It starts the same.
“I heard what you’re saying about integration and everything, and I agree with you in general …”
“Yes?”
“And I hear you on fighting for all schools and not just mine …”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“And I’m not racist, but I don’t want to take my kids out of a well-resourced school so they can go to a school with gang violence.”
“Excuse me, what?”
“I don’t mean …”
Yes, you did.
If you’ve read any reporting from New York Times’ Kate Taylor in the last few months, any discussion around school segregation and integration in New York City has a “but I’m not racist” in it. Racism isn’t merely a set of feelings one has towards another, but also the systematic ways we view schools where the students predominantly attending are black.
Our school system, as a function of our country, moves with the best interest of rich white folks. Despite some pundits’ willful ignorance about education history, the real first opt-out movement was when droves of middle to upper class white people created private schools to avoid desegregation court orders. Segregation was always the ostensible representation of inequity, and its dismantling puts schools at odds with American laws, systems, and values. All too often, asking for any level of equity has been met with violence from firings of entire staff to the torching of bodies and buildings, all because some folks got used to black people not reading.
In New York City, the concurrent battles against Success Academy charters and rezoning / integration speak to the idea that, ultimately, the education of people of color in this country is seen as a matter of compliance, bias, and oppression. Re-segregated schools in our country haven’t worked to a large extent as the great equalizer, even when its promise has come close in a couple of spots in an otherwise sordid history. Policymakers and activists alike continue to shut out the very folks in need of the most help, preferring to create mascots and figureheads.
And the minute an under-the-radar school decides to shift the focus to the black students it serves, our officials try (and fail) to convince a neighboring white school that it’s worth their kids.
While some parents don’t want to be part of a social experiment that has children of different races sitting in the same classrooms (all while quoting Martin Luther King Jr.), the same parents rarely advocate to get better schools for others either. That difference in resources (i.e. segregation) makes some parents feel special, as if their child is getting a relatively better education, because education is relative to the receiver. Legs ups (i.e. segregation) thrive in communities like this because people of color getting a substandard education sets the bar low enough for our country to exploit.
The tale of two schools begins and ends with a white school and a black school, and, no matter if the schools are equal by any measure that our society deems credible, one will always be different from the other. Segregation.
Integration isn’t just a strategy for equity, but also an anti-racist strategy that suggests that we are all responsible for the legacies we leave all of our children. So, when people say “I’m not racist but,” I am inclined to ignore anything prior to “but”. I prefer they honestly tell me they can’t stand their child in the same classroom with someone who they’ve already predisposed for vermin-like treatment. I’m not inclined to keep my mouth shut. I’m not predisposed to folks mistreating my students. I truly believe in an education that’s inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the students most in need.
Without that common understanding, mass education movements will fail. And you can keep your racist notions in the purses you clutch when I speak.
Needed to be said. Needs to be heard.
I don’t understand how that is racist. Indeed, how is race even relevant?
Author
Come back when you’ve read Brown vs. Board of Ed. Please.
Ok. I’ve read Brown vs Board of Education. It was a case about race segregation in schools in Kansas. How is it relevant?
Author
Brown vs. Board of Education is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) education court case in US history, particularly since the inception of public education. It’s shaped education policy throughout the country, especially with respect to race relations. I’m not doing all the work for you, but know that the mere fact that you even used the word “race” is a breakthrough. Good on you. Please read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
Sure but how is it relevant to this?
Please bear in mind that I am not from the US and I know nothing about your schools.
Author
Why do I need to bear that in mind? There’s Google. Go do the research before making generalizations about race relations in the United States. Ultimately, its your responsibility to get informed through vetted resources before engaging in these conversations.
For some reason I cannot reply to your most recent comment:
“Why do I need to bear that in mind? There’s Google. Go do the research”
That is called the burden of proof fallacy. There is no onus on me to justify your argument.
“before making generalizations about race relations in the United States.”
And that is a strawman argument. I haven’t made any generalizations about race relations.
“Ultimately, its your responsibility to get informed through vetted resources before engaging in these conversations.”
No it isn’t and, quite frankly, it looks like you are crying wolf by pretending that this is race related when it isn’t and in doing so you are actually harming all of those people who have genuine race-related problems. If that isn’t the case please justify your claim that race segregation is somehow relevant.
