When Courtney Martin was deciding whether to enroll her daughter at a majority-Black public school in Oakland, Integrated Schools founder Courtney Everts Mykytyn told her something simple: “People like you do things like this.” This post is about what that kind of permission actually does, why the feeling that an integrated school is “impossible” is not common sense but the direct product of racism and disinvestment, and how a connected, visible community of families who choose differently has the power to change what feels normal — for the next family watching, and the one after that.

This Juneteenth, we’re redirecting the cultural conversation — away from a certain book by a certain Vice President, and toward the Black authors and activists whose ideas have actually built this work. Noliwe Rooks, Eve Ewing, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Resmaa Menakem, Heather McGhee, Loretta Ross, and bell hooks — whose Communion came first, and matters more. AND: buying a book is not the same as doing the work. Self-education matters, but it’s a beginning, not an arrival. Read the list. Then let it change what you do.

What if school choice isn’t really a choice between being a “good parent” and being a “martyr”? IS parent Anna revisits her family’s high school decision and makes the case for a third way: self-interest rooted in the understanding that our well-being is bound up together. Not martyrdom, not optimization — alignment. A practical, personal look at what it actually means to choose integrated public schools, season after season, decision after decision.

Brown v. Board opened the door to school desegregation in this country. Showing up for integration – that is, actually walking through the door and integrating our families – is the work that White people most consistently avoid. Integrated Schools is all about getting those of us with racial and economic privilege to do that necessary work. Here’s how we turn your $19.54 into meaningful change!

A recent piece on NPR about school choice in Iowa asked a question I think about all the time: when school choice is booming, who actually wins? (Spoiler alert: NOBODY)…

What happens when we actually name the dynamics already shaping a room? Things like Race, Class, Access, Power. Who feels comfortable speaking? Who doesn’t? At our recent Integrated Schools gathering we experimented with a simple practice: naming dynamics before starting the work. Not to shame anyone. Not to force vulnerability. Just to acknowledge reality. Because pretending dynamics don’t exist doesn’t make them disappear. It just makes them harder to navigate.

This essay imagines a future where White people unlearn White Supremacy Culture and participate responsibly in collective liberation – especially within schools and public systems. What would a future look like that affirms the humanity of White people and believes in our capacity to heal as part of educational equity and justice work?