This week we have been learning about the issues of segregation and lack of diversity in New York City Schools. It was shocking for me to find out that New York state has the most segregated schools in the country. Furthermore, it shocks me to learn that the integration of students of all race is still a problem in New York City schools. The two readings, “Does the Negro need Separate Schools?” by W.E.B. Du Bois, and “Why Our Schools Are Segregated” by Richard Rothstein, provide contrasting views on the same argument. Du Bois argues that blacks don’t necessarily need integration with whites; what blacks need is more funding for their schools, so that the blacks and whites could be separate but equal. On the other hand, Rothstein argues that integration is necessary in order for blacks to be given more opportunities. The two contrasting views on segregation and integration provide interesting arguments.
Du Bois makes the appealing argument that school integration is not beneficial for blacks because the people in predominantly white institutions don’t treat blacks right. I believe Du Bois accurately writes that “what [the negro] needs more than separate schools is a firm and unshakable belief that twelve million American Negros have the inborn capacity to accomplish just as much as any nation of twelve million anywhere in the world ever accomplished, and that is not because they are Negroes but because they are human” (p333). This line is important because it emphasizes that blacks are humans just like whites and every other race; however, blacks are not treated fairly and cannot strive towards a higher education when they are in an environment where they are looked down upon. With more funding, schools that are predominantly black will be able to reach their full potential because they will have the support of each other and their peers.
Rothstein believes that integration is the key to increasing opportunities for black students in society. Rothstein highlights that segregation is the result of government action and that we are responsible. With low-income housing in predominantly black areas, it is harder for blacks to be integrated into middle-class neighborhoods that are predominantly white. In addition, the education of the children’s parents plays a huge role as well. Rothstein argues that with less educated and literate parents, children miss out on early exposure to education, thus “classrooms fill with students who come to school less ready to learn, teachers must focus more on discipline and less on learning” (p51). Rothstein believes that integrating theses troubled students with privileged students could help close the learning gap so that the less-privileged could benefit more.
Both readings relate to what we have been discussing in class, specifically, the readings related to the article “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” by Nicole Hannah-Jones, because these are all things to think about when choosing a school for a child. It has been proven that less-priviledged black students have benefited a lot from attending predominantly white, privileged schools; however, it has also been proven that with the right resources, predominantly black schools can thrive as well. At this point, students of every race and background should be able to succeed at any school, and integrating students should not be a problem.
Thanks, Asimina. I like how you drew from previous readings as well as those assigned for this week. So how do we move to what SHOULD be from today’s reality?
Assigning these two readings to be read in succession was an interesting choice because they both recognize the disadvantages Black students face in America, but almost 80 years apart. Both articles recognize the same goal of advancing the disparaged state of Black education in America, but offer different opinions on how to do so based on the atmosphere of the time period the articles were written in.
Du Bois argued that Black children wouldn’t receive a sufficient education if they attended a majority white school. His essay was published in 1935, at a time where “separate but equal” institutions were still commonplace and tensions between Black and white Americans were very high. Black students in integrated schools were limited because of racism they faced. This is a point Professor Kafka brought up when she asked, “What kind of education would you give your child to prove a point?” Du Bois didn’t think Black students deserved to be treated like “experiments” in integrated schools, and that instead the focus should be on raising the quality of Black schools by securing them with more funding until racial tensions in America calmed down. I like the quote you pulled from Du Bois, and it reminds me of the Malcolm X quote that prefaced another reading from this class: “We are fighting for recognition as free humans in this society.” In integrated schools in 1935, Black students had no recognition, and their best chance for this was in securing funding for Black institutions.
Rothstein’s excerpt was published in 2013, in a post-Brown v. Board America that declared “separate but equal” schools unconstitutional. However, segregated schools still exist, and limit the opportunities of Black children. Modern segregation exists because of government action, not private decisions of individual families. Rothstein stresses the importance of integrating schools by quoting numerous studies that suggest segregated schools limit the opportunity of Black students; you quoted a few of these in your post.
School segregation can also be considered by socioeconomic standing of the student population. Growing up in poverty deflates student achievement, and there are schools where poverty is concentrated. This suppresses academic achievement. Poverty and race overlap, and Black families are more likely to live in poverty. Still, white families in poverty are more likely to go to middle class schools. Integration would alleviate these effects of years of government mandated segregation and increase the success of all students.
