The Racial Mis-education of America's Youth

A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that enrollment in suburban schools by minority students has seen explosive growth.

The study authored by Richard Fry reports that "the student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade." Ninety-nine percent of that increase was driven solely by Latino, black and Asian students. In 1993-94 the student population of suburban schools was 28% non-white. In 2006-2007 it stood at 41.4%.

But... And there's a BIG but -- at the same time the study found that while the overall number of minority students in suburban schools rose, diversity WITHIN individual schools was stagnant.

From the survey:

In 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75% white; in 1993-94, this same figure had been 83%. So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points (from 72% in 1993-94 to 59% in 2006-07), the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much, or 8 percentage points.

Which means, although more minorities are now enjoying suburban life, part of that life still includes segregation.

This is the world in which our children are being raised. Forty-one years on from the Kerner Commission's "two societies" declaration we are traveling from "separate and unequal" to equal but separated. In a time when so many willingly accept a black man as president, it is still unlikely that they would have a black or Hispanic or Asian as a neighbor.

And we wonder why the likes of Miley Cyrus or Joe Jonas don't understand the wrongness of going around making "Chinese eyes."

That fact is while many were offended when Attorney General Eric Holder chastised us for being "a nation of cowards" when it comes to having discussions on race, when we head home at night there's rarely anyone except people like us to have these discussions with.

More than just a fact of life, diversity is an attribute of our nation. For children diversity needs to be real, and not merely relegated to learning the names of the usual suspects during Black History Month or enjoying south-of-the-border cuisine on Cinco de Mayo. It means talking to and spending time with kids not like them so that they may discover those kids are in fact just like them.

But our kids aren't the ones who pick neighborhoods or buy houses. The life is theirs, but the choice is ours.

For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com

Comments

[smarti]

She, of course, pointed out how she has lovingly accepted my family, and of course is not racist. Now, I love my mother to death, and of course I am happy she has accepted the new "blood" in the family and welcomes us with love. But, I'm afraid she has been influenced by the likes of O'Reilly, Hannity and Malkin that fan the flames of "anti-brown" rhetoric and over-inflate illegal immigrant crime rates and other affects on community. I also fear she is falling in the trap of "They are not like us" rhetoric put out by so many conservatives, when our own Eastern European immigrant family faced the same prejudices and rhetoric back in the early 1900's. Now, you will be hard pressed to find many families from Eastern Europe such as ours who migrated in the early 1900's, that have not integrated fully and speak English. Statistics show the same to be true for Hispanic families that emigrate here; witihin a few generations, they are as American as apple pie, for the majority (and the fact they are losing Spanish as a positive is debatable; I dearly wish our grandmother had passed on the "mother tongue" for us decendents to use and celebrate our heritage, along with learning English).

[smarti]

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, white flight racism occurs, but it is mostly among the older generation, and I think we are starting to see a younger generation of whites wanting to integrate while at the same time we see our minority brothers and sisters wanting to pursue the same piece of the pie that whites have enjoyed for years. Welcome to America, folks! Balance should be achieved in the near years.

[smarti]

Also, in response to an earlier poster, Leo-something or other, that posted about the problems of black children in school. Before you jump on this person, listen.. the problems of black children not coming from homes with strong families most definitely perpetuates itself in schools. All the amount of school spending will not fix it. I do agree instruction in majority poor black schools needs to be re-evaluated and of course the structures themselves need much improvement. But there is also indemic among young blacks "hip hop culture" a bias againstschool, "acting white". My husband and his other black adult friends say the same they experienced, coming from black middle class families among poorer blacks. They were often teased for their position. Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, and other nationally recognizable Blacks have remarked upon the same phenomenom. A lot of this does result from segregation, and from inner city conditions brought upon by the drug war that has created police states in the inner city and has been removing young black males from the game with impunity. Return the family, security and safety of the inner city, and education will follow suit. And then will so jobs and prosperity. I posted in another thread on these lines, the drug war is the 800 pound elephant in the room that no one wants to disucss when talking about problems specifically affecting the poor black community.

[RobinSeattle]

"the problems of black children not coming from homes with strong families most definitely perpetuates itself in schools"

This is true for any ethnic group. There is a lot of talent in all fields being lost to poverty in our inner cities. It is an absolute embarassment, too, and it harms our viability as a country because we need all the brains we can get in an age of more and more heated global competition.

