Reply to This American Life about desegregation in schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Why is there a dearth of middle class African Americans in Title 1 schools?
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Because they can't afford to fail.

This is my observation, and I am white, so if you want to call me an ignorant asshole, it's okay--maybe I am... but middle class black kids don't have the same leeway that middle class white kids do. Their parents [i]need[/i] their kids to have the best, and they work their asses off to make sure they get it. They (I hate generalizing like this, but it has been my experience in the past year that my child was in a DCPS) are much more like Asian immigrants, Indian immigrants, Russian immigrants, etc than lazy, entitled white Americans---who assume that they have room to mess up, experiment, try different learning techniques, take a week off and go to Disney (or Europe), opt out of testing, etc.

I say this as a lazy, entitled white American.

I don't freak out if my kid gets a C. I don't get a tutor. I encourage her to try harder next time, and shrug. I might try a title 1 school--and we did--but if it doesn't work, I'll flee to something progressive, not something strict. If my children don't do well on their state tests (this is what I've seen from my friends.... all affluent white people in NYC and Long Island)--the next year, I'll opt out, not drill the kids more. I know that my child will get into college, because her parents got into college. I assume this is our right.

And, for money, I know that tomorrow, if I needed to get an office job to pay the bills, my looks and my mid-atlantic English would get me one in the urban center where I live. I hate the term "white privilege," but I have to acknowledge that it does exist. It lets me be lazy. It lets my peers do things like send their kids to waldorf and not read until they are seven. And it is a bubble, just like being poor and disenfranchised is a bubble.

What I do try to do, is step outside of my bubble. Raise my kids outside of my bubble. And hope that other people, in other bubbles will do the same--have the opportunity to do the same.

We all want what's best for our kids, even if we don't always agree on what that is. [/quote]

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