Children of Color in Schools: the Stories Behind the Statistics

One of the biggest messages we’re trying to get across with First Name Basis is that learning a person’s story and getting to know them as an individual is the best way to create understanding and foster anti-racist, inclusive communities. Heck, it’s such an important concept that it’s our name!

Getting on a first name basis with people has so much power, and it’s one of the things that made me want to watch the new documentary “Defining Us: Children at the Crossroads of Change.”

Did you know that race is the #1 predictor of whether a student will be successful in the educational system? And according to “Defining Us,” almost 50 million children attend public schools in the U.S. and more than half are students of color.

“Defining Us” goes beyond the statistics to tell the stories of BIPOC students in Los Angeles and New York — the country’s two biggest school districts — and interviews experts on the topic of race and education.

This week on the First Name Basis Podcast, I interviewed Paul Forbes and Stacey DeWitt about their work on “Defining Us.”

Paul Forbes is one of the film’s executive producers, director of partnerships and one of the experts featured in “Defining Us.” He is an anti-bias and educational equity consultant who worked in the New York City Department of education for more than 20 years and has worked for years on equity initiatives and training educators and administrators on bias, culturally responsive education and discussions about systemic racism.

Stacey DeWitt is the director and an executive producer of “Defining Us.” She is an Emmy Award-winning producer, journalist and attorney who has produced over 65 documentaries, many of them focused on children and families. She is deeply committed to the power of storytelling through video and how those stories can create change.

In our interview, we discuss:

• How the documentary came to be.
• How teachers and students can engage in conversations about race.
• The impact of systemic racism on education.
• The power of video in storytelling.