personal mission, if you will. So really working to support educators, encouraging lawmakers to invest considerably in public education, protecting students' civil rights tops my list in terms of priorities.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And particularly I should note that dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline has been a passion of mine. I have worked in K-12 school settings and I've witnessed how we are all socialized differently and we bring our own lived experiences to the classrooms. And there are times in which those classrooms are not conducive to what we're actually asking our students to do. And so, that's how I ended up here in DC and here at GW is recognizing I had done the one-on-one, I had become a clinical supervisor, I'd become a founding director of one of only two black mental health agencies in Philadelphia, and then wanted to really look at this issue of the criminalization of black children in schools, which is what prompted me to come to DC to do my doc work at GW, decades after the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown versus the Board of Ed.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Those inequities in K-12 education continue to persist. During the Obama-Biden administration, we made considerable strides towards creating a more equitable education system, but I'm thinking back to that Dear Colleague letter that was sent in 2014, I believe, and it was issued from both the Departments of Justice and Education, and they issued a school guidance, a school discipline guidance package to address the disproportionality in school suspensions. That Dear Colleague letter warned against administering student discipline in ways that are discriminatory. They offered evidence-based actionable steps and provided a summary of school discipline laws. And so really working to tackle the school-to-prison pipeline to dismantle it has been another way in which I have sort of lived out my commitment to tackling this anti-blackness and really advancing racial equity.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
If I understand you correctly, there is substantial evidence that these kinds of punitive acts are very disproportionately oriented toward children of color, toward black children in particular?

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Absolutely.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
Say a little bit more about the evidence-based on that and where you think we've made some progress and what you think would be maybe the most important things we should be focused on now that we perhaps have a chance to rethink many of our school policies.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Or rethinking, I think is spot on. I think that meaningful education reform to improve educational outcomes for students who have been marginalized by systems requires officials to develop them in tandem, if you will, with educators, parents, advocates, students, et cetera. We have over four decades worth of research to confirm that this type of disproportionality exists, we can have conversations about the why and how to fix it, but the research is there. The data are there, that proves that the black and brown children are suspended at rates that are higher than their white peers. So, we know that the issue exists and that it's problematic. I think that in order to fix it, I think education is part of it, of course. And I think we need to look at ways to address what might be valid issues in terms of behavioral issues in the school setting.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
I share that... I'm a behavior specialist by training and still licensed to practice. But I'm focused on the policy piece right now, but how are we addressing the issue of school climate and culture? How are we creating environments that are conducive to our children's thriving and doing well and performing academically? Having climates where you go into the school and you're walking through metal detectors and you're told that the way you speak is wrong, your hair is wrong, your clothes are wrong, the level of education of your parents is wrong, the community that you come from is wrong. That does something to students. And it does not create an environment where our students can perform at their levels, at their highest levels and be their best selves. And so, thinking about alternative approaches to school discipline, thinking about whether that's positive behavior supports or looking at restorative justice practices, it really requires us to rethink it where we are not operating one, from a deficit model, but that we are actually trying to create climates that are respectful for all who are involved.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And I will be the first person to acknowledge that being an educator is hard. I have been in those classrooms, you are juggling so much and so this isn't a dig on educators or even school leaders versus looking at the ways in which school discipline disproportionately impacts those black and brown students is where I am focused on making gains. But it does require us to reimagine the concept of discipline to really shift to public safety, which is something that has to be co-constructed. You can't tell me I feel safe in a school environment. It's something that we all have to come to consensus on, if you will. And it has to be co-constructed, I should say.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
What's the connection between the school and the prison in this model that we're thinking of?

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
What I am saying is that if you are having a crisis or something that requires clinical intervention, you should receive clinical intervention. What we've seen in schools is that folks are relying on school resource officers and police to address issues that warrant clinical intervention. And so, I have yet to meet a group of police officers who are trained to do what I'm trained to do in terms of deescalation, et cetera, as a clinician. So, we need to think about investing in having more mental health counselors professionals, whether it be licensed professional counselors, social workers, et cetera, in the schools, to ensure that when you are actually needing clinical help, you can get the help versus having contact with the police. We have found that students who have had challenges behaviorally in schools have then had their first contact with the police and the criminal justice system as a result of being a student in schools. So, don't call a police officer on me, call a social worker or a clinician to come and help me deal with what it is that I'm dealing with.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
So you got into this line of work, you've said you were in, K-12, say a little bit more about what kind of work you were doing in and in what kind of schools?

