so I’m here to talk about education in
particular I have to talk about I want
to talk about urban education and the
only thing for me to really convey my
feelings about how to improve urban
education or about that area of study is
to go back in my life and life history
so can we go on a quick journey so I
grew up in Brooklyn and the Bronx New
York
you know cause playing hip-hop driving
by for my lullabies and in that space
and time I came to really love where I
came from
but about ten eleven blocks away from
where I lived where the housing projects
and I was told that Chris you’re good
but them kids in the housing projects
don’t hang out with them they’re loud
they’re abrasive they don’t want to
learn they are not who you want to be
and I even then was kind of like a
scientist I was like well if everyone’s
saying this about them they’re not smart
and they’re saying they’re loud
maybe then loud people aren’t smart and
I constructed a hypothesis around those
folks I tested my experiment it kind of
came to be when I saw them another
really powerful experiment or
observation I made was about rainbows so
you guys ever see a picture of a rainbow
every time you see a picture of a
rainbow it’s a it’s over this like
beautiful Lagoon or like this like
wonderful looking mountain piece right
and so I had these theories of our urban
youth of color I had these theories
about rainbows and my theory about
rainbows was that the rainbows look that
pretty because the places where they
flew over or where they were over were
beautiful
I thought the rainbows colors came from
the places that the rainbow hovered over
so could you imagine my shock and
surprise when one morning I look out and
there is this perfectly shaped parabola
and multiple colors over the housing
projects rainbows are not supposed to be
made in those places and so I started
researching
about rainbows and I realized that
rainbows don’t care where you are or
where you come from
rainbows just need sunlight droplets of
water the water refraction reflects off
the water drops disperses a color around
the top of the place and it’s in this
magical
so the rainbow just needs the perfect
conditions to allow its brilliance to be
expressed it cares not where it happens
and I also realized and you could get a
cup of water a flashlight and a mirror
and make a rainbow in your living room
so this like motivating I’m like if the
kids are the project’s can make rainbows
and I want to work in education so I
decided to you know leave my science
degrees behind and go into the classroom
I went to the classroom to teach I
started engaging with young folks in the
same places that they said rainbows
couldn’t be built in and as I’m engaging
with them and talking to them I’m seeing
all these different forms of brilliance
and after this happens I said oh my gosh
I have to I love the clash or not to
leave the classroom and go to another
platform so I can show the entire world
that rainbows can hover over projects
and so I went to educational conferences
I put in a proposal I went to speak and
I was telling folks about all this magic
I saw in the hood and I looked out and
there were two people and then I turned
the corner and this dude was not there
and he had like 500 people talking to
him and he’s talking to him about the
same topic the same demographic urban
schools youth of color and like I’m
hearing him talk and he’s pretending as
he asked us like he has us the ethic of
care about those young folks but as I’m
hearing him talk I’m realizing this guy
does not believe that rainbows can fly
over projects he says he cares about
them but he doesn’t see the value in
them and that made me so mad I started
doing my homework I wanted to find out
where he taught who made him so poppin
why he got 500 people listening to him
cuz I need to get that same platform to
showcase the narrative that I
experienced for those young folks and so
I did my homework and did my research I
found out that he worked at Ivy League
institutions I work I got a job at Ivy
League institution I heard that he wrote
articles and certain journals I
published in those very same journals
may I learn
he wrote a book shoo I wrote a damn book
like you know my title is a little
different and so all this happens and
then one day I’m home and somebody
writes a letter and you know it’s a pop
and thing when it’s not an email looks
like a letter nobody writes letters I’ve
got this letter the letter said dear
professor M then you’re invited to the
organization’s meeting with all these
impactful educational researchers and
you’re one of the select few who’s
invited to have a conversation with us
around education and so I’m like yes I’m
in the club and so I was so excited to