[smarti]

True, RobinSeattle, but the effects are disproportionately felt by the Black community, in terms of arrest, prison terms, and all the other attendant effects, which help to place the next generation of Black children in a disadvantage. Simply put, whites do not experience the amount of displacement due to arrest rates, murder rates that Blacks do. Yet, whites account for the highest proportion of drug usage in the nation. So why are Blacks more highly policed and convicted of drug crimes, which help to destroy the community, then whites are?

[HNWBanker]

This is tired and weak. Segregation is natural amongst all ethnicitie­s...it's not good or bad, it just is. As for the success of some minorities over others, there is no way to argue around it, the proof is irritable. Keep your PC crap to yourself.

[HNWBanker]

*irrefutable

[mojoman]

*ignorant

[Truthhurts60]

Oh, it is the success of some minorities over another. Silly me, I thought it was because the government excluded blacks from Federal programs run by the FHA and the HOLC that enabled whites to buy homes on small down payments, gave low-interest home loans with lengthy repayment periods and full loan amortization. Basically, creating the suburbs while excluding blacks to inner-city ghetto's.

Now, I know it had nothing to do with the government. Just the innate ability of whites to outperform the other groups.

[Wake-up]

HAHAHA!! Great one!!

[HNWBanker]

Haha, good one. Maybe because blacks don't qualify based on merit. Hmmm, sounds like we need some affirmative action here. Oh wait, tried that with the sub-prime loans...ge­e that worked out swell. Wake up, whites earn more, have better jobs, etc. So do Asians. It is called hard work and determination. Quit crying about it and fix your house.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Look at Africa, seems to be the pinnacle of human achievement.

[mythofmeritocracy]

First, Your trying to bring the discussion to a close by suggesting that the problem of segregation is natural, your trying to say that any further discussion of the topic is unnecessary because its natural- inevitable, predetermined, or outside human control.

Secondly, Your overlooking the culturally and historical variation of human societies. There are indeed places with integrated neighborhoods.

Thirdly your treating humans as passive individuals with no control over social life, you are suggesting that there is really nothing we can do about this problem because it's "natural". Your suggesting that personal and social change are impossible.

[Nommo]

Segregation is a function of law in the history of this nation. What do you not comprehend about that?

[HNWBanker]

Hasn't been a law for a long time. Anyway, the point is, take a walk in any city. Chances are you see blacks hanging out together, Chinese hanging out, etc. Why? Common interests. Nothing nefarious about that.

[Truthhurts60]

Also, trying to compare racial minority groups such as Blacks to the Myth of ethnic success of Asians and Jews is getting old. When it all breaks down, most of you aren't that different than the Rethuglicans. You just advocate a more subtle form of racism that is harder to identify. I honestly do not know what is worse.

[RobinSeattle]

Or are you just someone who is looking for racism around every corner so you can be a "noble victim"?

When I was a much younger man, I was in classes at college with Vietnamese immigrants who survived pirates, internment in Thailand refugee camps and who didn't have much but the clothes on their backs when they came here. They worked their butts off to get out of poverty and now look at Little Saigon. They sparked an incredible renaissance in an area that had been heading south for years.

Vietnamese students were doing so well in Garden Grove elementary schools that white parents complained to the local school board about the curve being set too high by the immigrants.

After seeing that, I'm not in the mood for people who make excuses for their failure. I'm not a racist. Things are just how they are. Don't call names because you won't do for yourself.

[smarti]

Yes RobinSeattle, but when the Vietnamese immigrants came to the USA they were NOT faced with laws that permanently placed them as second class citizens, as Blacks have historically faced.

[RobinSeattle]

A black woman is the head of my homeowners association. I have Vietnamese neighbors on one side and two immigrant hispanic families across the street. We have at least two other black families in my development as well. I'm white, as are most of the folks in my development.

And you know what? It works, and in a community where 85% (at least) of the inhabitants are white. In fact, it is whiter than where I used to live, Orange County, CA.

I think this segregation he speaks of is largely due to either economic circumstances or many black and hispanic folks are just more comfortable in communities where they are the majority. Just sheer numbers don't tell the whole story.

