But here’s the important part: It blocked the interdistrict busing plan. The Court said that unless the district lines were drawn with racist intent, the suburban districts did not have to integrate among each other or with Detroit.
It's so frustrating to read this because I interpreted this part of the article as, the only way to prove this is to see if people are racist. But, it's not just looking at this situation in a racial matter, but it's seeing a divide of social class as well.
"I call it a form of destructive localism. People who are fortunate enough to form utopias do so on the backs of other folks who have been excluded."
And then where does this lead for people who are working class and students who have guardians/parents who are working class?
And it’s not just Jefferson County. Since 2000, 70 other communities have tried to secede from their district, according to the recent EdBuild report. Two-thirds of those of those secession attempts have been successful, and most of the other cases are still ongoing. Sibilia points out that some of these secession efforts are logical, like the one in California’s San Fernando Valley. But many of the proposed school borders are along socioeconomic lines, and they would further isolate poor children in segregated schools.
I specifically asked my partner if this is present in the Bay Area (he's from Pittsburg, California), and he's told me to look up Piedmont, California. I've learned that Piedmont is surrounded by Oakland, in separation of, possibly, race and social class. I've realized that this is an issue not just present in the South.
“More than one-fifth of white students attend preschool programs that are almost entirely white, and the typical black or Hispanic preschool student attends a school where over half of the students are from his or her same race.” Socioeconomic gaps parallel racial divides: the whitest classrooms tended to be more affluent, fewer than a fifth of racially/ethnically mixed classrooms “had either middle-class or higher-income students.”
There's more of a divide of white students and non-white students across the US. What should also be considered is social class; a majority of white students are coming from affluent backgrounds and a majority of black and Latinx students are coming from working class backgrounds.
This is socially challenging but necessary work for correcting the damage of segregation and bring real restoration to impacted communities. Deeper investments are needed in building a culturally aware, diverse teaching workforce, including raising working conditions and community engagement in preschool programs.
I feel like people are aware that this plea of this specific aspect of education is needed, but nothing has been done to address this need. But, when longing to address this plea in education, one has to consider how long segregation has happened and what are the complexities of trying to dismantle it in education.
New research on subconscious bias suggests that even preschool teachers racially profile, treating black children with more suspicion; sadly, black boys are “precriminalized” before even learning their ABCs.
I currently work at a head start in Oakland, as a teacher's assistant, and immediately reflected on my own work ethic, based on how I treat students of color. The head start I work at, however, is mainly ran by people of color, and the majority of the students are coming from various backgrounds (Southeast Asian, Latinx, and African American communities), and student assistants, or Americorp members, are trained to understand and take note of their subconscious biases. But it's made me think: what other head starts and preschools are not like mine and how many, across the US, are behind on informing/training their teachers about their subconscious biases?