Both arguments are made with the acknowledgement of America’s flaws and focus on how to best improve the education of Black students despite the country’s racism. Their relevance to the time period shows how the issue of school segregation has shifted over time, and how our responses to the issue need to shift so we can make progress.
You make an interesting point at the end of your response – “At this point, students of every race and background should be able to succeed at any school, and integrating students should not be a problem.” This makes me wonder if the cause of schools doing poorly is primarily due to funding or segregation. Your statement, in addition to the discussion we had in class on Wednesday, trying to define what segregated schools are, is making me wonder what the real issue is here? Is it funding, is it the neighborhoods school are in, zoning, funding, people’s opinions and stereotypes of other people not like them, people of the past’s decisions with school policy, the peers of students, the staff of a school or is it a combination of everything?
W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Does the Negro need Separate Schools” argues that they in fact, do not need separate schools, but what they do need, or needed at the time, was role models. Du Bois argued that educated black scholars should be teaching the black students. They would be their role models and provide them someone to look up to. Here – the case is role models within the school staff. Schools we have read about before, such as P.S. 307 in “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City,” by Nicole Hannah-Jones, had exceptional staff and a principal who set a great example for her students, yet the parents of P.S. 8 disagreed. If all it took were role models, than this is not exemplified in modern day. I think it also involves people’s prejudices and stereotypes of others different from them, which was another one of Du Bois’s arguments.
Richard Rothstein’s “Why Our Schools are Segregated” argues that schools should definitely be integrated because black students perform higher this way. This article focuses more on the positive influence privileged peers have on the black student’s classroom experience. The main issue brought up here is the peers of the black students.
I concur with Du Bois’s point that education is crucial in the success of the African American people. In the mid-1900s, blacks were not getting a good education whether they were in all black schools or integrated institutions. At white schools, they were ridiculed and put through immense emotional stress. This is not what children should have to go through in order to learn. As Asiminah mentions, Du Bois goes on to talk about the inferiority complex that blacks have developed in regards to not only the quality of their schools, but also their own potential for success (333). In order for black students to thrive in the world, they need to understand that they are highly capable of doing so.
However, I do not believe that either segregation of black students for the purpose of improving self-esteem or integration for the purpose of increasing black opportunity as Rothstein suggests, are the right answers for this problem. I believe that Pamela Montalbano’s argument in “Why the goal cannot be school integration” best explains why neither of these scenarios will work if they continue to be implemented in the same way that they have been for the last sixty-four years. According to Pamela, policymakers of today have confused methods with objectives. She states, “The fact is, desegregation and then integration became terms owned and applied through a lens of Black inferiority. Even today, we talk about integration as though it’s for the benefit of those less fortunate.” Rather than elected officials focusing on integration to satisfy a white superiority complex, diversity curriculum should be implemented in schools across the country in order to spread cultural tolerance and an understanding that people of all races are equally as important.
I agree with Kiki when she says that Asiminah’s statement: “At this point, students of every race and background should be able to succeed at any school…” is interesting. This sentence is brief but extremely powerful. It reminds me of Steve Rivkin’s article on desegregation, where he argues that a rise in Hispanic and Asian student enrollment since 1968 has caused a decline in interaction between white and black students. This accusatory statement is rather alarming since Hispanic and Asian students are also often marginalized. The issue of segregation in our school systems is not only a struggle between blacks and whites. Other communities of people who come from a wide variety of countries and races with different intellectual abilities are also segregated in New York City schools. This is a major issue. Sixty-four years have passed since the Brown v. Board of Education court case.
Furthermore, we should no longer be concerned with integration. Rather, we should make sure that our students are getting a holistic education that teaches them to appreciate cultural diversity, no matter what school they attend. Doing so will not only decrease stigma for minority races but will also start to build a society that is tolerant of others so that people of all walks of life know that their thoughts and dreams are valuable.
THis is a wonderful dialogue. You all raise great points and pull from the readings and class discussions to do so. We are still left with this thorny question, which hopefully we will get a few moments in class to discuss: What do we mean by segregation, and if desegregation or integration is the answer, as Rothstein maintains, why? Asked another way, what problem will school desegregation solve, and how?