Incredible journalism - thanks for researching, reporting, writing & sharing - look forward to reading the update in a few years.
Journalism so enlightening that I have to create a thread - nytimes.com/2016/06/12/mag…
'@nhannahjones on the impact of being schooled in integrated schools starting in the 1980's -- "I remember those years as emotionally and socially fraught, but also as academically stimulating and world-expanding." 
No greater example of White Privilege than being able to carefully curate integration in the Public School systems in our country.
"I understood that so much of school segregation is structural — a result of decades of housing discrimination, of political calculations and the machinations of policy makers, of simple inertia."
"But I also believed that it is the choices of individual parents that uphold the system, and I was determined not to do what I’d seen so many others do when their values about integration collided with the reality of where to send their own children to school."
This sentence by @nhannahjones strikes a chord for a lot of parents when it comes to making decisions for their children "There is nothing harder than navigating our nation’s racial legacy in this country"
“Are we experimenting with our child based on our idealism about public schools?” he asked. “Are we putting her at a disadvantage?” but @nhannahjones knew this - "I knew that we would be able to make up for Najya anything the school was lacking."
This finding is an eye-opener - "In 2014, the Brookings Institution found that black children are particularly vulnerable to downward mobility — nearly seven of 10 black children born into middle-income families don’t maintain that income level as adults."
Leadership matters - Principal Davenport "Soft of voice but steely in character, she rejected the spare educational orthodoxy often reserved for poor black and brown children that strips away everything that makes school joyous in order to focus solely on improving test scores."
'@nhannahjones on Brown vs. Board - "For many white Americans, millions of black and Latino children attending segregated schools may seem like a throwback to another era, a problem we solved long ago. And legally, we did. In 1954,.......... BUT"
There's always a BUT - "But while Brown v. Board targeted segregation by state law, we have proved largely unwilling to address segregation that is maintained by other means, resulting from the nation’s long and racist history." WHAT ARE THOSE "OTHER MEANS?" Do you know?
When people think about the significance of Brown vs. Board of Education they tend to think of it's impact on the South; but it was a nationwide problem in 1954 and it remains one to this day.
By the mid-’60s, there were few signs of integration in New York’s schools. In fact, the number of segregated junior-high schools in the city had quadrupled by 1964.
"By 1973, 91 percent of black children in the former Confederate and border states attended school with white children."
Do as I say, not as I do!
Tricky Dick gets elected President in 1968 - @nhannahjones says around that time "our nation began it's retreat from integration" - In my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC integration of the school system was just gearing up around this time wsfcs.k12.nc.us/site/Default.a…
Another great example of why Presidential elections matter. Nixon's ability to stack the Supreme Court "limited the reach of Brown" vs. Board of Education.
Ronald Reagan kept the Nixon ball rolling in limiting the impact of Brown. Reagan not @realDonaldTrump originated "{Let's} Make America Great Again." What America was Ronald Reagan talking about in the 1980's & what America is Trump talking about now? Such a B.S. slogan!
By 1988, school integration in the USA had reached its peak & the achievement gap between black & white students was at its lowest point since the government began collecting data. The difference in black and white reading scores fell to half what it was in 1971.
The power of Integration.
"But integration as a constitutional mandate, as justice for black and Latino children, as a moral righting of past wrongs, is no longer our country’s stated goal. The Supreme Court has effectively sided with Reagan."
"Legally and culturally, we’ve come to accept segregation once again. Today, across the country, black children are more segregated than they have been at any point in nearly half a century."
"Intentional integration almost never occurs unless it’s in the interests of white students."
Love the point @nhannahjones makes on "diversity." @tomhughes123 recently said "diversity alone is not a value that leads to doing good things." Emphasis has to be on building a community vs. just having diversity in our midst!
“The moral vision behind Brown v. Board of Education is dead” @RitchieTorres -- Integration, he says, is seen as “something that would be nice to have but not something we need to create a more equitable society."
"It had rarely been clearer to me how segregation and integration, at their core, are about power and who gets access to it." @nhannahjones
“I cannot see how the Negro will totally be liberated from the crushing weight of poor education, squalid housing and economic strangulation until he is integrated, with power, into every level of American life.” Martin Luther King (1967)
"While suburban parents, who are mostly white, say they are selecting schools based on test scores, the racial makeup of a school actually plays a larger role in their school decisions, according to a 2009 study published in The American Journal of Education."
"It was hard not to be skeptical about the department’s plan. New York, like many deeply segregated cities, has a terrible track record of maintaining racial balance in formerly underenrolled segregated schools once white families come in." @nhannahjones
“It could be that the political establishment is willfully blind to the impact of racial segregation and has led themselves to believe that we can close the achievement gap without desegregating our school system. (cont)
At worst it’s a lie; at best it’s a delusion.” He continued, “The scandal is not that we are failing to achieve diversity. The scandal is we are not even trying.” @RitchieTorres
'@nhannahjones conducting a masterclass on the impact of "white affirmative action" programs in housing loans by FHA in the 1960's - Housing discrimination was legal until 1968. Even if black Americans managed to secure home loans, many homes were off-limits....
Leadership does matter & one person can make a tremendous difference but changes must be made systematically and structurally to achieve long lasting success that can endure attrition.
White People expecting white privilege - "Some white Dumbo parents had told Davenport that they’d be willing to enroll their children only if she agreed to put the new students all together in their own classroom. Farragut parents feared their children would be marginalized."
"But the decision felt more like a victory for the status quo. This rezoning did not occur because it was in the best interests of P.S. 307’s black and Latino children, but because it served the interests of the wealthy, white parents of Brooklyn Heights."
“My kid’s not an experiment.” Others are struggling over what to do. By allowing such vast disparities between public schools — racially, socioeconomically and academically — this city has made integration the hardest choice.
"True integration, true equality, requires a surrendering of advantage, and when it comes to our own children, that can feel almost unnatural. Najya’s first two years in public school helped me understand this better than I ever had before." @nhannahjones
Even Kenneth Clark, the psychologist whose research showed the debilitating effects of segregation on black children, chose not to enroll his children in the segregated schools he was fighting against. “My children,” he said, “only have one life.”
"But so do the children relegated to this city’s segregated schools. They have only one life, too." Thank You @nhannahjones - I read the comments section & this article has helped young parents make decisions on their children's schooling that can positively impact a community.
Would love @nhannahjones to comment on these critiques of her article
@nhannahjones Agree or disagree with "Working Mama" assessment of what the most important issues are in choosing a school for your child?
@nhannahjones Preach Steve!
@nhannahjones A.T. Cleary's vision is pretty clear!
@nhannahjones Someone who understands life - "there are many paths to success"
@nhannahjones It's complicated when it comes to schooling - Blessed to have received a quality education throughout my life. A child of the segregated South who was educated in an all-black environment (Catholic School) until 9th grade - Both parents were educators.
Please unroll @threadreaderapp
