when Millsaps asks me to do
on the movement of education
my first response was laughter and my
second response was thinking of all the
complaints that people have about
education in state of Mississippi
honestly it’s obvious where the state of
Mississippi wants to go wants to move
education wise of 2025 what the
Mississippi succeeds plan the
Mississippi Department of Education
hopes to increase student achievement
hopes to increase graduation rates hope
to hopes to increase early childhood
literacy and using data hopes to get
student school districts up to a C or
greater so that’s the plan for MDE at
the very least but with that plan in
mind you have to ask yourself you know
what is everyone complaining about as it
concerns Mississippi education and at
Ole Miss I studied classics I got my
degree in Latin as you can tell I’m
totally rich right I’m a journalist with
land degree and one of the funniest
complaints I’ve ever heard was oh
tempura Oh mores by Roman consul and
lawyer
Cicero Marcus told us it’s disarray if
you’re nasty
right and so Cicero gave this
exclamation o the times of the customs
and it’s so dramatic right it’s so extra
it’s like Oh children oh this oh that
actually he was talking about someone he
thought wanted to kill him but with that
explanation you can hear the
condemnation of the times in which he
lived and that of course is always
uttered with a heavy noble sigh that
come
[Music]
cícero I’m fond of them
I’m fond of men who are good with words
if ancient Rome were the rap game Cicero
would be quavo but you guys have no
quavo he’s amigo who’s the beyoncé old
amigos if you don’t know Beyonce don’t
talk to me don’t touch me I am on loan
from the Beehive I will put a bee under
your Instagram pictures like no problem
but the reason that I’m here today is to
talk to you about privilege the reason
that I can bat around references to
ancient Rome and Beyonce is because I am
a product of the Mississippi public
education system I went to headstart and
Canton Mississippi I went to Ridgeland
public schools and then the Madison
County School District where I be stood
by the way I went to Ole Miss I went
from 2011 and they actually paid for my
degree in 2016 I finished classes in
2015 and so my entire life I’ve been a
product of Mississippi public education
and many people would look at me and
tell you that I sort of count as a
success story I grew up as the child of
two teen parents a boy who now as a man
still plucks the cobwebs of the prison
industrial complex from his shoulders a
girl who grew up to become the greatest
mom that ever could be and who like so
many black women shoulders this
incredible unfair endurance and strength
that’s required of her so I’m honest
about myself my poverty wasn’t the same
poverty of so many poor black children
who grew up in rural Mississippi I had
books in my house growing up so though I
was poor with two teen parents one who
went to juvie soon after I was born
I still had early childhood literacy and
that gives me the opportunity to stand
in front of you today sounding like the
nice white lady that I talk like you
know what I mean and so I’ve really
really stick on that honesty about
privileges because Mississippi has to be
honest too
I know you guys are aware of the fact
that Mississippians are wonderful
deflectors whether it’s from ownership
or trying to push ownership of those
students across to somebody else so when
someone complains to be my Mississippi
I’m like listen I got this handled I’m
down on poverty I totally totally get it
right I’m invested in this but then you
have other Mississippians who want to
tell you well it’s not that bad here
well it depends on who you ask
but if we’re telling the truth and if
we’re talking about movement let’s start
with a ways Mississippi is going up you
guys are great students awesome students
great athletes so smart generations
these kids are hilarious
and brilliant and talented a little
sister I didn’t know what a certain
slang word was and when she was in
seventh grade she made me a PowerPoint
and with T a new slide with Cunliffe
with h a new slab would come up with an
O and another T a new slide would come
up and I learned something new that day
and it was problematic and it was awful
and it was sexist but these are the ways
in which young people are learning they
have YouTube they have tumblr they are
woke they understand imperialism they
have so much technology and they are
wonderful Mississippi public education
students but they all don’t have the
same opportunities right so on the right
