Abstract
The author uses testimonio as a way to situate the barriers and successes she has experienced as a Latina educational leader in Northern Colorado for 25 years. The setting is based in the backdrop of several worldwide issues in 2020 which created a dire need to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and social justice within industries and organizations, including educational systems. 1) National political division, 2) disparate access to healthcare and the disproportionate numbers of deaths to COVID-19, and 3) murders of Black Americans by law enforcement have re-affirmed the dehumanization of Black and Brown Americans. Solutions and recommendations are shared based on her shared experiences in moving a DEI educational agenda forward.
TopIntroduction
“Because of her existence as a CLD [Culturally and Linguistically Diverse] individual, she knows what it is like to live on the margins, often as an outsider, to be excluded, and to have her voice silenced” (Gabriel, 2017, p. 100).
The author has been a public-school educator for twenty-five years in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States of America (USA). Twenty of those years have included school-based and district-level leadership, including a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). While the author considers leadership to span across roles, age groups, and experience levels, this chapter focuses on the formal leadership and expectations held by educational systems for the positions she has held. Serving as a Latina—a woman of Latin American heritage—educational leader within the preschool-twelfth grade (PK-12) systems has had its challenges, consequences, and rewards.
As this important book description explains, “Many organizations enable the status quo by not confronting issues around race, gender, and equity.” A Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholar clarifies the necessity of naming and situating race. “Race as a concept has no biological foundation. However, it would be a critical mistake to deny the lived realities of racism in daily life” (Stovall, 2006, p. 247). Therefore, naming the racial and ethnic background of the author is critical for the clear focus of this text, and in particular, this chapter as the author offers important opportunities for readers to engage in listening to the voices of Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders. Understand that listening is a first step if we desire a positive promotion of change, particularly in an era of social injustice and uprising as experienced in 2020.
In this chapter, through the author’s personal testimonio, the reader is invited to learn from “dilemmas that marginalized communities encounter while advocating for justice and social change within whitestream organizational systems” as articulated in the book description. Through the use of traditional chapter headings and content: background, main focus, naming of issues and problems, solutions and recommendations, and conclusion, this chapter will offer insider perspectives on the daily life and leadership experiences of one woman of Latin American heritage—a Latina School District Administrator in the USA set in multiple complexities of the sociopolitical context of the year 2020.
TopBackground
The author’s experiences as a Latina educational leader for more than two decades have magnified and clarified the ways that institutions are committed to maintaining the status quo in educational systems. The status quo has included predictable educational and behavioral outcomes for students including high school graduation rates, wage gaps between male and female employees, consequences for supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and dehumanizing working environments for BIPOC. Of the disparate impacts that exist for these valuable employees is “racial battle fatigue” (Smith, Yosso, & Solórzano, 2006, p. 301). This term references BIPOC being on the front lines of battle in predominantly white spaces such as work and school, and the stress it causes (Gorski, 2019; Smith, Allen, & Danley, 2007; Smith, et al., 2006). “The accumulative stress from racial microaggressions produces racial battle fatigue. The stress of unavoidable front-line racial battles in historically white spaces leads to people of color feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically drained” (Smith, et al., 2006, p. 301).
Other scholars refer to this term as experienced by social justice advocates of Color as ‘burnout’ (Gorski & Erakat, 2019). As a military veteran, Antoinette Lee Toscano removed the traditional battleground reference and highlights the disparate impacts across culture naming the experience as “cultural disparity fatigue” (personal communication, 2020). Due to the ethnic and racial background of the author and the centering of race in this text and chapter, the author refers to the stress and toll on one’s emotional and physical being as racial fatigue. Racial fatigue experienced by BIPOC leaders is real, and it reached a new level of intensity across the United States and the world in the Summer of 2020 and the school year that followed. However, as you will read, while some of this author’s story is set in 2020, racial fatigue has been an ongoing experience for her as an educational leader for most of her career.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Efforts aimed at increasing the diverse representation of people within a system that include striving for equitable outcomes and engaging inclusive and affirming practices.
Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC): Individuals who identify as members of various racial and ethnic backgrounds defined as Black, Indigenous, and other non-white communities.
White Caller Crime: Placing a phone call to leverage support from law enforcement when People of Color are reported for daily activities that are not criminal.
Sociopolitical Context: the undergirding beliefs of systems that create and support regulations, policies, conditions, laws, practices, traditions, and events within a named context.
Majoritarian Narrative: The narrative held, maintained, and perpetuated by power brokers about people they may have no affiliation or relationship with.
Counter-Story/Counterstory: A story told by a person with a traditionally marginalized perspective to shed light and bring understanding to culturally, linguistically, or racially diverse experiences. Both of these spellings are found in the literature.
Racial Microaggressions: Unconscious or conscious verbal slights or physical interactions that highlight the superiority over another person related to their perceived or actual racial background.