- Dr. Aasha Joshi

Dr. Aasha Joshi: Reading through the focus groups was incredibly powerful. They were really in-depth, layered stories of everyday racism that Black teachers endure. And then they were powerful narratives of community. When teachers were asked, "How did you sustain yourself?," more often than not, the answer was: other people. Other Black people. Other Black teachers. Other Black staff. Knowing the power of community and the power of those bonds and the power of professional community is incredible. Teachers are forming their own communities within their spaces. When we think about ourselves within systems, one person alone cannot change it. One person in community can at least sustain themselves, but what does it mean to actually then change and thrive is a hard question. And I don't think there are any easy answers. We have to acknowledge the complexity, and then move forward from there, rather than thinking about the education system as, “Oh, we can fix this, we can fix that,” instead recognizing that it is an entire system of people—not cogs, but people. At every single piece of this is people, and that comes with complexity.