Category: Event Reviews

During Black History Month (February), I went to many events that were held in honour of BHM, mainly because of performances, yet one, out of the many, events that stood out to me and that was fun to attend to was the Africana Studies Department: Artistic Groups Event, which was held on the last day of the month (February 29th), in the Brown Auditorium. This event was held by Dr. Michael Tillotson and Mr. Bruce Mattingly to highlight different artistic groups on campus that embodies the Arts in African Culture. The groups that were presenting were the SUNY Cortland Gospel Choir, SUNY Cortland Blues Ensemble, and SUNY Cortland Africana Dance Class, taught by the one and only, Dr. Yomi Lee. 

The event started off with the Gospel Choir singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, also known as the Black National Anthem, and this was sung alone by the President and Vice President of the Choir, Michelle (P) and Michaile (VP) Graham. After singing, the rest of the choir, led by the choir director Mr. Steven Cox (on piano), sung Forever You’re My King by Carlton Pearson, honouring the Gospel. Right after Gospel Choir, the Blues Ensemble went next, they started off with Jazz Blues, each student playing different instruments, except voice, it wasn’t until later on when they were close to ending their 30 minute performance, when they started adding voice to their performance, but it wasn’t words that we could understand that was used, they were singing yes, but not with the English Language, in the end however, they had an outstanding performance that was honouring music in African Culture. Last but not least, they had the Africana Dance Class end out the whole event. There were three dances, the first one being KuKu, a dance that was used to celebrate fishermen coming back from the sea, this dance was done by Dr. Yomi Lee and a student named Tiarra Sellers. The second dance was called Feel It Africa which led into the third dance named Unavailable, both dances being Modern Afro Dance/Afrobeats, in which it represents cultural pluralism and resilience. The second one was danced by Dr. Yomi Lee, Tiarra Sellers and Michelle Graham, while the third one was a solo by Michelle Graham, with Dr. Lee being a backup dancer. The whole performance by the Africana Dance Class honoured the different meaning of dance in African History throughout time.

All performances that night did exceptionally well while honouring Arts in African Culture. Dr. Michael Tillotson then closed the event by saying thank you to all who came out and all who performed, for it was indeed a prestigious event.

On February 28, 2024, I attended the African American Sports and Civil Rights lecture and presentation, presented by Susan Rayl. Throughout this presentation, located in the Park Center Hall of Fame Room, she discussed a multitude of African American athletes and the impact their stories have had on, what is now, our modern day athletes. Some of the athletes mentioned were Octavius Catto, Issac Murphy, Marshall Taylor, Edwin B. Henderson, Robert Douglas, Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, Tydie Picket, Louise Stokes and Jackie Robinson. The goal of this talk was to enlighten those who didn’t have the previous knowledge of these athletes, their struggles and how they have paved the way for those to come so that they have the opportunity to thrive in the world of sports regardless of their race. 

While all of these athletes struggled in their respective sports, one of the stories that Dr. Rayl focused heavily on was the story of Tydie Picket and Louise Stokes. Both girls were runners who got their start running in a track club. When both girls realized they had a real talent for the sport, they trained day and night to be able to, one day, run in the Olympic games. In 1932, both Picket and Stokes qualified for the games but were denied the chance to run because they were replaced by two of their white teammates. Because of the time period, society deemed this behavior as justified and it was simply overlooked. However, this didn’t stop Picket and Stokes from training in the hopes that they would be able to run in the Olympics another year. Well, in 1936, both girls qualified for the games again, this time around Stokes was denied the chance to run but Picket was awarded the opportunity to compete. It should be noted that it was a victory for the African American community to be able to see one of their own have the chance to win such a prestigious event. Prejudice was and still is an extremely detrimental plague in our country, but it was no match for these two athletes who managed to make history in the track and field community. 

