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Welcome to The Anti-Racism Leadership Institute, where we engage in thoughtful conversations with professors and visionary leaders who are dedicated to dismantling racism in schools and transforming education. Join us as we explore their inspiring journeys, innovative strategies, and impactful initiatives aimed at creating more inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist learning environments. Our podcast is a platform for sharing insights, stories, and actionable ideas that can help shape a brighter, more just future for education. Tune in and be inspired to be a part of the change!
Welcome to the Anti Racism Leadership
Institute Research to Practice podcast.
Today, we have the
opportunity to talk with Dr.
Ali Fadlala about his newly released book.
March Forth: From The Prison
of Minds, available on Amazon.
Dr.
Fadlala is a writer, admission
specialist, and college instructor
from Dearborn, Michigan.
His full time job is supporting applicants
to college, graduate school, and jobs.
He also teaches part time
at Henry Ford College.
We're very honored to
have you here today, Dr.
Fadlala, and I'd like you to
take the opportunity to introduce
yourself to the listeners.
Thank you so much.
I'm honored to be here.
That intro about sums me up
professionally speaking, I would
say on a personal level, I feel very
connected to my Muslim identity.
It's my most salient identity.
And to my name, Ali Ahmad Fadlallah,
my middle name is my father's name.
I feel very connected to my
father who is no longer with us.
He passed away in 2017.
And my name means the highest or greatest
foundation or pillar of God's grace.
And it's a name I can never live up to.
I am incapable of living up
to, but that I'm blessed.
To be able to try to live up to and
it was also a name growing up here
in America that I, at one point
I'm ashamed to say I felt shame.
I felt shame around because I
wanted to fit in and it was a name
that was difficult to pronounce.
It was a source of internalized
oppression, which I'm sure we'll
get to at some point here, but
now a name that I'm very proud of.
Thank you so much for that introduction.
And let's go there so we can get
to know you a little bit better.
We know each other, but not in depth.
And I want to know more about
the book that you've written.
But first, can you talk a little
bit about, why you do what you do,
and what brought you to this path?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I went to a failing public high
school here in Dearborn, Michigan.
Fortson High School is my alma mater.
I absolutely love Fortson High School.
Some of my lifelong friendships
were built here and my father was
forcibly reassigned to my high school.
Midway through my senior years and
I, when I got to college Tracy, I
realized like I couldn't write or read
like the people to my left and right.
And I have a line in the book that I
couldn't read and write like the most lack
of days, a cool white kid in my class.
And so when I realized how
much remedial support and
instruction I needed in college.
I also realized that I was robbed
of a quality public education.
Um, one would think that being
immersed in a high school like mine
filled with low expectations, drug
abuse, corruption I could have seen
that for myself in high school.
I didn't need to wait till I
got to college, but you don't
know what you don't know.
So I, my work today centers, like I
said, around, or like you, you shared
around supporting applicants to
college, graduate school, jobs, and
mostly graduate applicants to medical,
dental school, PA programs, law school.
And I see that so many of these
young people in my community, many
of them, the child, the children
or grandchildren of immigrants
like I am the child of immigrants.
And they have all the talent and work
ethic in the world, but often just lack
the writing skill to put their best foot
forward for the admissions committee.
And so I started an admissions company
because I knew that if I got to
Harvard university, anyone can do it.
And it's not being me being humble.
I was never a good test taker.
I never had the most fancy GPA and I
just knew that you know with the right
support others can reach their dreams as
well academically and career wise When
what you say, about, your early
life being in high school.
And, and I had a similar experience
where I was in high school, and I
thought my pathway was just normal.
I thought I was a great student, right?
I didn't understand the curriculum
and what I was being exposed to was
substandard again until I got to college.
It's Whoa, I'm woefully unprepared.
And for, educators who work in
those buildings, we have a lot of
passionate educators who work there.
In retrospect How would you have
seen this going differently, right?
Because educators who work there have to
understand the level of instruction is not
up to the standard of maybe other places.
And so what do you think could have been
done differently during your course?
Time in high school to make
you more prepared for college.
you ask that question my mind instantly
goes, to a an elderly gentleman
who was my english and language
arts teacher Let's call him Mr.
