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Some people are asking me questions like this. I think schools that center the black experience and/or are truly representative of our multiracial nation are critical. I have never argued that integration is a few black kids going into white schools with white teachers/curriculum
I do think an important point here is that the parents interviewed are advocates, people who have the ability to exercise choice and not the parents I am writing about who have few options and are not choosing segregated/black schools but are being forced into them.
The segregated schools most black kids attend cannot send children to South Africa. They do not have middle-class black families in them. They do not even necessarily have black teachers.
Further, this tension is not new. There have always been black people who believed black-centered, segregated schools were the answer and those who believed integration was the just and best means of assuring a quality and democratic education for black children.
These tensions literally go back to the late 1700s. What is central to both is the understanding that to be a black child in this country is to face a system that does not want to educate you and does not value you and both views are seeking the best option for black kids.
Each approach comes with its advantages and disadvantages. My work is around what data and research and history show is the best scalable solution to ensure quality educational access for black children. There's certainly a difference between parents choosing seg and being forced
It might shock white people to know that most black parents -- particularly low-income ones -- aren't thinking about integration. They want what black parents have always wanted -- a quality education for their children.
The problem is that in a country built on racial caste, black segregation always comes with a cost. It has never been equal, even when we choose it.
Last thought -- just as white kids go into Spanish or Chinese immersion schools, white kids can and should go into Afrocentric schools. The notion that being a black-centered school means it must be racially segregated is actually racial caste.
As if black kids are the only kids who benefit from learning about our history and culture. If more non-black kids took a black-centered curriculum it would make it much harder to believe in their own superiority. Trust.