The personalities of these athletes remind me of the character Sula from Toni Morrison’s novel Sula. Sula was a very care-free, strong willed and independent girl who followed her heart and mind wherever it wanted to go, disregarding any feelings of doubt and fear that may have been placed upon her by those in her life. Picket and Stokes went against the country’s views on racial equality and attempted to live out the lives they desired because it doesn’t matter what race or gender you are, you can still enact change. It only takes one person to make a difference. For Sula, it was her adventurous spirit that led her to see all that life has to offer without worrying about judgment from her peers. And in the case of Stokes and Picket, it was the drive to be themselves and follow that passion they had for running as far as it could take them. 

Overall, I believe this presentation was very impactful on our Cortland community. It brought to light some very crucial issues in our athletic fields that may not have been common knowledge to some who attended, including myself. I wasn’t aware of exactly who a majority of the athletes mentioned were aside from Jackie Robinson. Dr. Rayl gave myself and others present the chance to better understand the historical aspects of how the civil rights movement truly impacted the world of sports.  

Back in February on the 29^th I attended Cortland’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Ann K. McClellan’s presentation on Sherlock Holmes and the characters ties to Black Americans. Titled “The Sherlock Holmes You Never Knew: Black American Adaptations Then and Now.” The presentation, located in the colloquium of Old Main, highlighted the fame of the classic character of Sherlock Holmes and how Sherlock Holmes has had little-known differential representation aside from being an older white British male detective. She begun by discussing the character of Sherlock Holmes and how he has been the most portrayed character of all time, seen across films, stories, plays, etc. And through a majority of these renditions, Sherlock Holmes has been predominantly a white male, and has carried a remarkably white fanbase. It was noted that race had never been much of a question in regard to these stories, it was often unspecified or just assumed he was a white British male.

After McClellan’s extensive research, she claimed (from what she could find) that the first known record of a black Sherlock Holmes was written in the first African American stage musical on Broadway titled “In Dahomey” in 1903. The performance originally starred Bert Williams as “Shylock ‘Shy’ Homestead” and George W Walker as “Rareback Pinkerton.” These characters, of course, were in place of Sherlock and his trusty comedic sidekick John Watson. The show went on to tour the US and the UK, even preforming at Buckingham Palace for King Edward VII. Amidst our reading and studying of “A Raisin in the Sun,” I thought this was interesting in that it emphasized performance art, like musicals and plays, as another monumental piece in African American culture and recognition in and advocation for equality. “In Dahomey” was imbedded with anti-colonialist ideas, just as well “A Raisin in the Sun” was created not only for entertainment, but to highlight the struggling lives of African Americans, and create a reference to art in moving toward a freer, more liberated nation for all.

In concluding her presentation, a large part of the discussion was focused on the present-day rewritings and interpretations of the Sherlock Holmes character. McClellan looked at examples of fan fiction stories written on various public websites where anyone and everyone can publish their own renditions of their most favorited stories. One website, “Archive of Our Own,” has Sherlock Holmes listed within the top five most-written and developed storyline subjects published on the site. Yet, what I found most interesting was that through hundreds of thousands of stories, and many refined subject searches in the Sherlock Holmes realm of publications, approximately fifteen out of the thousands of fan fictions were based on an African American Sherlock, or a Sherlock of another race. So in a modern world where writing any situation or storyline is possible, and the possibility for a black Sherlock to exist, very few actually come to represent Sherlock other than a white British man. I thought this low representation for such a popular character was very shocking. It is disheartening to see that, even in a modern day where things are more reformed, there is still lack of representation in the black community.

I attended The Sherlock Holmes You Never Knew: Black American Adaptations, Then and Now presented by Provost Ann McClellan. The event was held in Old Main. I chose this event because quite frankly, I had very minimal knowledge on Sherlock Holmes and absolutely zero on black adaptations of the character. All I knew was that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character and I saw an ad once for a movie with Robert Downey Jr playing him. I figured that if I was going to attend an event, why not do something that is very new to me, to maximize the learning potential. I had no idea that Sherlock Holmes had this massive cult following, with an exclusive fan club of members from around the world and I wasn’t aware of the rich culture and history, and atrocities revolving around black adaptations of the character. Not only did we learn about Sherlock Holmes and the black culture around it, but we also learned a lot of history involving African American music, Broadway, and other cinema history and terms such as whitewashing and race bending.

