Classroom Activism

Guest Blogger: Steven Waddy Steven Waddy is a real estate agent and lawyer in Baltimore, MD. A student of civil rights, Steven works with communities to promote economic wealth, through ownership and education.   I have long been an advocate for robust funding and care, given to public schools for several reasons.  First, they are publicly owned and therefore, more subject to democratic forms of governance.  There are levels of accountability to public schools that can be exerted by the constituents of the school system and not controlled by one private entity not subject to any open record of laws.  If a decision is made by a governor, mayor, legislature, or school board regarding the funding of the school system or the treatment of students, teachers, parents, administrators or faculty, then those decisions can be exposed without having to resort to clandestine measures. Within the parameters of a public school board, members of the community c...

“You know he’s a little touched in the head” “She got that bipolar” “I don’t deal with her, she crazy af” “He’s not right in the head” We have all heard these phrases growing up, eaves dropping on grandma and ‘em talk about the “community diagnosed” family member around the kitchen table. We all have that one uncle, you know, the one that lives in the back room of Grandma’s house. The one that does the most bizarre things that everyone turns blind eye to? That cousin that never goes to jail, but disappears for months at a time, returning home more sedated and zombie-like? These people are present in our lives, yet no one discusses the actual issue. In the Black community, mental health is taboo. It is that ugly little secret that the family locks in the back room. The stigma of mental health is creating a community of broken black men and women, unable to function in healthy relationships, birthing children into emotionally chaotic environments, creating more dysf...