How This Educator Handles Trolls (Bob and Weave Em)
Last week, #EduColor had a chat on education research. It seems like a benign topic outside of the education sphere. Most folks in this chat should be people genuinely interested in talking about higher education. Mildred Boveda and Grace Chen put together the questions, prompting people to rethink praxis from PK-12 and beyond.
Yet, because it reached #8 on Twitter worldwide, we also unwillingly hosted a plethora of trolls, vagabonds, and also-rans, the usual folks who want to make America great again or whatever.
At first, my reaction was “Who are you and why are y’all always up in the conversations?” My second thought was “BLOCK, REPORT, BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK REPORT!” My third thought was “Let’s see if they can stand the heat.” So while Mildred and Grace graciously hosted, I played provocateur in the hashtag. An hour after the chat was over, I was still having to tell these hooligans to read books and watch anything other than FOX News. Friends would refer to my legendary patience as Jedi-like. I laughed from this side of the screen.
No one should feel obligated to volunteer their tweets for the service of people intent on rejecting their humanity, but I looked at my watch and said I got time for this today. If the education field has taught me anything, it’s that anyone can catch a lesson given the proper teacher.
Annie Tan recently said “organizing is humanizing.” Indeed, teaching as an act of organizing means that we know what it’s like to ask hard questions, delve deeper, and ignore the run reflex. Too many people mistake standing firm with standing still. Too many people mistake quiet for silence. Conversely, too many people mistake noise for action, too. There is dirty work that needs to get done, and for those that can engage, we should. For those that can’t, y’all need to examine why. For those that don’t know how we do it, please know that might never be enough to confront the institutional structures that How This Educator Handles Trolls (Bob and Weave Em) | The Jose Vilson: