The Florida School Counselor Association (FSCA) is devastated by the death and violence experienced daily by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). As professionals trained in cultural competency and social justice, we must serve as advocates to educate our students, families, and school personnel; we must speak up when we see injustices happening and demand better of us all. To our BIPOC members, FSCA sees you and recognizes the daily struggles of living in our country. As our communities confront the issues of race and violence, please know that we stand with you as partners and offer our support.
To all our members, let us remember we are social justice advocates for all, regardless of skin color. It is our ethical duty to educate ourselves, have honest conversations, and actively pursue a change in our personal and societal perceptions of race. It will take all of us confronting our biases and prejudices about race and privilege in order to evoke change. The FSCA issues a call to action for each of us to commit to expanding our knowledge and engaging our school communities in learning opportunities that address racism and systemic change.
In the future, we look forward to facilitating these critical conversations about racism that are overdue in our communities and our country. We encourage those interested in supporting or facilitating these dialogues to reach out to fsca@fla-schoolcounselor.org.
- Resources: Articles, Books, Classroom lessons, and Videos
- Your kids aren’t too young to talk about race
- Association for Multi-Cultural Counseling and Development Past Presidents Town Hall Meeting, Multicultural Counseling and Social Justice During a Double Pandemic
- ASCA Race and Equity Resources
- Systemic Racism Explained
- Tolerance.org
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Social Justice
- Derek Francis, School Counselor Minneapolis YouTube video
- Kamau Bell, YouTube Video
- Counseling Today, Five Points of Discussion for Talking about Race
- Charis Books and More
- New York Times, An Anti-racist Reading List