Author
I don’t have to justify for you why its about race when it’s already been clearly delineates in the text. If you don’t understand the brave relations of a particular country that you’re not familiar with, it’s not my job to do all the work for you. A quick search of racial structures in America will give you most of what you need, including official Census data. I respect that you have an opinion, but I don’t know why I have to make you understand something you can do on your own time. In the time you took to reply to me, you could have been research. I’ll disabuse you of the niceties.
(replying here since I can’t reply further down)
Wait, you leave a reply basically just saying, “I think you’re wrong,” and when Jose asks you to back that up by doing the research, you claim he’s making a burden of proof fallacy?
That’s … friggin’ hilarious.
I like how people think they can take anything they read on the internet that they don’t like, shoot back with “No you’re totally wrong unless you write a 4000word essay providing me with teh full political, cultural context to back it up” and then claim “burden of proof” because someone points out that there’s plenty of evidence elsewhere so go look it up.
“RTFM” is not a burden of proof fallacy.
Also hilarious is responding to the supposed strawman of making generalizations with this:
“No it isn’t and, quite frankly, it looks like you are crying wolf by pretending that this is race related when it isn’t and in doing so you are actually harming all of those people who have genuine race-related problems.”
I, uh, think that saying Jose is “pretending that this is race related when it isn’t” is exactly what he meant by making generalizations about race relations in the US.
Just because you don’t know the history doesn’t mean you get to assume the history doesn’t exist.
“you leave a reply basically just saying”
Another strawman argument.
“you’re totally wrong unless you write a 4000word essay”
Do you understand the irony of writing an essay explaining why you don’t need to write an essay?
“Just because you don’t know the history doesn’t mean you get to assume the history doesn’t exist”
I haven’t assumed anything. I simply asked how the court case Jose keeps citing is relevant to this case. He referred me to one web page which I read and it says nothing about how it is relevant here.
Let us suppose for a second that you have some idea how it might be relevant. Why don’t you just say? Why the angry rant in response to a simple question?
I don’t understand how this is a black and white issue. Schools are no longer strictly black and white. Instead, there are a mix of races – Asian, Intdian, Middle Eastern,
African American, Caucasian, etc. I work in an urban school and see poverty as the biggest factor affecting education – not race. Please stop making everything into a war of black versus white.
Author
A) I didn’t make it a black and white thing. America did. Please go read up on Brown vs. Board of Education. Other races / ethnicities are but casualties in this system.
B) If it’s really about class, why are there so many splits even intraclass?
If you don’t want to deal with race, I respect your right to that opinion, but I implore you to reread the post and cull together some research that’s vetted. Thanks in advance.
I often recall a Shakespeare teacher who said, “Once anyone says BUT, you may disregard everything that preceded it.” Thus, I tell kids when their girlfriends say, “I really love you BUT…,” it’s time to look for a new girlfriend. When someone says they aren’t racist, BUT…,” well, you know what to conclude.
I’d have to argue that school choice has as much to do with class, as it does race. I’m not saying that some of the people you’re talking about aren’t making choices based on race but I don’t think you can have this argument without looking at the educational choices black people make for their children. The majority of the black “elite” do not send their children to inner city, gang filled schools. Just like they don’t live in the “hood” any more. Take any well paid rapper,who grew up in the hood and who raps about nothing but “hood” based subjects, and I bet you would be hard pressed to find one who still lives in the hood and/or sends their child to a school in the hood. I don’t think any of them are racist but you could argue that they are classist. So is one group (racist, classist) better than the other? Or are all isms, racism, classism created equal?
Author
First off, most of our schools aren’t gang filled. And instead of stigmatizing gang culture, understand that rich, white schools have their own power enclaves that make teachers there equally afraid for their livelihoods. Read up, please. Secondly, and more importantly, this is a great opportunity for you to read Inequality in the Promised Land by R. Lewis-McCoy for a more nuanced view of the generalizations you’re making.
I see very insular thinking in this article. You’re using a single lens and drawing on your own personal experience to justify generalizing about parents (who happen to be white) who don’t want their children’s schools to be plagued by behavior issues.
As a teacher who has 80 students of color, I stress that you think more critically about how you’re addressing this issue. You’re more likely to alienate the people you seek to reach, and shift focus away from other factors (which are perhaps more relevant), like parenting and poverty. Racism is certainly a factor, but we can’t look at everything strictly through a racial lens, nor can we be so quick belittle the thinking and actions of others as being motivated by prejudice.
