Rann Miller

I’m a freelance writer, published author and a former teacher. I have contributed to scholarly journals, text books, and many different platforms on the topics of race in higher education, urban schools, sports and the African American diaspora, and professional development for educational professionals. In addition to those things, I serve as an program director for a local school district, a professional development facilitator and also a public speaker.

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Our Kids Need Us to Fight For Black History In Schools - Philly's 7th Ward

As a student, Black history gave me a sense of pride and belonging in my community, even though my knowledge was nowhere near as expansive as it is today. I knew enough to realize that my future–the person I would become and the life I would lead–was bigger than just me. I knew that my life was part of a lineage, even though I couldn’t quite understand what that meant. It explained why my parents, my grandparents, and my community were so invested in my academic success.
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Black History Debunks American Propaganda and Mythology

In chapter 17 of his seminal work Black Reconstruction in America, titled “The Propaganda of History,” W.E.B. DuBois details the lessons American school children and college students are learning about the Reconstruction Era in the 1930s, according to the textbooks and “historians” of the time. He mentions three dominant theses: (1) all Black people were ignorant; ignorant of the way things are done in all manner of business e.g. politics, finance, actual business, etc., (2) all Black people were lazy, dishonest and extravagant; like children, Black people’s only discipline was to their selfish desire, oblivious to any higher cause than self, and (3) Black people were the reason for bad government established during the Reconstruction Era. This is propaganda; the sort of propaganda Black historians and educators sought to debunk. And they did in many cases. The work of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black history, and the sociologist and historian W.E.B. DuBois worked to debunk and did debunk the irreverent propaganda of white folks against Black people. But it did not come without backlash.
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Black Educators Teach From the Soul

When I entered the teaching profession, I had no idea what type of teacher I would become. I wasn’t even sure if I could do the job, despite having the ability. What I was aware of was the awesome responsibility I had for teaching Black and Latino youth. With that in mind, teaching became a debt to repay. It was a repayment to the many Black and Latino educators who poured into me, a Camden City, New Jersey kid. But teaching also became an opportunity to provide what I didn’t get enough of when I was in high school, diasporic African history, and an accurate portrayal of American history. Many years removed from those early years of teaching, I continue to refine my teaching approach while incorporating the qualities of a counselor, mentor, and even parental influence for those who require. My classroom feels more like a living room than a classroom, with a couch, carpet, and pictures of the students all over the wall, because over the years, they’ve become family.
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5 Steps to Actually Build the Black Teacher Pipeline - Philly's 7th Ward

What was once a pipeline for funneling Black teachers and prospective Black teachers—particularly Black men—has become an attachment of leaky pipes, with many candidates falling through the cracks. Some pipes have even been removed to dismantle the pipeline itself. This is the work of the Trump Administration, whose executive orders have targeted Black education by taking aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Those attacks may receive the most attention, but it’s the actual leaks i...
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Stop Telling Black Children They Must Be “Twice as Good”

I saw the fallout from Michael B. Jordan’s snub for best actor at the Critics’ Choice Awards. One social media post in particular caught my attention.
That stuck with me because I remember being told as a kid and young adult that I had to be twice as good as white kids to get the opportunities and accolades that white kids got. I know many Black folks were told this growing up, only to realize that the reality is you push yourself to be twice as good, only to get half as much.
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When White Supremacists Spread Lies, We Must Spread Truth

My Grandmom, “Sissy” (God rest her soul) used to have a saying for people who said something stupid—your grandmother probably said something similar also. When a person said something stupid she would say that they “don’t know their a** from a hole in the ground.” I chuckled every time she said it. She would laugh when she saw me laughing, and then we’d laugh hysterically together. Those were good times. In the words of my late grandmother, Elon Musk does not know his a** from a hole in the ground. He recently tweeted a video saying schools should teach about the role of Great Britain and the U.S. in ending enslavement saying, “Children should be proud that Whites in the West ended slavery worldwide, which had existed for thousands of years. Again, this man doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground.
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Please Ignore Rappers Who Claim Black Kids Don’t Need To Read

