Take 5: July 2020

This month’s roundup of NAFSA members’ suggestions of what to watch, listen to, follow, and read focuses on resources and media that are pertinent to the current movement toward racial justice in the United States. Have a recommendation for your international education colleagues? Email us with your ideas—we might include them in an upcoming issue of International Educator. 

1. “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

“Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Caged Bird’ provides a fierce description of freedom and oppression. This poem is a quick and easy way to engage with the current civil rights movement in the United States, as well as to better understand the plight of other oppressed peoples worldwide. I hadn’t read this poem until recently, and it’s stuck with me daily ever since.”

—Olivia Ellis, MA, University of Kentucky

2. An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

“Paul Ortiz provides an inclusive, empowering, and rarely used lens to view the honest history, injustices, triumphs, and success of POC [people of color] in the United States. There are individuals, stories, and consequences covered in this book that are rarely taught in-depth in American educational settings. Better understanding the history and present of the nation our students are committing their next several formative years to allows us to be better-informed practitioners—with a thorough understanding of why we need to acknowledge international trauma, intersectionality, and the joy in cultural celebrations.”

—Nicole Inclan, MA, Rollins University

3. The Fire Next Time by James