Do you think that race is a factor in education in the U.S.

by recovering 70 Replies latest social current

• 

  Simon

  It sounds like it's less "segregation" (misuse of the word) and more "grouping" of similar students with the intention of making their school-life better.

  If I was only one of a handful of White English kids in an school in an Asian country, I'd probably want to be put in a class with a few others, not distributed equally like we're tokens.

  It's all explained in the article quite clearly:

  ... the policy was born from conversations with recent graduates who said the school could “create greater opportunities for connection and support.”

  He points to a passage from the school’s handbook that states: “Research points to the academic, social, and emotional benefits to being in a classroom with others who share racial, ethnic, linguistic, and/or cultural backgrounds.”

  An NYC-based educational consultant with a focus on minority students said Little Red School House’s proposal is “the lesser of two evils,” explaining that often when there is a single black or Latin student in a class — especially history and literature classes where discussions can turn political or personal — they can feel isolated and uncomfortable.

  “The intention is to make students of color feel that they are a critical mass and have a voice,” the consultant said, adding that a handful of other schools, including Bank Street on the Upper West Side — which has students break into self-identified “affinity groups” four times a year for 45 minute classes — have experimented with similar policies, though to a much lesser degree.

  Is this the minority parents complaining or the white parents virtue-signalling?
• 

  Whynot

  I have heard of this happening in private schools, yes. But there is A LOT of racism where I live. Blacks don't want to be around whites and whites don't want to be around blacks.

  When I went to high school, there were only 5 Mexicans and they ALWAYS put us in the same classes together according to our grade. But everyone else was spread out pretty evenly. All the Mexicans, including myself, were honor students. Most people at school thought I was Asian. I still look Asian lol but I'm mostly Native American.

  In the colleges and universities, most people going to college are black and whites go to the university nearby.

  I do know that the blacks around here like to stick together. I have heard quite a few of them say this. It has actually benefited them doing this. When they feel discriminated against they band together.

  I will say that there are clinics and hospitals around here where it is hard to find different races working together.

  Segregation was actually still practiced well into the millenium. I'm still afraid to go into certain areas because people still believe in segragation. But I know which areas to avoid.
• 

  Simon

  Also, your topic title is (intentionally?) misleading. This is really little todo with any discussion about race being a factor in education in the US and everything todo with a specific school with a handful of students that sounds like it is all about progressivism and social justice so will naturally attract attention if it seems to step on a crack of that ideology.
• 

  Simon

  I do know that the blacks around here like to stick together

  People often naturally segregate themselves. Some even push for it to be mandated.

  As long as it's choice and not the government forcing it on people or the people excluding others, it's up to the people concerned if they want to segregate themselves.
  
• 

  recovering

  Grouping and segregation are the same in this case. Here is the definition of segregation in the dictionary.

  :the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment.

  "an official policy of racial segregation"

  
  

  It is of note that both minority and non minority parents objected to this practice. I am amused at how you make it a negative even if it is the non minority parents who object.

  Are you advocating separate but equal education?

  
  

  I am now going to drop a bomb on you Simon! You just supported a policy of a liberal progressive school!

  
  

  As I said before I am a moderate and I think that both sides of the political spectrum have much to answer for.

  
  

  Not trying to be intentionally misleading per say. I can demonstrate how public schools have also failed minorities. I just wanted everyone to think about the consequences of poor educational opportunities afforded minorities

  
  
• 

  slimboyfat

  I don’t even understand the question. A factor in education in terms of what? Whether people get any? How good the education Is? How well the students do?
• 

  recovering

  Slim boy the question refers to the quality of education and access to it it.
• 

  silentbuddha

  During the segregation era there were more black owned businesses, more black wealth, black schools focused on black issues.

  The black experience is not the same as it is in England, so maybe there is a disconnect.

  Look up black wall street, look at the ideology of Marcus Garvey and Booker T Washington. They understood that African Americans in the USA needed some autonomy, they neededto be able to create their own institutions etc...

  Maybe a better term would be seperation.
• 

  silentbuddha

  As long as it's choice and not the government forcing it on people or the people excluding others,
  

  Excellent point.
• 

  recovering

  Hmm interesting reference to black wall street, however wasn't this community the exception to the rule? Where not most minority communities economically disadvantaged?

  As far as Marcus Harvey is concerned his political beliefs where actually closely allied with the KKK. He in fact says so himself.

  "Garvey recognized the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and, after the Black Star Line was closed, sought to engage the South in his activism, since the UNIA now lacked a specific program. In early 1922, he went to Atlanta for a conference with KKK imperial giant Edward Young Clarke, seeking to advance his organization in the South. Garvey made a number of incendiary speeches in the months leading up to that meeting; in some, he thanked the whites for Jim Crow.[34] Garvey once stated: "I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying."[24]"