let me move to my right on the right we
have the efforts to improve education of
charter schools for instance private
school bathrooms and on the left and you
should never for any reason confuse a
Democrat for a leftist but just for the
purpose of this rhetorical exercise we
have people in Mississippi who are
trying extremely hard to get school
funding and to have legislative
accountability for the ways in which the
students in Mississippi are educated at
least by how much money you spend on
them because it’s not all about money
but education requires some doubloons
and that’s just the truth of a and then
of course down I was at the Jackson Free
Press from 2016 to January of this year
I was the Hechinger reports Mississippi
education reporting fellow it was my job
to report on any call
innovation in the state of Mississippi
when I left the jfp newsroom in January
of this year all the failing school
districts in the state of Mississippi
were majority black and then they had
become in this case in several pockets
of schools mostly black and mostly brown
due to gifts from other countries
immigrant children entering Mississippi
public education classrooms and
enriching the experiences that children
have there whether or not those school
districts or prepare to enrich their
experiences inside the classroom
Mississippi Department of Education had
been called by the GOP leadership in our
state by refusing to honor the title
nine guidelines that the lifetime ago
Obama administration set up in order to
protect trans students and their right
to use the bathrooms that fit their
gender identity and that’s more than
bathrooms that’s protecting them inside
the classroom to vouchers for special
needs class first special needs students
could barely afford to send them to
private schools because not only did
they not cover full tuition but those
private schools did not in many many
cases have the ability to serve them for
whatever needs that they had and the
best performing students in Mississippi
were non Hispanic Latino white girls who
paid full price for lunch and didn’t
have IEP s
and that ladies and gentleman is not
feminism that is not the definition of
progress the Annie E casey Foundation
releases a report every year ranking the
way that children in the United States
grew up but consequently not the
consequences I guess but the
circumstances of their birth the
outcomes of where they live in
Mississippi typically ranks dead last
to be fair from the last Annie E casey
Foundation study Mississippians and
improved somewhat with Mississippi’s
children are still living in poverty too
many of them live in poverty too many of
them don’t have access to health care
too many of them don’t have early
childhood literacy access despite the
best efforts of Mississippi Department
of Education in order to provide that to
them you know these kids are like ice
they’re beautiful when they’re smart
they’re hilarious and they deserve
better than what the adults in the state
of Mississippi give them we have to be
honest with ourselves about the
privileges that we have we can’t be
finger wagging at people who are poor
when we have the ability to pay tickets
to Millsaps College to watch people do
TED talks
you know they require so much more than
what they’ve been given they have known
in their lifetime two presidents Barack
oh you say nobama who despite his charm
and warmth and blackness still lead an
imperialist white supremacist patriarchy
and Donald Trump who was a mess but okay
so journalists have this really bad
thing of joking about Donald Trump but I
will say with full seriousness as a
professional journalist I do not have
the right to talk to him about a friend
that’s just ridiculous that I get to
brush his file like someone that you
don’t like in the cafeteria at school he
is a white supremacist he was in the
faux band he is dangerous to all people
of the United States of America and
that’s the truth the United States of
America has to deal with not twin evils
but sibling evils of institutional
racism and poverty and until America
does that and until Mississippi does
that the students in Mississippi are
just will not get what it is that they
deserve I spent the last 10 months
working for a story for the Center for
Investigative Reporting on the way that
Mississippi’s public school students
learn about the civil rights movement
their textbooks are old they mentioned
James K vardaman who was such a white
supremacist way more often than they
mentioned the Freedom Riders
they say that Martin Luther King jr.