Moore.
That wasn't his name.
It's a pseudonym.
And I thought Mr.
Moore was the coolest
teacher in the world.
He didn't mark me tardy.
He didn't even mark me absent
if I decided to skip class.
When we did show up to class, we could
sit on top of the desk and chat all day.
We could order pizza into the classroom.
And he was pretty warm.
He was a kind man.
He was but he had very low expectations
of what me and my peers were capable of.
And this man who I loved in high school,
I grew to view as someone who just
had really low expectations of me.
I was disappointed in
when I got into college.
And these were the exact individuals
who my father was holding accountable
when he took over as principal.
So what I would imagine is a school
where teachers are setting really
high expectations of what they
expect of And I've always been a
big fan of career focused learning.
I think that even if we don't have it all
figured out, if we just tried to mimic
elementary schools a little bit more
and had, kids, cause we still are at the
high school age playing and in groups
and having fun and trying to learn that
way, obviously with more complex and
advanced and real world topics then we'd
be halfway towards solving this thing.
Yes, that's awesome that you have that
in retrospect because I think this is how
it often looks for how low expectation
doesn't always look for the lack, look
like the lackadaisical teacher who
doesn't care, just gives worksheets and
is mean and in various sort of military,
militaristic in terms of, I don't
believe when you do this substandard
work, it could look like a teacher
that's leaning with tremendous sympathy.
I sympathize for the, with the student.
I sympathize for you.
I'm gonna, not gonna hold you to
a high academic expectation, but
I'm gonna coddle you, and not hold
you to the expectation that you're
going to be able to be successful.
But yet, I'm gonna have you in a
space where you feel cared for,
maybe emotionally, but academically,
I don't see a future for you.
Yes.
Yes,
right.
So let's get into the book
March Forth: From The Prison
of Minds, because I'm excited.
I haven't had a chance to read it yet
because it's not out but when I get it,
I am going to put it on my, the top of
my read list and and launch into it.
Tell me a little bit about
how the book came to be.
And you know how you came
into onto the project.
Thank you so much for that.
And so the book began as a memoir written
by my father and he was recounting his
experience as Fortson High School's
principal in the late 2004 when he was
reassigned midway through my senior year,
forcibly reassigned by the superintendent.
In 2011, when he retired prematurely,
I should say, And the reason he retired
is because he truly felt like he was
spending more time in hearings and in
court than he was in the school building.
Doing what's best for kids.
He was a victim of countless attacks.
He was sued on numerous occasions.
He spent years in court,
even after his retirement.
He was found innocent of every accusation
brought against him and these accusations
were brought on by frankly, bigoted
teachers and community members even
lawyers who defended their clients pro
bono just for the sake of, Trying to
take my father down and all he was doing
was setting high expectations of kids.
So when he passed away, he
had a half finished book.
And essentially that book became
the bulk of part one of three parts.
So the book is 14 chapters
split up into three parts.
Part one is named after
the subtitle of the book.
It's called The Prison of Minds.
Part Two is called The Prison of My Mind,
and Part Three is called Homecoming,
and Part One goes deep into the never
before told true story of Fortson High
School, which is a flagship high school
in Dearborn, Michigan, America's most
densely concentrated region of Arabs
and Muslims beyond the Middle East.
And part two you come on my
journey into college and beyond
and see a lot of the mental health
struggles that I was going through.
I did suffer from mental illness
for a while and and you'll see
how a lot of that is stems from
my experience in public education.
And part three is the healing journey.
It's coming back.
It's coming back literally home and
it's coming back figuratively to my
true self making peace religiously,
spiritually and all of that.
So
Yeah, so we've
finish.
So let's talk about the book because
I'm, I'm sure my listeners want to hear
more about it and should pick it up.
And first of all, I want to do
it by purpose setting, right?
Because I'm an educator, right?
I'm still consider myself to be
a practitioner, even though we
do work outside influence from
the outside as consultants.
I'm very interested in this
book in terms of the stories.
And you talk about the good trouble
Your father was into, right?
And that's what sparked
all of the backlash.
