By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black As the school year simmers down and the heat turns up, the summer months look different for everyone. Some kids are shooting hoops at basketball camp, while others sit poolside or earn some cash at a summer job. Every summer, millions of Black children are enrolled in summer camps, […]
Author Archives: Maya Pottiger Word in Black
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#WordinBlack: Thanks to expiring school meal waivers, more Black kids will be hungry
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black No lunch money? No problem For the past two years, instead of students racking up lunch debt or having to skip eating a meal at school because they lack the cash to pay for it, all students were offered free lunch — year-round — through pandemic-era federal waivers. No […]
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#WordinBlack: A brief history of Juneteenth
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black Juneteenth is a federal holiday. A bill to make it the 12th federal holiday was passed by the Senate and House, and President Joe Biden signed it into law on June 17, 2021. So, what exactly is Juneteenth? On June 19, 1865, the last slaves in the United States […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
This high school student studied how violent crime impacts SAT scores. Here’s what she found
By Maya Pottiger, Special to the AFRO College applications, homework, a part-time job, family responsibilities, and what to wear to prom — those are the typical activities of a high school senior in the United States. But today’s students aren’t living in typical times, and we’re not only talking about the COVID-19 pandemic. Nowadays, violent […]
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#WordinBlack: The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill makes school even less safe for Black students
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black In her Intro to Black LGBTQ Studies class at Howard University, Dr. Jennifer Williams notices a difference in students now compared to when she was a student on the campus in the ’90s. Back then, in the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Williams described the LGBTQ culture as […]
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#WordinBlack: How invisible lines keep education resources from Black and Hispanic kids
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black Back in the ’90s, Puff Daddy rapped about how life is “All About the Benjamins” — but, really, it’s all about zip codes. Zipcodes often determine the school district — or the school within a district — where kids will spend their K-12 education, which also decides the opportunities […]
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#WordinBlack: Now even police are getting Black books banned
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black The banning of Black books is making the headlines again. This time, it’s because some parents are claiming all types of Black books — like picture book biographies of Civil Rights leaders — are teaching critical race theory. The American Library Association tracks annually the most challenged and banned […]
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#WordinBlack: Schools and Black Students’ Mental Health: The Kids Aren’t Alright
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black It’s no surprise that we’re living through difficult times. After two years, we’re still in a global pandemic, which has predominantly impacted people of color. In addition, Book bans, attacks on critical race theory, and partisan political fights target everything from Black youths’ sexuality, to history, to health. And […]
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#WordinBlack: Black Teachers Are Fed Up — and They’re Quitting in Droves
by Maya Pottiger When she gets home from work, it takes Monise Seward two or three hours to decompress from the day. She sits there — just sits — to feel the stress leave her body. Seward is a middle school math teacher in Metro Indianapolis. She’s worked in schools for the last nine years — […]
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#WordinBlack: The 4 Biggest Barriers Keeping Black Students Out of Advanced Classes
by Maya Pottiger This is the second article in a three-part series that looks at why AP classes aren’t offered to all students, the barriers to being able to take an AP class, and, in the end, who benefits from these classes and tests. Amir Cannon struggled taking International Baccalaureate classes, a rigorous option similar to the College […]
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#WordinBlack: How Black Kids Benefit From AP Classes — Even Without College Credit
by Maya Pottiger This is the third article in a three-part series that looks at why AP classes aren’t offered to all students, the barriers to being able to take an AP class, and, in the end, who benefits from these classes and tests. The beginning of May brings a particular buzz to the halls of […]
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#WordinBlack: Why aren’t there more Black librarians?
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black Librarians have superpowers. It was true in the late ’90s when Marvel’s original Spider-Woman was a Black librarian named Valerie — and it was true in 1905 when the son of two formerly enslaved Black people opened the first library in the United States that served and was fully […]