School Segregation Connections

 

     This weeks readings made me think about two other readings that we have done:

               1) The Johnson reading- This weeks readings all mentioned that everyone knows that desegregating schools is the best way to improve the education of lower income black and brown students but no one wants to talk about it. This reminded me of the Johnson reading because they all talk about how uncomfortable it is to talk about race because we want to believe that we as a country have gotten past all of the racial inequalities and we don't want to admit that we have these systems that have been designed to make white people more likely to succeed.   

               2) The Kozol Reading- The Kozol reading described what it was like to live in poverty by following and talking to various people. They talked about their struggles and how they have essentially been abandoned by the people who are supposed to be protecting them and how no one who has the power to help them wants anything to do with them. On the TAL podcast they talked about how there are classes where the teachers don't show up, schools are left unaccredited for years and years at a time, and there are a number of more injustices that all add up to these kids having been abandoned. I also remember in the Kozol piece how the reason that they burned medical waste in that neighborhood was because the residents of the richer neighborhood didn't want it to happen where they live. It was also mentioned that the poor neighborhood became a dumping ground for things and people that no one else wanted. In the TAL podcast, essentially the same thing happened. The parents in the richer and whiter school district were resistant to accepting the Normandy students into their school and they even threatened to leave if the Normandy students really came. In both scenarios people want the poorer people of color to fix everything internally but it just isn't realistic.