By Shalvi Kamble, District Lead for SJUSD chapter of Diversify Our Narrative
This June, a nonprofit sprung up in response to the surge of Black Lives Matter protests across the country. There was a rise in efforts to spread racial literacy and many people were asking themselves “Why haven’t I learned this in school?” As a response, #DiversifyOurNarrative was founded.
Our national curriculum is heavily white-washed. We do read some books written by BIPOC in the latter parts of high school, but we rarely do in elementary or middle school. The Diversify Our Narrative (DON) team sought to change that and implement a resolution district by district across the country that would mandate at least one book written by a BIPOC author about a BIPOC experience be part of the curriculum in every K-12 English class. The national team founded a nonprofit and chapters at the school district level sprung up across the country.
Locally, the San José Unified School District chapter led by Shalvi Kamble (junior at Leland High School) and Mia Raimondi (junior at Leland High School) are looking to implement the resolution here. They have met with members of their school board and are working on how implementation of the resolution is possible in San José. They hope to have initial implementation be enforced by the 2021-2022 school year!
You can help advance this movement by completing the petition to implement the resolution in your school district. You could also lead the campaign in your own community!
Click this link for more information about how you can get involved!