What I found very interesting was in the beginning the speaker mentioned a very common theme in the Sherlock Holmes community, “you don’t talk about race in Sherlock Holmes.” Later finding out that Holmes is the most played fictional character of all time, and most of his fandom is predominantly white males from England. I found it very weird that something as silly as a Character playing the role as a detective in an often-comedic setting would be surrounded by so much exclusion and racism. There were even instances when black actors would apply burnt cork to their skin to appear even more “black” to fit a racist, white narrative. In most adaptations they used somewhat off brand names and roles like Shylock “shy” Homestead who was played by Bert Williams the actor who applied the burnt cork to his skin. This play was the first all-black musical on Broadway. There were also very racist titles such as. “The Two Real Coons.”  They would also change minor details about the outfits, especially the hat which was famously known for being the major identifier for Sherlock Holmes.  On a more positive note, finally in 1986 the elitest group of Sherlock Holmes fans allowed entry to their first black member, Philip Brogdon who lived up until 2021. Brogdon was an actor and writer as well. They even had one of the adaptations casts be invited to Buckingham palace.

The event was very informative and shocking. The speaker was very professional and an expert on the topic. I never would have known about Sherlock Holmes and black adaptations of him if it wasn’t for this. I probably would have gone my entire life without hearing about it. It’s a unique and treasured culture and a great example of perseverance and determination by the black community. If an opportunity comes up to attend this event or something similar, I highly recommend going to it.

 

 

I decided to attend The Sherlock Holmes You Never Knew: Black American Adaptations, Then and Now given by Provost Ann McClellan. This event was held on the evening of February 29th in a room upstairs in Old Main. I wanted to attend this event simply because it sounded incredibly interesting to me. Growing up, I had heard of the book and movie character named Sherlock Holmes, but I had never read any of the books or watched any of the movies. The name was just such a part of pop-culture and so I was curious. My conception however was that Sherlock Holmes was a white, British, private eye. However, I would soon learn from this event that that was not necessarily the case.

One of the most interesting facts to me was that Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed fictional character ever. When I heard that I was more than a bit surprised, especially given that there are so many other famous, fictional characters (Batman, James Bond, Superman, and maybe even Spiderman). I also doubted whether many people in the States are huge fans of him and whether the character is even relevant these days. Sherlock Holmes is always portrayed as a white man in most movies, TV, and comics. The fanbase is also predominately a white, male fanbase. In this fanbase though there exists an elite group of Sherlock fans who are called the Baker Street Irregulars. This group consisted of an all-white group until they let their first black member in named Phillip Brogdon in 1988.

The first African American adaptation of Sherlock Holmes was also the first, all-black musical on Broadway in 1903. It featured Bert Williams as Shylock Holmes who was hired as a private detective. Bert, although he was a black man, still acted in blackface. In the musical, there were a lot of references to the original Sherlock Holmes. Then in 1918 one of the first black silent films was entitled “A Black Sherlock Holmes”. This version of Sherlock was portrayed by an actor named Sam Robinson who played Knick Carter. Knick was trying to rescue a kidnapped young girl named Cheza Sneeze. The movie was listed as a comedy. They also used colorblind casting which means they would pick the actor who was the best, not caring what their ethnicity was.  Not everyone was on board with this strategy, especially since he was a historically white character.

