Monday, September 15, 2008

Some Children Are Disposable

TwitThis


Because what is happening on the streets of Harlem to black
boys and girls is also happening on all America's streets to
everybody. It's a terrible delusion to think that any part of this
republic can be safe so long as 20,000,000 members of it are
menaced as they are.

Th reality that I am trying to get at is that the humanity of this
submerged population is equal to the humanity of anyone else,
equal to yours, equal to to that of your child. I know that when
I walk into a Harlem funeral parlor and see a dead boy lying there.
I know, no matter what the social scientists say, or the liberals
say, that it is extremely unlikely that he would be in his grave
so soon if he were not black
-James Baldwin, Words of a Native Son
Playboy December 1964

People vote differently when they have skin in the game.

They MOST certainly vote differently when their children comprise
said "skin".

I had this thought in mind while reading folks rationalize why
it was "expected" for the Obama's to send their children to
private school because they are "lawyers" or the children
of a senator.


I don't have an issue with where the Obama's send their
children to school per se. I have an issue with our whole
hearted acceptance of an individualized approach to education
that clearly does a disservice to our young people (across ethnicities).

Where is our willingness to critique and reform an educational
and economic
system that has allows parents, policy makers,
and politicians to focus on "their children" and say "good luck"
to
the others.


It takes a village went out with the Jheri Curl, hunh?

Its easy to be angry but then I began to think about what
an alternate future could look like.

How different would our neighborhoods look if the police
officers had to live in the neighborhoods they served?

How would our schools look if teachers had to live in the
neighborhoods they taught in?

What if public servants had to send their children to public schools?

If the children of the well off are only those that receive a
first rate education then isn't that more of a feature of an
Aristocracy
rather than a Democracy?

All children, in this country are entitled to a first rate education
regardless as to whether their parents are senators, janitors or addicts.

I don't mean a drill and kill education. But an education that builds
critical thinkers who are content with who they are as human beings
and feel that they have a contribution to make to society.

Baldwin continues in the same essay about how the fate
of all of our children, and I would argue similar to the fate of
our global economy is tied together. He writes,
As long as my children face the future they face, and come to ruin
that they come to, your children are in danger too. They are
endangered above all by the moral apthay which pretends it isn't
happening. This does something terrible to us. Anyone who
is trying to be conscious must begin to be conscious of that apathy
and must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we've use so
long to cover it up, to lie about the way that things are.
-James Baldwin, Words of a Native Son
Playboy December 1964

5 comments:

corto said...

my opinion: desegregation ruined everything.

Model Minority said...

Blood, I usta think that too.

However, it is important to realize the gains
that a smaller, yet significant number of Black folks have achieved.

I used to go back and forth with SJ about this.

I don't think it was desegregation.

Perhaps it is integration "American Style" that is the issue.

Anonymous said...

“Where is our willingness to critique and reform an educational
and economic system that has allows parents, policy makers,
and politicians to focus on "their children" and say "good luck"
to the others”

I don’t think there has been a community approach to pertinent social and educational issues for more then a few generations in this land. I know in my lifetime its been “Get Money…F every one else” from the apex of power to those killing over crumbs

Social and Economic Stratification and other perceived epitomizes of personal success above family let alone community.

Its always comes back to a conversation I had with my granddad when I was 13 when he asked me “Why do us Black sell drugs to our own people when we know what it does?” The simple answer that I couldn’t think of at that time was during those countless illicit transactions those other black people weren’t there “people”.

When it comes to education, we all might be Americans on paper.. but some people don’t see others as there people

On your police query….I think it would be extremely rough at first…but over the course of maybe 15-20 years. the changes would be tremendous.

“How would our schools look if teachers had to live in the
neighborhoods they taught in?”

Damn….I’m not the patriotic type at all but somehow some way that just sounds Un American….. That’s to deep of a concept to reply to now tho..gotta think on that one

“If the children of the well off are only those that receive a
first rate education then isn't that more of a feature of an
Aristocracy rather than a Democracy?”

True very true…but…. I’ve chose to look at us as a as a Hypercritical Polity more then a Democracy

I enjoyed reading this and you make a great overall point. When a country sacrifices so many of its own citizens….It really is sacrificing its self upon the sword of future conflict and competition

“Perhaps it is integration "American Style" that is the issue.”

Yes

Model Minority said...

As I scrolled up and saw A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG ASSED comment, I knew it was you blood.

How you been?

M.Z. said...

I was speaking about this last year with my mom after reading that the president of our public school board sends her kids to private school.

It's almost like saying your a failure at your job, because your supposed to be governing what is going on in the schools. Not a sign of confidence.

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