And so in the first part of the book,
according to experience what might
the reading of his experience conveyed
to the educator who's interested
in reading about his journey?
What would be the utility for
them in reading his story?
It's a great question.
It's really hard to fight.
status quo and to lead with courage.
And when you start doing it,
you might uncover some things
that make it even harder.
There were incidents of sexual
assault at the hands of teachers
and coaches in the building.
Early on in his days, my father
uncovered these instances.
One kid was forcibly baptized at
a lake home, a Muslim child taken
to a lake home without parental
permission and baptized by his coach.
He was actually suplexed and ducked
underwater and then pictures were
taken of him and he was threatened
that those pictures would be
posted on the internet if he denied
that he was a baptized Christian.
A couple of one wrestling coach
sexually assaulted two of his players
at one during a sleepover, two of his
wrestlers at a sleepover in his home.
And the unfortunate reality was that.
My father did his job.
He reported these crimes.
The district investigated and
those teachers or coaches were
fired and they happened to be
preachers at a local church.
Of course, the story quickly
became, my father is targeting and
firing preachers and petitions were
started by teachers in the building.
And, they had dozens of signatures
that, my, my father has a Muslim agenda.
And A local right wing blogger in
the community and lawyer was just
blogging about him constantly.
She turned Dearborn into Dearbornistan.
She turned Fortson High into
Hezbollah High and just wrote a lot
of slander pieces about my father.
And so it's tough, man.
When you add the layer of racism and
bigotry, as you very well know, it
just becomes a whole different beast.
And how did he persevere?
Of course, I am very aware of this
dynamic as a former school leader in tough
schools, and I feel like reading it would
be like cathartic in a way that this is
the nature of when you're trying to do
good work for brown populations, right?
Because in my perspective, in middle to
high income white schools, these behaviors
are absolutely not tolerated, but they're
only tolerated because they're happening
to historically marginalized communities.
So how did he persevere?
Someone of a lesser fortitude
would have just packed it in
to say it is not worth it.
Why did he stick with it?
You think?
If you ask my uncle, his brother.
He'd say he didn't persevere.
He retired and he's, he was
really upset about that.
I'm curious to see how his opinion changes
when he reads the book because when you
read the book, you realize he persevered
tremendously to even have survived what
he did for six years is outstanding.
It's insane.
He was a man of faith.
He had a very strong foundation and faith.
His relationship with God was
foremost to him, and so that kept
him strong amidst the tornado.
But I'd be remiss not to mention he
had an incredible community behind him.
The parents the students, the teachers
that cared about kids, and the allies
in the district Superintendent Dr.
John Artis.
There's a scene in the book in the
beginning where You know, when John
forcibly reassigns my father to
Fortson, he says, Imad, he was a tall,
wide man, 6'4 commanding presence.
My father was pretty tall himself.
Superintendent was like
huge guy, deep voice.
Imad, I ask you one favor.
Please do not rock the boat and my
father goes I'll keep your promise.
And within a few days, he calls john
into his office for a heart to heart.
And he says, john, I made a promise.
I cannot keep I cannot continue in
this building without rocking the boat.
Please appoint a permanent
principal as soon as possible.
And john goes what's going on?
He mod and he goes John this building's
at least 10 years behind, and he starts
giving them example after example,
students being suspended by the dozens
for not carrying an ID, the prison
like climate, et cetera, and he said,
John, this is a prison of young minds.
That's how the subtitle came about.
This is a prison of young minds.
And John said, so what is it
exactly that you want to do?
He said I want to.
Raise expectations.
I want to put these students first.
These are their third class
citizens in this building I
want to reduce the dropout rate.
I want to improve teaching and learning
in this classroom So John said then
go on right ahead and he said thank
you John But I'm gonna warn you if
I start this you will pay the price
And John said, and that's a price.
That's a price I'll gladly pay.
He had someone like that on the board.
He had a superintendent who had his
back and I'm not sure he would have
been able to do this without them.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, the environment has to be right?
And it sounds like the high
school is really in dire straits.
And so can you talk to us
about, maybe two critical moves?
That he did in the high school.
