Yohuru Williams: Last Sunday in the southern state of Oaxaca, demonstrations turned deadly. Government security forces opened fire on a group of teachers engaged in an act of civil disobedience, undertaken to focus attention on government efforts to undermine public education.
Yohuru Williams
Yohuru Williams is an author, Professor of History and Black Studies, and education activist.
Wanting “More” from the United Federation of Teachers: A Profile of Jia Lee
Yohuru Williams: In her bid to become UFT president, Jia Lee says she represents a large, but mostly silent body of teachers who remain frustrated with the union for not challenging damaging education polices.
King Would Have Stood with Striking Teachers
Yohuru Williams: Teachers, then and now, invoked the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and the words of Martin Luther King to support a deeper investment in America’s public schools.
Raynette Turner, Sandra Bland and the Invisibility of Black Women
Yohuru Williams: Perhaps if Sandra Bland, Raynette Turner, and the other women who have died were lions, then the majority of Americans could understand why the deafening indifference to their deaths wounds our pride.
Happy Birthday, Living Legend Rachel Robinson!
Yohuru Robinson: While Jack made the headlines, Rachel often bore the brunt of the hidden but nonetheless significant battles such as shepherding the family through the process of facing northern style apartheid.
Raising the White Flag: When Microaggressions Become Macroconfessions
Yohuru Williams: Somewhere between the tragedy of the Charleston shooting and the comedy of the faux conservative horror over President Obama’s use of the n-word is a profound statement on the power of white privilege in 21st century America.
You’re Nobody Until Somebody Kills You: Baltimore, Race and the Problem of History
s residents of Maryland and the nation brace for what could potentially be another night of civil unrest in Baltimore, it is important to pause and reflect on what has brought us to the current moment. It would be easy to attribute the violence now taking place in the nation’s 20th largest city to external […]
High Stakes Testing’s Threat to Civil Liberties
Yohuru Williams: The likes of Scott Walker and Chris Christie continue battering into the side of teachers unions in defense of high-stakes testing but the real dragon at the door in the form of the assault on American democracy goes unchecked.
Black Bodies and the Thin Blue Line
Yolhuru Williams: Our nation can no longer afford to function as two societies, separate and unequal, deeply divided, and policed by the racially insensitive Thin Blue Line.
Peaceful Protesters Wait on Grand Jury in Missouri
Yohuru Williams: As the shots fired from Officer Wilson’s gun last August echo into what may be a long winter of discontent, the assumption that a brutalized people will always resort to violence is plain wrong.
Time and Punishment: Why Teacher Voices Matter
Yohuru Williams: The image of Governor Christie sternly chastising a polite middle school teacher for asking a question, against the backdrop of a state wide investigation into fiscal mismanagement in education, made national headlines propelling Christie and Tomlinson into the national spotlight.
Beyond 42: Jackie Robinson and the Quest For Racial Justice
Yohuru Williams: The “historical” Jack Robinson was a man who cared far more deeply about social justice than many realize and spent the better part of his post-baseball life working toward achieving equality for all people.
Astroturf Activism and Corporate Education Reform
Yohuru Williams: While trying to give the appearance of popular support for their destructive actions, AstroTurf organizations like PennCAN actually cause injury.
