Front And Back Of The Bus
Some excitement in my favorite small town, Ann Arbor. Seems an elementary school principal had a field trip for black students only. They went to see a black rocket scientist. The Principal said it was part of his attempt to close the achievement gap.
After controversy erupted, he wrote a letter to parents:
In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way. But as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and energy that I saw in these children’s eyes as they stood in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist in a very successful position, it gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible for even them.
When the students (part of an African-American "Lunch Bunch") returned from their trip, their fifth-grade classmates booed them. The principal heard the boos and had a talk with the class. What the conversation was is unclear, though he claims he gave them a better understanding of the purpose of the trip.
I don't think this kind of discrimination should be allowed in any case. But even if the Principal and his supporters feel this is the kind of racial discrimination that helps, perhaps they should think again. Look at his reasoning. Apparently, black kids get excited by a black rocket scientist. This is the wrong approach. The principal shouldn't be teaching them that black is a separate category. What the principal should be saying is they have the same opportunities everyone else has, and a white rocket scientist should excite them as much as a black one. I question the need for color-specific role models even in the days when there was strict, legally-backed segregation, but in a country with no laws preventing any kids from being what they want if they're willing to work hard enough, it's time to drop this tired stereotyping.
Who knows, maybe the reason they think they can't achieve as much is because of condescending educators like this Principal, who thinks so little of them that he states African-America kids need to see that high achievement "is possible for even them." Even!
As for the white students, who might have also been excited to meet a rocket scientist, the Principal's message is "separate and unequal is good enough for you--you're doing fine anyway, so stop complaining." Indeed, I'd hate to have been a fifth-grader in that class where the head guy in the school "explained" to me what the truth was.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:02 AM
3 Comments:
When "bring your child to work day" started, it was actually "bring your daughter to work" day. The idea was to expose girls to different workplaces than they would have considered, particularly ones with very few women working in them. I assume the principal's intent here was basically the same. And your reasoning is basically the same that caused "bring your daughter" to (correctly) morph into "bring your child."
More broadly, I'm wondering whether every child was permitted to attend the African American lunch bunch meetings. If not, that's a real problem too. For reasons not worth getting into here, I'm a member and have attended a meeting of the "African Ancestry Employee Resource Group" and always have been made to feel very welcome despite being white.
On a slightly different note, ladies' night and related concepts are still ok.
When I was at the University of Chicago, I served on the Student Finance Committee. There was a group for black students, but it had to allow all in or we would not fund it. I attended some meetings to make sure.
There was a time when civil rights (and modern liberalism) was about integration and equa treatment, but for a long time, there's been more energy put into "benign" discrimination. After a couple generations of this, where's the mechanism that returns us to the integration ideal? What if treating black kids differently, even with the best of intentions, leads to a system where they see themselves as separate, and slows down their integration?
By the way, it's always tricky to compare racial and gender discrimination. (For that matter, it's hard to compare any sort of discrimination with racial discrimination, though that's the almost automatic argument everyone makes.) Not too many people have trouble with separate rest rooms along sexual lines.
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