Simply put, parents want the best for their children. I wouldn’t send my child to a school that’s plagued by behavior issues. I wouldn’t want a great school that my child is attending to be merged with a school that’s overwhelmed with violence. I think EVERY parent, regardless of race, wants the same for their children. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from meeting my students’ parents over the past few years.
Yes, as a society we have a responsibility to address and resolve the disparities among different groups of people. But, as individual parents and teachers, we have the right and responsibility to narrow our focus on our own children/students, and to expend our energy on helping them get the best education we can provide. There is a balance to be struck, and no one should be hastily maligned as being racist for meeting the needs of their own children first.
There are undeniable correlations between race, poverty, and culturally accepted/perpetuated norms for behavior– but we can’t automatically and cynically assume that statements, actions or policies that seem racist on the surface, are in fact motivated by race. Doing so is sure-fire way to stir resentment and stall progress.
Author
Two problems with this argument:
1: I’m not here to placate your feelings about my perspective, existence, or cries for peace because that strategy doesn’t and hasn’t changed a thing in over 100 years.
2: you don’t know much about the years of work I’ve done to discuss race, class, gender, and other intersections that are often neglected in these discussions. The idea that my racial lens is insular, but the systems that perpetuate white supremacy aren’t is exactly why I need to write as I do.
I’ve always been willing to discuss, but I’m not coming to a middle on this one.
“the systems that perpetuate white supremacy”
Are you seriously equating a parent doing what is best for their child with white supremacy?!
Author
Yeah. It’s not the folks in hoods that perpetuate it, but the folks who sit there benefiting from our inequitable structures and doing nothing about it. They call it “the way the world works.” But please.
Oh my gosh yes. I’m not in the US, but I’m proud to send my kids to our local public school instead of one of the private religious schools in the area.
(Disclaimer: our local school is *so great* that when I realize there are families who drive their kids for 20min to the outskirts of town to get somewhere else, it’s just the biggest facepalm. Also disclaimer my particular situation is probably more class-related than race, but there are other areas in my hometown where “white flight” is totally a thing and creating more segregation.)
If we want to solve societies problems, as the people with privilege, we have to be willing to say no to that privilege when it can help others. Selfishness is never going to solve inequality.
“…I’m proud to send my kids to our local public school instead of one of the private religious schools in the area… there are families who drive their kids for 20min to the outskirts of town to get somewhere else…”
Wow, ok. I think we must be exact opposites. :-)
Our local schools are ok here and we considered them but we want the best for our son so we send him to to a private school 60 miles away. Honestly, the best money I ever spent. He is very happy there so we’re moving house to be nearer to his school. I’ve had a bad time in this country though so I don’t want him growing up here so we’ll hopefully be move somewhere nicer where he will be able to live safely in peace.
“white flight is totally a thing and creating more segregation”
We have something similar here but we call it “white genocide”. Non-white people have made it sufficiently unsafe for the native white population that they are not breeding enough to sustain their numbers and emmigration is the highest it has ever been.
“If we want to solve societies problems, as the people with privilege, we have to be willing to say no to that privilege when it can help others.”
I don’t understand how sending my son to a worse school would benefit anyone. My son would certainly be worse off. I wouldn’t have to pay his school fees so I wouldn’t bother working so hard so I would pay far less tax and the government wouldn’t have that money to help solve society’s problems. With a better education my son would have been more likely to go on to do great work that will benefit everyone (see Newton, Darwin etc.).
Furthermore, I don’t see how earning enough money to afford school fees is “privilege”.
“Selfishness is never going to solve inequality.”
Stealing is never going to solve jealousy.
Author
So in other words, you’re a white supremacist. I’m trying to help you see yourself. Because, as far as the United Kingdom is concerned, it got its riches off the backs of draining and enslaving the lands all over the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, and sparking genocides in many of those countries, including the indigenous Indians in the East and Native Americans in the West. With this sort of legacy, “stealing” is apropos of this conversation because segregation isn’t just an individual component or one court case, but a series of events that assured one group dominates over another, and institutionalizes it as a way of life.
If you’re going to be intellectually dishonest, at least stop bringing up jealousy.
“So in other words, you’re a white supremacist. I’m trying to help you see yourself.”
Ok. Let me try to help you. I’m pretty sure there are still black people in places like Texas struggling to deal with real white supremacists and I think you’re doing them a big disservice by claiming that people are white supremacists if they want to help their own children.
