Oh, and does it bear mentioning, all without having to leave the safety of their suburban home. Because the black lady comes to them.
Of course it’s cringeworthy, but Velocity is griping about it in response to urbanredneck’s post griping about liberals complaining about what other people are doing, if I’m understanding what he’s saying.
Well, to the extent that what he quoted is a thing that happens in white liberal suburbs, it’s worth calling out.
As to trying to make sense of what @urbanredneck2 means, ‘racism’ is usually the most likely explanation.
Give us a synopsis or a transcription… nobody’s got the time to listen to podcasts.
And for the school funding thing… my school district seems to have some interesting stuff going on- my kids go to a magnet school that’s 40% black, 25% hispanic, and about 25% white (and 10% mixed race, asian, etc…). The local schools are zoned to be “neighborhood schools”, meaning that the kids who live near the school go there, and the district doesn’t do a lot of busing, and what they do isn’t very far.
In practice, this means that there are 2-3 overwhelmingly white, upper middle class elementary schools that are literally model schools, with huge amounts of PTA money (hundreds of thousands of dollars), and there are, less than two miles away, poor, predominantly black schools with maybe hundreds of dollars of money the PTA raised.
What’s more interesting is that the all-white schools are well kept, up to date, etc… while the black ones are less so. Special needs children are far better taken care of at the all white schools. All this with the same funding, same training, same maintenance men, etc…
It appears to be, as best as I can tell, a question of advocacy. The white parents pitch absolute shit-fits at the school board meetings, bombard the administration with demands to fix stuff, etc… while the black/hispanic parents do not. And the white parents donate a LOT of money to their PTAs, while the minority parents do not. So even within a district, and within a 2 mile radius, you get distinct differences based on the way the PARENTS behave relative to the district and principals.
Interestingly, one of my sons has some special needs, and my wife has got great traction in getting that stuff at our magnet school by pointing out that MH elementary has service X, or service Y, or whatever- why doesn’t HP? They just about fall all over themselves making sure they’re not favoring the white school when someone points it out like that.
It’s not always funding; sometimes it’s more interesting. But ultimately, nobody should be asking anyone to sacrifice their children’s futures at the altar of social justice so someone else’s kids can get a leg up. That’s not going to get ANY traction whatsoever, and isn’t fair to the children either.
As I said, it’s a show about how “nice white parents” can actually worsen the education received in schools. As I also said, I’ve only heard the first two installments so I don’t know where the full story goes.
I get that some people don’t have time for podcasts; I never seek them out myself (this one was on NPR while I was deep cleaning my kitchen, which is why I heard it). It was just a recommendation, not a command.
I don’t want to literally summarize the podcast because some people might want to hear it, and there is actually an unfolding story that I don’t want to spoil. Suffice it to say that there is a public middle school in NYC, the School for International Studies (SIS) that is struggling for lack of enrollment; students are almost entirely persons of color (Hispanic, Black). A large contingent of well-off white parents swoops in, organized by a parent, Ron, who by profession is also a fundraiser for non-profits. The “best” schools are bursting at the seams and he gets the bright idea that a large group of families could jointly decide to enroll in SIS, bringing with their numbers the resources that will help the school achieve the standards they’d like to see for their kids. As a professional fundraiser, Ron throws himself wholeheartedly into raising funds for creating a new program for the school.
Let’s just say that, two episodes in, it’s not going well. We will see where the tale ends up, but at the moment, while I know Ron means extremely well and is anything but deliberately evil, as far as I can tell he is completely clueless and did everything wrong from the moment he decided to raise funds for the school.
Regarding a transcript, I have no idea. My guess is that there isn’t yet one, since the podcast is being newly broadcast.
To repeat, I really do recommend the podcast. If you don’t already think, as I do, that a lot of wealthy white liberalism is, however unintentionally, supremely condescending, it will show you how it can be. If you already feel that way, it will confirm that you are, at least sometimes, correct.
I can totally see how things might go sideways if some wealthy white liberals decided to white-knight it for a poor minority school. That IS super-condescending by nature.
That’s not exactly how I’d characterize what happened at SIS, but yeah, close enough.
From what I have read the problem is not white knighting but that they want to change the focus of the school. The new parents make the school a french immersion and International Baccalaureate school. There was also a controversy about whether kids from french immersion elementary school should get automatically enrolled.
Well, the actual good white liberals will know it’s not all about them. You do not need a #NotAllGoodwhiteliberals because that is or should be obvious and is beside the point.
It does bring to mind the complaint often heard from the Minority Communities that they should not be the ones having to tell the Dominant Group what the inequities are all about.
OTOH, if they have found an actual paying market for it… well, good for them. Don’t leave money on the table.
On schools and racial segregation and de-segregation.
