Race
INTERVIEW: Alabama Teacher Of The Year Alison Grizzle
Alison Grizzle isn't your typical teacher, or even your typical Alabama Teacher of the Year. The Birmingham City Schools math instructor is known for being very outspoken, even on third-rail issues like the Common Core and standardized testing. We thought we'd share her thoughts on those issues and more as students and staff return to school routines. WBHM's Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen recently caught up with Grizzle at an education conference where she was giving talks. But it turns out this award-winning teacher almost didn't become a teacher at all...
INTERVIEW: Tanner Colby, Some of My Best Friends are Black
As Barack Obama campaigned his way to the presidency, self-described lily-white writer Tanner Colby began pondering exactly why he and so many other white people basically had no black friends. The reasons are complex, ranging from school policy to real estate practices to media image-making to church politics, but the former Vestavia Hills resident dives right in from the springboard of his own life, recognizing his ignorance the whole way. The result: 'Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America.' Our Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen caught up with Colby soon after the author appeared on MSNBC to discuss America's persistent racial separation.
John Archibald: Race and Greek Life at the University of Alabama
Students, faculty and administrators at the University of Alabama are trying to figure out what's next after a march Wednesday calling for an end to racial discrimination in campus Greek organizations. The march comes after the student newspaper published a story detailing allegations of racial bias in sorority recruitment. But the bias seems to be coming from alumna not currents students. We talk about the unfolding controversy with AL.com and Birmingham News columnist John Archibald.