go to this meeting right the day of the
meeting I am so nervous though that I
couldn’t eat anything ever so nervous
you can’t eat cuz cuz this is the day I
was gonna show these folks but there’s
there’s rainbows or projects right so I
can’t eat I’m not gonna my gosh and I’m
studying all them sociology at theory
you know the politics of urban education
and I wanted to show them that I knew
stuff and by the time it hit like 6
o’clock I felt so full with all the
knowledge that I had that I was gonna go
in there and wow them and then introduce
them to the stuff that I’ve been
researching right I get there 7 p.m. I
walk into the event space and fam it was
beautiful I’m talking about chandeliers
I’m like I put out with teachers like
this place is expensive you know and it
just looked majestic and I walked in
there ready to wow them and they saw all
these folks standing there and they’re
talking and research and I walked in and
and I want to just pour out all the
knowledge I knew and then something
struck me you know what was hunger I
didn’t eat all day
so I’m sitting a hungry like oh my gosh
I need to eat now this fucking theory
but I’m like you know what I need to eat
once I eat I feel better than now while
them with my brilliance right and but
there was no food in fact all they had
was crackers and grapes I’m like yo this
ain’t poppin like we can’t get full of
crackers and grapes fam so this all
plays out I didn’t eat the crackers or
grapes because it just wasn’t food and
then he said finally dinner is served
and I’m like yes dinner’s served
whoa let’s get it so we sit at the table
dinner serve it’s nice place they bring
the food out and you know they brought
the food out around these IDI
researchers and policy makers and I’m
like ok guys eat
I can’t eat and we can get this popping
none of them eat apparently they will
full off the crackers and grapes and
then need to eat and as I’m sitting
there the food is like right before my
nose I can smell it and but I’m so
consumed with hunger I can’t engage and
I can hear in a bad shopping like a
whisper they’re talking about research
and urban youth and this and that but
I’m having a conversation with myself
like family hungry right now but I
didn’t eat at that moment because I
didn’t want to be the new invitee who
was the first one to eat not feeling me
so after a while I said you know what
I’m gonna just take this risk I’m gonna
jump in this is him in my head
I’m gonna jump in I’m gonna eat and so
it’s almost like you know you know first
date first kiss you know you want to do
it but you’re nervous so what do you do
right you count down so I counted out in
my head I’m like 5 4 3 2 1 and at 1 I
looked down at the plate and this was
the setting families four Forks 5 knives
3 spoons and I had never been to that
fancy of space so although I wanted to
engage that I didn’t want to be first
the first person to eat and second I
don’t know what the right fork was I was
gonna get judged on that this had
nothing to do with the fact that I was
prepared it had nothing to do with the
fact that I spent my whole entire life
believing and the fact that there are
rainbows over housing projects I was
hungry I didn’t know the rules and
because of that I didn’t feel
comfortable enough to share this is the
experience of young folks in urban
classrooms today it’s not about their
intelligence it’s not about their
ability it’s not about their willingness
to engage it’s all about the rules of
engagement that we construct for them
that have nothing to do with their
brilliance and the fact that we attached
what they naturally are so being anti
intellectual and anti academic the whole
world of education is suffering from a
disease called agnosia if you’re a
medical doctor or if you’re into
neuroscience you know agnosia agnosia is
a condition where a human being can
identify a phenomenon in the past and
then after some some sort of like lesion
on a part of your brain you can no
longer see it see educators have agnosia
in the sense that they have a cultural
Osia they could recognize brilliance
when it looks like them but they can’t
identify it when it doesn’t and a
cultural agnosia
has permeated the field of education
particularly with youth of color and
it’s so insidious that we don’t even
recognize that we have a disease but
guess what y’all I got a cure now I want
to hear the cure
the cure is being Ratched emic y’all
ain’t ready now raster demek is not in
your dictionary I started use it about
seven years ago and I think it’s
catching on Vash endemic is let me break
it down like my English teacher used to
it is to be ratchet and to academic now
who knows what it means to be ratchet I
know we in a fancy-schmancy place but
