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Jeremiah Graham, USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee 5:44 p.m. CT June 6, 2017

Tuesday's "Celebrate Whats Right" luncheon on the state of education in Memphis had a strong focus on what's still to be done.

We dont need education to reform, said Marcus Robinson, CEO of the philanthropic Memphis Education Fund. "We need education revolution.

The luncheon at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis was hosted by New Memphis, an organization with a goal of helpingdevelop students and educators around the city, and the non-profit news organization Chalkbeat.

Robinson said 70,000 children in Shelby County who are living at or below the poverty line were in a failing school. When the state of Tennessee ran a list of the schools in the bottom five percent of performance in the state test scores, he said, 90 percent of those schools were in Shelby County.

His call for more commitment to students, not just in the classroom but at home, was echoed by other speakers such as Achievement Schools executive director Tim Wise and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Schools executive director Kendra Ferguson.

None of this happens without a collective commitment from leadership and a commitment of those individuals who have taken up the banner and stand up for students and say, 'I want for you what I want for myself. I demand excellence from myself and I demand it from you as well,' Wise said.

Meanwhile, Robert S. Harvey, chief executive officer of Star Academy, said he believes that by shrinking the school body, teachers and faculty can form more personalized relationships with students and produce better results.

I think that we are stuck in the 19th Century industrialization where bigger is better and more is more, Harvey said. But I wonder because of Star's reality what does it look like to grow by staying small?

Star Academy has never surpassed 250 students, he said, but he touted its results.

We have blue-ribbon status and our kids are going to the middle school of their choice, completing high school at a 100 percent graduation rate, he said. "We do not grow by being big, we grow by being small.

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Educators say there's still much work to do in Memphis - The Commercial Appeal

Posted on: May 31, 2017; Updated on: May 31, 2017 By Melinda Waldrop, melwal@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3685

Tim Wise describes his mom as a warrior, and thanks to a fellowship established at the University of South Carolina's College of Social Work in honor of her family, her strength continues to inspire others.

Yancey Kemp Wise did many things ahead of her time a trait she came by honestly from her mother, Dorothea Crouch Kemp, who got a college degree from Carolina before most women did such things. Yancey Wise blazed trails of her own as she spoke openly, honestly and often about the depression and bipolar disorder she battled for most of her adult life.

She also fought back against mental illness by earning a masters degree in social work from Carolinain 1981, putting that degree to use as a family therapist and an advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship helps students pursue careers through theCollege of Social Work.

Its hard for anyone who doesnt suffer from mental illness to understand or appreciate, says Tim Wise, a Carolina graduate who also received his law degree from the university. Most people would just hope to get up in the morning, not necessarily go back to school and get a master's of social work.

Yancey Wise, who died in 2014, created the Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship to honor her mother and to help students in the College of Social Work pursue their own passions.

She definitely was a very hard-working, strong person, says David Wise, Tims brother. It was always a passion of hers to try to help others.

One student benefiting from Yancey Wises generosity is Edikan Ndon, a native of Nigeria who is pursuing a masters degree after realizing that her original career path she graduated from Lander University in 2012 with a degree in exercise physiology was not her calling. After an unsatisfying occupational therapy internship, Ndon got a job as a financial case manager at a hospital, helping patients understand treatment costs.

I found that I liked the patient interaction, she says.

Around the same time, Ndon had an eye-opening conversation at her church with a Nigerian missionary helping citizens deal with ongoing political unrest in her native country.

I asked her, What does Nigeria really need right now? She told me that Nigeria needed a lot of counselors, because a lot of families were being displaced, Ndon says. At that point, it kind of clicked for me.

Most people would just hope to get up in the morning, not necessarily go back to school and get a master's of social work.

Tim Wise

To help defray graduate school costs, Ndon applied for the Dorothea Crouch Kemp fellowship, which enabled her to take part-time classes while also working. When she graduates in three years, she plans to return to Nigeria to help establish the needed infrastructure to build a widespread network of social support.

I knew I wanted to eventually go back. I just didnt know in what capacity I could help, Ndon says.

Its not something I can tackle on my own. Part of what Im going to take away from social work is also the importance of mobilizing other people.

The work is there. We just need more people.

Ndons ambition seems like one Yancey Wise would approve.

She had a passion for eliminating the stigma of mental illness and improving treatment, Tim Wise says. The fellowship is a great legacy for her leave.

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Topics: Students, Alumni, Scholarships, Careers, College of Social Work

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Lending a hand - UofSC Blog (press release) (blog)

Two men complete strangers were killed and one injured on a train in Portland after they came to the aid of two young women when another passenger began ranting and raving and shouting anti-Muslim hate speech.

I am saddened that these men lost their lives and at the same time I am inspired by their bravery.

I will be the first to admit that racially motived hate crimes, stoked by the venomous rants of politicians on the campaign trail, have me rethinking this whole forgiveness thing.

When then-candidate Donald Trump stood that the podium and said, I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters my first thought was the Bible verse that reads, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18).

As president, Trump seems no less prideful. He seems impervious to the biblical outcome of pride. Wheres his fall from grace?

As much as ones pride is an indicator of pending destruction, in politics, its the pride of ones supporters, donors and endorsers that also sustains him and one thing seems certain; if the pride of the base doesnt disappear there will be no fall.

I think maybe weve been looking at this politically driven racism thing all wrong. As anti-racism activist Tim Wise stated, Instead of asking what its like to be black what we should be asking is what is it like to be white.

Racism is not as much a driver of the divisive rhetoric we hear today, as much as pride. The kind of pride that makes it easy to speak the worst of someone of another race and to separate yourself from others.

Now, Im OK with separation. Fruits and vegetables are happy in the produce aisle, separated from fish and shrimp. Its unfair segregation that bothers me.

Equality or equal quality is what makes separation work at least in the grocery store. But to address segregation we need equity. All pride aside, simply put, equality means everyone is treating the same.

Equity means not treating anyone differently. We desperately need to talk about equity.

Richard Cuff, Jacksonville

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Friday's Lead Letter: Pride goes before the fall - Florida Times-Union

Discussing the flaws of America

Anti-racist activist Tim Wise lectures and opens active discussion with students on the San Jose City College campus Thursday, April 20.

Melissa Maria Martinez

Melissa Maria Martinez

Anti-racist activist Tim Wise lectures and opens active discussion with students on the San Jose City College campus Thursday, April 20.

Leslie Aguilar, Times Staff May 24, 2017 Filed under Campus Life, Showcase

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San Jose City College students had a chance to engage in a conversation about the social and political climate surrounding the current administration. On Thursday, April 20 anti-racist activist and author Tim Wise offered a platform for students and staff to voice their concerns and opinions through a lecture and Q & A.

His topics dealt with racial injustices, a critique of the ideology behind President Trumps agenda, as well as articulating the struggles that have historically affected communities of color.

This thing about racial justice, this thing about equality, this aint charity, this is radical self- help, Wise told the audience. This is about saving ourselves and the country that we claim to love. Not making America great again, but making America great for the first and only time.

Students were generally pleased with the topics covered by Wise, who received claps and cheers when commenting on the Trump administration.

That is what the election of Donald Trump is, it is back to our regularly scheduled programing, Wise said. The scapegoating of black and brown folks, scapegoating them for problems they didnt create, thats not new, thats been going on for 400 years.

Wise urged the audience to seek more knowledge on the topics he covered, as he said learning about them could help combat the resurfacing of the racist and divisive atmosphere of Americas past.

We have to understand the past to understand the present. You cant teach what you dont know, and you cant know what you werent taught Wise said.

SJCC President Byron Breland offered an opening introduction, which included his own past experience with Wise.

The last time I heard Mr. Tim Wise speak, I was a student in graduate school, back in the early 2000s Breland said. Hes a lecturer that Ive had the pleasure of following.

Ethnic Studies professor Jesus Covarrubias, prompted students to ask questions, and stressed the importance of thinking critically.