I’ve been called an old soul. It’s likely due to my musical tastes. I love R&B, Funk, Jazz, and Fusion. That music was in my spirit and began to flourish as a teenager. But make no mistake, I am a child of hip hop. I am an ’80s baby, but most certainly a ’90s kid. The 90s were when I came of age. At the turn of the millennium, my Hip Hop consumption was defined to a tee. I loved extravagant, complex, and soulful beats. I loved beats fueled by samples, with clever, insightful lyrical content. As a result, one of my favorites was the Diplomats, aka Dipset. Cam’ron, Jim Jones, and Juelz Santana.
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Neo-Colonizers and the ‘Scramble for the Black Mind’

2025 marks the anniversaries of some of our most empowering moments as a people. It is the 160th anniversary of the passage of the 13th Amendment, which only partially abolished enslavement. Freedom fighters today continue to work to abolish prisons so that enslavement can truly be eradicated. 2025 also marks the 65th anniversary of the Greensboro, NC, student sit-ins and Ruby Bridges’ attendance at an all-white elementary school, and the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 2025 also marks the anniversaries of some of the most challenging moments in our history. 70 years since the murder of Emmitt Till, and 60 years since the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and Bloody Sunday. There’s another difficult moment in our collective history that “celebrates” an anniversary that we often fail to consider. That is the Berlin Conference held on November 11, 1884, better known as the “Scramble for Africa.”
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The Crisis Of Cell Phones - Philly's 7th Ward

Cell phones are a hot topic in education circles. Should they or shouldn’t they be banned in school? I can say that last school year, my students were distracted by them. My colleagues and I noticed that not banning cell phones enabled students to get distracted during classroom lessons. This was not due to misinformation or cyberbullying happening on social media. Rather they were constantly receiving notifications: texts from friends and family and some received phone calls during the school...
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Freedom Teaching During Oppressive Times - Philly's 7th Ward

In Dr. Jarvis Givens’ book Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, he details stories of Black teachers circumventing, what he called white surveillance. Black school teachers were often subordinate to white administrators who had a “curriculum” for Black children. Black or African history (told accurately) was not a part of the equation. However, Black teachers understood that Black children needed to know their history and see the truth within an anti-Black soc...
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Counting the Cultural Costs Of Enrolling Our Children In School - Philly's 7th Ward

For Black parents, there’s a cultural cost associated with placing their child or children in schools where their peers don’t look like them, their teachers don’t look like them, their administrators don’t look like them, and the parents that are involved with the school and district don’t look like them. These schools are often well funded.


Certainly, there are benefits to exposure and where resources are non-issue. African-American students can benefit from exposure to different people, cul...
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We Gone Be Alright - Philly's 7th Ward

On January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King Day no less, Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States for the second time. I am sure that many people dreaded that day. I’m sure that many people wanted Kamala Harris to be the person inaugurated on that day. But the truth is that it is not to be her, but Donald Trump.


Quite naturally several people are upset and frankly scared for what is on the horizon during the second Trump presidency. I would never disregard or ignore the real...
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We Need Black Leadership In Our Classrooms And Schools

We need Black teachers. We also need Black administrators. The unfortunate truth is that the needs are competing not because of Black educators, but because of the white institutional spaces that control hiring. Black teachers represent only 6% of all teachers nationwide; Black male teachers, less than 2% of all teachers nationwide. However, the percentage of Black administrators nationwide is 10%. In my home state of New Jersey, Black teachers make up 6% of all teachers, yet 15% of all admin...
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The Good Ole Girls Network

Recently, I attended back-to-school nights for my children at a middle school and elementary school in our district. In each school, I saw that most teachers were white women. As an educator and advocate, I know the national numbers; according to the National Center for Education Statistics, white women are 61% of teachers nationwide. Yet the demographics, when in my face, were hard to ignore. As part of back-to-school night, teachers share personal information about themselves to build relat...
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The Comfort with Racism’s Intentionality