[EminemsRevenge]

Since i can "pass," i did so in the seventh grade---told everyone i was Portuguese---hell, it was 1970 and there was no information highway...­I quickly found out what Malcolm X meant by "Up South"!

The amazing thing is, WE [people of color], have a rich (or maybe it's POOR) history of TRYING to understand & empathize with white folk! Personally, i fought Black anti-Semitism in my first novel, "Jew Girl"...an­d in my second novel i have Jews, Irishmen, and Black folk living in harmony AND in conflict in Rockaway, NY---in 1968---and it's NOT amazing that nothing much has changed since.

Oh, btw, i grew up in Jamaica in the early to mid Sixties...­the first REAL song [that wasn't "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or something inane like that was Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"]---*think* about it---in the land of Bob Marley some little kid's first song is by a Jewish folk singer!!!

WE, my sister and I, lived Martin Luther King's "dream" in Kingston only to come to NYC in '65 and see Bull Connor and his crew beating & hosing down kids OUR age...and whilst things today aren't as BLATANT as it was then, it's still more of the s[h]ame:(

[Pie7]

Hi, a Native Jamaican here to NYC in '92. Beautiful post and so true, but Jamaica is now different and the economic opportunity is vastly locking in this economic downturn with increase violence.

Much of the problems the writer speaks of can be contributed to the wage disparities btw the groups and the racial tension that still exist in this country. Blacks Americans would like to move forward, but white American still wants to pretend that that blacks have no reasons to complain and if only they would try harder. I say why should we (blacks) have to try harder and they (white) continue to have it easy. How is it fair that the people who build this country continues to suffer and not be allow to live their life the way the Constitution and the declaration so eloquently layout?

[Pie7]

*white Americans*

[Truthhurts60]

I guess if you don't use the N word, you aren't a racist lol.

Many of you fail to realize you are making racist arguments.
By citing cultural explanations for racial inequality, you are implicitly suggesting that inequality is due to the failure of such groups to adapt to the dominant culture. I guess saying your culture is superior is better than saying your race is, right?

[vagabondvet]

The word racist is the most disingenuous word being used in this forum. It's a conversation killer. Anyone can allege another person is being racist, and it's automatically true, without having been justified.

[Truthhurts60]

So instead of blacks being born inferior, they are born equal and become inferior due to their inferior culture, right?

[IrisBittencourt]

It seems like you have it backwards: in a country that enslaved blacks until 1863, imposed Jim Crow laws on them until 1964, excluded most blacks from service in WWI and WWII (excluding them from postwar benefits), excluded 70% of blacks from coverage under the New Deal and Fair Deal legislation, restricted and excluded black veterans from benefitting from the GI bill, ended Reconstruction 7-10 years after it started and claimed that affirmative action is reverse discrimination 7-10 years after it started, abolishing it in California and other states within the last decade, where Fox News is the most popular channel (on which Reilly openly laments the decline of white privilege)-- if you are white, then you need to demonstrate that you are NOT RACIST. The reasonable presumption is against you: unless shown otherwise, all whites are racists, and only a handful of you are anti-racist. Read Tim Wise's books. You will see the world how it really is for the first time.

[iblogleft]

It is not only racial, but ideological. We were forced to move to the south, Florida to be exact. My son is consistently ostracized by the teacher for being "different" and not respecting "authority". For some reason some of the kids, and his teacher seem to think that people from California and the north are "Yankees" and just don't belong here.

Intelligent students are bent to the will of the ignorant south, and outcast for showing any interest in learning beyond old flat myths. Sexual stereotypes are consistently upheld, and religious beliefs pushed on children whether they accept it or not. Girls are treated with the utmost respect, and boys are treated like heathens. It is no wonder the teaching is garbage here though, Florida ranks 50th in the country in financing schools, and Gov. Christ is trying to get a waiver to get stimulus money because he is funding schools at 2003 levels, about 500 million less than he is supposed too.

[victorsays]

To be honest, I wished I grew up knowing a lot of mainstream folks, that is white folks. I have never had much white friends, so I am deeply suspicious of them. They have their lives and I have mine, but since this society is majority whites, it would be nice to be friend with the majority from time to time; unfortunately, it is not I who don't want to be friends, it is white folks who would rather live in a their lilly white rich neighborhood than to "lowered" themselve.