Sherlock Holmes turned out to be more embedded in our culture and the media than I think anyone – me included – would ever think. He’s referred to often in jazz music. Bill Cosby even once did a whole bit on his show dressed as Sherlock Holmes. While there are tons of adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories, there are still surprisingly few black adaptations. There are, however, thousands of fan factions online for Sherlock Holmes. But there are only 15(!!) that are not white fan pages. It is interesting to see how people interpret fictional characters and how it either changes through the years or remain the same. I do wonder if as society becomes more ethnically diverse if fictional characters will do the same. This event certainly made me think about it.

 

“The Color Purple” (2023) film focuses on the life of Celie Harris-Johnson and how she faces many hardships in her life, along with having an abusive husband, but the film also focuses on the story of Celie Harris and her struggles of living in the South in the 1900s and the theme of racial discrimination and racial violence occurs in this film. The film is in Georgia. Out of our class discussions, I believe this film relates to Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine because of how she speaks on scenarios and with the theme of racial violence and racial discrimination. Rankine speaks about Serena Williams as well and what she went through.

 

An example of racial discrimination and being treated poorly is when in 1930, Sofia is called out by the mayor’s wife to be her maid, but she refuses and gets involved in a physical fight, resulting in Sofia being arrested. This took place in Georgia as did the entire film “The Color Purple.” She is sent to jail for 6 years and as soon as she is released, she ends up working for the mayor’s wife anyway. Sofia sinks into deep depression that takes away all the fierceness she used to have before the fight occurred. This goes with the theme of racial violence/ racial discrimination because the mayor’s wife is white.

 

The themes of racial discrimination and racial violence occurred in Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine as well. Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time or the greatest player of all time was treated so poorly on and off the court and Rankine speaks on how she was treated in her book Citizen. In Part II she speaks on Serena Williams and what she went through. Rankine brings it up in Part II, stating “The most notorious of Serena’s detractors takes the form of Mariana Alves, the distinguished chair umpire. In 2004 Alves was excused from officiating any more matches of the final day of the US Open after she made five bad calls against Serena in her quarterfinal matchup against fellow American Jennifer Capriati. The serves and returns Alves called out were landing, stunningly unreturned by Capriati, inside the lines, no discerning eyesight needed.” (Rankine 26-27). It was clear to many that Alves was leaning one way during the match because the description of inside the lines, no discerning eyesight needed is just proving that Alves had something against Serena Williams for some odd reason and was umpiring in a cheating way. Another example Rankine speaks on is “Though no one was saying anything explicitly about Serena’s black body, you are not the only viewer who thought it was getting in the way of Alves’s sight line.” (Rankine 27). Serena had her response to the unfairness stating, “I am very angry and bitter right now. I feel cheated. Shall I go on? I feel cheated.” (27). Serena has the right to be angry and bitter because she is in the right and was cheated and the match was totally unfair.

 

Overall, The Color Purple (2023) and Citizen: An American Lyric are similar in some type of way because they have times of describing the same theme of racial violence and discrimination.

On April 12th at 4:30-5:30 pm I attended Dr. Robin Wall Kimmer’s presentation on her work. Her lecture was based around “The Good Harvest. “This event took place in the Corey Union Function Room where many faculty members and students attended. Personally, I did not read her book; Braiding Sweetgrass but after attending this presentation it is a book that I want to read. Dr. Kimmer was an amazing speaker, everything flowed very nicely, and it amazed me how much she spoke from the heart. It seemed as if she didn’t even need the slides she prepared. Even when answering questions, there was nothing that Dr. Kimmer could not answer. She had a very detailed answer to every question that was asked. I feel her presentation told me a lot about her personality, I feel as if I really got to know her as a person. It was easy to see how caring, appreciative, and passionate Dr. Kimmer is. Her lecture opened my eyes to new ideas I have never been exposed to. I found the event to be very engaging and beneficial as I learned a lot from this.