“Because, as far as the United Kingdom is concerned, it got its riches off the backs of draining and enslaving the lands all over the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, and sparking genocides in many of those countries, including the indigenous Indians in the East and Native Americans in the West. With this sort of legacy, “stealing” is apropos of this conversation because segregation isn’t just an individual component or one court case, but a series of events that assured one group dominates over another, and institutionalizes it as a way of life.”
You just demonized 70 million people from four different countries in the third person and your claims are contentious. You are attributing the genocide of Native Americans by the Spanish in the 1500s to the United Kingdom which wasn’t formed until 1707. The UK was obviously rich when it was founded. After all, only rich countries can afford to build empires. And you are blaming the many UK soldiers who fought and died freeing slaves in America. And I suppose any country that has received aid from the UK is also getting rich off the back of draining and enslaving lands across the world. And the 700,000 economic migrants from Poland who reside in the UK are getting their riches off the backs of draining and enslaving other lands because they are white. However, the two million black people in the UK are not because they are black. Is that really what you are saying?
“If you’re going to be intellectually dishonest, at least stop bringing up jealousy.”
You want what other people have. That is the definition of jealousy.
Author
Wow. OK thanks for coming. Please see yourself out of here.
Jon, sorry. “White genocide” is not a thing. Non-white people moving into your neighborhood is not genocide. Nobody is killing you. Nobody is forcing you to stop living your life the way you want, forcing you to stop speaking your native language or abolishing your cultural practices.
My son goes to an amazing school that some other families avoid because they’re afraid that their kids will be worse off for sharing a classroom with students who are poor, brown, angry, non-Christian. He *isn’t* worse off. The staff are amazing, my son is seeing a wide range of peers and he’s making some amazing friends. And my wife is able to spend time contributing to the school to make it a better place for both our kids and for the neighborhood.
If we instead chose to shelter him, hide away somewhere safe, we would *all* lose out.
But this is what people do. They form little enclaves of safety, familiarity, where their beliefs aren’t challenged and they only have to deal with people they feel like-enough to. And that creates segregation.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m not writing angry rants. I’m not angry, I’m facepalming (and procrastinating).
I’m going to ask that you add this to your reading list:
http://ncase.me/polygons/
Not just equating. “I only want what’s best for my child,” if spoken by a white parent, is in fact the basis of white supremacy. It’s the way white parents pass down the advantage afforded to them for their race, as it was passed down by their parents to them, and their parents’ parents, and so on. It’s the primary reason white privilege persists in spite of technical changes to the law and the system.
“I only want what’s best for my child” means that after my white parents used the return on the investment my grandparents made in their homes — at a time when that investment was exclusively available to white people — to send me to college and invest in their own homes, I am able to send my own child to pre-school and college. Recalling my own parents’ ability to advocate for me while I attended public school, which recalled my grandfather’s ability to get elected to his local school board, I can do the same and make sure my daughter’s schools own a responsibility for ensuring her success.
“I only want what’s best for my [white] child” discards a community of learners in favor of the success of a single (white) individual, which is acceptable, because the parents of all the other white students are saying the same thing, because it works for them, because it’s always worked for them. The white students, in turn, see themselves as competitive individuals, rather than part of a community.
By contrast, “I only want what’s best for my child,” when spoken by Black parents, requires building a supportive community around their child, because history has denied them the advantages I have as an individual. It requires schools to see that child as part of that community, and to work with all the elements of that community to ensure that child’s success. It takes more work, more resources, and, perhaps most importantly, a cooperative community of learners who join that supportive community and take responsibility for the success of their peers.
Wow – really? White supremacy? Let me get this straight– a white parent tells me that he/she wants whats best for his/her child — this means that parent believes he/she is superior to black people? That’s quite a leap. Using inflammatory language makes people defensive – as opposed to breaking down walls, which I hope is everyone’s true intent here.
There is latent racism everywhere, and far too many people are unwilling to fess up to that. But, I think its important to weigh generalized statements and assumptions with care and grace – regardless of who or what you’re referring to.
I have a feeling that there are many white and black parents who mean exactly the same thing when they say “I want what’s best for my child” – minus any insidious subtext.
Author
I did weigh them with care. This is me being nice.
Okay, good luck you. I hope you’re successful in your efforts.
Author
I hope so too. Even for you!
Because homework can be useful (self-work, definitely) before entering this dialogue.
