By Destiné Price, Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Youth Leader

My experience at this year’s Kalamazoo Community Foundation’s Community Meeting is one that I will never forget. The words of Nikole Hannah-Jones will live with me forever and with my work. As an aspiring advocate for reformative education, meeting and listening to Nikole Hannah-Jones was like reading a book in history that was strategically never exposed to me. I really appreciate the truth she spoke about Detroit’s educational landscape and the history of Brown v. Board, explaining its current issues. I was like, finally, somebody said it! I think it is so important to listen to somebody when they are telling you something about yourself, because they are truly asking you to engage in what you may ignore in yourself every day and what you ignore in society every day. It’s important for us to truly engage because we all play a role in this work. One of the most important pieces I took from her talk was, "Don’t ignore the one reform we know best. We’re already sacrificing kids in this system." This meeting gave me an action item for myself and I hope that it did the same for others.

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