Remembering Aaronette White

The members of the Feminist Teacher editorial collective were shocked to learn via thefeministwire.com of the passing of Aaronette M. White (Aisaha Shahidah Simmons, "Remembering and Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Aaronette M. White," August 18, 2012). Over the years members of the Feminist Teacher editorial collective have experienced the loss of parents, students, and siblings, but this is the first time we have lost a member of the collective, and that brings a particular kind of profound sadness.

Aaronette was a member of the Feminist Teacher editorial collective from 2007 until 2009. We came to know Aaronette first through the manuscripts she sent to Feminist Teacher (see Theresa Kemp's remembrance below) and were thrilled when she agreed to join the collective. Aaronette brought a sharp intelligence, a keen eye, and a wicked sense of humor to our work. The collective was made stronger many-fold by her presence, and we were honored to publish her articles over the years. Most recently we published her article "Unpacking Black Feminist Pedagogy in Ethiopia" in volume 21, issue 3, and a review of her book Ain't I a Feminist?: African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom appears in this issue. We generally speak as a collective voice, but we decided to remember Aaronette White individually, as well as collectively.

THE FEMINIST TEACHER EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE

People say that the world feels emptier when a friend dies. When Aaronette White died, I didn't hear about it until a week later. And my life still seemed informed and enriched by her work because Feminist Teacher magazine had just published her piece, "Unpacking Black Feminist Pedagogy in Ethiopia." I re-read that piece last night after having listened to the news of the Prime Minister's death in Ethiopia and after having heard via the Feminist Teacher grapevine that Aaronette had died. What impressed itself upon me as a feminist teacher was Aaronette's assertion that as teachers in order to teach we had to make ourselves vulnerable to our students by letting theory inform not just the way we look at and think about global events but the way we look at and think about our own lives. That very vulnerability was also the source of a lot of her strength. So now the world feels emptier as I think about the silence that follows the death of a prolific writer and researcher.

MONICA BARRON

I remember sitting next to Aaronette at the conference table in the oddly large suite we had been assigned at the NWSA conference in St. Charles, Illinois, in 2007. This was one of the first times we had met, and she had with her a wonderful selection of foods, which she offered to share. Thus, in the midst of working our way through manuscripts and through our yearly face-to-face collective meeting, we talked about diet and health, as well as students and family, and we laughed. I mourn the loss of Aaronette's warmth. When we talked in person or on the phone or even via email, Aaronette seemed to be intensely present; with her I knew I was truly having a conversation. I felt lucky to have her as a friend, and I will miss having her in this world.

GAIL COHEE

A good friend reminds me that sometimes our spirits must move on to do what they need to do. In the days since learning of Aaronette's passing, I try to remember this—that my wants are not another's needs—that my grief's shape is perhaps a personalizing of the experience as loss. And yet that's what I perceive—an Aaronette-shaped hole in the universe (to draw on an image from Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things). And so, I will nonetheless dwell for a moment here in an attempt to fill up the space of that grief with memory. When I think of her, I think, "Aaronette is fierce: she is not afraid to speak back—to rapists who warned her to be quiet, to racists and sexists who...