Photo by Alex Garland
This photo marks a truly joyous moment in my life when my union (after many years of accepting concessionary contracts) stood up and went on strike for a series of social justice issues, including a demand for race and equity teams in the schools that could work to end disproportionate discipline, implement ethnic studies, and dismantle the school-to-prison-pipeline. The signs in the photo say it all: “On Strike” and “Black Student Lives Matter”!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The two most dynamic movements that reshaped the nation during the past three decades are the labor and civil rights movements. Our combined strength is potentially enormous.” Much of my life has been dedicated to this idea, as I have worked to build the teacher’s union movement against corporate education reform and fuse it with antiracist struggles.
Read about my work and follow me on twitter @jessedhagopian.