For example, when I was a high
school principal and we had an
issue with 9th grade retention, a
huge issue because that's the start
starting point for dropout, right?
Students come into the 9th grade.
They don't pass the
majority of the classes.
They're undercredited.
They're still in the
9th grade the next year.
They're older than it fail again.
They're older again.
Before you know it, they're 18 years old.
They're still in the 9th grade.
And they could do the math, right?
I won't graduate till I'm 22,
and that's not gonna happen.
They drop out.
So one of the major moves we
did was we switched from a, um,
A departmental structure where we had
departmental PLCs, but they would meet
together, but they could never talk about
students they shared because students
Because teachers in the same department
don't share the same students, we changed
it to a teaming structure where the
teachers would have time every day to
meet and talk about their kids, along
with data, along with raising expectation,
along with the expectation that we do
not retain kids in the ninth grade.
And that was critical move because now we
could have collaboration among teachers,
data that we look at in time and raise
the expectation for teachers to make sure
that the students passed in one year.
Major critical lever we pulled to reduce
the number of ninth grade retentions.
And so as you read the book and you're
thinking about your father's impact in
terms of raising expectations as you've
referred to, how does that materialize?
What did he do exactly?
Yeah, that's a great question.
And the context here is
more like lean on me.
The example you just gave is
beautiful, but far too advanced for
what my father could do early on.
So the first major move
was more of a tone setter.
One of the quick stories in the
book his first day on the job.
Walks out, sees a young lady with
her senior varsity jacket on the
phone in the hallway and remain
right next to the main office.
That's not allowed.
He's trying to be a good new
guardian of building policies.
Excuse me, ma'am.
You should not be on your phone.
In the school building.
So she turns around and she
says, who in the F are you?
She says the word of course.
And just, walks away and apologizes
to the person on the other line.
Father remembered her
face, her varsity jacket.
He brought dogs, he brought the police
station, brought dogs into the parking
lot to sniff out the cars uncovered.
I say, and that's, it says in the back
cover summary, enough weed in my boys
cars to supply a local dispensary.
Wow.
And he calls his first major move.
I would say is he calls an assembly.
He had to do it in three
separate assemblies.
So to fit all, 2, 500 students in
the building and to the auditorium.
And each assembly was the
same variation of the next.
He was introduced as the new principal.
He'd walk on stage, all the
children would start clapping
and cheering And he just started.
Don't clap.
Don't clap.
Don't clap.
My name is Imad Fadlallah.
I am the new principal
of this school building.
The superintendent signed over
the deed of this building to me.
I now own this building.
This is a very theatrical
sort of, new sheriff.
He called himself the new sheriff
in town, they were dubbed the
new sheriff in town assemblies.
And it was a tone setter, man.
The kids were afraid of him
until they got to know him.
They were afraid of my father and that's
what the school needed at the time.
So I'd say that was the first big move.
Yeah.
And how did the how did
the teachers take that?
Were they inspired?
Were they afraid?
Were they on board?
Like, how did that go over?
So I think you had three camps.
I think you had one camp that
they just, they weren't going to
like my father, no matter what.
I think you had a camp
that was on the fence.
And I think you had the camp
that was like, we'd been, for
instance 20 years overdue for this.
My father did his best to extend a
hand of support and solidarity to
the ones who are on the fence or even
the ones that could potentially be.
Suede back into his camp.
One example is, teachers insisted
that cell phones and tardiness were
the two primary issues at Fortson
High School, which my father was
symptomatic of a much deeper issue.
So he said during that sheriff in town
assembly that he's going to come down
really hard on, cell phones and tardiness.
Again, to extend the hand of
solidarity but, and to, to show
that he's listening, but he knew
that the issues were much deeper.
Yeah, envisioning is so important.
I believe in the school.
I'm the new sheriff of town.
This is how we're going to lead the
school forward, and I believe, right?
So it sounds like through
his actions, he's not taking
over to say, I don't believe.
It's I do believe, and this is
going to be a high achieving school.
I want to know what happened to
that student in the varsity jacket.
Great question.
Oh, man.
