Daniel Anello - Mobilizing the Power and Genius of Parents

03-04-2024 • 55 mins

How you internalize racism can destroy your sense of self.

Daniel Anello is a member of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship Summer 2016 cohort and the Leadership Greater Chicago 2019 cohort. He was named to the inaugural class of Presidential Leadership Scholars and he is a Board member of Chicago Urban League and Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of Kids First Chicago since 2015, and he is supporting parent-led and data-informed change within Chicago’s public schools.

Today he shared how he grew up in a rural community in a family of educators and how his experiences with a racial identity formed him as a person. Personal and family struggles formed his opinion about the equity work we need, the importance of deliberative democracy, and the importance of engaging impacted communities while creating policies.

Daniel emphasizes the need for analytical and creative solutions in order to address the systemic issues in education that have lingered for decades. He thinks that empowering communities will provide strong pillars of change. There is a huge need for collective action to address systemic inequities and create a more just society.

He strongly advocates that Black and brown low-income communities are capable enough to make decisions for themselves and their communities around policies that affect them and especially well-informed parents should be more involved in the decision-making.

Notes:
🧑🏾‍ MLK Jr.'s birthday: honoring his legacy and being a social justice warrior. 01:57
🤩 Making sure that Black and brown communities in Chicago have the highest education at their fingertips. 02:54
👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏼 Brought up in an interracial family of teachers who moved to a rural area: family conversations about education and civil rights.04:04
😓 His struggles with the schooling system and racial identities: getting a grip due to family issues. 07:20
⚠️ The criminal justice system is not designed to rehabilitate, it's designed to destroy: his brother’s addiction story and legacy. 12:58
👉🏾 Daniel struggled to fit in at investment banking internships and consulting gigs due to cultural differences. 19:01
😇 He jumped into an entirely different environment: when Daniel’s life got more fulfilled with helping kids in the dorm than with business. 23:15
🗣️ Kids for Chicago and getting focused on educational equity: giving voice to parents. 25:12
✌🏾 Racial equity is essential for educational equity: paternalism is going to continue to hamper our ability to see the achievement gap eradicated. 31:25
🎯 Community engagement and parental involvement in education and policy changes: engagement and projects for Chicago city. 36:56
🥇 The golden rule of good servant leadership: being humble and finding answers through people who will be affected by policies.
🤓 Daniel wants to see a world where the utopia of racial equity allows us to see meritocracy. 45:14
💎 RONdering: racial bias is very rooted: privilege doesn’t believe that Black and brown communities can take care of themselves.
⚡ Legacy of the Poor People's Campaign: “Power and privilege and racial inequity are the most dangerous work we do.” 51:57

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