Days After Racial Violence
When racial violence makes national headlines, students of all backgrounds are affected. In this context, DAP examines how teachers refuse silence and bring the ongoing struggle for Black lives and racial justice into honest classroom conversation.
Overview
The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and countless others became national inflection points — moments when the violence that communities of color live with daily became impossible for the broader public to ignore. For students of color, these events can feel like confirmation of their own vulnerability. For other students, they can be a first reckoning with the reality of anti-Black violence in America.
DAP in the wake of racial violence asks teachers to name what happened clearly, to center the grief and rage of students most affected, and to resist framing that reduces racial violence to “an incident” divorced from history and systems. The classroom becomes a space to grieve, to analyze, and to imagine something different.
Key themes
- Naming anti-Black violence without euphemism
- Centering the grief of students directly affected
- Connecting individual acts of violence to structural racism
- Moving toward action and collective hope without bypassing pain
Activities & Resources
Classroom-ready protocols and tools for teaching on days after racial violence.