ARC Research Guides: Black Minds Matter 2018 @ ARC: Welcome

What is Black Minds Matter?

Black Minds Matter is a public course created by Luke Wood that seeks to "raise the national consciousness about issues facing Black boys and men in education."

https://jlukewood.com/black-minds-matter/

While most of the content is available free online, some is not. I've created this guide to:

1) encourage fellow educators to engage with this content. If you can take the entire course, awesome, do it! Week 1 of the course will be broadcast live at ARC on Monday, 10/8/18, from 4-6 PM. Kelvin Burt, a Student Ambassador from Equity Programs and Pathways, will facilitate a discussion afterwards.

If taking the course is not something you can commit to, bookmark this page, and return to it whenever you have time. There is immense value in taking the entire course, but there is also a ton of value in each of the readings and videos.

2) help make the content which is not available free online, more easily accessible to ARC educators. You'll be able to find the books and readings which are not available free online, but are available from the library, using this guide.

What are your colleagues saying about Black Minds Matter?

Watching Black Minds Matter and reading the course material was transformative and continues to influence how I teach, interact with students, and navigate ARC’s campus as a faculty member. Dr. Wood and his guests draw from their extensive research and experience to provide insight into what many students of color encounter in educational settings and the world at large. Wood also offers educators the means to develop a lens that has the potential to inform our individual practice and shift from relying on intention “to do no harm”, to embracing practices that are driven by research conducted in and by our communities of color. - Marianne Harris, ARC Librarian

Watching some of the Black Minds Matter presentations and reading Supporting Men of Color in the Community College has given me a lot to think about. I’m trying to become more aware of my own implicit biases, how those biases might influence my actions, and how my actions and words impact students. I’ve made an effort this semester to walk students over to the areas I’m referring them whenever I can and to go the extra mile when answering questions. I’ve also joined a group of colleagues in discussing Dr. Wood’s book as it relates to equity in libraries. Finally, it’s prompted me to think about ways the library can be intentional about re-designing our services to better support men of color.- Sarah Lehmann, ARC Librarian

It would be impossible for me to overstate how influential Dr. Wood's work has been for me. If you haven't read Supporting Men of Color in the Community College yet, please stop reading this, and go read that. You're welcome in advance :) - David McCusker, ARC Librarian

I completed the Black Minds Matter class over the course of the Spring 18 semester after reading Teaching Men of Color in the Community College and attending a couple of workshops taught by Luke Wood at the California Acceleration Project Conference. I was really busy at the time and planned to watch the class on promising teaching practices only, but I ended up watching all of the other sessions as well (and don’t regret the extra nights put in to catch up on my grading :). Because I streamed the class on my living room TV, viewing some sessions became a family affair, with my husband and teenage son getting sucked in as well. I deeply appreciate the wealth of information this course offers, from nuts and bolts teaching strategies to the larger picture of how automatic and systemic biases affect campus climate. The wide variety of interesting guests Dr. Wood interviewed each week offered a comprehensive view of the problems students of color, particularly young black men, face in college, and their many contributions emphasize that it truly takes a village of teachers, counselors, librarians, mentors, and administrators, to collectively support our students. –Michaela Cooper, English Professor, ARC

Is it just for Black Men?

No :) While the focus of Black Minds Matter is on Black boys and men, understanding the issues facing these students, and incorporating practices that support these students, will help educators to better serve all students. As Tyrone Howard states in Black Male(d) (one of the texts for the course), "... Black males' severely, intensely, and persistently negative experience with schools requires a laser-type focus and analysis...if schools take the required steps to improve the experiences and outcomes of black males, undoubtedly all other groups will become direct and indirect beneficiaries" (2).