PsyGuy wrote:

> @crypticblu
>
> Weve been here before though. The US had a war over this, diversity and
> equality won, yet here we stand, so many years later still fighting the
> cause and thats a very western cause, many cultures do not have an issue
> with segregation.
> Why is this still an elephant?

Diversity and equality did not win. People would not be in the streets if diversity and equality won. We would not be petitioning international education recruitment agencies such as Search Associates and ISS, the IB, and accreditation bodies to adopt anti-racist standards if diversity and equality won. So, yes, here we are still in pursuit of equity.

Unfortunately, what may have been considered a "very Western cause" decades or centuries ago is very much an international cause due to the infiltration of the "West", by choice or by force, into many cultures.

Why is this still an elephant? The students have done an excellent job of providing a comprehensive answer to this question in the context of their respective learning communities.

International schools have lots of work to do, as evidenced by the #black_at_ hashtag on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, the open letters of students' lived experience, and the creation of groups such as ISS' Diversity Collaborative and the Organization to Decolonize the IB. Anti-racism is not a destination, so there is no international school that has arrived or is even three blocks away.

I am happy that the Black Lives Matter movement has many individuals looking at institutions with a more critical eye and calling in performative practices, especially our students. Bravo to the youngsters!

OAN: I just left a "2nd tier" for-profit school in China that had a very diverse staff. There were 15 African Americans on staff, including me, and around 11 more POCs. This did not stop the Chinese parents from enrolling their children. I served as the middle school dean, a position with substantial parental interactions, and my experiences were positive. The school never shied away from addressing the R-word, racism. Last academic year, I chaired a panel with other POC, including an Asian-American colleague, to discuss the racism, prejudice, and xenophobia students would encounter in the West and how to navigate it.

For every parent who is a "racist," there are parents who acknowledge the elephant in the room because they or someone they care about has experienced it, and they aim to prepare their children. Today's political climate leaves little room for ignoring racism, whether anti-black or anti-Asian. BIPOC educators are out here. Please don't believe the hype that we aren't qualified or applying for positions. Besides, how would one know that we aren't applying? Racial demographic data is not collected or tracked. Things that should make you go hmm when you hear such claims.

https://www.instagram.com/blackatunis/
https://thebite.aisb.ro/index.php/black ... -community
https://www.instagram.com/black_at_isd/
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-r ... ons-racism
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53208274
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvw04h4h

Here is the updated stance of Search Associates in light of educator demands for equity in recruitment. ISS, TIEOnline, and Teacher Horizons have made similar commitments:

"JUN 12, 2020 — Search Associates is committed to being part of the solution and we are making the following changes:

We will remove the photo section from the Search Associates educator profiles. While we implement the technical aspects of this change, we will advise all applicants that this section will soon be eliminated and uploading a photo is unnecessary.

We fully support the elimination of the term “native English speaker” in job requirements and will advocate for this across the industry. We will inform schools that we will not allow the use of this term in job postings or descriptions they post to our site. Should we become aware of a posting that uses this term, we will take the necessary steps to remove it.

We commit to eliminating bias in the systems, structures, and tools used in the recruitment of educators and educational leaders, and we pledge to work collaboratively with all members of the international school community to achieve this goal.
Jessica Magagna
CEO Search Associates"