Should race be a factor in public school admissions?
35 Comments
Linda said:
No I dont think that Race should be a factor in deciding who should be allowed into a school. As a mother I try hard to teach my son that the color of a person's skin does not reflet the type of person he/she is. Getting into a Public School based on the color of your skin is wrong. It should be based on their over all grade avarage. When a Child makes friends in a school and they are not allowed to attend the same school as their friends because of the color of their skin, it can and will create social problems for that child and cause stress which could undermine their learning process.
bruno said:
no. reverse discrimination is all to pervasive already.
ginabnb said:
NO I DONT THINK RACE SHOULD BE AN ISSUE, IM A 30 YEAR OLD MOTHER AND WIFE, AND DAILY THERE ARE RACE ISSUES: IN THE NEWS, AT HOME, AT WORK, AND SOMETIMES DURING RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES. THE ISSUES THAT WE SHOULD BE CONCERNING OURSELVES WITH SHOULD BE ' WHEN OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR AGE, WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SOCIALIZE WITH THEIR NIEGHBORS IN A MANNER THAT WE HAVE YET TO DISCOVER'. WE ARE HARMING OUR KIDS GROWTH LEVEL IF WE DENY INTERGRATION.
Don said:
My first reaction is definitely No. I remember when I entered the police academy; we had one African American who failed our first three tests. The reason? He couldn't read! I know he didn't pass the civil service exam to get in. I think race should be not be used. It promotes the division of American into them and us. Instead, individual ability should be a factor. If a child is lacking, then they should be put in specialized programs to bring them up to speed. But skin color? That's just plain stupid and it promotes the very thing its allegedly designed to alleviate. Racism
Anonymous said:
NO. I am tired of reverse discrimination,
I'm for neighborhood schools. If need be,
bring the quality of education up - not move the kids everywhere via bus.
Vince Booys said:
Racism should be outlawed. Yet, race shóuld be a factor in attempting that end.
Race should be a factor as much as snake venom is a factor in counter-balancing the venom first inflicted by a poisonous snake in the first place! Without it the victim parishes!
This society and the world for that matter has been inflicted with the venom of racism for about 300 years since colonization was dreamt up - soon after the establishment of the Enlightenment project in Western Europe.
In terms of the Enlightenment all the colonial powers started out from Western Europe to colonize the now Developing World, the New World (aka. the settler populated U.S.A. which became a world power along with Western Europe as a result of a gross human rights injustice, namely slavery and the religation of the domestic population to Bantustans). We all know that the colonial exploitation economically and otherwise has the Third World permanently on it's back!
Racism played a huge role in economical inequality Globally.
One may ask how racism systematically religated some to a lifetime of want. It definitely did not do so other than systemycally, so that it innocently started out from a relatively small sector of the global population who perceived of themselves as having the "light of reason" as opposed to those (outside Western Europe) "in the darkness of ignorance" - to borrow from Rene Descartes who believed that the Enlightenment would [free 'man' from the darkness of ignorance].
Well; some of the the colonizing agents, aka. Hudson Bay Company, Dutch and British East India Companies and others, proceeded to economically exploit those cultures they came into contact with and didn't see them as their equal. For that reason the colonizers saw themselves as of the "light"; hence White and the rest was color-coded: Africa - Black; Asia - Yellow; Native Americans - Red. That's how racism was systematically injected into the conscousness of the West and beyond!
Only in the 1960's - along came MLK and woke the West up to the blight of racism! Now the Seattle Public School system wants to turn around - less than 50 years after the civil rights era and insinuate that what MLK was attempting is Racist!!!
Shame on Seattle Public Schools and shame on the USA Supreme Court if it does not uphold that injunction by MLK to bring about a levelling of the social playing-field - ridding it of racism.
Race Matters as it does despite Innitiative 200 that got rid of Affirmative Action!
End selfishness and ignorance now!
Tara said:
Race should never be a factor in the education of our children. We all have brains to think with, we all have ears to hear with, we all have hands to hold a pencil with, we all have feet to walk to school with, and we all have eyes to see the words on the chalk board with. Skin color or ethincal background has nothing to do with education. We all learn the same things, so what's the problem here?
me said:
I think that was a bad decision by the school district. It should be who has the best grades and desire to be there not just to allow the kids to be exposed to something different. I am sick and tired of white people being discriminated against!! This is america and if you are a citizen here then we should all have equal rights, regardless off anything!!
