We Demand for Change so It's Okay to Dream

The Demand for Change Series 

Early this year, we introduced the concept of the Demand for Change series. The Demand for Change series was a seven-part, virtual conversation series focused on Val Verde Unified School district and its relationship with Black parents and guardians. The school district, like many others, nationwide has a high rate of discipline among black students disproportionately so amongst the rest of the student body population. With the current cultural climate, we began the D4C outreach initiative, which was a small part of our Race and Culture training we could provide to the entire Val Verde Unified School District. While the D4C series had two goals in mind primarily, to make sure that the voices of Black parents and guardians were heard. Secondly, where does the responsibility lie for administration, parents, and guardians? Our Race and Culture training in its entirety brought the concerns of black parents and students to the forefront while simultaneously training administration and staff on cultural bias, culturally exclusionary curriculum and practices, and what institutionalized racism looks like in the education system. While D4C did receive some pushback by being compared to the new Jim Crow, due to it being designed and geared toward parents and guardians of Black children, to be very clear from us, this was not an exclusionary invitation, but an intentional one. While our sessions were open to everyone - this specific initiative was meant for the unheard to be heard,  understood, and hopefully come up with solutions for a district and nationwide problem. The Race and Culture training we provided asks why are Black students disproportionately disciplined and harmfully categorized? This is why you must know the Demand for Change series did not stand alone. For OTO, this was a strategic effort that focused on the active restoration of a marginalized group. 

We D4C, so it's OK2D 

At Only Thoughts of Ownership, we Demand for Change so that our OK to dream tour can be seen as achievable for all students. “The It's OK To Dream Tour is designed to remind students of the importance of utilizing their imagination while also empowering them to do so. It is in our everyday mission to encourage students, young teens, and adults to take action in pursuit of their dreams now because it is possible that later may never come.” What do we do when a collective group of students, who happen to look a lot like us at OTO, have more faith in later never coming than they do in their imagination? How do we ask students to feel safe enough for dreams to be OK in the midst of blatant harm to their communities? Cumulatively, what happens when curriculum and discipline policies are harmful to a particular group by deliberate, institutional design? You get a team of dreamers who do not mind authentically showing up as academics, entrepreneurs, hustlers, innovators, and pontificators, who have learned to fill in some educational gaps themselves. We have returned to let y’all know these demands and these dreams are achievable and they ain’t goin’ nowhere. So while we remind you that it is OK to Dream we want you to dream and execute alongside us because the opposition ain’t goin’ nowhere either - at least not until we make them.

Why We Do What We Do

The OK2D tour has been designed to remind students of the value of their imagination within a system designed to suppress it. The Dream Team, in our own way, has either experienced or seen the educational gaps. We have returned to ensure that imagination is not lost in our future generation and, in some ways, have rebirthed a bit of imagination in ourselves. While most of our reasons were different, they were rooted in relationships, whether with ourselves or with others. 

Oliver had an amazing 7th-grade teacher, Mrs. Canales, who focused on a quality relationship with him and told him he could be the best student in the class and challenged him. He ended up being in the top two. His 8th-grade teacher failed him the following school year and suggested remedial math with no one addressing the 97% he received in the previous school year. 

Our head of merchandising, Katauri, had to shift his relationship with himself and how he chose to relate to others. There was a negative narrative surrounding him as a student. He decided to switch the narrative about himself through intentional action. While Katauri met some resistance, his persistence in not being afraid to show up as the intellectual he had always been, Katauri began to see a different life for himself in education. 

Tahirih, our Project Director, began to ask herself, “Was there one teacher, counselor, principal, campus security, or office staff that asked me: Is everything okay at home? Do you feel safe? What do you need the most help with here at school or in your classroom?”  Did the place that we spent so much time “learning” at genuinely prepare students to be complete people outside of how they performed in the classroom. 

In my personal experience, my high school counselor told my father and me that I just was not meant for college. I will not tell you how many degrees I have now as the Director of Education; just know I have enough. 

Whatever your epiphany looks like, whether it be an actual relational experience, the false narratives projected on young Black youth, or resentment of what our educational system lacks, know that we are reflections of you. Our epiphanies reminded us that it has always been OK to Dream, so we are here to remind students and you.

As a community, we ALL get to show up and demonstrate what we all needed for those coming after us. It is more than OK to Dream. We are the Dream. So Dreamers, mount up. 

“I got these haters, like “when will he stop?” Maybe a minute after never, so set your clocks” - Lil’ Wayne