Building A Pro-Black World

Nothing Is Broken: What Evaluation and Philanthropy Can Learn from Abolitionism

Dr. Aisha Rios

I want to, from the very jump, say something—something that my friends, comrades, and I like to say about ourselves is that we identify as students of abolition or practicing abolitionists. And we say that because we, one, recognize that we're in a constant state of learning and unlearning. But we also want to honor our commitment to creating an abolitionist world. And so, I say that because I want to invite you all into dialogue with me in a place of learning and unlearning. And … to the extent that you can, try not to get held up in this, “OK, if I do this and this and this and this, I'll be a perfect abolitionist,” or, “I have to develop a perfect understanding or definition of abolition.”

So, how this next 20 minutes or so is going to go is, I'm going to share two stories with you. I'm going to invite you all to engage with me a little bit around what you noticed, and then I'm going to share what I noticed about these stories. And then I want to tell you what I think we can do about it collectively.

So, here's the first story. I was working on an evaluation with a foundation. They wanted to understand teachers in the United States perceptions of working with students with disabilities. They wanted to understand, “Do teachers feel a sense of responsibility to teaching and working with students with disabilities?” And they wanted to understand if teachers felt confident and competent ...