On episode 37 of Outside The Bubble I chat with Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick, founder of *[Co-Creating Inclusion](http://cocreatinginclusion.com)*, a diversity, equity, and inclusion firm with a focus on shifting culture and driving equity through strategic consulting, leadership & team development, workshop facilitation, and business integration. Her mission is to help people, teams, and organizations create culture transformation through inclusion and belonging in order to co-create the conditions where all can thrive and do their best and most fulfilling work.

Alethea started her career as an architect with a BArch from Pratt Institute and spent almost 20 years managing workplace strategy and corporate headquarters projects. A British Born Chinese American, Alethea lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two boys, Liam, aged 10, and Jack, aged 7.

This conversation may be difficult. We dive into equity, racism, bullying, white privilege, systems of oppression, intent and impact, and more. 

I share my journey in understanding my own bias and racism and Alethea speaks about her work, what she’s seeing within her children, and tools for teachers to implement.   

 

Considerations for teachers to think about as they move towards action in the classroom:

 

- Start with your own knowledge and awareness - addressing these issues in the classroom is not something you should just jump into without some tools and preparation (see list of resources below)

- In the meantime, consider using outside specialists

- Talk about race and identity - students of color should not be the only ones that know what the word “racism” means, for example

- Talk specifically and concretely about being anti-racist

- Have real accountability and a process for addressing bullying - not just in middle and high school but in elementary school as well

- Get parents on board to collaborate and support - a lot of these dynamics quite frankly are modeled by privileged parents and picked up by their kids that way, especially dynamics around centering and entitlement (that school administrators often end up catering to)

 

Resources Mentioned 

- Seeing White podcast

- How To Be An Antiracist - by Ibram K. Kendi

- White Fragility - by Robin DiAngelo

- Integrated Schools podcast - more for parents

- Teaching Tolerance

- White Privilege Conference

- NAIS People of Color Conference

- National SEED Project

 

Find Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick at

http://cocreatinginclusion.com and http://dismantlingwhitesupremacy.com