Hot topics: Race in American Schools

Our forefathers wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Forty-five years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the Washington Mall and said,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

While he didn’t state it, I’m sure his dream included classrooms where race and social class did not matter. De facto segregation continues and with that brings inequality. Separate is not equal in this case. On Long Island or the Upper East Side, I see classrooms with books, notebooks, SmartBoards, and stocked classroom libraries with a variety of books. In East New York, the South Bronx, or Washington Heights the situation is vastly different. SmartBoards are few and far between. Some children come to school without breakfast, let alone books, a notebook or homework. (See Kozol for examples, if you don’t believe what I’ve seen)

As Senator Barack Obama said this week in his speech entitled A More Perfect Union:

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

As a white woman who works in schools in impoverished neighborhoods in the city, I’m shocked at what is acceptable.

• It’s acceptable for white and Asian children to be pushed harder and further than Latino/a or African American children, even when their intellectual capability is equal.
• It’s expected that the white or Asian child will succeed, and the other children will not.
• It’s expected that children of color will go to the military or some community college, if they go to higher education at all. Asian and white children are expected to go to college–regardless of their abilities or desires.

The soft-core racism of low expectations continues.African American or Hispanics speak about racism. Yet, they aren’t the only ones who experience racism. Many whites express anger and outrage, but from another angle.

Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. (From A More Perfect Union by Senator Barack Obama)

Well stated, Senator Obama. Personally, I’m sick and tired of going to graduate classes where I am told, along with the rest of the class, that I am racist simply because I am white. Even more so, I’m tired of being told that I have white privilege. Sure my skin is white, but I grew up in one of the bleakest situations without many privileges. I’ve seen and experienced the inequality that our educational system continues to perpetuate.

So how do these feelings, beliefs, values and emotions impact our classrooms?

First, we have to look at our own values and beliefs. Acknowledge them for what they are, and realize that they probably conflict with others somehow. For instance, as a white woman if I do not believe that all children, regardless of color can succeed, should I really be teaching in a predominantly minority school? College is becoming a necessity for jobs that once only required a high school diploma. It is an injustice for each of my students to have me there, collecting a paycheck, if I am not willing to put forth the work and push them to succeed.

Second, to educate young minds they must have their basic needs. If any of their basic needs are not met, education and learning cannot occur. This includes the ability to feel safe, secure and loved within their classroom environment. This includes the words we use and the context that they are used. Children can easily read who doesn’t care about them.

Third, we need to push for a “more perfect union.” This includes teaching it, and creating engaging, real-life activities that our students can use to learn. Race is not a topic that can be dodged, or put underneath the rug. To ignore it is to say that it doesn’t exist, and as proven above, it’s very real for many Americans today.

Senator Obama quantified a more perfect union as the following:

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances . . . to the larger aspirations of all Americans. . . . And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination . . . are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the classroom, this could be starting a social action project in the community, or working with iEARN or another website to facilitate communication. In my middle school, we asked the kids what they wanted. We found they wanted to reach out and form sister school bonds with kids in a different socio-economic level and race. The conversations were rich and helped broaden their knowledge, while giving them access to positive interactions.

Does race impact your classroom? How?

How do you facilitate discussions about race in your classroom?

Do you have resources you would recommend to help other teachers on this topic?