FACTUALITY "Baltimore" x Boys' Latin

If you experienced FACTUALITY and felt moved by its capabilities, then FACTUALITY Baltimore is an absolute must. When I tell you next level...

Utilizing local neighborhoods and statistics to explore local discrimination really took the experience to the next level. Proximity played a major role in participant awareness and understanding of just how pervasive (racial) discrimination is not only in this country but in the city that they call home. 

I typically share my personal experiences in an effort to substantiate the FACTS shared during my facilitations... but the stories shared by the participants, many of them life long residents of Baltimore, truly brought the FACTS to life. 

• A black mother from the affluent Roland Park neighborhood has sons who worked at the local pool. She shared with the group that to keep her sons safe, she told them to drape their lifeguard towels over their shoulders so that it was obvious that they were local pool employees... and belonged in their own neighborhood.
  
  
• I then asked all of the mothers to raise their hands. I then asked the white mothers to keep their hands up. I asked them to keep their hands raised if they have those types of conversations with their sons. 
  
  Every single hand went down. 
  
  
• A white father shared that he should've never been so enlightened playing FACTUALITY, asking myself and the group how he could apply the content in his household and how he could start educating his sons about the realities of discrimination not only in the country but in his city.
  
  
• A black alum shared a story about being stopped by the Baltimore Police in the 70s while running onto the Boys' Latin campus. In the pouring rain, the officer questioned why he was running towards such an elite school. The alum shared that he was a student at Boys' Latin and was heading to basketball practice. The officer ordered the alum to prove he was on the basketball team. Luckily the alum was wearing his basketball uniform under his clothes. Only after stripping down in the rain, the officer let him go.

I still can't capture just how completely remarkable FACTUALITY Baltimore is.