some of y’all know what ratchet is you
ain’t saying nothing
but to be raster that’s to any father
leave for the academic definition for
ratchet to be master this to to
exemplify all negative characteristics
associated with urban spaces right to be
loud obnoxious and and you know some of
y’all are ratchet some of y’all have a
ratchet friend some of y’all are the
ratchet friend but either way ratchet
exists but also you can be academic and
intellectual and be the pursuit of new
knowledge and we’ve constructed a
scenario for young people that you
either have to choose to be ratchet or
academic and because of that they choose
what’s most comfortable and you believe
it means that they can’t be academic so
if we create new spaces and schools
yelling with me if you could create new
spaces and schools to let young folks
know then you could be equally as
ratchet as you are academic you could be
as you are but I want lower expectations
the rigor is still higher the standards
are still high or if you come in a
little loud that’s okay if you dress a
little funny that’s alright if you speak
with a voice infection that’s okay if
you if your English language learner you
have a thick accent that’s okay you
could be who you are and I will accept
you as you are even if it makes me
uncomfortable in a pursuit of our
academic attainment and let me switch
hats on y’all look
to be redundant for me it’s to be
hip-hop to be rational Dominicans to
exemplify hip-hop bad now hip-hop ed is
a movement it started online a couple
years ago but now we moving and hip-hop
edit select young folks know that you
could easily be as hip-hop as you are
intellectual we have this logo and
blazing around t-shirts and hoodies for
young folks to wear in their communities
they can show young people that look
like them
that I am more than what you think I
think I am and we are more than what
society thinks we are when we do hip-hop
ed we created a project like science
genius where young people in New York
City Public Schools in advanced science
classes are not just taking tests at the
ends for them to forget later but rather
soaking in the information and then
going through the critical process of
constructing a wrap around that
knowledge and then beyond them when they
write the wrapper on the knowledge we
engage them in competition with other
kids when I have a science genius
hip-hop battle and and the winner of the
scientist hip-hop battle could go back
to the hood like yeah I got bars plus
some scientific dog what we want to
reimagine what this thing looks like by
recreating educational spaces in a way
that says come as you are and be Brown
as you are now you come as you are and
you ain’t brilliant you ain’t down with
hip-hop ed guy and wit me if you come as
you are and you’re only representing a
troop or an image of what they say we
are that doesn’t represent who we are or
a corporate and media saturated image of
hip-hop we don’t accept you because the
B hip-hop bag you got to be hip-hop and
pop and academically and intellectually
as well and once we create these spaces
for young people they believe it they
hold on to it they walk into this image
here if the winners of science years
from last year with their hip-hop and
t-shirts in front of an Ivy League’s
institution
posing in front of it like it’s the
album cover these things shape the
identity they shift your confidence they
move something in the depths of your
soul and they help you to reimagine
yourself to be in a way you’ve never
seen before
so the clothes I’m have D come back out
here D can you come back out real quick
I lost them because
it happens so close I’m a skip these
flies man cuz my heart is so full but
that’s that’s DISA doing science in the
hood that’s that’s master PT some map in
the hood darling wit me huh
and that’s d teaching public speaking
and engagement in the hood right we we
respect teachers who have the credential
where we appreciate folks who have the
love and passion for the work and then
we teach them to be teachers
so the closeout doesn’t pass my time I
want you to just say this with me to
y’all and can I repeat this after me
can’t you repeat it after me yeah I will
not hide my badge itself to make a
broken cell and powerful I will not be
made to be less than because I choose to
be myself I will not judge Marie it’s
about how thinking looks or sounds I
will be equally as ratchet as academic
and for my young folks in the hood if
you watching this when you make the
wrong choice and they say all you corny
because you’re going to school and being
academic I want you to remember that
from this point on we are Oreo no more
[Music]
we are teaching and being Ratched emic
thank you
