Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Political Mayhem Thursday: Re-Segregation
On the way, though, I will be thinking about the upcoming anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the US Supreme Court, which ended the era of separate-but-(un)equal in the United States.
One of the best magazine articles I have read in a long time was Segregation Now... in the Atlantic. It describes the re-segregation of the public schools in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Laid bare is the fact that race still matters in America, and we are not close to solving the problems that come with racial inequalities. We hold out the promise of "equal opportunity," but it is too often a false promise.
One of the more shocking notes in the piece was really just an aside, noting that the sororities at the University of Alabama are still segregated. At a school like Alabama, that still matters, and it is deeply troubling. When I was in college at William and Mary, the fraternity IPLawGuy and I were in was integrated, but most of the others were not. The KA's, in fact, still paraded their all-white selves around in Confederate uniforms.
Segregation in college, of course, is really about the elites. That's what makes the story about the re-segregation of the elementary, middle, and high schools in Tuscaloosa so troubling-- it establishes a base which affects all that comes after, for nearly all of that community's residents.
Are we headed in the right or wrong direction in American race relations?
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“Are we headed in the right or wrong direction in American race relations?” would be a pretty clear question if right would go one way and wrong would go the opposite way. After reading the story of three generations of the Dent family (and many more like them) in Tuscaloosa Alabama and based on my personal opinion as an American transplant, I say American race relations are not heading anywhere. American race relations are still spinning in a circular motion. The inset of James Dent’s road may be a different one than that of his niece D’Leisha but the map is pretty much the same. And if one is tempted to make the argument of Tuscaloosa Alabama as a case of racial sclerosis, take none other than THE icon melting pot of America, the American city self-proclaimed as the capital of the world. Yes. New York City is home to the country’s most segregated schools. The place that prides itself as a hub of energy, creativity, opportunity and vision, has to swallow this very bitter very retrograde pill. It can also be a case study, in that race segregation (and in NYC “race” spells all races and racial mix combinations) runs strictly along socioeconomic lines, socioeconomic lines run strictly along real estate zoning and in turn school districts run along real estate zoning. I have recently visited Detroit (the most complex, most fascinating place I have ever been to, ever) and while I see the underlying historical context of young James Dent’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama that set fire to Detroit, with its embers that never quite extinguished and wounds still bleeding, I think race segregation in today’s Detroit is exactly superimposable with race segregation in today’s New York City. Hate to have a French saying coming to mind, but the bastards nailed it just right “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”… the more that changes, the more it's the same thing.
I am tempted to say wrong, because of all the horrible stuff you read about, but in truth, the data indicates that we're doing ok.
I went to a very integrated high school in California. It was about 40% black, and 10% Chinese or other ethnic minorities. I had friends in every category. Perhaps there were mostly white and Chinese kids in the college prep courses I took, but the school clubs, PE, band, and the quad served as common ground for everyone.
At my fortieth reunion I was struck by how much older my black friends looked than those white people of the same age. We had all lived the same number of years, but it was clearly evident that life is harder for some than for others. It gave me pause to reflect on how life might have been different for me if my skin was another color…a few more traffic stops, a little slower service in public places where money is green no matter who offers it, glancing looks from people with obvious messages in their eyes, hate or fear, or uncertainty, or worse, suspicion of acts committed or uncommitted simply because I looked different. All of this takes its toll.
I thought about this as I considered the Dent family. I was curious as to why the fact that Melissa was an unmarried mother of 4 children was something the author didn’t feel need to explain. I was also curious as to why the author didn’t expound on Melissa’s opinion of her daughter’s education. Even though D’Leisha was an honor student and was at the top of her school academically and socially, her ACT scores clearly indicate a lack of education. D’Leisha recognized it, but the author left Melissa oddly mute on the subject even though she was well educated and must have had an absolute awareness of what a good education is. What did she recognize in D’Leisha’s experience and what might she have done differently?
W.E.B. Du Bois, a black sociologist and socialist, in his “The Soul of Black Folks” was fairly damning of the self-destructive cycle in which the turn of (last) century black families found themselves and points out that racism is only one of many problems our country has to solve. Being any minority is hard in a world filled with bigots and racists, but bigotry and racism may not be the biggest burden that blacks have to bear according to Mr. Du Bois.
I could tell from my reunion experience that with few exceptions being black in this country is a hard life to live. But, that shouldn't mean that we give up on trying to make it better.
At my fortieth reunion I was struck by how much older my black friends looked than those white people of the same age. We had all lived the same number of years, but it was clearly evident that life is harder for some than for others. It gave me pause to reflect on how life might have been different for me if my skin was another color…a few more traffic stops, a little slower service in public places where money is green no matter who offers it, glancing looks from people with obvious messages in their eyes, hate or fear, or uncertainty, or worse, suspicion of acts committed or uncommitted simply because I looked different. All of this takes its toll.
I thought about this as I considered the Dent family. I was curious as to why the fact that Melissa was an unmarried mother of 4 children was something the author didn’t feel need to explain. I was also curious as to why the author didn’t expound on Melissa’s opinion of her daughter’s education. Even though D’Leisha was an honor student and was at the top of her school academically and socially, her ACT scores clearly indicate a lack of education. D’Leisha recognized it, but the author left Melissa oddly mute on the subject even though she was well educated and must have had an absolute awareness of what a good education is. What did she recognize in D’Leisha’s experience and what might she have done differently?
W.E.B. Du Bois, a black sociologist and socialist, in his “The Soul of Black Folks” was fairly damning of the self-destructive cycle in which the turn of (last) century black families found themselves and points out that racism is only one of many problems our country has to solve. Being any minority is hard in a world filled with bigots and racists, but bigotry and racism may not be the biggest burden that blacks have to bear according to Mr. Du Bois.
