社区黑料

Updated

One way to measure the depth of a particular element of structural racism is to check the burden of proof it takes to force the privileged to notice it. Structures are where racial injustice goes to hide. That is, most of the deep, systemic biases in American life are woven so deeply into the fabric of our daily lives that they鈥檙e not only beyond questioning, they鈥檙e beyond noticing.

These innocuous, neutral-seeming rules and norms 鈥� if an officer thinks you might have a weapon, 鈥� encode of color as 鈥渇air鈥� and 鈥渘ormal.鈥�

Consider: most white Americans have only recently begun to reflect on how police wield violence towards Black men. The burden of proof? Repeated video documentation of the problem, from Jacob Blake to Eric Garner to George Floyd (et al). That鈥檚 what it took for them 鈥� for us 鈥� to even begin to see it, even as the country waited some 11 hours to find out late Tuesday afternoon that a Minneapolis jury had found ex-police officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s murder.

What about in education? What might it take to alert the white and privileged to the profound inequities tilting the daily normal operation of public schools away from providing equitable opportunities to historically marginalized families? The data aren鈥檛 lacking. We know that our schools segregate students by , , , and more. We know that this segregation facilitates a privileging mostly white school districts. Perhaps most of all, we know that our system responds to the and of privileged white families first 鈥� and all other stakeholders second.

. The study analyzed discussions of Washington, D.C. schools on a popular local discussion forum, 鈥淒C Urban Moms and Dads.鈥� The largely anonymous online forum is ubiquitous in white D.C. parents鈥� discourse 鈥� it鈥檚 widely as the place that some of the city鈥檚 of race, , and schooling. Researchers Vanessa Williamson, Jackson Gode, and Hao Sun surveyed more than 400,000 forum messages across more than a decade of discussions.

What they found was 鈥� well, you be the judge. The forum is obsessed with real estate. Mentions of being 鈥渋n-bound鈥� for a neighborhood school 鈥渁ppeared in nearly two-thirds of all conversations in the forum,鈥� that is, roughly 10,000 of the forum鈥檚 15,000 schools conversations since 2008 included discussion of how to buy guaranteed access to particular schools. 鈥淚n-bound鈥� is the common term on the forum. Not coincidentally, 鈥渢he zip codes most commonly referred to on DC Urban Moms are 20016, 20015, and 20007, the three most expensive zip codes in the District.鈥�

As a result, , 鈥淲ithin the DC Urban Moms鈥� forum much of the local school system is simply invisible; many schools are never discussed.鈥� Within the pool of schools that are visible to the forum, those that get the most attention are disproportionately white and privileged. What鈥檚 more, these schools are generally discussed in terms of what they offer 鈥� services and extracurricular options, for instance 鈥� while some of the analysis found that conversations about less-discussed schools were more likely to center on student demographics.

So: is that shocking? In this deeply progressive city, where Joe Biden won , where Black Lives Matter signs, murals, and artwork are nearly as common as street signs, white parents are still grinding their gears to ensure that there are fewer Black people in their children鈥檚 lives.

I wasn鈥檛 surprised. I鈥檓 a white, middle-class D.C. dad, which means that I am already privy to these conversations, the ones that white people have when they think they鈥檙e unaccountable. 滨鈥檝别 written for years. .

But those of us sounding this alarm haven鈥檛 broken through. Most communities seem content to leave these educational inequities intact. Remember, that鈥檚 how we know that a bias is systemic. 鈥淐hildren who live in this neighborhood get to go to this neighborhood school鈥� is innocuous enough. And yet, it lives atop a deep, broad legacy of race-driven policies that have established intergenerational wealth gaps and segregated housing and schools. In theory, anyone can buy access to a neighborhood school where housing for a two-child family runs at least $3,000 per month. In practice, that restricts access to a narrow band of wealthy 鈥� 鈥� families.

Why can鈥檛 we confront the unjust systems that facilitate the toxic privileged behavior visible in tony enclaves like DC Urban Moms? It鈥檚 because structural racism in public education runs particularly deep. Consider: if (some) white Americans have learned to decry violent police acts that endanger 鈥� or end 鈥� Black lives, it鈥檚 still the case that the current moment in racial justice activism has not yet required much new behavior from most of us. We鈥檝e been permitted to treat this as a movement exclusively about other white people.

But white supremacy is built into broader structures of American life and it鈥檚 daily reinforced by white choices. Schools are a central mechanism for its maintenance: If you are a white person who moved to a 鈥渘ice,鈥� mostly white, upper-middle class town or neighborhood 鈥渇or the schools鈥� (full of mostly white, upper-middle class children), for instance, you are following a well-trodden 鈥� but privileged 鈥� path. You are moving to a place where the are likely to be better and of a higher quality. You are weaving the thread of your family鈥檚 life into the United States鈥檚 social fabric and reinforcing its inequities.

Those comfortable choices sustain American white supremacy. They keep Americans from one another. keep American , housing, society, and life unequal and inequitable and unjust. And they are much for most white Americans to notice, acknowledge, face, unpack, and reverse than clear acts of police brutality caught on video.

Not coincidentally, white Democrats are than Black Democrats when it comes to major school integration policies, such as busing, or policies that give students to purchase through the housing market.

D.C. isn鈥檛 unique. , white, middle-class progressives are when it comes to building or public housing that might make their neighborhood schools more accessible to a wider range of diverse families. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want my kid to be an experiment,鈥� write thousands of like-minded white parents on listservs in cities across the country, as they move to the whiter, wealthier neighborhoods nearby. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 sacrifice my kid to my beliefs,鈥� write thousands more. And thus, white supremacy will persist and continue threatening Black lives until white Americans actually turn and confront the perniciously hidden systems that keep us from including Black Americans in our daily lives.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.