gave a speech to make people excited
they barely mentioned women and
Mississippi public school students
deserve better they do not deserve the
proliferation of charter schools as an
idea that’s an answer to bettering
education when in many respects charter
schools might not give students the
education that they they’re hoping for
and also in many respects might serve as
barriers even to integration in the
state of Mississippi so I say all that
to say the Mississippi deserves better
and it’s not going to move anywhere deep
fat
if it keeps using these superficial
methods in order to say hey we’re not as
bad as everyone else it’s okay to be a
mess
you know because you will not really but
you have to be honest with yourself
right you don’t know what to improve and
once you acknowledge it and it’s all
Mississippi and knowledge is what it
needs to do it’s not going to get better
for these young people who deserve so so
much more than what they’ve been given
so far thank you so much
[Applause]
on the movement of education
my first response was laughter and my
second response was thinking of all the
complaints that people have about
education in state of Mississippi
honestly it’s obvious where the state of
Mississippi wants to go wants to move
education wise of 2025 what the
Mississippi succeeds plan the
Mississippi Department of Education
hopes to increase student achievement
hopes to increase graduation rates hope
to hopes to increase early childhood
literacy and using data hopes to get
student school districts up to a C or
greater so that’s the plan for MDE at
the very least but with that plan in
mind you have to ask yourself you know
what is everyone complaining about as it
concerns Mississippi education and at
Ole Miss I studied classics I got my
degree in Latin as you can tell I’m
totally rich right I’m a journalist with
land degree and one of the funniest
complaints I’ve ever heard was oh
tempura Oh mores by Roman consul and
lawyer
Cicero Marcus told us it’s disarray if
you’re nasty
right and so Cicero gave this
exclamation o the times of the customs
and it’s so dramatic right it’s so extra
it’s like Oh children oh this oh that
actually he was talking about someone he
thought wanted to kill him but with that
explanation you can hear the
condemnation of the times in which he
lived and that of course is always
uttered with a heavy noble sigh that
come
[Music]
cícero I’m fond of them
I’m fond of men who are good with words
if ancient Rome were the rap game Cicero
would be quavo but you guys have no
quavo he’s amigo who’s the beyoncé old
amigos if you don’t know Beyonce don’t
talk to me don’t touch me I am on loan
from the Beehive I will put a bee under
your Instagram pictures like no problem
but the reason that I’m here today is to
talk to you about privilege the reason
that I can bat around references to
ancient Rome and Beyonce is because I am
a product of the Mississippi public
education system I went to headstart and
Canton Mississippi I went to Ridgeland
public schools and then the Madison
County School District where I be stood
by the way I went to Ole Miss I went
from 2011 and they actually paid for my
degree in 2016 I finished classes in
2015 and so my entire life I’ve been a
product of Mississippi public education
and many people would look at me and
tell you that I sort of count as a
success story I grew up as the child of
two teen parents a boy who now as a man
still plucks the cobwebs of the prison
industrial complex from his shoulders a
girl who grew up to become the greatest
mom that ever could be and who like so
many black women shoulders this
incredible unfair endurance and strength
that’s required of her so I’m honest
about myself my poverty wasn’t the same
poverty of so many poor black children
who grew up in rural Mississippi I had
books in my house growing up so though I
was poor with two teen parents one who
went to juvie soon after I was born
I still had early childhood literacy and
that gives me the opportunity to stand
in front of you today sounding like the
nice white lady that I talk like you
know what I mean and so I’ve really
really stick on that honesty about
privileges because Mississippi has to be
honest too
I know you guys are aware of the fact
that Mississippians are wonderful
deflectors whether it’s from ownership
or trying to push ownership of those
students across to somebody else so when
someone complains to be my Mississippi
I’m like listen I got this handled I’m
down on poverty I totally totally get it
right I’m invested in this but then you
have other Mississippians who want to
tell you well it’s not that bad here
well it depends on who you ask
but if we’re telling the truth and if
we’re talking about movement let’s start
with a ways Mississippi is going up you
guys are great students awesome students
great athletes so smart generations
these kids are hilarious
and brilliant and talented a little
sister I didn’t know what a certain
slang word was and when she was in
seventh grade she made me a PowerPoint
and with T a new slide with Cunliffe
with h a new slab would come up with an
O and another T a new slide would come
up and I learned something new that day
and it was problematic and it was awful
and it was sexist but these are the ways
in which young people are learning they
have YouTube they have tumblr they are
woke they understand imperialism they
have so much technology and they are
wonderful Mississippi public education
students but they all don’t have the
same opportunities right so on the right
let me move to my right on the right we
