England brings up some great points in Chapter One about the inequalities in our education system and a plausible solution or starting point to help our society. On page 7 she quotes Julie Landsman saying, "I always come back to the necessity for white men and women who are the leaders in this country to recognize the deep-seated inequality in our school system and in our economic structure." The solution she presents is on the same page and says, "First, we must understand that we are already dealing with the proceeds of disparity. Second, we must look at the cycle that creates ongoing inequality, and third, real teaching, infused with multicultural education, must begin." If so many people see that there are drastic differences and inequalities in our education system why aren't we seeing any serious changes and why is it that other people still think it's just a "coincidence" that there are more minorities in poorer schools?On page 8 Englands continues to explain that we must change our long held attitudes and perceptions of each other and I agree with this completely which is why it makes me wonder why people can't grasp the concept that there are very few coincidences in the world and that many things happen for a reason. If we could take these blindfolds off that we insist on using to make our worlds look pretty in pink maybe we could begin to truly make a change. Accept what's going on and take a step towards changing it but stop doubting that there is wrong in the world.
England also addresses the idea of "them and us" which I thought was amazing. We (including myself) see terrible events on television but we can't really emphatize because we've become so detatched from those around us that don't matter. When I say don't matter I mean those that don't directly affect us. Some of us care about our families, partners, friends, and others that we have some sort of daily contact with but everyone else is outside of our bubble so we can't let their negative experiences burst our perfect world. This is why it's so hard to start working towards an actual solution because those that truly have a say in this situation don't have direct contact with those that need help. I'm not saying this is everyone but how many of us can really relate to the stories that England presents in Chapter One? When I say relate I don't mean we have a friend that has a friend that has a friend who knew someone that the same thing happen to. I mean you know how it feels to experience these situations or you have a friend that's been through this. You don't need to be able to relate to make a difference but at least make a difference so that we can all begin to relate to each other. At the end of the day, wasn't that the point of integration or was it all about the resources?
England's solutions were different and a breath of fresh air because they had nothing to do with tangable resources. The main resource that she sees needed for change was us and acceptance of different cultures. It's different but worth a try! =-)
This is a link to a radio program about segregation and education. You don't have to listen to the entire show but the first twenty minutes are very interesting about different students and their experiences in their schools, what type of friends they have; Charles Ogletree (Law Professor at Harvard) and Armstrong Williams (outspoken commentator) also comment on Brown vs. Board of Education and the effects its had on not only education but also on segregation in general.
http://www.justicetalking.org/viewprogram.asp?progID=436
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2 comments:
Your "Pretty in Pink" comment was cute, but it also made me think a little more about the race/class issues. What if we all wore those blindfolds -- where everyone was pink... or where we could not see color? Would our society which has a history of oppression, then resort to more oppression by class or even geographic location? Or would we then segregate people by their customs/heritage? I guess the problem really isn't related to race, class, etc. The problem pertains to power and those who strive for the most power and what they are willing to do to achieve it. In this case, I think the "attitude shift" that was discussed by England on p. 16, could be expanded beyond the intended solution to poverty but to many of the societal injustices like those mentioned above.
(In a way, I think we all hesitate to acknowledge the power struggle because with this comes so many implications. Abuse is deeply rooted in power struggles, but many of us don't want to think about our governments, our societies, etc. abusing us, but if you look at patterns of abuse... you could apply a lot of those behaviors to the actions of the government and others who are in power.
Some of the policies that are made are done so to pacify us... to get us to "accept" their "apology" of sorts... to create that "honeymoon" phase before the tension builds again. It's hard to figure out, though, whether this lies in the extreme capitalism that has become so prevalent in our culture or if this lies in the nature of what our government has become...)
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