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, I was in Philadelphia and I did my undergraduate work in Africana studies and psychology and in part for two reasons. One, I really wanted to understand how black people were able to thrive, given everything that we had been through. But two, I really wanted to understand the culture of silence and stigma around issues of mental health. So, I started working as a one-on-one while I was in graduate school. And then I shared, I went on to become a behavior specialist where I would essentially supervise the one-on-ones and then became a clinical supervisor, then supervising those who were the behavior specialists and so on and so forth. But it really came out of, in terms of my work in K-12, I did an externship and I witnessed students who I thought were not really displaying child temperament, if you will that I thought was acceptable. They appeared to be, and I'm not a psychiatrist so I should preface this with saying that. But they appeared to be overly medicated and just kind of walking around like zombies. And I thought that that was a problem.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And so I said, "I want to be able to advocate effectively for students like this." So, that's how I got into working in the school settings. So, I was working with students who I... While I got into this to work with students who I thought actually needed my help, but in doing so, I witnessed often the students were not the problem, it was the school climate, it was the school culture. It was the policies that were implemented that were problematic. I witnessed people who I thought, students who I thought shouldn't be in special education and they were being warehoused essentially, and basically told to go in the corner and color and they weren't really being taught in a way that I thought was consistent with what should be happening.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And so, the advocacy piece, arguably sort of, I got it honestly, if you will, given who my parents are, but I really started advocating for those students who didn't need my services as a result of me working in this field to work with students who did. So that's sort of the beginning of my K-12 story. Again, witnessing too many injustices, I decided to shift into tackle this from a policy standpoint. And that's how I got here.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
Indeed. And there are some people right now who in the light of what we've experienced because of the pandemic, which has exposed so many of the underlying flaws in the system that have existed well before the pandemic that we may be at an inflection point and that the future will require us to get serious about ideas such as culturally responsive teaching, about reforms in the way we visualize the word accountability, about the way in which we're preparing future teachers. There are people who are working and worrying about how can we prevent ourselves from just going back to an unacceptable status quo and use this moment to really push forward with some progress, which leads me to my question about your involvement with the Biden-Harris campaign about your work in particular, on the inaugural committee. This was a heck of a strange inauguration we had in so many ways. Give us a little bit of kind of insider baseball on what that was all about.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Well, thank you for asking that question. I had the privilege of serving as the National Advisor for Black Engagement for the Biden-Harris campaign, which essentially required me to engage in ways that were meaningful with the black community, not just surface, not just telling people who to vote for, but sharing why you should vote for the Biden-Harris campaign. And for me, it was really about the focus on racial equity. President Joe Biden launched his campaign for president by stating we are in the battle for the soul of America, which resonated with several folks. You mentioned the pandemic shedding a light on so much and I think that the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery drew this country to another watershed moment last year, and amid a pandemic that disrupted life as we knew it. I think it was a lot.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
What I saw, particularly in my role of engaging with the community was the desire to affect systems change and viewing this particular administration as a means of doing that. The protests that took place as a result of witnessing the brutal killing of George Floyd on the streets of South Minneapolis, ignoring his humanity despite his repeated pleas of I can't breathe, that triggered a collective multi-racial, cross-class rejection of fair and division. And it was my responsibility to connect the frustrations, anger, fear, desires for change, to connect that to those possibilities of doing just that with the new administration. And so, again, engaging with the black community in a way that was meaningful, talking about substantive policy proposals, that was the work that I was tasked with doing.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, I essentially was a top talker, if you will, conveying the racial equity plans and in sharing what those plans would look like as it relates to real policy. And then after winning the elections, I had a little bit of a break and then I was tapped to lead black engagement for the 59th historic Presidential Inaugural Committee, which as you shared, was interesting given we had to work in a virtual environment. We are a high-touch people and I am not high tech. And so, to organize people, to keep people engaged, that was really the priority for the inaugural committee because we're used to coming to DC and going to events and galas and balls, and the pandemic prevents us from doing that.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And so it was really my responsibility to keep people engaged, make sure folks were informed about the plans, policies, et cetera, all while acknowledging that the pandemic prevented us from gathering in ways that we traditionally did. So, it really required me to dig very deep into my creativity bag, if you will, because I come from being sort of a street-level organizer. And so, having all of that sort of taken from me because I'm not at the church, I'm not at the fish fry, I'm not at the cookout, I'm not gathering in places where we traditionally would gather to talk about these issues and to organize from a computer. So, quite the challenge, but also quite the success story in being able to pull off both successfully.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
So a little bit about your childhood and where all this started?