I could tell from my reunion experience that with few exceptions being black in this country is a hard life to live. But, that shouldn't mean that we give up on trying to make it better.
# posted by 
: 6:51 PM
: 6:51 PM
This subject has been treated well, poorly, and ad nauseam.
I am in general agreement with all three commentators.
Unlike Anonymous, I attended an all white grade school in an atypical Southern city, which segregated its high school students into all white boys and all white girls schools. and all black boys and all black girls schools. The sex desegregation met with opposition, but was accomplished administratively, without litigation. Race desegregation was court ordered, and precipitated a lot of discontent, opposition, and led to a significant increase in the already unusually large private/parochial population. Some neighborhoods in middle class parts of town were surprisingly racially integrated, other sections of town of all social and economic classifications, less so.
By the time our kids were ready for school, we were in a position to buy a house, and we did so in a newly developing section with really good public schools. They were integrated by that time, but the grade school my kids attended was predominantly white. The high school was also at first, but each year became progressively blacker. All of my kids had friends of both races, predominantly white, although on the basketball team my son played on there were thirteen blacks and two whites. The white starter, not my son, was the only white starter in the league. My son was the only other white player in the league.
Sorry for the lengthy autobiographical information, but background is important,even de riguer in discussions of this subject.
Here was our experience:
1. In grade school, although the PTA raised and spent thousands of dollars for the sole purpose purchasing educational materials to support the education of the poorer black kids, the parents of these kids simply would not participate meaningfully in our efforts, Those who could be recruited did so reluctantly and ineffectively. Their kids entered and left grade school lagging well behind the white kids.
2. In high school, it was almost impossible to bring black kids into the more demanding college prep courses, and almost impossible to keep the Vietnamese kids from excelling, despite the extracurricular distractions which particularly engaged the black and white kids.
3. After my son completed the first year of latin, I approached his teacher, and observed that her class covered in one year what my latin teacher accomplished in a semester. "Yes," she told me. "In order to attract enough students to latin, we have to water it down, else the required number to offer will not be met, and there will be no latin at all." Latin was an elective (but not in our household). No black kids signed up for latin so the watering down was not on their account. In the mandatory courses, the honors classes were largely and in some cases altogether white and asian.
I have some oservations and conclusions from our experiences. Here are three:
1. Black lack of academic success relative to that of asians and caucasians was pronounced early on and became over time progressively more disparate.
2. Despite good faith efforts of teachers, principals and white parents, the black students could not overcome what I believe is a culturally grounded indifference to the hard work of getting an education. White students were not immune to this phenomena. Witness the experience of the latin teacher, whose students' white households and society in general, valued latin less than mathematics and English as , perhaps they should.
3. Black culture must change for everything else to fall into place. Segregation may be something of a factor in the problems blacks face in education, and it is certainly unconstitutional and undesirable, but it is about as significant as human activity is to global warming.
Sorry for taking so much time to have said nothing new.
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I am in general agreement with all three commentators.
Unlike Anonymous, I attended an all white grade school in an atypical Southern city, which segregated its high school students into all white boys and all white girls schools. and all black boys and all black girls schools. The sex desegregation met with opposition, but was accomplished administratively, without litigation. Race desegregation was court ordered, and precipitated a lot of discontent, opposition, and led to a significant increase in the already unusually large private/parochial population. Some neighborhoods in middle class parts of town were surprisingly racially integrated, other sections of town of all social and economic classifications, less so.
By the time our kids were ready for school, we were in a position to buy a house, and we did so in a newly developing section with really good public schools. They were integrated by that time, but the grade school my kids attended was predominantly white. The high school was also at first, but each year became progressively blacker. All of my kids had friends of both races, predominantly white, although on the basketball team my son played on there were thirteen blacks and two whites. The white starter, not my son, was the only white starter in the league. My son was the only other white player in the league.
Sorry for the lengthy autobiographical information, but background is important,even de riguer in discussions of this subject.
Here was our experience:
1. In grade school, although the PTA raised and spent thousands of dollars for the sole purpose purchasing educational materials to support the education of the poorer black kids, the parents of these kids simply would not participate meaningfully in our efforts, Those who could be recruited did so reluctantly and ineffectively. Their kids entered and left grade school lagging well behind the white kids.
2. In high school, it was almost impossible to bring black kids into the more demanding college prep courses, and almost impossible to keep the Vietnamese kids from excelling, despite the extracurricular distractions which particularly engaged the black and white kids.
3. After my son completed the first year of latin, I approached his teacher, and observed that her class covered in one year what my latin teacher accomplished in a semester. "Yes," she told me. "In order to attract enough students to latin, we have to water it down, else the required number to offer will not be met, and there will be no latin at all." Latin was an elective (but not in our household). No black kids signed up for latin so the watering down was not on their account. In the mandatory courses, the honors classes were largely and in some cases altogether white and asian.
I have some oservations and conclusions from our experiences. Here are three:
1. Black lack of academic success relative to that of asians and caucasians was pronounced early on and became over time progressively more disparate.
2. Despite good faith efforts of teachers, principals and white parents, the black students could not overcome what I believe is a culturally grounded indifference to the hard work of getting an education. White students were not immune to this phenomena. Witness the experience of the latin teacher, whose students' white households and society in general, valued latin less than mathematics and English as , perhaps they should.
3. Black culture must change for everything else to fall into place. Segregation may be something of a factor in the problems blacks face in education, and it is certainly unconstitutional and undesirable, but it is about as significant as human activity is to global warming.
Sorry for taking so much time to have said nothing new.
# posted by : 10:20 PM
: 10:20 PM << Home
