Another black face on a white education agenda isn’t needed — justice is
Both the current education reform lobby and their progressive opponents feel a certain kinship with the Black Lives Matter movement.
They even send subtle and not so subtle overtures soliciting the group’s support.
“I would argue we are losing more black lives by ignoring an epic educational crisis,” writes education reformer and Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz in a letter comparing the educational setting in America to the killings of unarmed black men.
In “An Urgent Appeal to the Leaders of Black Lives Matter,” published by Diane Ravitch, teacher Joshua Liebner asks Black Lives Matter to take on the Super PAC’s of the one percent.
These overtures present a problem; Black Lives Matter should inform education establishments’ causes, not the other way around.
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When you’re black, white privilege looks the same from whatever clique you claim or work in. You see the one percent controlling educational movements from all angles. The public educational system wasn’t exactly serving black children before the modern day reform movement. After twenty years of reform, gaps have widened in many cases. And as it relates directly to a policy agenda put out by Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero, reformers and progressives alike are seemingly on a different page when it comes to ending the criminalization of black youth.
In Louisiana, a state bill that would have banned suspensions among young children (blacks are disproportionately affected) for low-level violations moved up to the full Senate for approval. But the bill met considerable resistance from the Louisiana Association of Principals, Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, all opposing it. The bill was ultimately watered down to ban suspensions for uniform violations. The school to prison pipeline flows through traditional and reform schools alike.
Black folk don’t need partners as much as they need justice.
I appreciate the Black Lives Matter Movement because few of us black folk actually work in organizations that can openly and brazenly place black people at the center of the work – not educational growth or gap closing. And save the reverse racism nonsense. Building self-reliant communities demand a ‘we can do this’ attitude that black folk seldom have the luxury of actualizing. Whites have a hard time wanting blacks to exercise the same luxury they readily impose. Blacks who have a “We can do this” attitude are deemed uppity, angry or non-team players.
Related: In Mississippi, best teachers don’t go where they are needed most
When you’re really working within a community, you don’t have to partner – community engagement isn’t necessary.
Black people know too well how partnering becomes co-opting. Education organizations are good for propping up black parents and children to parrot an agenda that the CEO or president should have given. Strutting a dark skinned boy on a stage to help make Another black face on a white education agenda isn't needed — justice is - The Hechinger Report: