Race in America

Barack Obama’s speech yesterday was the first time in recent memory that I’ve heard a politician attempt to address head-on the sticky, complicated realities about race relations in America. These issues impact classroom teachers every day, whether you’re teaching in a school of need or a highly resourced school, a diverse school or a segregated school. As educators, I don’t think we can talk about reducing the achievement gap, diversity in the classroom, parental involvement, or a hundred other incredibly important topics until we’re willing to talk candidly about race.

I have seen a few discussions on TEN that have tentatively started to delve into these issues, but I think you have more to say!  I hope that if you were affected by this speech as I was you’ll consider commenting or starting a discussion.  As a community of teachers dedicated to excellence, I think our voices deserve to be part of the public discourse on this issue.

Here is the full transcript, and here is a link to video of the speech (37 minutes). 

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As the U.S. becomes increasingly diverse, it is more and more important for us to address the issues of race head-on.  The statistics about the makeup of the country’s teachers (mostly white, female, and middle class--I fall into this category too) compared to an increasingly diverse student population are jarring and make it crucial that we are able to have these difficult discussions for the good of our children.

Two quotes from Obama’s speech are particularly poignant with regards to education and race:

“...your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; ... investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.”

and

“This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy.”

I teach in a school that is primarily African-American and Latino.  One of my students once asked me if I would send my own hypothetical kids to the school where I work.  I answered, “Yes, of course.” I think that if we as educators cannot answer that question in that way, then we need to reexamine why we do what we do and/or how we do what we do.