Brandon White is an educator, emcee, podcaster, and poet. He is a former middle school ELA and Restorative Practices educator for the Rochester City School District and has worked for seven years as a servant leader intern and site coordinator for Freedom Schools Summer Literacy Programs in Rochester, NY. For seven years he worked as an ELA Specialist for UnboundEd, and currently, he serves as a consultant and professional development provider for systems and educators who are implementing ELA and Literacy Curriculum.
The influence of Brandon's parents who were also deeply involved in social justice, made him see and feel the differences between two classes, the two sides of his hometown, different approaches to life and his privileges in education made him a specific person who can understand deep differences but also common grounds.
Brandon shares amazing insights about hip-hop music, and why it touched him emotionally and intellectually to explore it deeper while he was growing up. Education has shaped his family’s life through generations, and he chose to help make it better through his educational role. Yes, the system still lacks many things and Brandon felt it on his skin many times: lack of Black and Brown teachers, hiring practices, bad curriculum, and exploring beyond typical forms of education might help tremendously to serve communities.
Why Brandon thinks ethnic tribalism helps white supremacy and how to cure that. Where is home to all the people, why roots and DNA are important, how basketball is changing, and how to improve the world by being a misfit are just some of the subjects from this episode.
Keep on fighting for social justice with honesty and integrity!
Notes:
🏀 End-season tournament between Lakers and the Pacers: LeBron James' leadership sets the tone and lever for the team and the NBA.
02:13⛹🏽♂️ Brandon’s biases and expectations prevented him from enjoying basketball: love-hate relationship with the Knicks.
05:19🤩 History of teams and players: Knicks, Blazers, Lakers, Pat, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Wembanyama, Sabonis, Doncic, Drazen Petrovic, Stojakovic.
08:22🏆 Valuing players, especially younger ones: K-12 education standards are changing just like basketball.
11:55🤩 Being in a doctoral program at Rochester University and feeling like 21 Jump Street.
14:42🗽 Frictions between upstate and downstate of New York: born and raised in Rochester, NY.
17:17👩🏽🤝👨🏾 Growing up in a family with strong roots in civil rights and social justice: seeing a lot of different worldviews and different cultures,
20:33👩🏽💼 Wedge, Rochester is home to Frederick Douglass and Susan B Anthony: split custody allowed even the influence of two parents on Brandon.
24:05🧲 Importance of getting to the Magnet High School: racial and education factors - Brandon’s privileges and amazing foundations he got.
26:41🤓 Being a hip-hop head and thinking about being in education.
30:12💪🏽 Wu-Tang Triumph video amazed Brandon: demonstration of the culture - a different kind of hip hop.
31:23🎶 What music does to your brain and body: music can make you feel and think, and Brandon went in the past to research more artists.
37:06🧬 Receiving things from your ancestors: the narration, knowledge, trauma, and habits are in the DNA of our family.
40:41🎓 Brandon is an educational consultant: not all people in education should teach - there are so many roles that are crucial and needed.
44:36🤯 Issues with getting a job in Rochester: lack of black English teachers and media sensationalized and misinterpreted reporting about Brandon’s job.
48:50⚠️ Counterintuitive hiring practices in school districts: system needs changes and stepping away from politics and power.
51:50😎 Learning about himself through teaching: ELA teacher and working with UnboundED.
55:56👉🏽 Systems are built to have certain incentives: inequity and unfairness that exist in the system.
01:03:58💎 Brandon RONdering: how do we stop ethnic tribalism from serving white supremacy?
01:07:47🏡 Growing up with the level of proximity across different identities: home is telling our story.
01:11:05✌🏽 Brandon’s work and podcast: how can we emphasize grade-level engaging, affirming, and meaningful instruction in education?
01:17:07Links:
Episode 37