He sat her front and center of that,
of the auditorium for the speeches,
and he said it was he didn't mention
her by name, but he told her story.
And he said it was a hard but
meaningful lesson for her.
It was a teachable moment.
And she didn't get, she didn't get,
suspended or anything like that,
but she sat front and center and
she heard the speeches and she was
a different student after that.
Okay.
Yeah.
Maybe assuming that you're just like every
other administrator, I can curse you on.
There's no consequences.
No, it's a new day.
And this behavior is no longer
acceptable in this because
I expect more of you, right?
And that's the message.
And so someone who's listening like,
all right, let me take the playbook.
Dr.
Fidelis at first thing, go and
make a speech, set the new vision,
set the tones at the culture.
And that's a moment in time, but yet you
have to go back the next day and the day
after and the day after and the day after.
And it's all about the consistency in
terms of carrying forth that vision.
That's not just words, but actions
that really takes the school forward.
And so what were some of
Those discreet daily practices
Engaging as a leader to
carry the school forward.
yeah.
It's, it was, policy by
policy, procedure by procedure.
One of his first days again actually,
since he took over midway through
my senior year it wasn't until 2006
where he got to be a principal for the
first time on the first day of school.
And so he's there for the first day
of school, walks out into a line of
300 students lined up to get an ID.
And he asks his assistant principal,
what are they doing in line?
She said they need to get an ID.
Why don't they have their IDs yet?
Because we print them on the spot.
How long does it take?
Two to three minutes per student.
So he goes two to three
minutes per student.
So the last student in line is going to
lose 900 minutes of instructional time.
I what are we doing here?
So he said, Ms.
Delilah, that's her pseudonym in the book.
He said, Ms.
Delilah go back to your desk and send
out an email, a building wide email
that we no longer require an ID.
So she looked at him like he was nuts.
She's I can't do that.
He said, why not?
She said, cause that's
our building policy.
He said, I understand.
And I just changed the policy.
Please send that email
out as soon as possible.
Okay.
And it's, it was he also reflects in there
on, in that scene on how it was the only
school he knew of in the entire district
or in general that, that required an ID.
And this is where he started to really
imagine this like prison, like climate,
like they show your numbers at all time.
If you don't have your number
on, you can't go on a field trip.
You can't do this.
You can't do that.
If you're tardy.
We shut the door and we locked the door.
He stopped that policy.
Now at the time it was
illegal to lock your door.
In some cases it still is, especially
if you have students in the building.
But when a kid came tardy, often for
legitimate reasons, by the way, another
teacher left them behind, coming
home, coming back from a field trip.
We're in the office talking
to an administrator.
They would just find themselves locked
out of the room and then just wander in
the hallway until some other, Teacher
administrator sent them to the office
and then they might've been suspended.
So he stopped that policy, had to fight
a bunch of teachers who were unwilling
to relent on that and on he went.
The humanizing students is a
major place to start, right?
They're not inmates.
You're not under constant surveillance.
We're not, in a place where we are
forcing you to comply with our sort of
our way of having your carceral state.
And so I think in terms of changing
that, especially for an environment
which a broader environment where society
might see you in that way, and it's
replicated within the school building.
I think that's major in terms of
turning the school around and getting
students to believe that we are human.
We are capable.
We are seen as worthy of
a high quality education.
And so how did you, take up the
charge to complete the book.
So it's not like the meat of the
book is around these very prolific
stories from the time in which your
father spent at the high school.
And how did you approach
completing the book?
What was your strategy?
Yeah.
It helped that I was
already my dad's editor.
So I was deep into this project, but
never from an author perspective,
just from his editor, he'd pace
back and forth in our family room.
I'd record his stories
into Microsoft word.
I'd make some edits, I'd turn
it into dialogue or just clean
up the dialogue that he shared.
And I'd read it back to him and
we'd, fine tune it that way.
When he passed away, it's
going to sound simple, but it
took me years to realize this.
I essentially had.
We essentially had the
Fortson story completed.
It would have been, longer
and more, more stories.
And, but I eventually realized that,
the, this Fort, we can do with this, we
can do with his, six or seven chapters
that he had done in terms of telling
the true story of Fortson high school,
but this is not a lot of pages and
this book deserves to be a lot more.
