In my 11th year of teaching, I decided, with my principal's permission, to teach social justice topics to my 6th-grade elective students. That first year, everything went well. Students voted on topics they were interested in learning about, such as racism, animal cruelty, and women’s rights, and I set about teaching them. This was the same year that Trump became president. The following year, I decided to continue teaching social justice. Again, the students decided what they wanted to learn, and I proceeded to teach. However, this year, some of the White families in my class did not want their children to learn about race, gender, sexuality, the unhoused, and so forth. They first demanded that I stop teaching these topics and eventually wanted me fired from my school district.
Embarrassed that her school and I were brought in front of the school board and on the news, my principal from October 2017 to the day I quit, May 2018, decided to make my life hell. Every move that I made was under surveillance. I was forced to stop teaching social justice, to stop decorating the halls and library for Black History Month, to stop being the teacher that students loved and admired. I was miserable, and consequently, my students and family suffered with me. I learned during that time that I was experiencing racial battle fatigue and made the decision to research RBF. It’s impact on Black educators and our families in my doctoral program.
After leaving education, I decided to request an exit interview from the school district's superintendent. After several emails, my request was granted. I went into his office with a list of things I needed to let him know about his district as a whole and the person leading the school I had left. As I left my exit interview, I realized many Black educators leave education without an exit interview. We run away to start over, not wanting to relive our experience in an interview or are never offered the opportunity to share why we have chosen to leave. The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators was birthed from there.
Since starting the podcast to completing my doctorate, I have made it my mission to share the impact of racial battle fatigue and racism-related stress on BIPOC educators with as many people as possible. I wanted to provide educators (teachers, counselors, admin, etc.) with language for what they are experiencing so that they can know that they are not alone and can choose their life outcomes, whether that be to continue in education or move into more liberated spaces.