particular I have to talk about I want
to talk about urban education and the
only thing for me to really convey my
feelings about how to improve urban
education or about that area of study is
to go back in my life and life history
so can we go on a quick journey so I
grew up in Brooklyn and the Bronx New
York
you know cause playing hip-hop driving
by for my lullabies and in that space
and time I came to really love where I
came from
but about ten eleven blocks away from
where I lived where the housing projects
and I was told that Chris you’re good
but them kids in the housing projects
don’t hang out with them they’re loud
they’re abrasive they don’t want to
learn they are not who you want to be
and I even then was kind of like a
scientist I was like well if everyone’s
saying this about them they’re not smart
and they’re saying they’re loud
maybe then loud people aren’t smart and
I constructed a hypothesis around those
folks I tested my experiment it kind of
came to be when I saw them another
really powerful experiment or
observation I made was about rainbows so
you guys ever see a picture of a rainbow
every time you see a picture of a
rainbow it’s a it’s over this like
beautiful Lagoon or like this like
wonderful looking mountain piece right
and so I had these theories of our urban
youth of color I had these theories
about rainbows and my theory about
rainbows was that the rainbows look that
pretty because the places where they
flew over or where they were over were
beautiful
I thought the rainbows colors came from
the places that the rainbow hovered over
so could you imagine my shock and
surprise when one morning I look out and
there is this perfectly shaped parabola
and multiple colors over the housing
projects rainbows are not supposed to be
made in those places and so I started
researching
about rainbows and I realized that
rainbows don’t care where you are or
where you come from
rainbows just need sunlight droplets of
water the water refraction reflects off
the water drops disperses a color around
the top of the place and it’s in this
magical
so the rainbow just needs the perfect
conditions to allow its brilliance to be
expressed it cares not where it happens
and I also realized and you could get a
cup of water a flashlight and a mirror
and make a rainbow in your living room
so this like motivating I’m like if the
kids are the project’s can make rainbows
and I want to work in education so I
decided to you know leave my science
degrees behind and go into the classroom
I went to the classroom to teach I
started engaging with young folks in the
same places that they said rainbows
couldn’t be built in and as I’m engaging
with them and talking to them I’m seeing
all these different forms of brilliance
and after this happens I said oh my gosh
I have to I love the clash or not to
leave the classroom and go to another
platform so I can show the entire world
that rainbows can hover over projects
and so I went to educational conferences
I put in a proposal I went to speak and
I was telling folks about all this magic
I saw in the hood and I looked out and
there were two people and then I turned
the corner and this dude was not there
and he had like 500 people talking to
him and he’s talking to him about the
same topic the same demographic urban
schools youth of color and like I’m
hearing him talk and he’s pretending as
he asked us like he has us the ethic of
care about those young folks but as I’m
hearing him talk I’m realizing this guy
does not believe that rainbows can fly
over projects he says he cares about
them but he doesn’t see the value in
them and that made me so mad I started
doing my homework I wanted to find out
where he taught who made him so poppin
why he got 500 people listening to him
cuz I need to get that same platform to
showcase the narrative that I
experienced for those young folks and so
I did my homework and did my research I
found out that he worked at Ivy League
institutions I work I got a job at Ivy
League institution I heard that he wrote
articles and certain journals I
published in those very same journals
may I learn
he wrote a book shoo I wrote a damn book
like you know my title is a little
different and so all this happens and
then one day I’m home and somebody
writes a letter and you know it’s a pop
and thing when it’s not an email looks
like a letter nobody writes letters I’ve
got this letter the letter said dear
professor M then you’re invited to the
organization’s meeting with all these
impactful educational researchers and
you’re one of the select few who’s
invited to have a conversation with us
around education and so I’m like yes I’m
in the club and so I was so excited to
go to this meeting right the day of the