And I can also share my story because
I was a student and you can get the
perspective from principal and student.
And then maybe we can
even go back and forth.
Maybe like you're, we
can alternate chapters.
And I just started to think of
these ideas and little by little
started to bring them into fruition.
And as a fellow author, how, what
a grind and what a grind that is.
So a thousand drafts in,
I realized that yeah.
I could also tell my story.
As Arab and Muslim in America.
A lot of the scars that were given
to me, not only at Fortson High
School, but beyond in our community.
And Sorry, I'm a little bit just
trying to pull my thoughts together but
yeah, I felt like I could have taken
that in a few different directions.
So I just lost my way there.
Oh, that's fine.
That's fine.
If you need to take a minute and
think it if you want to go at
it again they can always cut it.
So they cut it at my question and then
you can take it in another direction.
We can see what fits, right?
So my question was, how did you put
your head around completing the book?
Because it sounds like the
meat of the book is the story.
A story of his time at the high school,
which is the excitement, the action.
That's what I want to read.
And there's still another
half of the book to go.
And so what's the value add in the half of
the book that you brought to the project?
Yeah.
So great question.
So when my father passed away.
And I, we, this past Sunday, we had
a book launch dinner event in my
community and we had over 500 attendees.
I gave a keynote speech and in the
speech, I talk about how when he
passed I was his editor for the book.
And, I was left with a half written
book and then just Google drives and
hard drives filled with documents,
court cases, lawsuits, et cetera.
And I'm trying to figure out,
how do I finish his book?
This it's a, it was a contradiction.
I'm, I was never I'm not a, I'm not,
I was never a revolutionary principle.
I was never a.
Immigrant from Lebanon, father of four.
I'm just his son, a student,
his student in middle school.
He was my middle school
principal too, by the way.
And yeah.
And in this place he
coined the prison of minds.
But I was also 73 days away when he passed
away from my graduation day at Harvard and
in the book, you'll, those will read it.
We'll read how unlikely
of a feat that was for me.
And I, I said in the speech on
Sunday that's not me being humble.
It's me being factual.
So I realized that my story too deserved
to be told and that my, my father's
fight was for students like me who
were robbed of a quality education.
And that it would add a
tremendous value to this project.
If I showed you Fortson high school
from my lens before my dad got there.
And also how growing up Arab and Muslim
and America impacts one's identity.
A lot of the struggles we have with
identity and mental health drug abuse
is a predominant theme in my community.
We just lost former star football
player at our, from my alma
mater high school to drug abuse.
And I share similar stories in the book.
And so it really evolved into a
project that gave you, that, that
true story of Fortson high school,
but went beyond that to tell more of a
kind of coming of age Arab and Muslim
experience in America type story.
Yeah.
And I want to ask you more about
that because we had a previous guest,
Tony De La Rosa, and he writes a
book on teaching the invisible race
about the Asian American experience
that is a part of the book.
He has, it's a.
A book for teachers on how to teach
the Asian American history, Asian
Americans for Asian American leaders.
And it's a lot of rhetorical
questions at the beginning of each
chapter, where for most of them I was
like, I do not know a single Asian
leader in the last 10 years, right?
That's U.
S.
based, right?
I'd have to really think about it, right?
But you asked me name 10 white male
leaders, I can rattle those off, right?
So it's just how these things are not
taught in a way that does honor and
justice to people with certain identities.
What do you want folks to know, folks
who are not Muslim and in our current
political climate, it's something that,
that's very forefront in terms of how some
candidates talk about who's to blame for a
lot of the social ills here in the States.
And so what do you want folks to
understand from your experience, but
also when they serve Muslim students?
Yeah, it's a great question.
I have a chapter in the book
called self hating Arab.
And I talk about how the seeds of
internalized oppression, the seeds
of self hate were planted deep in me.
And it was done at a in a
slow, in a subconscious way.
And those seeds were planted by a
country that has propagandized our
religion for many years, especially
after 9 11, but even before 9 11.
And I talk about, for
example, my Uncle Jihad.
