Dr. Camika Royal Featured in Word In Black

Several years ago, I was in a leadership retreat, and I was asked to name someone whom I admire (or maybe it was someone from whom I get inspiration), and my answer was Dr. Camika Royal. One of the things I appreciate about her is that she tells it like it is. She often says things that might be shocking to me--a cis White male working on a journey toward understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion--but, on further reflection, are always powerful reminders to me that I don't understand everything and that my perspective and background is not everyone's perspective and background. With that in mind, I am really happy to share this article from Word In Black about Dr. Royal: Dr. Camika Royal Gets Real About the Needs of Black Students.

Early on in the article, Dr. Royal gets right to telling it like it is: "As somebody who has been an educator for 24 years, the more I study schools, the more I actually hate them." And the article just gets better from there. I encourage everyone to read this article and check out Dr. Royal's book, Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia.

Dr. Camika Royal is Associate Professor of Urban Education at Loyola University of Maryland. Dr. David Marcovitz is Associate Dean of the School of Education and Professor of Educational Technology.