FAQs:

1. What is anti-Blackness?

Anti-Blackness is not the same as racism. While racism describes prejudice and discrimination against various racial groups, anti-Blackness names the specific and unique way Black people are positioned in society—as fundamentally outside the category of human. Anti-Blackness is structural, not just interpersonal. It's embedded in how institutions operate, how policies are designed, and how value is assigned to human life. In schools, anti-Blackness shows up in who gets disciplined, who gets tracked into which classes, whose knowledge counts, whose bodies are surveilled, and whose humanity is conditional on performance. Understanding anti-Blackness helps us see why diversity initiatives and equity frameworks consistently fail Black children—they address racism without confronting the deeper structure that makes Black suffering foundational to how institutions function.

2. What does "schools are plantations" mean?

When we say schools are plantations, we're naming a structural reality, not making a metaphor. Schools in America were designed to sort, manage, and control bodies—particularly Black bodies. They extract labor (from students and educators), enforce compliance, punish non-conformity, and measure human value through productivity. Black children are surveilled, disciplined, and pushed out at disproportionate rates. Black educators are expected to perform excellence while being denied full humanity. This isn't a broken system—it's the design. Naming schools as plantations helps us see clearly so we can stop trying to reform what needs to be replaced.

3. What is liberationist education consulting?

Liberationist education consulting supports educators and leaders in moving beyond reform toward transformation. Rather than offering strategies to improve schools as they currently exist, this work helps leaders see schools as sites organized by anti-Blackness, grieve what that recognition costs, and build toward spaces where Black children can thrive as whole human beings. WGB Collective grounds this work in Womanist praxis, Black feminist thought, Critical Race Theory, and Afropessimism.

4. What is racial battle fatigue, and how does it affect Black educators?

Racial battle fatigue is a concept developed by Dr. William A. Smith to describe the cumulative physical, emotional, and psychological toll of navigating racism in predominantly white institutions. For Black educators—especially Black women leaders—this shows up as exhaustion, hypervigilance, health issues, and the constant labor of code-switching, proving competence, and managing white discomfort. WGB Collective supports leaders in naming this experience, healing from its effects, and leading from a different place.

5. What is Womanist praxis, and how does it shape this work?

Womanist praxis comes from Alice Walker's definition of a Womanist as someone who loves Black people, loves themselves, and is "committed to survival and wholeness of entire people." In this work, Womanist praxis means centering love, collective care, and wholeness rather than productivity or reform. It means honoring grief as sacred work. It means building toward liberation through relationships, not transactions. It shapes everything—from how we price services (solidarity economics) to how we hold space (with fierce, truth-telling love).

6. What is Afropessimism, and how does it inform this work?

Afropessimism is a theoretical framework developed by scholars like Frank Wilderson III, Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, and Calvin Warren. It argues that anti-Blackness is not simply a form of discrimination or prejudice that can be reformed away, but a foundational structure of modern society—an ontological position that excludes Black people from full humanity. In this work, Afropessimism helps us understand why reform efforts consistently fail Black children: because anti-Blackness isn't a problem to solve, it's the design itself. This clarity frees us to stop seeking inclusion and start building toward liberation.

7. Is this work only for Black women education leaders?

Black women education leaders are central to this work because I am one, and my research focused on our specific experiences of racial battle fatigue in white-led schools. However, WGB Collective serves anyone connected to education who has the thirst and audacity to seek liberation—Black leaders across gender identities, leaders of color navigating white institutions, white leaders genuinely committed to dismantling anti-Blackness, parents, community organizers, and grassroots educators. The work remains grounded in Black liberation regardless of who engages it.

8. Can white leaders or educators engage this work?

Yes—with conditions. White leaders can engage this work if they are genuinely committed to dismantling anti-Blackness, not just managing their discomfort or performing allyship. This means being willing to name schools as plantations, sit with hard truths about complicity, and follow Black leadership toward liberation rather than centering their own growth. WGB Collective welcomes white leaders who are ready for that. Those seeking validation, comfort, or DEI credentials will not find what they're looking for here.

9. How is this different from DEI consulting or equity training?

Most DEI consulting and equity training focus on making institutions more inclusive without questioning the institutions themselves. They offer frameworks, rubrics, and action plans designed to improve outcomes within existing structures. WGB Collective starts from a different premise: schools are plantations organized by anti-Blackness, and no amount of reform will transform them into sites of liberation. This work is about consciousness-raising, truth-telling, and building toward something else entirely—not making the current system work better.

10. What does "solidarity economy" pricing mean?

Solidarity economy pricing means that those with more resources pay full rates so that those with fewer resources can access the work. Well-funded districts and organizations pay at the higher end of our sliding scale, which subsidizes reduced rates for grassroots organizations, community educators, freedom schools, and individual Black educators without institutional backing. This isn't charity—it's collective care. It's Womanist economics in practice, ensuring that liberation work isn't only available to those with institutional budgets.

11. What is a Witness Circle, and how is it different from professional development?

A Witness Circle is a 6-8 week cohort experience where participants study Womanist, Black feminist, and Afropessimist texts together, share what they're witnessing in their schools and communities, and grieve collectively. Unlike professional development, Witness Circles are not designed to improve your practice or give you strategies to implement. They are sacred spaces for consciousness-raising—for seeing more clearly, feeling more fully, and building collective capacity for liberation. There are no rubrics, no action plans, no certificates. Just truth, grief, and community.

12. Is there somewhere else I can read your work?

Yes, you can view my full dissertation. And, I’m on Substack - Subscribe to my newsletter: Love as Method, Truth as Practice.