By Amy Moran, Ph.D. and Kate Okeson
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
With International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, we have the sobering opportunity to reflect on political patterns of the past that yielded inhumane results for millions of ordinary folks. We can look at commonalities between hate speech of the past and that of the present and think critically about how seemingly benign inaction of individuals is, in hindsight, the start of untold widespread cruelty.
We know that in the Holocaust of World War II, people in Nazi Europe whose existences fell outside of Aryan or white supremacist norms were targeted for literal extinction. Six million Jews and at least five million Roma, political prisoners, disabled, and/or perceived to be homosexual, were murdered, with untold others tortured and fleeing as refugees.
We mourn the tragic losses and ongoing suffering of families whose destinies were forever changed by unthinkable cruelties carried out by a government that had the support of so many of its people. Certain contemporary rhetoric in our own country can be seen as similar to the hateful rhetoric of the past. That rhetoric must be interrupted. Critical reflection about the origins and outcomes of such messaging is needed
We’re also encouraged by the “reclaimant” process that certain symbols from that tragic time have undergone. With origins as badges of shame, the black triangle and the pink triangle were made to be worn by lesbians and gay men in the Nazi concentration camps. Once symbols of hate, they have given a new life as signs of LGBTQIA+ solidarity and, critically, as a symbol of HIV/AIDS action in the context of systemic oppression. Please continue further reading on this topic by following this month’s QR code.
Poverty Awareness Month
Of the many barriers to education that students can experience, few are so all-encompassing as poverty. Poverty is traditionally defined in absolute economic terms, but there are complicated social factors that can exacerbate all of the associated factors—and impacts—of poverty.
We raise this as January is Poverty Awareness Month, and we offer some data and further reading here to broaden our thinking on poverty and how resource instability impacts some student populations in schools disproportionately. Expansive definitions of poverty include looking at access to food, access to health care, physical disability, access to social services, access to social capital and social exclusion.
Using those criteria to look at schools, we can see the potential for educational exclusion, and the risk factors for LGBTQAI+ students. Let’s consider the following:
- 40% of ‘runaway’ and homeless youth are LGBTQIA+.
- 51% of LGBTQIA+ students consider dropping out of school due to hostile climates, including issues with harassment, unsupportive peers or educators, and gendered school policies/practices.
- 30% of high school dropouts are LGBTQIA+ according to American Psychological Association estimates.
- 32.2% of LGBTQIA+ students missed at least one entire day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.
- 11.3% of LGBTQIA+ students missed four or more days in the past month for the same reasons.
Now let’s consider those statistics with the following:
- 22% of LGBTQIA+ Americans live in poverty.
- 29% of transgender Americans live in poverty.
- 26% of LGBTQIA+ people in rural areas live in poverty.
For LGBTQIA+ people who did not grow up in poverty, anti-LGBTQIA+ bias and familial rejection, mental health issues and/or substance abuse issues were contributing factors in their adult poverty. As professional educators, we all understand the vital role education plays in human growth and outcomes; this is a call to center accepting and affirming educational practices to all of our young students as a means to stave off the risk factors of poverty.