Leader Spotlight: Amir Whitaker

We are nearing September, which marks 9 months deep of 2020 and Creative Generation’s Campaign 2020. During this time, the world has watched the civil unrest across the United States during both pandemics - the COVID-19 global health pandemic and the pandemic of racism and White Supremacy -  human rights conversations are crucial to protect those who have been underserved by society, as the world is forcibly being exposed to the injustices. Communities are experiencing a new kind of revolution where the fight for equal and complete arts and cultural education is intertwined with the continued struggle for freedom from oppression and equality.

Amir Whitaker is an educator, author, civil rights lawyer, and musician leading the fight for California’s young creatives to have access to a quality arts and cultural education. 

The Journey to Civil Rights

Growing up in a house filled with music, Whitaker followed his dad’s footsteps as a musician. With no access to music education in his school, he took it upon himself to create his own access to arts education through his family and his neighborhood. Though an arts educator today, his background actually stems in that of civil rights law. He worked as a civil rights advocate and lawyer which brought him to California. When he reached California, he saw a path forward using the laws on the books to reframe the argument and increase access for all students. Amir is currently a policy attorney with the ACLU of Southern California and researcher with the UCLA Civil Rights Project. Referred to as a “civil rights and education stalwart” by the Daytona Times, Amir has negotiated settlements and policy changes that have improved the lives of thousands of youth across the country. In his journey, he saw one thing constantly: there was simply not equitable access to arts education opportunities for youth, particularly for black and brown youth.

The ACLU of Southern California works on behalf of people in the Southern California region to defend their fundamental rights outlined in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. ACLU SoCal is working with the California arts education community to ensure equal and full access. In the past year, the California ACLU and such groups as the California Alliance for Arts Education and CREATE CA have been pursuing a new means of advocacy for arts education – framing access to arts learning opportunities as a civil rights issue utilizing the state’s data which reveals arts gaps based on race and socio-economic status. 

The combination of Whitaker’s past, work at ACLU SoCal, and observations upon educational structures within California and beyond, have informed a personal philosophy of his: “an educated, free-thinking mind is a threat to the status quo, especially when the founding documents claim to promise freedom and equality for all.” He also notes that progressive action has made strides where the systems in place fall flat. 

The Movement in California

In California, to be considered for admission to any of 33 CSU/UC state universities, an arts course successfully taken. Therefore, for students limited by proper access to the arts must contain aspirations and are ineligible for acceptance. Many school districts are now spending more money on police and the School-to-Prison Pipeline than arts education. For example, in the 2007-08 Los Angeles Unified School District spent $78 million a year on arts education compared to $51 million a year on school police. These scenarios demonstrate why the challenges of limited school funding alone cannot fully justify the failure to deliver complete arts education to millions of students across California.

For the ACLU, this is an infringement on a student’s freedom of speech and free expression. By not granting these through arts education in schools, the state is limiting young people from fully being able to participate in communities, and, in part, a form of cultural censorship by not allowing their creative expression. When the schools give some students access to the arts and not others, we, as a society create a gap. These gaps, Whitaker refers to as “creative dead zones”, are most seen for children in high-poverty schools. 

Building a National Movement

In 2019 he spoke at the 82nd annual National Conference on Community Arts Education, voicing that “It is our collective work as a society to keep the arts alive.” Whether a K-12 certified arts educator, a creative youth development practitioner, a policy-maker, artist, parent, or young person – we all have a responsibility to speak up and advocate for more equitable access to arts education, particularly for those groups who have the system working against them. 

Moving to a racially just educational foundation, Whitaker believes that we must move beyond the narrative that arts are just a supplemental or extracurricular activity for students. 

Art is culture and depriving students of opportunities to access it is a form of cultural genocide. Therefore, holding governments accountable using our voices continually can drive change and close the arts gaps. 

Every child deserves a well-rounded education, nothing less. 

About Amir Whitaker

He is the founder and director of Project KnuckleHead, a nonprofit organization empowering youth through music, art, and educational programs since 2013.

Often referred to as “Dr. KnuckleHead,” Amir was introduced to the criminal justice system as a child when he visited both his mother and father in prison. At age 15, Amir himself was arrested and entered the juvenile justice system. Problems at school eventually led to him being expelled. Despite these hardships, Amir went on to complete five college degrees.

At the Southern Poverty Law Center, Amir worked on a class action lawsuit on behalf of incarcerated youth receiving inadequate education, mental health, and rehabilitation services. Within the Juvenile Division of the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, Amir represented incarcerated youth and developed training materials.  He has taught varying grade levels and in different educational settings for over a decade, and has held teaching certifications in Florida, California, and New Jersey. He has delivered keynote speeches to thousands, and written for leading publications across the country, including Washington Post and TIME Magazine. Amir's recently released autobiography has been featured on ABC News and in The New Yorker. Amir is the current board chair for the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network in Los Angeles, a collaborative of 12 organizations providing arts programming to incarcerated youth throughout the county. He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, juris doctorate from the University of Miami, and his bachelors from Rutgers University