#ResistTFA and the Zero-Sum Game
In the middle of writing my piece on Jordan Davis and the lack of volume about the decision / non-decision on Michael Dunn, a few people bristled at the idea that Teach for America would use my piece as a rebuff of #ResistTFA, a trend started by education activists to combat the deleterious effects of Teach for America on K-12 education. Um, that’s not quite how it went down.In fact, I knew about the hashtag, but I didn’t know when people would discuss this nor did I know that the conversation would make it to Al Jazeera or a few newspapers across the country. If anything, I wrote the Jordan Davis piece as its own isolated rejoinder to the ignorance I saw. I do mean ignorance in the truest sense of the word, for, to ignore this event is to ignore the students in front of you.
Unless you think you’re absolved from the results of a court case about a kid that looks like he could be my kid. Whatever works for you.
In any case, one commenter in particular found it curious that I would write this Davis piece because, “If the rule was that no one can speak out on an issue unless they have already spoken out on all the other concurrent tragedies, then everyone would have to go silent,” then went to try and challenge my record on these things.
A few things:
- I do speak to international issues, early and often. I speak on war, capitalism, race, gender, and homophobia frequently, but you’d actually have to know me to say that.
- Me calling out folks for not speaking on these issues doesn’t dismiss any particular