Daniel M. Ball said:
If our school districts placed more emphasis on educating the children they HAVE, and less on what color those children are, we would have educated young people instead of ignorant hoodlums.
It is, of course, easier to spend resources and effort playing the race game, than it is to actually
EDUCATE. Washington's education quality has lagged behind most of the country for more than fifteen years (That I know of, it was 43rd in the nation when I graduated from High School in 1991), and the recent WASL scores prove the point better than anything else-our education administrators are more interested in what the ethnic backgrounds are, than teaching.
How this ever got to such a point of ridiculous that it's in front of the Supreme Court is, frankly, obscene. Court cases cost money, and money is what School Districts are constantly looking for... is that bond issue going to textbooks, or Law-books?
Using race as a qualification factor causes racial tentions.
Students should be aware of the racial differences, but they should be more concerened about their education.
Education should never be about "where my friends go" (to school) and whether or not there are people there of a different race. I do not send my children to school to make friends and notice if someone is of a different race, I send them to school to get an education.
We are a race conscious people, but we need realize that we are all JUST PEOPLE.
Troy E Bouchard
Dan Luthi said:
NO, race should not be a factor in school policy of any kind for any reason.
Jerome said:
Yes, Because while this country is at war and in the past, race mattered and if an American does not represent the red, white and blue their considered UNAmerican. In other words, African Americans can fight for this country in a war. But, can not have the same ammenities as a white person in an educational system. So, again! Yes, race does matter and is a factor. By the way, I did 20yrs of military service and retired USN.
David said:
No, race should not be a factor. Apart from teaching children that the color of their skin is a factor, it is also hiding another issue: if the reasoning is to give a less advantaged child a break, then the real fix should be to properly fund ALL schools regardless of their geographic location or demographics of the student population. Then the advantages would be evenly distributed. The level of education of our children today is intimately tied into the quality of our civilization tomorrow, so education is a proper investment for our tax dollars.
Don said:
Race should never be an issue in decision involving government or public, or life in general.
The only time I can see race as being an issue is in determining what level of sunblock to apply. Maybe not even then.
As far as the school issue use distance from home, scholastic achievement, or flip a coin.
Brian from Tri-Cities said:
Absolutely not!
Jackie said:
I dont think schools should be seperated by race. Sice most kids around my age enjoy there friends that they know and what ever there religon is. This is starting to be like when how our lives used to be before when schools were seperated by color. It is really confusing but it is realy stupid to make our schools to only take one type of race and not another.
Maura said:
Race should not be a factor in schools. if that is the case then we should discriminate against people who have blonde and brunette hair. Education should be open to anyone who is willing to learn. If someone wants to learn then let them learn. There are enough people that are dumb in this country and we dont need more so why tell people they cant go to a certain school for something they cant change. I thought we had grown more then this. It makes me sad to hear of this story in the news.
Dan Ball said:
Jackie, you should be ANGRY that it is an issue. Things like this become "Issues" because the people that are hired to run these systems don't want to do their jobs or take any responsibility for the output of their work. (unless it's Positive. They'll take all kinds of responsibility when it looks good, even if they had nothing to do with it.)
Look at this court-case, then look at WASL scores, and think about where the emphasis REALLY is. It isn't in cramming skills into young heads, it's all about rearranging the deck-chairs on a sinking ship, and wasting oodles of money while bitching about how little is being spent.
You need to start holding your School Board accountable, rather than whining because Junior can't pass a math test that's about eighth-grade level in the rest of the nation. Things like this policy are dodges to avoid having to account for shitty work and an overemphasis on Administrators.
It's also the outcome of Parents who think school is free babysitting/Daycare instead Education. White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, or Green, kids are kids, they share certain common traits, the main one being that if they aren't educated, they end up living like animals on subsistence-wage jobs or in prison.
We have standardized testing that has suddenly gotten controversial-why? because your kids aren't being taught anything, they're just warehoused in a big daycare system until they're eighteen, when they find out that they haven't learned enough to live on, and admission policies to "Popular schools" that are written to paper over a chronic problem with the people who run those schools.
Deck Chairs on the Titanic, first you need to have an education system that EDUCATES, then you can worry about what the Hudson's Bay Company did to someone's distant ancestors. I'm pretty sure most of the victims of the Ignorance System that runs our schools don't even know what the Hudson's Bay Company WAS.
Mark said:
No ,race should not be a factor.When i was going to school,Going to the schools i wanted too was a plus,if i was going to school today and was told you can't go to that school ,i probly quit and not go to school. I was lucky to go to 3 nearby schools for my schooling.Today schools are over stepping their power.Student and parents choice is a must.
