Help me Edit: Response to Brookings Report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree strongly with the above post.

Jeff and other UMC parents could have headed out to Bethesda for what are academically much better schools. They stayed in DC for the diversity of experiences.

The people who are making DC schools bad are those who flee to white suburban schools (which perpetuate systemic racism by segregation of housing) not parents like Jeff who are giving DC public schools a shot.

The people living in Kent, Spring Valley and the like do not live there for the diversity of experiences. You’ve got to be kidding me. The people living in bounds for Janney, Key, Lafayette, Mann and Murch are not giving DCPS “a shot” by spending millions to live where they do to ensure their kids are guaranteed a slot in a tiny subset of the system where very few poor, black or brown kids will be in a classroom with their kids.

Most of the others are gentrifiers (don’t argue about how you’ve been here since the 90s, you are likely still a gentrifier, look at the shifting race demographics in DC proper from 1970-now. If you are white and not a DC native, you’re pretty much a gentrifier. Just own it. You probably came here for the jobs and opportunity like everyone else, gentrification is a sad side effect) who would live in in bounds to the desired schools if they could afford it but they can’t, so the play the lottery game with charter schools until they can’t anymore. They should not get a carrot for that. If they were all going to their in bounds, neighborhood school, one could make an argument that they were “giving DC public schools a shot” but that is not what is going on here. They are trying to build a system that lets them have their cake and eat it too. Live in the city, no commute, and great walkable city lifestyle, and fix the schools for their kids. Unfortunately, their arrival then raises the property values and prices out the middle class Blacks (I’m not being racist here by only calling out blacks, pre 1990, fewer than 10% of DC residents were a race other than Black or white) who have to flee to the suburbs to be able to afford to live. So as the schools get better, more and more original residents get priced out.

I'm not looking for a 'carrot' from a childless 40 year old and a young graduate of a high school that cost more than my college when it comes to my kids' educational choices. Or really, from anyone else. Regards of what you think of my motivation, my kids are at schools that are much less white than most white kids attend, nationally or in the DC area. We are doing school integration, so if we're a target, it sure makes it seem like the goal isn't school integration, it's winning some weird and largely intraracial status game where white people call out other white people for fun and profit.

It's pretty funny how personally people are taking this. Why are you so defensive?

'Why are you taking my intensely personal critique of your motivations and decisions about how to raise your children so personally?'

Why does your vigilant narcissism lead you to pink fight with random strangers on the internet to make yourself feel better about yourself? Seek help.

No one's forcing you to participate. This is voluntary. But this pattern of making an argument and then retreating to name-calling when people engage with your argument- it's why the only way you can win is in spaces where you can shut down and stigmatize other perspectives, and it's why there's such a fuss about an anonymous message board.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we’re talking past each other here.

Generally, I don’t think Brookings has to offer solutions to problems it identifies in order for its research to make accurate truth claims.

I also think they are right about what they identify here. Not universally, but more right than wrong.

I don’t expect “someone else” to solve this problem. When I recognize the dynamics they’re describing in my own life, I try to take steps to lessen them. With the climate here being what it is lately, I’m not down for describing those steps. That climate issue is worth some of your energy. It’s worse than it has been. That, more than Brookings, is going to cut into your traffic after the initial bump.

Regardless: Brookings doesn’t have to identify solutions to be identifying problems.

Talking past each other or not, we are definitely having trouble communicating. Because neither Brookings nor you propose alternative actions for DCUM posters, all you have to offer is criticism. You say that your criticism is correct. But my argument is that while our users are making choices that might not be perfect, they are still the best choices available to them. If there are better choices, what are they? You won't say and Brookings didn't say. I assume that whatever secrets you are keeping are unknown to our users, so even though better choices may secretly exist, they are unknown to our posters who are still making the best choices among the alternatives known to them.

It really seems like common sense that if you are going to criticize someone's actions, you should be able to tell them what they should do differently. Otherwise, it is not clear that you wouldn't do exactly the same thing they are doing if you were in their circumstances.

+1 I would argue, per an earlier comment upthread by Jeff, that I have learned more about systemic racism and what I can do better on this board than I ever would in that Brookings report. I was called out about 8-10 years ago by several posters on DCUM for a post I made about a neighborhood. Since then, I have read people's posts about racism with great interest, looking for new perspectives, and started reading articles and books on it. Honestly, I'm not sure that would have happened otherwise, until a much later date. That is one good thing about DCUM for those who are trying to be open to new ideas and challenge their beliefs. The Brookings authors had an agenda and shaped their work to match it. But, on the DCUM ground much more work is being done. The unfortunate part is if DCPS and other schools rely on shoddy research by Brookings and other scholars without integrity.