Andrea Charity, left, and Monique Davis march down Fayetteville Street in Raleigh on Tuesday, July 20, 2010, to protest the Wake County school board majority's decision to end the district's diversity policy.
Re-seg is on the move again in Dixie as well as in Boston and Chicago. But this time around, it's dressed up as "school reform." Wake County, N.C. is now the focus of attention and civil rights activists are once again going to jail if they have to, to stop the re-segregation of public schools.
Re-seg is on the move again in Dixie as well as in Boston and Chicago. But this time around, it's dressed up as "school reform." Wake County, N.C. is now the focus of attention and civil rights activists are once again going to jail if they have to, to stop the re-segregation of public schools.
You left New Orleans off your list... :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's a nightmare down here, that's for sure. I was present at the protest, which was incredible... about 1,000 people marched.
ReplyDeleteThen I went to the school board meeting afterward and had to sit behind a block of people wearing GOP stickers and making some of the most vile, racist comments you've ever heard. Really frustrating to see that we haven't come nearly as far as we'd like to think.
My family lives in an urban part of Raleigh that will suffer immensely under the neighborhood school model--we will go from a high-achieving, moderate poverty magnet school (65% impoverished students) to a high poverty, troubled school (98% impoverished students).
Why they won't listen to us--the people who live in the neighborhoods that will be most affected, who deal with crime and gangs and poverty every day--is beyond me. It certainly seems that they just do not care what happens to the children in these neighborhoods.
We moved into our neighborhood because we thought it would be good for our (white) children to grow up being in the minority, having friends of other colors, and attending a magnet school with quality teachers and good opportunities. But there's a big difference between growing up in that environment and growing up in one where the school is overwhelmed (150% capacity!) with at-risk, high poverty children and fighting against gang influence and failing students.
Of course, the school board is now painting parents like us as racist because we don't want our children (or anyone's children!) attending high poverty, overwhelmingly segregated schools. Apparently we believe that these students can't succeed without white children sitting next to them, or some such foolishness.
Crazy times to be living in Wake County.