A while ago, Philadelphia Inquirer education reporter, Melanie Burney, shed light on a truth many folks are already aware of: Black and Latino students are disproportionately suspended from public schools in New Jersey. Ms. Burney cites the New Jersey Department of Education’s report on Student Safety and Discipline. The report shows that New Jersey’s Black student suspension rate in the 2022-23 school year was 9%, whereas it was only 2.7% for white students. The Latino student suspension rat...
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Protect Ya Neck

I am a boxing fan. Recently, Philadelphia’s own Jaron Ennis successfully defended his welterweight championship in the city. But who knew the undercard was this past weekend with two of Philly’s favorite centers, Jason Kelce and Joel Embiid with their separate fights… well maybe not fights. Maybe a scuffle or kerfuffle. Joel Embiid reportedly shoved Philadelphia Inquirer sports reporter Marcus Hayes for referencing his deceased brother and son in an article criticizing his lack of play this s...
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Making All Elections Teachable Moments: Before, During, and After

Since 2000, every presidential election has been labeled the most consequential election of our lifetime.

The 2000 presidential election was a hotly contested battle between George Bush and Al Gore. Florida was the state in question over uncounted ballots. At the time, the folks in charge of the election were Republicans, and the governor of the state was the Republican governor of the Republican candidate. I was a junior in high school and I remember the running joke among friends was wit...
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Halloween: A Time To Learn Black Resistance

Another Halloween has dawned upon us. Depending on how you look at it, Halloween a time for children of all ages to dress up and have fun collecting candy on a crisp fall evening or it can be a time for parents to regular a child’s sugar intake at the conclusion of trick-or-treating. Halloween may be considered the unofficial start of the holiday season or just another day on the calendar. At the very least, most Americans like Halloween. According to a 2021 poll, most Americans like Hallo...
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In Tribute To Frankie Beverly

It is often said that Blackness is not a monolith. This may be true about most things. But when it comes to soul music, we’re largely a homogeneous group. Soul music is who we are because the music speaks of the essence of the Black experience; how we live, love, and always look forward to a brighter day. On September 10, 2024, we learned that one of the mighty keepers of that tradition transitioned to an ancestor, and African America mourned. North Philadelphia’s Howard Stanley Beverly, affe...
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How Schools Can Ease the Stress - Philly's 7th Ward

I love my children—the children I helped create. They can be a handful, but I cannot imagine life without them. However, raising them in this world is stressful. Thankfully, I have a partner and we work together but even then, parenting remains stressful. It seemed like only other parents could validate this truth. Now, we have further validation from the U.S. Surgeon General. In August, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health...
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The Lessons That Adorn My Classroom Walls - Philly's 7th Ward

Early in my teaching career, I was a push-in teacher. It wasn’t because of my content but more out of necessity. Space was often limited; I wasn’t a homeroom teacher. The idea of having my own classroom was really foreign to me. Last year was the first year I was given a classroom. I serve a dual role: teacher and director. I usually have my own office. However, because office space was limited, I was given a classroom. Since I teach, it made sense. Initially, I had to get used to having my o...
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Acknowledgment over Appropriation: How White Teachers Can Build Meaningful Connection with Black Students - Philly's 7th Ward

As an educator, I am privileged to work with Black students. Unfortunately, I was, more often than not, the only Black man teacher in those buildings where I taught. It’s a truth for most Black men teachers; we only comprise approximately 1.5% of teachers nationwide. However, that truth provided me with an insight into the experiences of Black and brown children with their white teachers, which sometimes mirrored my own experiences with some of my white teachers when in school.
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Prioritize Relationships And Then Routines And Rules - Philly's 7th Ward

The start of the new school year is an opportunity to establish new connections with a different set of students and start afresh. Starting fresh means applying the latest methods, teaching new lessons, and setting new goals. It also means establishing routines and ground rules to build a classroom culture that facilitates learning.


Rules and routines are important and necessary: for classrooms and the school building. They keep the school flowing and they also keep students safe. However, he...
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