Letter from the Founders:

Previously posted in our June newsletter. Read the whole email here.

Dear MindWorks Collaborative community,

The last few weeks have been extra rough – we have taken time off to mourn the death and honor the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many others. As mothers and caregivers of young Black children we want accountability, we need solutions, and we demand justice – not only for the racism and violence baked into our legal systems and government but also in our healthcare and education systems.

Many of us started 2020 claiming it was going to be the year of clarity… we weren’t wrong. The pandemic and police violence has ripped down the American veil. Our society can no longer deny systemic racism exists and that it has infected the core structures of our entire society. The coronavirus made a case study of the rampant inequities and dysfunction in our schools and healthcare systems. The back-to-back violent killings and threats of police violence on Black people further exposed the depth and width of the systemic racism virus that plagues us. This difficult and historic time calls for bold action. 

We know that our Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students with disabilities cannot breathe in our schools. Educators were and still are conditioned to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” and believe that assimilation into white dominant culture is excellence. Sometimes, even conversations of equity frame success as proximity to whiteness. As a founding group of conscious educators, our organization does not dance around the educational inequities that converge at the intersection of race/ethnicity, (dis)ability, language, gender and other identities. We illuminate these inequities, acknowledge why they exist, and press for restorative action and healing through redesigning the way we recruit, hire, train, grow, and keep our special education workforce. 

We know that there is no easy, single solution to a problem that’s been stewing for centuries. However, the work of MindWorks Collaborative is to empower, connect, support anti-racist educators to thrive for the long-haul. We are committed to partnering with others in this work to make sure this moment does not end with us simply returning to the status quo in schools. Please stay focused, stay well, and reach out to us if you want to chat or connect about what is next in this work.

In solidarity, 

Martrice and Melissa