Just 2% of teachers are Black men — here’s how one educator is trying to change that

Just 2 percent of teachers in the United States are Black men. For Mario Jovan Shaw, co-founder of Profound Gentlemen, an organization geared towards empowering male educators of color, this is a statistic that they are working to change.

“They can't be what they can't see," Shaw tells Yahoo Life, "so if there are Black boys just growing up and not being able to see Black male teachers, then you don't even think that you can become one."

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Shaw had a handful of Black male teachers. But many of them, he says, never connected to him, or lacked the ability to show up as their authentic selves.

He continues, “Once I found out the reality, that there were only 2 percent of Black male teachers nationally, I started to work with the students and we started doing speaking engagements and started to talk about why male teachers of color are important."

In 2015, Shaw and fellow teacher Jason Terrell co-founded Profound Gentlemen, a community of about 150 male educators of color across the country. He says their mission is to foster leadership skills through social and emotional learning, mindfulness meditation and supporting men through their journeys as educators. Overall, the organization offers programs that focus on character development, content development and community impact, and cohorts meet in person in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Memphis.

Video Transcript

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: When you see that statistic, that only 2% of teachers are Black men, what do you attribute that to?

MARIO JOVAN SHAW: We used to go with this slogan, "they can't be what they can't see". So many Black kids grow up without ever seeing a Black male teacher. Then you don't even think that you can become one.

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Hey everyone. I'm Brittany Jones-Cooper, and welcome to Unmuted. Today, I'm joined by Mario Jovan Shaw, an educator who has made it his mission to empower Black male teachers. I want to know, for you, what was your experience growing up? Did you have Black male teachers?

MARIO JOVAN SHAW: I didn't get my first Black male teacher until seventh grade. And it's interesting. I talk about this all the time, because I really didn't feel like he was a good teacher. I felt like-- that he didn't truly see me. When I got to college, and I had a minor in Africana Studies, and that's when I had one of my first Black male professors, and he's the one that got me back into education with one of his classes called Black boy development.

It really hit me why it was so important to truly, truly have males of color enter into the profession, to really support boys of color. And I've been in education ever since.

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: I have to tell you, I-- K-12, I never had a Black male teacher. And I only had one Black female teacher. That's why this conversation is so interesting to me, because you have to think for young Black students the impact that it can have to see a Black teacher in that role. So take me to why you created Profound Gentlemen, and what's your mission?

MARIO JOVAN SHAW: We started Profound Gentlemen in 2015. My why started when I was a second year teacher with Teach for America, and we would talk about, what does it mean to be a boy of color growing up in today's society. We slipped into talking about conversations about why I was their first Black male teacher.

So once I found out that the reality was there was only 2% of Black male teachers nationally, I wanted to see them have more male teachers of color. It was literally, like, the perfect storm for us to be able to create an organization that could support males of color to be able to move education forward. So, we know that males of color are five times more likely to lead the education profession. And so, we are recognizing in our work that while schools want male teachers of color, they may not be equipped to support them.

So we're trying to recognize our guys as human beings. That's why we do what we call heart's work. So we are a mindfulness, meditation, social, and emotional learning-- we utilize those tools to help to retain male educators of color. But then, build their leadership by helping them to tap into their hearts, so they'll be able to know themselves and lead from a place of authenticity.

BRITTANY JONES-COOPER: Mario, as someone who identifies as queer, do you feel like Black and Latino men who are queer are left out of the conversation? It almost feels like a radical act to be a Black or Latino queer teacher.

MARIO JOVAN SHAW: It's just about that hit two years-- that you can't get fired for being a queer-- a queer person in the workspace. Let's set in the reality around that, right? We are still dealing with this still to this day. Oftentimes, I'm the only Black queer leader of color in the space. And so many of my peers who are Black queer leaders told me don't be out. But I'm here.

Brene Brown has talked about this. Like, once you know somebody's story, you can't ignore their experience. Storytelling is my favorite tool that I love to use to move this work. We have a storytelling series that we do, and they have an hour to write their stories. And then, they share their stories. And you see them crying, like, I never was able to tell my story. Now I want to be a teacher. Oh, you want to be a teacher, because you talk-- was able to tell your story.

And then it's like, I want to get more students to be able to tell their story whether that's through math or English or science. And if we can't have authentic males of color in schools showing up as themselves, then we're not going to have students feeling safe to be their most authentic selves.