karnythia: notesonascandal: ...

notesonascandal:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

notesonascandal:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

therealchet:

Before school desegregation, most black students were educated in exclusively black schools. Today, 70% of black students are still educated in predominantly black schools. School desegregation, mandated in theory, has not yet been achieved in practice.

Class of Waldorf Negro Elementary School, Maryland (1941). Image courtesy of the National Archives.

This is sort of misleading because progress has indeed been made. The numbers show that there are more Black students in majority White schools than before the Brown v Board of Education decision.

Year Percent Black in Majority White Schools

1954 0

1960 .1

1964 2.3

1967 13.9

1968 23.4

1970 33.1

1972 36.4

1976 37.6

1980 37.1

1986 42.9

1988 43.5

1991 39.2

1994 36.6

1996 34.7

1998 32.7

2000 31.0

2001 30.2

Source: Southern Education Reporting Service in Reed Sarratt, The Ordeal of Desegregation (New York: Harper & Row, 1966): 362; HEW

Education integration is now on a steady decline, however. As we all should know, much of the progress Blacks made after the Civil Rights Movement was reversed during the Reagan era.

Integration shafted the fuck outta us. It wasn’t all good for us.

Really?

What makes you say that? I suppose its the fact that Whites have institutionally ensured that even with education, Blacks will graduate largely uneducated.

It is true. Blacks lived in the same neighborhoods with their teachers… their parents were better able to assure their success. Blacks were in charge of their education, as they had been for hundreds of years before.

But Black schools still had less resources than White schools at the time, and thus, the education they were receiving was not preparing them to compete with Whites.

Also, we must never forget the Kenneth Clark’s Doll Test and it’s results, showing how segregation negatively effects the psyche of Black children/people.

Separate can never be equal. So, we must continue to fight for equality and integration. I believe that, like everything else, it is a long process.

Black schools still have less funding, thanks to the privatization of education (one of the 3 things that should have NEVER been privatized, the others being healthcare and the prison system because it commodifies humanity). People like to think that money won’t solve the problems in education. I tend to disagree. Look at the elite private schools where you live and tell me that money doesn’t make a difference.

Seriously, kids with access to the latest tech, good food, highly educated teachers, & the kind of family support that you get in richer districts (full time guidance counselors, nurses, & therapists with small case loads can make a huge difference even if the families are struggling financially), are going to do well. Throw in enough extracurricular activities, a good library, & summer programs that mean kids are always learning & you get a much higher success rate.