Depends on what you mean? How does Race factor in Admissions? The question itself is racist.
Depends on how the Academic Institutions use Race in factoring Admissions.
Institutionalized Racism is what Washington State is known for, anyway! What difference would any of this make if the Teachers are still judging students by their race? They teach according to some cultural code that children of color cannot readily understand as well as their non colored peers. I've witnessed this at the University of Washington and Shoreline Community College! It got to a point where students would warn each other which Teachers were racist and would grade students accordingly.
This was several years ago, maybe it's changed by now; however, if you're a person of color, you might have better luck at a University outside of Washington. Young students need to befriend schoolmates of different races in this Globalizing world if they want a successful future. It'd be stupid to allow children to only interact within their own racial type all throughout their school years. Schools need to be equally mixed so a students experience will benefit our Globalizing World Society.
If Washingtonians want a more secure and prosperous future for their children, then introducing them to racial differences now, will make it better for them in the real world later.
Think about it! There are more people of color, on this planet. China is fast becoming another Asian Economic Super Power akin to Japan,.. do you want your children to be so racially narrow-minded in such a globalizing world ?! Our children’s futures will be dependent on how well they can relate to people of different races. If you can't understand this, I feel sorry for you and your children. Look at Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com), take a tour, you'll find people of many different races working together. It's a shame such a question is even asked.
Kathy Butler said:
Race and schools? We should be thinking in terms of neighborhoods and schools, friends and schools, support group and schools. If we consider race an issue in getting into schools (or not), it's teaching discrimination--those kids will grow up thinking that their skin color will assure a desired job. White "guilt" at slavery didn't rebuild the South (ever been to rural Mississippi?), and it didn't much help integration in the North ("reverse" discrimination is just that--discrimination: "a rose by any name will smell the same..."). Wake up and smell the 21st century--teach core skills in all schools, and if a child wants to go to another school because their friends are there--let them! I grew up white with a Japanese best friend (because she lived next door to me), and also became friends with the only black girl in my grade in my school (at that time). We weren't forced to be friends--you can't create the ideal world by telling kids who their friends must be. Just as you can't convince grownups of the same thing. So, you want your children to bear more than YOU had to bear? No wonder we've got problems in our society!! Raise kids secure in their identity, whatever that is, but don't teach them that race is the tie-breaker in who they are and where they can go!!
Dan Ball said:
But Mark, will they choose good SCHOOLS, or schools with good SPORTS? This is a serious question, Seattle schools are located in a county that can't maintain its roads, but levied taxes and spent to build three Sports Stadiums (on credit), one of which isn't paid for, but has been demolished. UW's Huskies get a LOT more funding than their Science or Engineering programs (probably due to a lack of kids applying who can actually handle the coursework), and the mess our schools are in, is due in part to the choices being made by school boards that are ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE.
The Policies of the Seattle School Board reflect the priorities of Seattle's inhabitants, as expressed by school-board elections. If you're too apathetic to know who the people on the ballot for your school board are, then... you get what you get, and in Seattle's case, that means you get Racial Politics, instead of hard-nosed education.
George White said:
Depends on what you mean? How does Race factor in Admissions? The question itself is racist.
Depends on how the Academic Institutions use Race in factoring Admissions.
Institutionalized Racism is what Washington State is known for, anyway! What difference would any of this make if the Teachers are still judging students by their race? They teach according to some cultural code that children of color cannot readily understand as well as their non colored peers. I've witnessed this at the University of Washington and Shoreline Community College! It got to a point where students would warn each other which Teachers were racist and would grade students accordingly.
This was several years ago, maybe it's changed by now; however, if you're a person of color, you might have better luck at a University outside of Washington. Young students need to befriend schoolmates of different races in this Globalizing world if they want a successful future. It'd be stupid to allow children to only interact within their own racial type all throughout their school years. Schools need to be equally mixed so a students experience will benefit our Globalizing World Society.
If Washingtonians want a more secure and prosperous future for their children, then introducing them to racial differences now, will make it better for them in the real world later.
Think about it! There are more people of color, on this planet. China is fast becoming another Asian Economic Super Power akin to Japan,.. do you want your children to be so racially narrow-minded in such a globalizing world ?! Our children’s futures will be dependent on how well they can relate to people of different races. If you can't understand this, I feel sorry for you and your children. Look at Microsoft, take a tour, you'll find people of many different races working together. It's a shame such a question is even asked.
