A friend called me this morning. She’s an urban educator, and she wanted to know if I wanted to be a part of a group of urban educators who could make a statement about the most recent police shootings. And, I have to admit, while I am always willing to add my name, I also voiced the thought of “Another statement?” It didn’t feel like enough.

Except maybe this —

One of the reasons that I think it’s so important that I speak out on issues of racial injustice isn’t just because I teach students of color, it’s also because I teach white students. It is important that African-American students see me speak up on issues of racial injustice because I want them to know that I stand with them and care deeply for them and love them, especially now in this time of great pain. But it’s also important that white students see me speak out so that they can see that this issue is of critical importance to me as a white Jewish educator. It’s my hope that if I speak up, so can they. If white students can, in part because a diverse coalition of educators who care for them speak up, see that the issue of racial injustice in all its forms is not only a black issue, but is, instead, a powerfully human issue, then we can make progress.

So yes, absolutely count me in on statements by urban educators decrying the racial injustice and police brutality we are living through, but we need more.

It is my hope that, as urban educators speak out, we see more and more educators in predominantly white schools signing on and speaking out.

We need you.

We need you to teach students in the communities that are overwhelmingly white about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Atlantic article about economic injustice and racism, “The Case for Reparations.” We need you to show them the Guardian website, The Counted, so they can see that this year police have killed African-Americans at 2.5 times the rate of white Americans. We need you to show them the Harvard Implicit Bias test so that your students can confront their own implicit biases because one of the best ways to build a better world is to start with working to be the best version of ourselves and building out from there.

Educators in predominantly white schools – it’s not enough to leave the teaching of racial injustice to those who are teaching in schools that serve a majority of students of color. If we are to achieve the dream of America as a more perfect union, we need to help all our students understand that we all have a role to play in creating that.

And to do that, we need your voices too.