A Clayton County teacher is putting a spotlight on the need for more Black male educators after going viral on social media.
Alfred “Shivy” Brooks, who sits as the only active teacher on the Atlanta Board of Education, is one of at least 20 Black male educators at Charles R. Drew High School in Riverdale.
Brooks took to social media with a video walking the campus, dapping up his colleagues. The post went viral with nearly 2 million views.
“We live in this day and age where you don’t know what the algorithm is gonna do for your posts, right? What I know is that authenticity always wins. And so what people saw was with genuine interactions, genuine culture that exists here in the school,” Brooks said.
Brooks’ video was also a way to spotlight the need for representation of Black male educators in schools.
“We live in an educational world where we’re all aware that there’s not enough of us,” Brooks said. “So, for folks to be able to see in real time like what the impact of it is, what the brotherly love looks like in the hallways. I was grateful.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black male teachers accounted for 1.3% of educators nationally during the 2020-2021 school year. While in Georgia, federal data shows about 4% of public school teachers are Black men.
And, University of California, Berkeley Professor Travis Bristol says some of the reasons for the shortage of representation are based on supply and demand.
“We disproportionately suspend and expel Black boys when compared to everyone else. And so we are cutting off the supply of potential Black men teachers because we suspend and expel Black boys before they can even become a teacher,” Bristol said.
Bristol studies Black male representation in education. Despite the demand, seeing more Black men as teachers benefits Black students and gives perspectives of diversity to students with different backgrounds.
“It helps them see Black people in ways that they are that they do not see Black people represented in the media,” Bristol said. “And it helps them see these individuals that see Black people as people, not as people to be feared.”
Note of disclosure: Atlanta Public Schools holds WABE’s broadcast license.