“Good” white people are often surprised when their message comes across as “a black kid cannot learn unless they are sitting in a classroom next to a white kid”.
And also “all black schools cannot possibly succeed”.
Just to be clear, those are not the messages (so far) of the podcast I recommended. Again, I don’t want to spoil the story, but the white parents don’t seem prone to the messages you posted. What they DO seem is (a) blind to the value of multiculturalism that doesn’t fit their narrow definitions of “cultural” and (b) breathtakingly lacking in common sense when it comes to understanding how they might launch an inclusive campaign.
It’s less about whether they believe Black kids can learn, and more about imposing their own assumptions regarding what is worth learning.
Introducing “Nice White Parents,” a New Podcast from Serial Productions | The New York Times Company
I see that the first episode also ran on This American Life podcast this week - high praise indeed.
Does that even make sense? I’d argue that members of the dominant group are by default, somewhat blinded to the existence of inequities. I mean, if you’re part of the dominant group, your not-ill-intentioned assumption is that what you experience is the generic default experience. How would you have any idea what it’s like for other groups? And why is it your obligation to track that down?
Seems to me that it’s more the non-dominant groups’ responsibility to identify and quantify those differences, as they’re in the best position to do so, and have the most motivation. But it’s the dominant group’s obligation to recognize and rectify those inequities as much as possible.
bump, to be fair, having every POC, LGBTQ person, immigrant, member of a religion, etc. be worried s/he’ll be drafted to serve as spokesman and educator, is exhausting. And seeing that many people still in this year need to look at someone in the face, testifying personally top them, can be frustrating. So like I said, if someone can at least find a way to get paid for it, more power to her.
For sure you know that at this board “you should really invest an hour in listening/watching this” is not always a welcome invitation. Part of the culture, I suppose. Now, if you just feel you can’t do it justice in summary that’s a fair call.
My quick take on Episode One, it is the back story: in the 60s, when the proposal comes up to develop a new school, a number of GWP sought, and the School Board agreed, to try and create an ideal integrated school, while what the people from the black/latino side of the neighborhood wanted was just A Good School for the community. In the end neither side quite got what they wanted, most if not all of the kids of the GWP who lobbied for the “ideal” school ended up not going there (many to private school) and the POC parents correctly foretold that it would still be a de facto majority-POC school. The apparent takeaway was that the GWP/Board were blinded by the idea of the new school building “harmony” and diversity as per se values and engaged in “if you build(teach) it they will come” thinking, w/o really listening to the POC-community parents about what they wanted,
So what is worth learning that would be different for the white folks as it is for the black folks? I mean we all need the reading, riting, and rithmetic, right? Don’t those requirements come from the State?
It’s all well and good to blame our racist society on rednecks and capitalism. And if one is not a redneck republican one might feel a bit smug that one is part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Paternalistic racism among “good white people” is rampant. Oh the poor people of color, they need my help. I will help the poor people of color from the comfort of my white privalaged enviroment.
But, put some section 8 housing up in the suburbs? Ok, lets nationalize education. lets give every school district the same amount of money per student? Let’s let birdwatchers call us out for not having a dog on leash? Don’t wanna live in the inner city? why not? great bargains on housing to be had in the inner city. you could double your square footage? why ya suppose “good white people” don’t do that? Well, due to 400 years of racism, people of color live in poverty, and there is a corelation between poverty and crime. Which is another way of saying blacks neighborhoods are full of crime.
I’m not racist. I voted for Obama
This is the first I’ve heard of inner city housing being more spacious than suburban/rural housing. I guess population density isn’t actually real.
For myself I don’t think I care who lives in my neighborhood - but damned if I’m not tired of sharing walls and roofs/floors with other people. Because I live in an apartment I unplugged my subwoofer to be a good neighbor, and call my upstairs neighbor’s dog “Thunder” because the massive thing runs back and forth over and over while I’m working. So if wanting to live in a single family home rather than an apartment makes me a racist, fine, I’ll be a racist, if that’s what it takes.
And I think the fact that schools get variable funding due to property taxes should be declared illegal at the federal level. Stop that shit, and if that means that suburban and ‘white’ schools get their funds slashed to level the waters then so be it. That way if well-off people want to put more money in the schools in their area then the rising tide will lift all boats.
I’m sure it varies by city, but round these parts there are some rather large homes built early 1900s. Some are in white areas and cost 500,000 some aren’t and need some work and you get it lots cheaper. Yards and garage too.
South Central Los Angeles has some lovely little houses. Same ones as West LA. There’s about a million dollar difference in price though. Location. Location. Location. Why do you suppose West LA “good white people” choose not to buy in South Central? Same school district even.
wait, what? Is that the same podcast? The stuff I heard was all about SIS, not the history you describe.