One aspect of Dr. Kimmer’s presentation that I really enjoyed was the connections she made. She provided the audience with a lot of information on herself, allowing us to get to know her better.  She is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. She is a MacArthur fellow, an author, and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She lives in Syracuse, although her home reservation is in Oklahoma. One story that I really appreciated showed Dr. Kimmers determination.  When she was graduating high school, she couldn’t decide between wanting to study science or to become a poet. Her guidance counselor told her she couldn’t do both and she decided to study plants. In her higher education, she was one of the only women and the only native person on campus. She did what she could to fit in. On her first day, she had an interview with her advisor where she told the advisor that she wanted to study the beauty of nature and plants. She wanted to answer questions like why the world is so beautiful and how do we keep it like that? Her counselor told her that’s not science and if that was her interest, she should go art school. It was obstacles like these that got her to where she is today. She clearly has developed a deep passion and genuine care for our earth. She is knowledgeable and strives to maintain the natural beauty of our planet. She speaks up for what she believes, encouraging others to help her take action to preserve the beauty of the earth. I found this to be very inspirational, as sometimes people doubt others, it shows how Dr. Kimmer did not let people stop her and followed her passion. Another part, of her lecture that stood out to me is the idea she called “two eyed seeing.” I found this to be a very eye-opening topic. This idea is to look through multiple lenses and view things from different perspectives. This idea will allow for a much better understanding and a better way of solving problems. She continued on to tell the audience, that ecologists have turned to the knowledge of traditional people for a deeper understanding and seeing of the natural world. In a time where climate change and global warning awareness is so advertised, I think it is important to look to the people who appreciate the world and know how to properly care for it.  She included the statistical detail that 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is safeguarded by indigenous places only 10% have protection. She says that we are not to go back in history but to go forward to a planet to live on in the future. These words stuck out to me because it is never too late to make a change and start caring. Her presentation showed me how we can help enhance and preserve the natural beauty of the earth we live on.  She finished off her lecture by saying that “an educated person knows their gifts and how to give them to the world.” As someone aspiring to be a teacher, these are words that will stick with me forever. This was a very powerful message and she clearly knows how to spread her gift with the world.

Overall, I enjoyed Dr. Kimmer’s lecture, her message was very powerful and moving. She really gave me insight to a perspective I had never thought about before. I learned a lot from what she had to say, and it left me, and I am sure the rest of the audience feeling very inspired. Although I had been worried that I would feel lost during this presentation since I did not read Braiding Sweetgrass, I gained a lot of valuable information from this event.

 I attended “The Sherlock Holmes You Never Knew: Black American Adaptations, Then and Now.” This event took place on Thursday, February 29th from 6 to 7 pm in the Old Main Colloquium. The presentation was delivered by Dr. Ann McClellan who is the Chief Academic Officer and a provost at SUNY Cortland. Many people attended the presentation including students, professors, and even President Bitterbaum! Her presentation focuses on Sherlock Holmes who audiences recognize as the founding father of all great (white) fictional detections. The presentation focused on the adaptations of Sherlock Holmes that people fail to acknowledge. Since 1903 there have been Black American Sherlock Holmes characters and her presentation covered the history of the Black Sherlock Holmes adaptations across genres.

Dr. McClellan began with a brief introduction of herself, she told the audience that her presentation is a part of a larger project she has been working on for several years. It wasn’t until 2014 on a research trip in London that she read a self-published pamphlet created by an American. The pamphlet had an entire history and connection of African American culture and Sherlock Holmes, it opened up stories, characters, narratives, and representations that she had never heard of or seen in her prior research. Before this presentation, I honestly didn’t know much about the character Sherlock Holmes, but Dr. McClellan told us that according to the Guinness World Records, Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed fictional character of all time. One thing that stands out about Sherlock Holmes is that he is known as a white man from England. Even his fan group is primarily white. She showed us a photo from the annual dinner in NYC of the Bakers Streets Irregulars, a worldwide fan society of Sherlock Holmes. The dinner is invite only and everyone in the photo is white and a male. We looked at a photo from 1986 and 2020; the only difference is that there is now one woman and one man of color. Other than that,  his fan base is predominantly white males and over the years, as the world has advanced not much has changed within the fan base. I found this to be very surprising and it also made me curious if this fan base also studies these different adaptations.