have the efforts to improve education of
charter schools for instance private
school bathrooms and on the left and you
should never for any reason confuse a
Democrat for a leftist but just for the
purpose of this rhetorical exercise we
have people in Mississippi who are
trying extremely hard to get school
funding and to have legislative
accountability for the ways in which the
students in Mississippi are educated at
least by how much money you spend on
them because it’s not all about money
but education requires some doubloons
and that’s just the truth of a and then
of course down I was at the Jackson Free
Press from 2016 to January of this year
I was the Hechinger reports Mississippi
education reporting fellow it was my job
to report on any call
innovation in the state of Mississippi
when I left the jfp newsroom in January
of this year all the failing school
districts in the state of Mississippi
were majority black and then they had
become in this case in several pockets
of schools mostly black and mostly brown
due to gifts from other countries
immigrant children entering Mississippi
public education classrooms and
enriching the experiences that children
have there whether or not those school
districts or prepare to enrich their
experiences inside the classroom
Mississippi Department of Education had
been called by the GOP leadership in our
state by refusing to honor the title
nine guidelines that the lifetime ago
Obama administration set up in order to
protect trans students and their right
to use the bathrooms that fit their
gender identity and that’s more than
bathrooms that’s protecting them inside
the classroom to vouchers for special
needs class first special needs students
could barely afford to send them to
private schools because not only did
they not cover full tuition but those
private schools did not in many many
cases have the ability to serve them for
whatever needs that they had and the
best performing students in Mississippi
were non Hispanic Latino white girls who
paid full price for lunch and didn’t
have IEP s
and that ladies and gentleman is not
feminism that is not the definition of
progress the Annie E casey Foundation
releases a report every year ranking the
way that children in the United States
grew up but consequently not the
consequences I guess but the
circumstances of their birth the
outcomes of where they live in
Mississippi typically ranks dead last
to be fair from the last Annie E casey
Foundation study Mississippians and
improved somewhat with Mississippi’s
children are still living in poverty too
many of them live in poverty too many of
them don’t have access to health care
too many of them don’t have early
childhood literacy access despite the
best efforts of Mississippi Department
of Education in order to provide that to
them you know these kids are like ice
they’re beautiful when they’re smart
they’re hilarious and they deserve
better than what the adults in the state
of Mississippi give them we have to be
honest with ourselves about the
privileges that we have we can’t be
finger wagging at people who are poor
when we have the ability to pay tickets
to Millsaps College to watch people do
TED talks
you know they require so much more than
what they’ve been given they have known
in their lifetime two presidents Barack
oh you say nobama who despite his charm
and warmth and blackness still lead an
imperialist white supremacist patriarchy
and Donald Trump who was a mess but okay
so journalists have this really bad
thing of joking about Donald Trump but I
will say with full seriousness as a
professional journalist I do not have
the right to talk to him about a friend
that’s just ridiculous that I get to
brush his file like someone that you
don’t like in the cafeteria at school he
is a white supremacist he was in the
faux band he is dangerous to all people
of the United States of America and
that’s the truth the United States of
America has to deal with not twin evils
but sibling evils of institutional
racism and poverty and until America
does that and until Mississippi does
that the students in Mississippi are
just will not get what it is that they
deserve I spent the last 10 months
working for a story for the Center for
Investigative Reporting on the way that
Mississippi’s public school students
learn about the civil rights movement
their textbooks are old they mentioned
James K vardaman who was such a white
supremacist way more often than they
mentioned the Freedom Riders
they say that Martin Luther King jr.
gave a speech to make people excited
they barely mentioned women and
Mississippi public school students
deserve better they do not deserve the
proliferation of charter schools as an
idea that’s an answer to bettering
education when in many respects charter
schools might not give students the
education that they they’re hoping for
and also in many respects might serve as
barriers even to integration in the
state of Mississippi so I say all that
to say the Mississippi deserves better
and it’s not going to move anywhere deep
fat
if it keeps using these superficial
methods in order to say hey we’re not as
bad as everyone else it’s okay to be a
mess
you know because you will not really but
you have to be honest with yourself
right you don’t know what to improve and
once you acknowledge it and it’s all
Mississippi and knowledge is what it
needs to do it’s not going to get better
for these young people who deserve so so
much more than what they’ve been given
so far thank you so much
[Applause]
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