Notices by Rachel Thorn (rachel_thorn@queer.party), page 8

Then you're either left with a more racist school, failing its talented Black kids.

Or a less racist school, providing a safer environment for Black kids to succeed and thrive.

1 black teacher? 13% more likely to go to college than their same school, same race peers. 2 Black teachers? 32% more likely to go to college. And the positive effect is concentrated in Black boys.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25254

Because Black boys receive the most racist excessive discipline and mistreatment in schools.

?Q: Why do Black kids that go to school in Nigeria or Kenya excel in math, but Black kids that go to school in the US do not?

Why do Black kids in the US that have at least one Black teacher do better in math, and are more likely to graduate and go to college?

A: Because racist people are not good at teaching Black kids, and Black teachers can shield kids from racism.

Imagine if I taught at this school with this teacher. Wouldn't work. One of us would have to go.

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1591881094432964612

Awkward conversation starter*

If you know someone that teaches school in the US, ask them if Black students' math scores are the same as white students' math scores at their school. They'll say no.

Then ask them who the most racist teacher in their school is. They might tell you. Then ask them what they've done about this racist teacher.

*(Don't do this. Because it's considered rude.

We can talk about "Fatherless Black households!" and "Teaching Black kids to value education!" But not this.)

I’m taken aback by the response to this toot. When I saw I had so many notifications, I thought for sure people had come to criticize me for trying to tell others how to use Mastodon. It turns out a lot of people are as annoyed by this practice as I am.:surprised:

@pete @danidictates Precisely. The vitriol has been carefully cultivated over the years by the cursed Algorithm. I am hoping people will adjust to the culture here.

@Bigbreakfast_Irl I agree. I think such folks still think of the bird site as their “home,” and Mastodon as an emergency shelter.

@tomw @Xymbl Agreed. I’m grumbling, but it’s not really affecting my experience here.

@72Degrees Of course, that’s fine!

@mackaj Thank you! I will try that.

@vaguelyweird I was intentionally vague. It's someone I used to follow Over There and who I have great respect for.

When you conduct a class via Zoom, from your office, and not a single student shows. Oh, well. I'm getting other things done while waiting.

Like reading this amazing comic on how to read Aztec codices. I bring up these codices in different classes thrice a year, since they are one of the earliest forms of sequential art. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8cq5w8b2

The comic is written by Dr. Felicia Rhapsody Lopez, and drawn by Jordon Collver.
https://ssha.ucmerced.edu/content/felicia-rhapsody-lopez

@vaguelyweird What keywords did you use to do that?

@vaguelyweird Well put! That's what it feels like! It's like you're in a yoga class and one person is on their phone with someone else having an ugly and loud argument.

@KarenWyld Yep.

*sigh* Just read a thread where it looked like the poster was arguing with invisible people. Turns out the whole thread was auto-reposted from Twitter, so we're seeing just the poster's angry responses to the ignorant (and, to us, invisible) replies they got on Twitter. This is an unexpected side effect of auto posting: A peek at Twitter Rage that I really did not need to see on my Mastodon timeline.

I'm begging you, folks. Commit to one or the other. Don't Twitterize the Fediverse.

@KarenWyld I grew up hearing that racism would disappear once the old people all died off. Nope. There's always a new generation of racists to replace the old.

Was thinking about adding an in-browser database for toots in Yoyogi (um, this non-timeline Mastodon reader app I made https://fasiha.github.io/yoyogi/) and thought, "PouchDB?" Went to check Pinafore, the other brainchild of Mister PouchDB, @nolan, and saw it uses raw IndexedDB! <rolling up sleeves to learn raw IndexedDB> #Yoyogi #PouchDB #Pinafore #IndexedDB

(By the way, my own bird site accounts--one English, one Japanese--both peaked at about 3500-ish.)

I have to admit, it's exciting to see people who had (have?) tens or even hundreds of thousands of followers on the bird site throw it all away and come over here.