There have been so many White folks who’ve asked me how they can be allies in the fight for racial justice. In the words of @BLoveSoulPower, we need co-conspirators and comrades willing to put something on the line and take risks. Use your Whiteness to advocate for BIPOC lives...

White parents in @ChiPubSchools , you have an opportunity to leverage your Whiteness by refusing to send your children to school without a safe, well-researched, and realistic plan that is created with @CTULocal1, school staff, parents and youth

You may feel that your children’s schools ARE safe. And that may be true. Because White students, while only 10% of the student body, more likely attend selective enrollment and/or more fully resourced schools in CPS.

But the overwhelming majority of children in CPS do not attend well-resourced schools. They attend schls that lack proper ventilation, hot water, nurses or the classroom space needed for social distancing.

The children who attend these under-resourced schools are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. They come from communities where COVID positivity is dangerously high. And they are the children who are dying disproportionately from this virus.

Black and Brown communities are suffering disproportionately from COVID. But these families have been completely left out the conversation. And they have decided overwhelmingly that they will not send their children back to schl under the current @ChiPubSchools plan DESPITE...

...the fact that remote learning presents is even more challenges for them due to tech/broadband inequities, inadequate housing space, and parents/caregivers who are unable to work from home and so cannot fully support their children’s remote learning.

But @ChiPubSchools is not listening to this majority. CPS claims that Black/Brown “equity” is driving their in-person plan, but the fact that most Black/Brown families will NOT be participating in person demonstrates that this push is not about what’s best for Black/Brown sts

So White parents, you have an opportunity to use your voice and your Whiteness to advocate for the lives of these students/communities. This will not be easy or convenient. But I am sure that as a collective, your challenges with remote learning do not outweigh those of Blck folx

This is what it means to be a co-conspirator. Put your comfort and convenience on the line. And in the end, you will find the beauty of what happens when we attain racial justice: EVERYBODY benefits. We will ALL be better, safer, healthier as a result of our solidarity.