meeting I am so nervous though that I
couldn’t eat anything ever so nervous
you can’t eat cuz cuz this is the day I
was gonna show these folks but there’s
there’s rainbows or projects right so I
can’t eat I’m not gonna my gosh and I’m
studying all them sociology at theory
you know the politics of urban education
and I wanted to show them that I knew
stuff and by the time it hit like 6
o’clock I felt so full with all the
knowledge that I had that I was gonna go
in there and wow them and then introduce
them to the stuff that I’ve been
researching right I get there 7 p.m. I
walk into the event space and fam it was
beautiful I’m talking about chandeliers
I’m like I put out with teachers like
this place is expensive you know and it
just looked majestic and I walked in
there ready to wow them and they saw all
these folks standing there and they’re
talking and research and I walked in and
and I want to just pour out all the
knowledge I knew and then something
struck me you know what was hunger I
didn’t eat all day
so I’m sitting a hungry like oh my gosh
I need to eat now this fucking theory
but I’m like you know what I need to eat
once I eat I feel better than now while
them with my brilliance right and but
there was no food in fact all they had
was crackers and grapes I’m like yo this
ain’t poppin like we can’t get full of
crackers and grapes fam so this all
plays out I didn’t eat the crackers or
grapes because it just wasn’t food and
then he said finally dinner is served
and I’m like yes dinner’s served
whoa let’s get it so we sit at the table
dinner serve it’s nice place they bring
the food out and you know they brought
the food out around these IDI
researchers and policy makers and I’m
like ok guys eat
I can’t eat and we can get this popping
none of them eat apparently they will
full off the crackers and grapes and
then need to eat and as I’m sitting
there the food is like right before my
nose I can smell it and but I’m so
consumed with hunger I can’t engage and
I can hear in a bad shopping like a
whisper they’re talking about research
and urban youth and this and that but
I’m having a conversation with myself
like family hungry right now but I
didn’t eat at that moment because I
didn’t want to be the new invitee who
was the first one to eat not feeling me
so after a while I said you know what
I’m gonna just take this risk I’m gonna
jump in this is him in my head
I’m gonna jump in I’m gonna eat and so
it’s almost like you know you know first
date first kiss you know you want to do
it but you’re nervous so what do you do
right you count down so I counted out in
my head I’m like 5 4 3 2 1 and at 1 I
looked down at the plate and this was
the setting families four Forks 5 knives
3 spoons and I had never been to that
fancy of space so although I wanted to
engage that I didn’t want to be first
the first person to eat and second I
don’t know what the right fork was I was
gonna get judged on that this had
nothing to do with the fact that I was
prepared it had nothing to do with the
fact that I spent my whole entire life
believing and the fact that there are
rainbows over housing projects I was
hungry I didn’t know the rules and
because of that I didn’t feel
comfortable enough to share this is the
experience of young folks in urban
classrooms today it’s not about their
intelligence it’s not about their
ability it’s not about their willingness
to engage it’s all about the rules of
engagement that we construct for them
that have nothing to do with their
brilliance and the fact that we attached
what they naturally are so being anti
intellectual and anti academic the whole
world of education is suffering from a
disease called agnosia if you’re a
medical doctor or if you’re into
neuroscience you know agnosia agnosia is
a condition where a human being can
identify a phenomenon in the past and
then after some some sort of like lesion
on a part of your brain you can no
longer see it see educators have agnosia
in the sense that they have a cultural
Osia they could recognize brilliance
when it looks like them but they can’t
identify it when it doesn’t and a
cultural agnosia
has permeated the field of education
particularly with youth of color and
it’s so insidious that we don’t even
recognize that we have a disease but
guess what y’all I got a cure now I want
to hear the cure
the cure is being Ratched emic y’all
ain’t ready now raster demek is not in
your dictionary I started use it about
seven years ago and I think it’s
catching on Vash endemic is let me break
it down like my English teacher used to
it is to be ratchet and to academic now
who knows what it means to be ratchet I
know we in a fancy-schmancy place but
some of y’all know what ratchet is you
