“Teachers over the course of time build those repertoires where they can handle not just current events but highly racialized, politicized events in a way that honors the event itself as well as the multitude of the multiracial voices in our classrooms,” he said.
Brookline's interim superintendent, James Marini, said in a statement, in part, "Brookline is extremely fortunate to have a gifted educator and administrator like Malcolm Cawthorne at Brookline High School. We are committed to better understanding the burden placed on him and other Black teachers to educate our students and ourselves about race in America.”
“Somewhere along the line we have to ask everyone to make sure they’re teaching about everybody," Cawthorne said. "And understand that that takes work.”