Is this racist, weird, or what?

Forums: Racism, Parenting, Childcare
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I received a pamphlet in the mail today for our school district's "Parent Academy". Among the listings are:

"Reading for Life and Success: Promoting a Love of Learning in Children"
"Making the Right Choices For Your Child's Education"
"Making a Smooth Transition from Middle School to High School"
"College on the Horizon: Preparing your Child For the Future"

but mixed in are classes called:

"What My Daddy Didn't Know: The Importance of Black Men Taking a Pro-active Role in Their Children's Education"
"African-American Parent Leadership"

It just struck me as odd and I'm wondering what others think.

Thanks!

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@boomerang,

I'm torn on the first. If participation by black fathers is low compared to other races it might make sense to address the issue head on instead of hiding it inside other courses, but I think it would have to be presented correctly. I don't really have an issue with the "African American Parent Leadership" since I think it would sense to address special challenges facing minorities the same way you would want to address challenges facing ESL students, handicapped students, etc. Now in schools where African Americans are not a minority, I think it would be exclusionary and would probably offend minority white and Asian parents.

1 Reply

@engineer,

I suppose you're right. It just really left me scratching my head as to why "family leadership" would be different for different races. Fatherlessness is something not limited to black families so that was puzzling too.

These classes aren't offered through specific schools -- they're district wide -- so they aren't targeted to specific areas of town.

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I believe it's because black students are usually one parent families, and most don't finish high school. If they go to college, they drop out before graduation. I know this to be true in California.

If the school district is trying to encourage black children's parent participation in their children's studies and support, it's probably a very good idea.

Anything to try to improve black children's drop out rate from school is a good idea - in my books.

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Our school district has students from at least 10 cultural/ethnic categories.
We don't have huge differences in family financial or social status.
It would not fly to offer classes restricted to parents of a certain color.

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@boomerang,

It's called, however you can apply it, "teaching moments."

How else could this be done? We can't take the black children in a separate class to teach them what they need to know.

Obama made a promise to black people to improve the manner in which the kids are taught, to repair and improve schools, and to build new schools. I guess some of the black schools are in shambles.

That's honorable.

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@cicerone imposter,

I don't think that holds true in Portland, which has a tiny black population (7.7% according to the latest demographic information I could find). I also found this:

Quote:

Not only is Portland tiny (47,000 students, compared with 700,000 in Los Angeles), but only 43 percent of its students are poor (in Chicago, 85 percent are). A majority are white (in Philadelphia, 13 percent are). What's more, middle- and upper-income professionals in Portland do something their counterparts in Detroit, L.A. or Washington, D.C., rarely consider: They send their children to central-city public schools.

But there is one way in which our small, mostly white, heavily middle-class school system is statistically right in line with some of the grittiest urban districts in the nation: A shockingly low share of Portland's high school students earn diplomas.

As The Oregonian reported on the front page recently, just 53 percent of Portland's high school students graduate in four years.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/07/dropouts_in_portland_public_sc.html

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@Pemerson,

What do black children need to know that all other children don't?

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@PUNKEY,

I'm interested to see if it's going to fly here. I just got the pamphlet yesterday so I don't know if anyone else has bothered to look at it yet.

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The classes you listed would be seen in Black churches or Black conferences, but not in our school district.

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@boomerang,

It coud be possible that maybe the concept originated in and from the blacks,
complaining and lamenting of endemic conditions by which thay r confronted.

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@PUNKEY,

Quote:

The classes you listed would be seen in Black churches or Black conferences, but not in our school district.

I agree. I think that it is not appropriate for a school district to single out one group of students, because of their race. I think that it is an insult to those black families who are raising their children to respect the value of an education.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Fatherlessness is something not limited to black families so that was puzzling too.

It is disproportionate in the population in North America. I think it's great that Portland's making the effort to deal with the impact on the children, and to help parents who may have some cultural/community pushback to deal with.

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Quote:

"What My Daddy Didn't Know: The Importance of Black Men Taking a Pro-active Role in Their Children's Education"

IMO, if the district had changed the words "Black Men" to "fathers", it would have been much more appropriate and inclusive.

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I'm with Punkey and Phoenix on this. I think it's an important message -- for people of all races -- so why single out black families?

I found this:

Quote:

Another notable change during this period was the rise in births to unmarried women. In 2008, a record 41% of births in the United States were to unmarried women, up from 28% in 1990. The share of births that are non-marital is highest for black women (72%), followed by Hispanics (53%), whites (29%) and Asians (17%), but the increase over the past two decades has been greatest for whites—the share rose 69%.

This same article goes on to talk about prison population of black men.

http://gerardnadal.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/raceinc.jpg

I think we've all probably read reports of black men getting harsher sentences for lesser crimes but I'll have to look up statistics since I can't back it up off the top of my head.

Here's the article where those clips came from: http://gerardnadal.com/2010/05/11/growing-fatherlessness/

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I'm with Punkey and Phoenix on this.
I think it's an important message -- for people of all races -- so why single out black families?

Maybe the blacks were complaining about their own endemic circumstances ?

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As far as I know, based on my reading, what is unique to many black fathers today, is the fact that they're not married to the mothers of their children. As far as I can recall on this matter, about 70% of black babies are born today to unmarried females ( women and teens ) .

Because of this fact, the role of the black father in the parenting situation would appear to be unique and thus, should be addressed in a unique fashion.

By the way, I don't find the course schedule to be racist.

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@boomerang,

boomerang, Good article which shows occasions where white students that live in poverty also do poorly in school. However, we can also find places in the US where black students do well. I remember reading an article many years ago about a school in South Chicago in the poorest of neighborhoods where black students did very well - even when their school was underfunded.

I'm really not sure what the solutions are, but I don't think it's a bad idea to address black parents as a group in any community where they seem to do poorly in school. After all, we are talking about their children's future.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

I remember reading an article many years ago about a school in South Chicago in the poorest of neighborhoods where black students did very well - even when their school was underfunded.

Black students in Chicago high schools run by the Catholic Church always received an excllent education, had high graduation rates and moreover went on to college to become physicians, scientists, and lawyers. But, Catholic high schools charge tuition and every family can't afford to pay the amounts requested.

Why can't the Catholic method of teaching be somehow transformed to the public school environment?

1 Reply

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

so why single out black families?

you've answered your own question

boomerang wrote:

I found this:

Quote:
The share of births that are non-marital is highest for black women (72%), followed by Hispanics (53%), whites (29%) and Asians (17%), but the increase over the past two decades has been greatest for whites—the share rose 69%.

This same article goes on to talk about prison population of black men.

I think we've all probably read reports of black men getting harsher sentences for lesser crimes but I'll have to look up statistics since I can't back it up off the top of my head.

Here's the article where those clips came from: http://gerardnadal.com/2010/05/11/growing-fatherlessness/

there are differences in the community. there are of course exceptions to every rule - but there are differences that need to be addressed - remember the kerfuffle when Bill Cosby talked about it?

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Is this racist, weird, or what?

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