I reflect on my Uncle Jihad.
And he was my number one fan.
He showed up to all my games.
He was my photographer.
Videographer and I talk about
how, America never knew my uncle
nor wanted to for that matter.
But yet she named, one point some
billion Muslims jihad all at once.
She thrusted the term Islamic jihadists
into our consciousness overnight.
I liken it to, like American
police on a drug raid.
And we're just lying there in the
dark on, on Dearborn's east side.
And we know how that story unfolds.
And the reason I'm talking about that
is because, like I say in the book,
mothers like my grandma, my teta,
named their son's jihad for reasons
that are probably never once in the
history of humanity had anything to do
with losing them on a suicide mission.
They've taken this concept of jihad, which
the prophet Muhammad says is an internal
struggle, a war with oneself primarily.
And yes, if you are attacked and
your land is being threatened,
like it is in Palestine right now.
And you have to defend yourself as a, or
defend your family while being attacked.
Then jihad can take that
physical form as well.
Like any of us, I hope would do if
somebody tried to trespass into our homes.
America just took this term and just
made it seem Muslims are terroristic,
barbaric violent and that the religion.
Justifies and encourages and preaches
this and it's the complete opposite.
So just know that your students
are Going through a lot that
islamophobia is a beast.
It has many layers it's deeply
seated into the American psyche.
It's, our religion is
constantly propagandized.
And don't be afraid to ask and learn
because, unfortunately a lot of us
aren't taught our religion, but if you
can, keep looking find the scholar who
really is well educated, go on YouTube.
There's a lot of good lectures where
these things are explained and don't
just say everybody's saying it, so
this must be true about Muslims.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And that that the title fits that
the president of Mayans is that we're
often taught just through propaganda.
And that's the way we learn.
We don't look into.
We don't seek to understand.
We don't watch YouTube videos.
We don't seek to have a deep
understanding about our misconceptions,
even as educators with Muslim
students in our classroom.
But those biases play out in
the everyday because that's
our sort of unconscious belief.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's very powerful.
And so I want this book
to do great things.
Thank you.
I know it'll do great things for me.
And so once it's released,
what do you hope it does?
How do you hope it shapes the way
in which those who pick it up?
Continue their journey.
As those who serve in the education space.
Yeah, first and foremost I hope that
this book reaches the heart of members
in my community who have gone through the
public school system here and fellow Arab
and Muslim Americans who are struggling
with their identity, who are trying to
find their way who are healing from scars
given to them by public schools, and
oftentimes are not even aware that of
how the ways they were treated as young
people are still impacting them today.
Trauma is real.
We all know it, right?
And if we don't do the really hard
work of confronting those traumas
and healing from those traumas, then
that's how trauma becomes generational.
And we've already inherited a lot
of those traumas from our ancestors.
So first and foremost, I hope that
folks read it and take a hard look
in the mirror cause that's what I'm
doing in the book and and I hope it,
it'll also serve as a tool and resource
for Arabs and Muslims across the
country and those who are interested
in or working with our communities.
Because I, it's I think we're
the, I think we're also the
invisible identity in this country.
We don't have a box to check.
Um, I'm not, to be honest,
I'm not big into this.
Might disappoint some people.
I'm not really big into politics or.
Even, fighting for policy
or things like that.
I'm not saying it's not important,
but I have my own beef with the whole
system, but but I do believe that's
one of the movements that's incredibly
important because I think when you
when you don't have a box to check and
we're basically relegated as Caucasian
our entire struggle, our entire
stories are being completely omitted.
And it has a huge impact
on how one sees themselves.
Thank you.
Very deep and very well needed.
Very well put.
Thank you for that.
I learned in a month's about
just from our conversation.
Now, this has been an
awesome conversation.
I can't wait to get the book.
It's called March Forth: From The
Prison of Minds and it'll be available.
it's available on Amazon.
Dr.
Falala, thank you so much for coming
today and having a conversation with it.
I really appreciate you and I
hope this book does great things.
Thank you so much.
And thank you for taking on racism
head on as you've long done.
I'm inspired by your work and
I hope we can reconnect soon.