Assimilation of minority is mostly the job of the majority. For 1 person can't invite themselve into a group with the majority of the groups approvals.

[Proxy11]

Yes. Yes. Everyone's a racist, except if you're Black, Hispanic, or Asian.

[IrisBittencourt]

Who said that Asians and Hispanics are not racists against blacks? Asians (Koreans, Chinese, Japanese) are more likely than even whites to hold anti-black views. Latinos also hold views of blacks that are more negative than whites', with the views of immigrant latinos more negative than the views of native-born Latinos. You also need to filter the results for Latinos to exclude black Latinos. Due to your ignorance of these basic facts, the jury has ruled that you are A RACIST. Congratulations and keep on enjoying that white privilege. After all, you deserve it; you earned it.

[BustMyChops]

So I guess everyone's racist except black people, but especially white people. Thanks for clearing that up.

[IrisBittencourt]

The explanation to your statistics can be expressed in two words: white flight. We also need to make sure that we are careful with our statistics: Asians are the least segregated from whites, and Latinos who identify as white are more likely to reside in white areas than Latinos who identify as black. Whites primarily flee blackness, regardless of class. Whereas 7% percent of blacks intermarry with whites, 30% of Asians and Latinos intermarry with whites. It is counterproductive and misleading for blacks to include other "minorities" in these types of comparisons.

In addition, I do not agree that is is "separate and equal." How are blacks equal to whites when blacks have 0.10 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth that whites have? No, separate and unequal still stands today, principally due to white racism in the form of white flight.
I also agree that it is not enough for kids to go to school together, as they are tracked into different programs. It is not "separate but equal" that needs to be destroyed: it is white racism, which espouses that blacks are fundamentally inferior. It is not post-racial; it is post-racist: whites need to renounce and move beyond their racism. Whites need to understand that they are either one of two things: racists or anti-racists. There is no middle ground between the two. Apathy and feigned ignorance are not excuses. If you are white, which one are you?

[danceswithtrees]

I am constantly amazed at the ones that complain about how their children get a low quality education always vote for Democrats that want to limit YOUR school choice. The teachers union has a stranglehold on education and will not allow "free choice" for inner city kids (and everywhere) to get vouchers for Charter schools. A very successful inner city school in DC was just closed because of the teachers union there.. When will minorities finally realize you are just a vote and your RIGHT for your child to get a quality education is being sold out for one of the biggest LOBBYIST IN the country the teachers union. Republicans have fought for this for decades, but you'll never hear about it here or on MSNBC.

[Truthhurts60]

Oh, this is laughable. Why would any black person vote Republican?
Because they put forth black tokens who are out of step with 90% of blacks?
Yeah, sign me up

[stevespelling]

As long as the Democrats own the black vote they will never have to give them anything meaningful. Just bad advice, some very bad leaders (like the race hustlers running their Grievance Industry for Blacks) and a few government programs that keep them dependent on Big Brother and never encourage them to become independent or think for themselves! I'm always impressed by Black Republicans. Boy that takes some real independent thinking & you become ostracized in your own community. Of course Black Republicans believe in opportunity while Black Democrats seem to always be mired and revelling in their Grievances!

[RofWH]

"...still unlikely that they would have a black or Hispanic or Asian as a neighbor"
In my opinion it depends on the socioeconomic circumstances. In wealthier neighborhoods, populated by folks with better educations, this just ain't so. It also depends, it seems, on where we are talking about. In the city in which I live, it does not seem to matter as much. People are people in this place. Maybe in places where there are fewer minorities there is more discomfort (at the very least) with having a non-European person live or work in the vicinity. Des Moines is not San Francisco or L.A.

[customgreen]

I live in a middle class neighborhood that is mostly made up of retirees. The neighborhood is changing and younger more ethnic families are moving in. The older people for the most part are very much racist in their views (privately). They have said some very backward things that I have not heard but been told. My next door neighbor is a 30 year old black woman from Hati with a young 10 year old son. She works 2 jobs to be able to keep him in a comfortable lifestyle. My youngest son and her son are the same age, and are typical playmates. They argue, do silly things, get into trouble, just like any two ten year olds. There has never been the hint of any kind of racism between the two of them and I hope there never is. Nothing is uglier than racism in all its forms.