As faculty member and a representative of your academic senate, we know our faculty at City really encourages our students to engage in courageous conversations Covarrubias said.

The types of responses generated by his lecture were similar among faculty and students alike.

I hope that he was able to stir up some intellectual curiosity, at least to go and read and listen to whats being said, said Breland Where were going in terms of our forward progress here in this country and also within our community, especially our communities of color.

Its very informative, he is an individual who truly understands the realities that people of color are living in the United States, said Fabio Gonzales, a counselor at SJCC.

The demographic of SJCC proved to be especially relevant to the topics Wise discussed. Alyssa Marquez, a political science major, said shes glad this conversation was brought out into the open.

Its important because San Jose City College is built on a campus of diversity, so if we dont actually acknowledge that there is a problem with acknowledging diversity, then theres no way that we can really flourish and do our best, said Marquez.

Some professors were accompanied by their students, many of whom brought along notebooks and pencils to take notes.

Our entire community obviously can benefit from having a sobering conversation about the world we live in, Covarrubias said, who brought along his Ethnic Studies class.

Its important that message be brought to our college, it helps to reaffirm what we see on a daily basis in our working class communities, said psychology and communications major Veronica Garcia.

Garcia said that Wises message came at a crucial time.

It applies because of everything thats going on, definitely with the election a lot of us are hurt by it, she said. It applies to us just because weve lived it, but no one speaks about it, no one comes and says the things that we have deep down inside, that were angry.

Luis Trujillo, a business major, said that regardless of the statistics he heard that depicted the unjust treatment of minorities, he feels that this speech serves as a powerful reminder that this country is a work in progress.

The message he gives to communities of color is important, Trujillo said. It gives the people hope, it makes them feel that theres still a chance to change, not just the system, but ourselves and society.

Link:
Students and faculty welcome anti-racist activist Tim Wise - City College Times

by Cynthia Haven on May 23, 2017 3:45 pm

Participating in this years Sally Dickson Lecture were, fromleft,TimWise,ShaktiButler,AimeeAllison,JeffChangandMarisaFranco. (Image credit: AngieChan-Geiger)

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans a dozen years ago, natural forces werent the biggest cause of flooding: a misallocation of government resources left the levees unprepared for the rising floodwaters.

People rushed into New Orleans from all over the country, armed with their good intentions. TIM WISE, a prominent voice on racism, inequality and white privilege, remembered seeing them at the airports, arriving in T-shirts that advertised their volunteer activities.

Why do you need to have a T-shirt? he mused, noting that the slogans and motivation didnt match the racial and economic realities they would meet. The media had delivered them to the catastrophe, he recently told a Stanford audience. All of them were well-intended because they had seen people in desperate pain.

The mismatch spotlights what Wise calls the charitable mindset rather than the solidarity mindset.

Sally Dickson

If you dont see yourself as bound up with the lives of other people, Im not sure what kind of help you can be, he explained.

Wise was the keynote speaker recently for the second annual SALLY DICKSON LECTURE ON DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND REFLECTION. The title of the event was Bridges Over Troubled Waters: Engaging Allies in Times of Crisis. The event was co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and the Diversity and First-Generation Office.

The Sally Dickson Lecture was created in 2015 by GREG BOARDMAN, vice provost for student affairs, to honor Dicksons contributions. As the former associate vice provost for student affairs and dean of educational resources, Dickson was dedicated to community-building and engagement among students, faculty and staff.

In his introduction of Wise, Boardman noted that his relationship with Wise dates back 30 years, since the activist was a student at Tulane University, where Boardman was an administrator.

After his keynote, Wise joined a panel discussion with SHAKTI BUTLER, a filmmaker and founder and president ofWorld Trust; JEFF CHANG, executive director of Stanfords Institute for Diversity in the Arts; and MARISA FRANCO, director ofMijenteand ofNot1More Deportation. The panel was moderated by AIMEE ALLISON, senior vice president ofPowerPAC+ and a Stanford alumna.

Read the full story on the event.

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Tim Wise and activists focus on racism, white privilege at Sally Dickson Lecture - Stanford Report