MARCH 3 • 2022 | 17

celebrate Pesach, they would 
have Shabbat. That’s the 
precursor for when my father 
met my mother and they fell 
in love. [My father] converted 
to Judaism, and they got 
married.”
Growing up, Angelique 
describes being Black and 
Jewish as being “a part of 
communities and being apart 
from communities at the very 
same time.” While she was 
embraced by both sides of her 
family, she was keenly aware 
of feeling different.
“We were still the light-
skinned kids at the backyard 
barbecue,” she says. “We were 
still the brown-skinned kids 
inside of the Beit Knesset.”
Power attended Hebrew 
school twice a week, was 
confirmed and celebrated 
her bat mitzvah, all while 
being deeply embedded in 
Black culture. Today, she’s 
a member of Detroit Jews 
for Justice, and she and her 
husband, Sean, are raising 
their 12-year-old daughter as 

part of Metro Detroit’s Jewish 
community.
“I think [being Black and 
Jewish] allowed us to learn 
how to code switch,” she 
says. “It felt like a passport to 
be able to view not just life 
inside of those communities, 
but the similarities that many 
people don’t see.”

‘THE GREAT PAUSE’
Power joined The Skillman 
Foundation in September 
2021, in the middle of the 
COVID-19 pandemic — a 
time that’s been equal parts 
revealing, nerve-racking and 
an opportunity for reflection.
“The great pause is the 
moment we’re living through,” 
she says. “What we’ve been 
able to witness, because we’ve 
slowed down enough, is the 
role that structural racism 
plays in terms of systems that 
govern us, whether they are 
criminal justice, housing, 
healthcare, education … and 
we see it viscerally.
“At the same time, we’re 

seeing a rise in hate crimes 
against Jewish people,” 
Power continues. “It’s such 
an incredible opportunity 
to realize how racism and 
antisemitism are always 
linked, are always walking 
lock step, because they 
fall under the white 
supremacist notions.”
She believes the 
pandemic is asking us all 
what our role is on the 
planet.
“How do we tie our soul 
to our role?” she says.
For Power, the answer 
is leading the way toward 
wholesale systems change 
that will make education 
equitable and just. What 
that ultimately looks like is 
something she and her team 
are actively studying. 
“In Michigan and 
nationally, a big part of 
systems change for education 
is how it’s funded in 
perpetuity,” she explains. “The 
simplest concept of systems 
change is that those who need 
the most get more. That’s it. If 
you need more, you get more. 

Teachers need to be paid 
twice what they’re making. It 
can’t be a short-term fix. We 
need an equitable funding 
formula and we’re going to 
study that.”
Power’s life journey, her 
upbringing, childhood 
experiences and observations 
have all led her to this pivotal 
place and time. Her deep-
rooted beliefs are the lens 
through which she views 
every challenge.
“Judaism, for me, is very 
personal. It’s a moral compass 
and it’s a way of asking 
questions and being in service 
to other people,” she says. 
“A part of what I feel is our 
worship and our opportunity 
is to show up in [the] 
community for each other 
and for our neighbors. That’s 
really our moment. And I 
think that’s what we want for 
ourselves.” 

To learn more about The Skillman 

Foundation, visit: skillman.org.

SEAN POWER

Recommended 
Reading: Caste
Power, a graduate of the University of Michigan with 
a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Fine 
Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of 
Chicago, recommends the book Caste, The Origins 
of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.
“[Wilkerson] compares Nazi Germany to America 
and to India and the caste system there,” Power says. 
 
“I don’t think 
I knew the Nazis studied America 
to figure out how to build a Nazi 
regime. And they studied racism 
in America.”
Wilkerson won a Pulitzer Prize 
for her debut work, The Warmth 
of Other Suns. Her second book, 
Caste, has been a No. 1 New 
York Times bestseller.
“Through telling these stories 
of how caste systems are built 
on this false hierarchy of human 
value, I think it enlightens and 
awakens us all,” Power says.

Angelique 
Power in her 
home office

