I spoke this morning at the Parents Unite conference in Boston on Diversity of Thought in K-12.
The topic of my almost 40-minute lecture was Framing The Media Narrative And Moving To Action. The video will be available at some point, and I’ll post it here along with a transcript and my slide presentation.
Some of the advice I gave concerned how parents objecting to school policies and instruction, including on Critical Race issues, could interact with the media. Most parents have never had to do that, and don’t understand some basics, particularly when dealing with local or national mainstream media.
While you eagerly await the video, one attendee conveniently live-tweeted that part of my lecture as well as some general advice:
Advice for parents from Legal insurrection: cultivate relationships with local reporters; make their job easier. Write the articles FOR them. Give them quotes, and 800 words written. Do things by email, so you have a record if they misquote you.1/Record interviews if it’s legal where you live. If not, tell them you’re recording. Keep answers short, so they have more trouble misquoting your or taking you out of context. Say what you want to see in print. 2/Focus on the message: you are for equality, non-discrimination, and you oppose the racialization of education.3/Find what you’re good at, use that to your advantage; what matters is everyone DO something. All hands on deck. CAUTION: BOLO plants, with crazy signs and disinformation. Stay ON MESSAGE. Make sure you self-police! /4Find people who are good at what you’re NOT, cultivate relationships, work together.Advice from ME: you cannot stay quiet and expect others to save you. DO something, that’s what it’s going to take. /END
Nicole Solas, who first told her story on Legal Insurrection and now is a national media star on parental rights, boiled it down further:
Parents, write your stories about opposing school indoctrination FOR the media. Claim your narrative and give it to the media to publish. Make their job easy. It worked for me. @LegInsurrection
[Featured image: Speakers clockwise: Charles Love, Dr. Wilfred Reilly, Ian Rowe, and me, via Erica Sanzi on Twitter]
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