ain’t saying nothing
but to be raster that’s to any father
leave for the academic definition for
ratchet to be master this to to
exemplify all negative characteristics
associated with urban spaces right to be
loud obnoxious and and you know some of
y’all are ratchet some of y’all have a
ratchet friend some of y’all are the
ratchet friend but either way ratchet
exists but also you can be academic and
intellectual and be the pursuit of new
knowledge and we’ve constructed a
scenario for young people that you
either have to choose to be ratchet or
academic and because of that they choose
what’s most comfortable and you believe
it means that they can’t be academic so
if we create new spaces and schools
yelling with me if you could create new
spaces and schools to let young folks
know then you could be equally as
ratchet as you are academic you could be
as you are but I want lower expectations
the rigor is still higher the standards
are still high or if you come in a
little loud that’s okay if you dress a
little funny that’s alright if you speak
with a voice infection that’s okay if
you if your English language learner you
have a thick accent that’s okay you
could be who you are and I will accept
you as you are even if it makes me
uncomfortable in a pursuit of our
academic attainment and let me switch
hats on y’all look
to be redundant for me it’s to be
hip-hop to be rational Dominicans to
exemplify hip-hop bad now hip-hop ed is
a movement it started online a couple
years ago but now we moving and hip-hop
edit select young folks know that you
could easily be as hip-hop as you are
intellectual we have this logo and
blazing around t-shirts and hoodies for
young folks to wear in their communities
they can show young people that look
like them
that I am more than what you think I
think I am and we are more than what
society thinks we are when we do hip-hop
ed we created a project like science
genius where young people in New York
City Public Schools in advanced science
classes are not just taking tests at the
ends for them to forget later but rather
soaking in the information and then
going through the critical process of
constructing a wrap around that
knowledge and then beyond them when they
write the wrapper on the knowledge we
engage them in competition with other
kids when I have a science genius
hip-hop battle and and the winner of the
scientist hip-hop battle could go back
to the hood like yeah I got bars plus
some scientific dog what we want to
reimagine what this thing looks like by
recreating educational spaces in a way
that says come as you are and be Brown
as you are now you come as you are and
you ain’t brilliant you ain’t down with
hip-hop ed guy and wit me if you come as
you are and you’re only representing a
troop or an image of what they say we
are that doesn’t represent who we are or
a corporate and media saturated image of
hip-hop we don’t accept you because the
B hip-hop bag you got to be hip-hop and
pop and academically and intellectually
as well and once we create these spaces
for young people they believe it they
hold on to it they walk into this image
here if the winners of science years
from last year with their hip-hop and
t-shirts in front of an Ivy League’s
institution
posing in front of it like it’s the
album cover these things shape the
identity they shift your confidence they
move something in the depths of your
soul and they help you to reimagine
yourself to be in a way you’ve never
seen before
so the clothes I’m have D come back out
here D can you come back out real quick
I lost them because
it happens so close I’m a skip these
flies man cuz my heart is so full but
that’s that’s DISA doing science in the
hood that’s that’s master PT some map in
the hood darling wit me huh
and that’s d teaching public speaking
and engagement in the hood right we we
respect teachers who have the credential
where we appreciate folks who have the
love and passion for the work and then
we teach them to be teachers
so the closeout doesn’t pass my time I
want you to just say this with me to
y’all and can I repeat this after me
can’t you repeat it after me yeah I will
not hide my badge itself to make a
broken cell and powerful I will not be
made to be less than because I choose to
be myself I will not judge Marie it’s
about how thinking looks or sounds I
will be equally as ratchet as academic
and for my young folks in the hood if
you watching this when you make the
wrong choice and they say all you corny
because you’re going to school and being
academic I want you to remember that
from this point on we are Oreo no more
[Music]
we are teaching and being Ratched emic
thank you
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