Finding Solutions

Once racial and socioeconomic disparities are recognized, it is difficult to determine how to address these issues.  We seem to be most comfortable with taking a color blind approach and avoiding reverse favoritism, but this seems to do nothing to help the issues.  With the recent overwhelming vote in favor of proposal 2 on the last Michigan ballot, we can see that people clearly want to pretend that equal is fair.  Color blind and money blind policies that focus on giving everyone the same opportunities based on level of qualification might work in a perfect world, but unfortunately, we live on Earth.  I hope that some day Affirmative action will not be necessary.  I hope that someday we can honestly say that equally qualified African Americans and individuals with second hand clothes are just as likely to be hired in comparison to their white affluent counter parts.  Today, I simply do not think this is true.  Until our prejudices are bred out and forgotten, until widespread residential segregation in
Michigan is no longer a factor, until children of all colors and socioeconomic statuses start out with equal access to resources and equal amounts of support, we cannot expect them to compete in an “equal opportunity market.”  It ends up not being equal at all.

 

So how do we address these issues without calling attention to the child who is wearing a threadbare coat?  How do we provide support without prejudging young men based on the color of their skin?  Very carefully, I suppose, but I believe that the risks are of far milder consequence than the benefits.

 

As detailed in the NYT article, “To Close Gaps, Schools Focus on Black Boys,” Ossining Union Free School District  is implementing

a special mentoring program that pairs [young black males] with black teachers for one-on-one guidance outside class, extra homework help, and cultural activities during the school day. “All the black boys used to end up in the office, so we had to do something,” said Lorraine Richardson, a second-grade teacher and mentor. “We wanted to teach them to help each other” instead of fight each other.

 

While many school districts have long worked to close the achievement gap between minority and white students,
Ossining’s programs aimed to get black male students to college are a new frontier.

 

Ossining school officials said they were not singling out black boys, but after a district analysis of high school students’ grade-point averages revealed that black boys were performing far worse than any other group, they decided to act. In contrast, these officials said, the performance of black girls compared favorably with other students and did not warrant the same concern.

The district calls the program a “moral imperative,” and I agree with them.  It is certain that care needs to be taken so that negative messages about skin color are not communicated to students, but all of the examples of special support which the young boys receive seemed very positive rather than punitive or stigmatized. 

Under the programs, the extra attention begins in elementary school; every black boy in fourth and fifth grades, for example, is assigned a team of teachers to track his academic progress.

 

The boys also meet black role models, while their parents attend workshops on planning for college. Motivation is emphasized throughout. As part of a recent dress for success contest, high school boys wore suits to school for a month. The two winners received hand-tailored suits.

I think this is an extremely good thing.  The program is giving boys the chance to interact with strong role models who share the same color of skin.  This is an important step to take if negative stereotypes of African American Males are going to be reversed.  Encouraging professionalism and helping parents plan for their child’s college education is also an amazing and needed resource for these students.

 

While this seems like an all good thing, it is understandable for some individuals to think that things could take a wrong turn.

Some of the nation’s leading minority scholars have praised
Ossining’s approach, but other educators, parents and civil rights groups contend that such separate programs do more harm than good. Last year, the New York Civil Rights Coalition filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education over such a program at the City University of New York, and the group plans to file a complaint with the state against
Ossining’s program.

 

“I think this is a form of racial profiling in the public school system,” said the coalition’s executive director, Michael Meyers. “What they’re doing here, under the guise of helping more boys, is they’re singling them out and making them feel inferior or different simply because of their race and gender.”

While I understand the concern, I firmly believe that there are too many aspects of our culture that already tell young black boys that they are inferior.  Many influences also tell these young men that doing well in school is lame or “acting white.”  These are lies can only be reversed when we call the problem by its name, and then work to reverse it.  Of course it is bad to single out a certain group for their race, but it is not wrong to give young people positive role models who are similar to the young person, or to help motivate the young person with programs with which they can relate.  White children enjoy this privilege every day as they turn on their tv sets and open their classic literature books to view and read about white heroes in a white society attaining white money and white success.  The disparity exists, and we can not afford to ignore it.

In Maryland, a state education task force asserted in December that “school, itself, is an at-risk environment for African-American male youth” and issued a 58-page report “to justify fixing it — whatever the cost.”

This program addresses the issue at hand, and it seems to be working so far.

The school officials here noted that it is too soon to measure the impact of their programs with test scores, but that the percentage of black students enrolled in college-level courses in 11th and 12th grades has more than doubled to 55 percent this year from 26 percent in 2004.

In the lower grades, teachers have also reported that disciplinary referrals for black boys have dropped — as much as 80 percent at Brookside — and that the boys are missing fewer homework assignments and paying more attention in class. (Efforts are under way now to begin similar programs for Hispanic boys, who have also not performed well.)

While singling out populations of students in order to assist them will always be a sensitive issue, I would rather have schools give assistance where assistance is due.  Dancing around the issue, and convincing ourselves that the world is already being fair to these young people will do nothing to break down the barriers to the success of minority populations.

To Close Gaps, Schools Focus on Black Boys

By Winnie Hu

April 9, 2007

New York Times

Complete Article