Dr. McClellan then defined the word adaptation which was very helpful as her presentation is focused on these different adaptations. She defines adaptation as another person’s take on a story or character, a different genre, a different period, or a completely new story. This simple definition she included, made it much easier to understand and connect to her presentation. She then began to discuss the first African American adaptation of Sherlock Holmes which took place in 1903. This was the first Broadway musical with an all-black cast which is not widely recognized due to racism. The play is titled “Dahomey” and it stars Bert Williams as the main character who plays Shylock Homestead. Although he was African American, he used burnt cork to make his skin look darker and outlined his lips in white makeup to exaggerate his characteristics. He felt that if white people could make money by doing blackface, he should be able to do the same. Dr. McClellan then began to discuss different genres like silent films and music which was centered around Sherlock Holmes. Something that stuck out to me was her explanation of whitewashing and colorblind casting. She spoke about how this still occurs in today’s society. Whitewashing is when characters who are created to be of a certain race, ethnicity, or culture are converted to be white in films, plays, etc. Colorblind casting states that race doesn’t matter and will instead be ignored. It was argued that colorblind casting makes racial identity invisible, but audience critics argued that the first thing people notice is racial and ethnic identities. They believed it influenced how viewers see and react to characters and their relationships with others. I connected this aspect of her presentation to our class discussions on color blindness.  Lastly, as Dr. McClellan concluded her presentation, she provided a great wrap-up and lasting impact. She stated how there have been several Sherlock Holmes adaptations, including stories of Sherlock Holmes being a woman, transgender, an alien, and an MLB player. All of these different things have nothing to do with the original story, yet audiences still struggle to imagine the character as a different race or ethnicity. She told the audience how this shows us the importance of fans of color and creating, collecting, and archiving diverse representations of iconic figures.

Overall, I enjoyed this event and took a lot of information away from it. It is clear to see how passionate Dr. McClellan is about her research.  Through her presentation, I learned about adaptations I did not know existed. This event sparked my curiosity and left me wondering about racism and biases that still occur in today’s society.  Her presentation was engaging and presented in an organized manner.

On February 6^th from 2-3pm, I attended Dr. Willnide Lindor’s talk “Making Shakespeare Sexy Again: Pedagogical Approaches to Race and Empire,” in Old Main.  I was extremely interested in attending this event because I take a class with Dr. Lindor and she’s been one of my favorite professors here at SUNY Cortland because of her passion for her subject, and her active engagement with her students.

While sitting in at this event, many subjects were brought to my attention that I really hadn’t thought of before.  Dr. Lindor discussed the difficulty around making Shakespeare something enjoyable or interesting for her students of color.  Dr. Lindor explained that typically she’s noticed that her African American students are unable to make a connection with Shakespeare because of background ethnic differences.  She further stated that “black students are not the intended reader of Shakespeare” and that, “Shakespeare is the embodiment of whiteness.”  I found this very interesting.  As someone who plans on entering the field of adolescent education, I’m very conscious of the fact that I will more than likely teach Shakespeare in my future classroom.  I think of the stigma around Shakespeare; that it’s confusing and most students aren’t interested in it because of the language.  However, although obvious, I had never before thought of Shakespeare’s intended audience: it had never really been said out loud.  As Dr. Lindor discusses, it’s no mystery why she found that her African American students had difficulty forming a connection with texts written by Shakespeare.

