Anti-Racist Leaders are Persistent Leaders

This morning we woke again to the news with heavy hearts. But we remember again that the racism and oppression from which these events spring are rooted in our nation’s history of enslavement and its culture of violence. They will never be uprooted by an episodic, reactive response.

The Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership is committed to raising up anti-racist leaders in education. Inspired by Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations, we understand that nonviolent leadership for racial justice requires Passion, Practice—and most importantly—Persistence.   

We must wake up every day, not with heavy hearts, but with renewed commitment to confronting systemic racism. We cannot allow those of us with privilege to fall back to sleep yet again. We cannot let fear paralyze us. The leaders we work with mobilize their students, families, schools, and communities every day to be co-conspirators for racial equity. Through their voices and actions, they walk persistently towards justice, steadily closing the gap between today’s realities and the beloved community we know is possible. 

We are privileged to walk beside them, buoyed by hope that comes from steady and clear-eyed  determination.

Carmen Torres & Linda Nathan
Co-Directors, Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership