Philly's 7th Ward

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Author - Sharif El-Mekki

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The Role of a School Leader In Setting A School’s Culture

January 12, 2021
by Sharif El-Mekki
7 min read
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Modeling Behavior, Consistency, Collective Accountability, and Relationship building You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.—Malcolm X Being a principal is a rewarding profession. It is also one of the...

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The Election is Over, Time for a Marshall Plan and Educational Reparations for Black People. But, The Plans Must Be White-Proof.

December 14, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
7 min read
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America is turning a corner.  Or so it hopes; so it claims. We have just elected a rational adult to the Presidency, thanks in no small part to the turnout of Black Americans in places like Philadelphia, Atlanta...

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CHANGING THE UNACCEPTABLE: Happy Anniversary To The ASPIRING TO EDUCATE Program

November 24, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
3 min read
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“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” —Angela Davis Last year today, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania took a noteworthy step to change the unacceptable: a...

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The Election Is Over. How Do We Help Our Students (And Ourselves) Heal?

November 15, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
4 min read
1 Comment

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” -Audre Lorde After one of the most tumultuous and fraught elections of our lifetime, Joe Biden was chosen to be...

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Which Side Are you on, yaw? Which side are you on? I’m on the freedom side!

November 9, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
9 min read
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The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It’s hard to disagree when you consider the totality of the Black radical tradition—our struggle today, and the struggles of those who came before...

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Do You Want to Know What Equitable Funding for Black and Brown Non-Profits Looks Like?

November 6, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
6 min read
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There has been an admittedly welcome rush to support Black and brown communities and causes in our national reckoning with systemic racism. Some $5 billion of philanthropic funding has flowed in support of racial equity work in...

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Educators, How are you teaching about the strange fruit that our students continue to see?

November 3, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
6 min read
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In the 1930s, the incomparable Billie Holiday sang about the horror of Black lynchings—the strange fruit hanging from Southern trees, the blood on the leaves that flows from the savage anti-Blackness at the root. Nearly a...

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You claim that you want diverse teachers, but you don’t want to interrogate how race, power, and mindsets work in your school.

October 30, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
6 min read
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I was a principal at Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker in Philadelphia for many years. We took to heart the concept of windows and mirrors, decorating our walls with images and quotes from popular heroes; Malcolm X, Dr. King, Rosa...

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Hiring? Use an Anti-Racist Lens!

October 2, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
7 min read
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As a principal of three neighborhood schools serving majority Black students, I was always in talent acquisition mode. More on point, I was always in talent acquisition and cultivation mode, since the best recruitment strategy is...

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Black Lives Matter When Black Minds Do

September 26, 2020
by Sharif El-Mekki
4 min read
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By now the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks have permeated our national dialogue. That is to say, most white Americans can identify them as the latest victims of an unjust and violent policing culture in...

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