 

After providing us with some background information, Dr. Lindor then dove into her strategies for teaching Shakespeare.  She explained that by understanding how students are introduced to Shakespeare that teachers are better able to understand the background that multicultural students bring to the college classroom.  She says that incorporating a race conscious pedagogy allows students to thrive in their education within the realm of Shakespeare.  Dr. Lindor then introduced us to her “Experience Retrieval Exercises.”  ERE’s, as she calls them, are activities where students share information about previous knowledge about a topic regardless of the education level.  Dr. Lindor then asked us to participate in an ERE that she uses in her classes.  In this ERE, we wrote down what we knew about Shakespeare on an index card in groups. Then, after a timer went off, Dr. Lindor collected our index cards, placed them in a bowl, shuffled them around, and picked out cards in a random order and read them aloud to the group.  She explained that often times when she executed this activity in her Shakespeare classes, she found that students typically had a few negative associations and memories of Shakespeare but also some positive ones.  Dr. Lindor said that as a class, hearing all of this different information from memory recall lays new touchstones for their future encounters with Shakespeare.

Ultimately, I learned a lot from Dr. Lindor’s talk.  I think all adolescent teachers who teach Shakespeare definitely need to consider making it more inclusive.  I think students learn best when they are able to relate to something, even in the smallest way, and for those who can’t I think Dr. Lindor’s strategies are an excellent way to help students become engaged in the work.

I attended a Zoom session on February 8th from 6 to 7pm, which was hosted and conducted by Dr. Marcus Croom and guided by Dr. Dianne Wellington. Dr. Marcus Croom is an assistant instructor of literacy, culture and language at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a critical race researcher. He has written a number of books addressing 21st century enduring issues throughout school systems and classrooms. During his event, Dr. Croom discussed the various ways that racial inequalities are displayed in classrooms as well as the potential effects that the lack of racial knowledge and awareness can have on academic thinking, student identification, effectiveness of teachers, and literacy methods of instruction. This event was extremely eye opening. A number of interesting ideas and topics were touched upon that I have never been presented with before, putting a significant amount of new and existing ideas into new perspectives. 

One of the most interesting ideas Dr. Croom touched upon during his event was his study on race in literacy. He highlights findings from studies he and other colleagues have done within different classrooms to document teachers’ understanding of race and how they can often, intentionally and unintentionally, discriminate against students of color, or minority groups. According to these research studies, a variety of forms of racism and discrimination are frequently observed in classroom settings, such as prejudices in instructional strategies, a curriculum lacking in diversity and representation, discriminatory disciplinary measures, and the reinforcement of racial stereotypes. The utilization of emojis in the classroom was one startling example given by Dr. Croom during his presentation. Emojis are widely used forms of communication that frequently do not fairly represent a range of diverse groups. Not only teachers, but everyday people often use primarily white characters, which makes people of other races and groups feel excluded and less significant.  In response, Dr. Croom stressed throughout this lecture that in order to establish more inclusive and equitable learning environments for all children, educators must critically evaluate and oppose these discriminatory processes. Croom advocates for the development of racial literacies as a main solution to combat racism in classrooms. Teachers can improve their knowledge of race, racism, and anti-racist beliefs by encouraging diverse racial literacy. They can then include these viewpoints into lesson plans. Creating inclusive classroom environments where all students feel valued, included, and respected are a few examples of teaching strategies. Other examples include addressing specific biases and prejudices, incorporating varied perspectives into curriculum, and developing culturally responsive teaching solutions. Through continuous reflection and the elimination of racial prejudices, educators can work to undermine systematic racist policies and procedures in the classroom and advance social justice and inclusivity for all children. 

I found Dr. Marcus Croom’s presentation to be really insightful. This incident highlighted the critical role that educators play in creating inclusive environments while also casting a great deal of light on the extent of racial and minority disparities in educational settings. His observations about how racial biases appear in classrooms, even in seemingly innocent ways like emojis, emphasized how critical it is to confront these problems head-on. Teachers may help create more equitable learning environments where all students feel valued and empowered to thrive by aggressively confronting discriminatory practices and encouraging racial literacy. The essential reminder provided by Dr. Croom’s call to action is the continued effort required to combat systematic racism and advance social justice in education.