Oh Davin, I thought you were kidding when you said some of the great rhetoric conversations were going to happen late at night just sitting around talking with friends. Well, last night it finally happened to me on a variety of topics and I can say yes, you were right.
My friends and I were sitting around (I was of course diligently preparing my speech…aka having a minor freak out!) watching what can be debated one of the best football movies of all time Remember The Titans. While watching the movie one of my friends brought up the point that she couldn’t imagine segregation especially in school settings. This is when we told her that this is sadly what they are doing in schools all across the nation.
The school districts are not calling it segregation. No, that would be unethical and unconstitutional. Instead, they are saying by integrating students, the students lose the ability to learn about their culture and by separating them they are given that opportunity. Well, congratulations we just managed to undermine the Civil Rights Movement.
However this is unfair to students of all races. Yes, I am aware there are schools where the racial ratio is severely skewed (many rural area are often predominantly Caucasian while many intercity schools or schools with Martin Luther King Jr. associated with their name are predominately African-American…brought up by another friend), but how does further enabling this solve the problem.
We kept debating on whether this was a real issue or not. One of my friends said they discussed this in her sociology class and whenever people would comment they would say, “Well, I’m not a racist, but…(insert bogus claim).”
In addition, I am going to be a secondary high school educator (English Teacher Waaa-Hoooo!) and I think diversity is an important characteristic to a successful learning environment. You learn as much from your peers and environment as much as from your teacher/yourself, so if you’re in a class with students that are exactly the same as you what are you truly going to learn from them?
I will not even pretend to know the secret to world peace, but I know that re-segregating the schools is going to cause more harm than good.
Its funny that these conversations really do seem to happen late at night. I couldn't agree with you more though. Seperating cultures so people can learn about where they come from will just create separation in all aspects of life between different cultures. Just a little while ago everyone was supposed to become more cultured, what happened to that? It would be a lot more effective to have everyone learn about multiple cultures rather than just their own.
ReplyDeleteIt is tough to think that we may not have come as far as we like to credit ourselves. Unfortunately, I have to wonder if there will ever truly be a society that is truly inclusive to all.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think we will ever truly overcome segregation. I was discussing this with my friend the other day, when she told me a story about something that had happened in her Sociology class that day:
ReplyDeleteHer professor asked if anyone in the class made small judgments in their mind when they saw someone new, like "oh, he's chubby" or "she's asian." Honestly, we all do. It's how we classify people we don't know anything about. My friend was the only one in her class to raise her hand, while kids around her called her prejudice. However, those same kids are guaranteed to do the same thing.
We all have these little prejudices in our minds, and they're okay if we don't mistreat or exclude anyone because of them, but they make it impossible for us all to even the human playing-field and completely end segregation.