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, I am what you might call a movement baby. My father was born under colonization of what would become the Republic of Ghana, making me the daughter of an immigrant. And my mom was born in the Jim Crow South understanding systemic oppression. Both of my parents were very active in the community and I simply followed in their footsteps. I attended my first rally at the age of two sitting on my daddy's shoulders. And I have been committed to tackling systemic and equity my entire life. I was born in Connecticut, New Haven, Connecticut. I went to a progressive magnet school, West Hills where my dad was the PTA president and reviewed curriculum. And you could find my mom there on any given day working in book sale and being in the space. It was a space where there was encouragement for the community to be a part of the school, not the school being a standalone, if you will.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
So, I started out in a school environment that really value differences, and I traveled to Ghana for the first time at nine years old. And I went to the Door of No Return. I couldn't wrap my head around the dehumanizing stories about the Middle Passage and the idea that people were chained to each other. And the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans. I couldn't wrap my head around how that could happen to humans from humans. So, I guess as unreal as it sounds, that's when I made the actual decision to do something to improve the lives of black people. I didn't know what that something was, of course, and it would take on different forms over the course of my career, but that was a life-changing moment for me.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
I then went to Hopkins for high school, which was the third oldest secondary institution in the country founded in 1660. It's the place where Edward Bouchet, the first black person to earn a PhD graduated from. It's a very white place where there are several wealthy people in New England who send their children there. I was neither, but I was the nerdy cool kid who wanted to go there, even though nobody in my neighborhood knew the school even existed. There was a big, beautiful campus where I learned a lot about class and racism and what resources could expose you to. That's where I led my first issue campaign, arguing to end the use of the language headmaster, because for me it symbolized something very different. It is the reason I testified for the first time at the State Capitol because Mr. Rodd, who was the head of school, which is the language that the school would eventually adopt after getting rid of the language headmaster, which I'm very proud to have sparked chose me to go and testify in the State Capitol as a teenager.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
I currently serve on the alumni association board and actually have a meeting today with the head of school who's the first black one in the school's history. It was challenging culturally there, but I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I was elected as a black student union president and a founding board member of Summerbridge, student board member and faculty. So I got to sit at the table with James Comer as a high school student. And I did an internship at the Yale Child Study Center as a result, I would end up at Temple because my dad, who was a professor who was a retired Africana studies and political science professor, I should probably know, he had experienced so much discrimination here that he had gone back to Ghana, but he was coming back to the States because Temple University developed the first department that offer a doctoral degree in the discipline of Africana studies.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
And so, I ended up going there because I'm a daddy's girl. And that's where I think I came into my own in terms of refinement, I should say. Again, I'm sort of a movement baby, so I've never not been involved in community organizing, but it was on campus that I started to really tackle the policy piece. And I argued against gentrification in North Philadelphia and landed myself a university president appointment to the university affirmative action committee as a result. I double majored in psychology and Africana studies for the reasons that I shared previously. I went on to do my master's in educational psychology. And then if I wasn't a big enough nerd, I did my post-master's in applied behavior analysis, started working in K-12, won so many lawsuits working with clients that essentially I was asked by the school district to come in and train on issues like ecology and culturally responsive approaches to school climate and culture, and so on and so forth.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Again, sort of talking about the need to address by way of dismantling, I should note, the school-to-prison pipeline is what brought me here. And so now I'm in DC. I go back and forth between DC and Philadelphia. And I got involved in politics by virtue of my ability to organize, like what happens to so many people who encounter DC. I was tapped by the mayor's office to serve as a senior policy advisor, managing sort of the equity portfolio, got appointed to the Commission on African American Affairs, where I served as the highest-ranking elected member. I have been appointed by several superintendents to the federally mandated Title I Committee of Practitioners, where I currently serve as chair and I have been elected chair for four consecutive years. Of course, I'm here in my personal capacity, I always have to say. But I continue to serve in that capacity because I am still very committed to ensuring that there is educational equity, all things pursuant to Title I, go before the Committee of Practitioners and I continue to serve in that capacity.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Again, education is my first and forever love. I will always in one way or another, be involved in advancing equity in the educational system. Started working in politics, they said, "Well, if she can get this many people to show up at a hearing to legislatively establish the nation's first office on African American affairs, then we need to talk to her." One thing led to another. I ended up consulting for EMILY's List, the DNC, the DCCC, wrote the curriculum on effective education advocacy for the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, go around the country, training people how to advocate effectively for change within the education system. And so many others.

MICHAEL J. FEUER:
It's a remarkable display of tenacity and commitment and determination. I think that if we have you back to EdFix next year, we will have progress to report nationally, globally, regionally, and certainly in our education system. Thanks to the hard work you are doing, and thanks to your dedication to this. I want to thank Adjoa B. Asamoah for being my guest today on EdFix. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe to the EdFix podcast on iTunes and Spotify and iHeart Radio or Player FM, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We also have a website: edfixpodcast.com. And none of this would be possible without the extraordinary work of our executive producer, director, technical coordinator, master engineer, studio manager, Touran Waters. Adjoa, thank you again for being with us. God bless and keep telling us about how things are going.

ADJOA ASAMOAH:
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a true honor, and I look forward to staying in the fight for progress.

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