How might teachers embed emotional literacy with diversity, equity, and inclusion learning? Today on the show I speak with the award-winning educator, consultant and writer, Shakil Choudhury.

My first encounter with Shakil Choudhury was at the 2017 People of Colour Conference. I think my friend Jean Humphries had told me he was worth seeing and let me tell you, he did not disappoint. I read his book “Deep Diversity”. Then listened to the audio book. Then marched into the office of our my school’s then head of human resources and declared emphatically that everyone in our school should read this book. I’m not saying I’m the reason the book was put on our staff summer reading, I’m saying that Shakil’s work is so transformative that once you read it, you want everyone to read it. Shakil’s book is a practical, scientific and compassionate approach to tackling systemic racial discrimination. 

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground in just 50-ish minutes. We talk about burnout, self care, how to build justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion work into schools, what Harvard is doing that all our independent schools can learn from, call out culture, the shadow sides of anti-racism work, and how to not get cynical. Phew. It’s a lot. It’s important. It’s beyond critical. And it was a huge honour to get to connect with Shakil in real time. 

If after listening to this show, you are hungry for more, I urge you to book off January 21st and 22nd for their free online conference: Ordinary People Extraordinary Times. 

Things We Talked About:

• Ordinary People Extraordinary Times Conference by Anima Leadership
• Stuart Shanker
• People of Colour Conference
• Mahzarin Banaji
• Implicit Association Test
• Reproductive Justice Movement: Loretta Ross
• NYT Article: “A Racial Slur, a Viral Video, and a Reckoning”