“More than ever, urban school systems are segregated by race and class. While a chief cause of this segregation is the flight of white and upper-middle-class black families from predominantly black public schools, there is little discussion of white flight in contemporary education policy debates. Instead, our conversations frame the causes of and remedies for educational inequality in terms of racially neutral private choices. Describing this phenomenon as the “privatization of concern” for our children, this article critiques a narrow view of parental responsibility and care that justifies segregation by invoking the liberty of familial privacy. Employing narratives from his experience as a D.C. school board member and parent, Charles Lawrence calls for an expanded understanding of John Hart Ely’s process-defect theory that recognizes the continuing influence of racism on school choice. He argues that our silence on the subject of race undermines the democratic process, and he suggests that breaking the taboo against candid conversation about race and racism is a prerequisite to the creation of the community of care envisioned by Brown v. Board of Education.”
http://www.yalelawjournal.org/feature/forbidden-conversations-on-race-privacy-and-community-a-continuing-conversation-with-john-ely-on-racism-and-democracy
“Jon, sorry. “White genocide” is not a thing.”
Conversely, “white privilege” is not a thing.
“Non-white people moving into your neighborhood is not genocide. Nobody is killing you. Nobody is forcing you to stop living your life the way you want, forcing you to stop speaking your native language or abolishing your cultural practices.”
Err, no. They are literally stopping us from living life the way we want. They stopped me when I was young by throwing rocks at my head and beating me with sticks. They put my brother in a coma when I was eight, from which he never recovered. Now that I am married they aren’t interested in me but when my son comes of age I have no doubt they will do the same or worse to him. And now they tell me I owe them my “riches” because they hold me personally responsible for slavery.
FWIW, when people talk of “white genocide” they aren’t talking about language and culture. They are talking about violence. Life changing violence.
“My son goes to an amazing school…He *isn’t* worse off…hide away somewhere safe”
I appreciate the sentiment but I am unable to reconcile “he isn’t worse off” with the implication that he is unsafe.
“But this is what people do. They form little enclaves of safety, familiarity, where their beliefs aren’t challenged and they only have to deal with people they feel like-enough to. And that creates segregation.”
Now you’re demonizing hippie communes.
“http://ncase.me/polygons/”
Thanks, I’m checking it out now…
“I did weigh them with care. This is me being nice.”
— No wonder
Author
I’m not wondering.
Guess I should clarify — No wonder this dialogue is so stunted. I love engaging in meaningful discussion about important issues – discussions that prompt people to really change their thinking and the way they act. Sadly, on this issue, I think your forum might not the best place for such discussions. You are on an important and valuable mission, but I think your rhetoric is more angry and attention-grabbing than effective.
Again, good luck to you. I really do hope you can effect positive change (which is clearly your intent).
Author
I’ve been rather patient really, and, if you look carefully at the education sphere, mine is one of the handful that ever talks about race consistently.
You’re assuming because I use the words white supremacy that the burden of how you should feel is on me.
I wish you well, though.
“I don’t agree with you, but I have some ideas about how you should pursue what you want” – nah, I’m good thanks.
Author
I’m trying to help folks out, David. Really, I am.
Your patience is legend.
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Now that the CEC has decided to rezone PS 8 and PS 307, how do you think it’ll play out? As I understood, neither school was too happy about it and it seems like PS 307 has more to lose (small classes, extras like Violin lessons, Mandarin classes, etc.).
Author
History isn’t favorable to schools like PS 307. The will of the displaced parents from PS 8 will be heard, whereas, should the parent coordinator at PS 307 be displaced or disempowered, the will of the parents of 307 will be run amok. That’s how that plays out. I’m hoping this won’t be the case and folks can come to a mutual understanding, but … -sigh-.
Violence is a real issue in many schools, and I don’t blame any parent who wants to keep their child from harm. The fact that money enables parents to send their children elsewhere (most often simply by moving) is unfortunate and a serious problem. But, while that system exists, I don’t think you can fault individual parents for making the choice to keep their children safe, nor can one consider them racists. Any parent would do the same given the resources. The schools are failing these parents and the families forced to stay in unsafe schools, not the other way around.
I also don’t think that getting those students to stay in those schools works as a way to improve them. Pressure by these parents to keep order in a school results in disproportionate discipline and suspensions of black students. I think there are parents who genuinely want their children to be in integrated schools, but don’t know what to do about violence in urban schools. They especially don’t know what to do about families that tolerate or are even complicit in bad behavior in school. To me, *that’s* the difficult conversation to have about race.
Finally, while rich, white schools may have their “power enclaves”, you can’t equate these with gang culture when looking through the lens of a parent. Power enclaves aren’t safety issues.
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