#5SmartReads - January 21, 2021

Kate Slater is a regular contributor to #5SmartReads. She spends her days educating on white supremacy, and chasing a toddler around! You can find her anti-racism road map here, it’s also linked in her instagram bio. 

Loan Forgiveness 'Transformative' For HBCUs (Inside Higher ED) 

The recent COVID relief bill earmarked over 1.3 billion in debt forgiveness for HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).

This. Is. Huge.

With enormous amounts of debt wiped off the slate, HBCUs now can invest their money in everything from updating infrastructure to student support services.

Manifestation Is Political (Zora)

Chavae writes, "Stability has to be present in order to see the results of intentional manifestation."

Many communities are focused on surviving and aren't able to manifest their way to "thriving". The idea that if you just believe in something hard enough, it will "manifest" is a distinctly privileged and political stance.

What If You Could Do It All Over? (New Yorker)

A beautiful rumination on what happens when we stop to consider all of the lives that we could have lived.

How To Make Anti-Racism More Than A Performance (EdWeek)

"Much of what goes by the name “equity work” is a collective hoping for racial justice. This hope too often hinges on the idea that before we change policies, we must change hearts and minds. So equity work becomes trying to help white people learn to be less racist."

Read every single word that abolitionist educator Bettina L. Love writes.

The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race (NPR)

A very short but gut-punching read about the ways that insulate ourselves against the belief that this is who America is. I wrote a lot more about this on Hitha's weekly newsletter, so check it out here.