Shelley said:
I believe that race should NOT be a factor in school admissions. We teach our children not to discriminate so why should adults? Even though students can think for themselves they still need and want role models. What kind of role models are we we say what not to do and do the opposite? I believe that right there is hypocrocy. We teach our children not to judge a book by its cover and to treat others the way we want to be treated. Come on people, set an example. I am a mother of two and I sure want what's best for them.
Young kids look at a person based on their personality, teenagers try to do the right thing, ADULTS KNOW BETTER!
Anonymous said:
The sad thing about using the "Race" base assignment for schools such has Seattle has done, it is in direct conflict with 'No Child Be Left Behind' program.
Telling that child that he/she cannot go to that particular school[within their community] based on race- is nothing more than "Force Bussing".
There is nothing wrong with 'community base' schools where the child just has to walk down the street from the home they live, not being bus across town because he/she lost the flip of the coin due to a race tie.
"School Voucher" program is better then slice bread! The parent doesn't have be depended upon the local government education program tell her where her child can go to school.
Theoldog,
Guarding Our Heritage!
Sam said:
I'd be interested in having more background information reported by NWCN on this issue (especially since none of the other media seem to have looked at the following issue):
I gather that the US Supreme Court was considering whether or not the tie breaker in the Seattle School District violated the United States Constitution, and that the Court did not consider any issues of state constitutional law (since Washington's state courts, not the US Supreme Court, would decide what Washington's Constitution means).
Section 1, Article IX of Washington's State Constitution says: "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex."
Has the Washington State Supreme Court (or the Washington Court of Appeals) ruled on the constitutionality of Seattle's "racial tie-breaker" in the context of the language of Section 1, Article IX, of the Washington Constitution which states, "...without distinction or preference on account of race, color,..."?
If so, what did the Washington state courts decide, and what rational did they give? If not, is there a case pending that requests review of the racial tie-breaker under Washington's State Constitution?
Geoffery Wilson said:
The term "Reverse Discrimination" is nothing but a false term used by White Supremacists to perpetuate poverty and inequality for Black Americans and other Americans of color. YES Consider Race! Whites in this country have blatantly discriminated (stolen land, murdered / lynched, committed genocide, enslaved, raped, and destroyed whole communities & businesses) AGAINST blacks and other peoples of color for CENTURIES! Now in less than 5 decades (actually less than two if you consider the Baake Decision), WHITES want to re-install INEQUALITY that favors them. It's Sickening reading the comments of your readers! Have they No Historical perspective? Have they No Moral conscience? Fix the problems with Affirmative Action, but Don't End It unless you are willing to PAY REPARATIONS!
Dan Ball said:
Geoffrey, Let's talk historical perspective.
African Americans still lag far behind other minorities who didn't get nearly as much from Affirmitive Action-why is that? Could it be because this crap lets the system do the bare minimum, instead of employing a higher standard?
Why are Inner City schools the ones that are rotting? This "Racial Tie-breaker" and controlled admissions to public schools, allows the REAL racists to keep the bulk of the minority population down. Affirmitive action is broken, it DOESN'T WORK THE WAY IT IS ADVERTISED.
"Equality" is a real standard, "Preference" allows the lazy bastards to avoid being held to that standard, to pursue pet-projects instead of doing their duty. Quota systems allow min/maxing behaviour that permits closet-racists to get away with continuing to be racist, while looking good.
It's bread-and-circuses as policy, and it prevents real change from occurring. Nobody will just 'give' you anything worth having, you have to fight for it, you have to work for it. when someone says they're 'helping' you, ask what they're getting out of it, what they expect to recieve, because there really ISN'T any such thing as a free lunch. Housing projects turn into poverty-pits, schools are abandoned to fund other schools, and the governing authorities pat themselves on the back because they're 'enlightened' enough to let in some token black people, or Asians, or Mexicans-while the schools those kids live closest to are virtual anarchies with substandard teaching, books, buildings, and a crime problem.
The odds are, further, Geoffrey, that African Americans will be "paid" when Irish Americans recieve payments for being starved and forced off their land by the English, who've occupied Ireland for six hundered years, when the Normans pay Saxons for Hastings, or when the Italians pay Israel for burning the Temple of Solomon and dispersing their people to the provinces in the first-century CE. For "Reparations" to happen, you have to have someone who alive who was THERE.
Demanding "Reparations" just makes you look stupid, and stupid people don't get paid.
Demanding Accountability for what is going on RIGHT NOW, that's smart. Why are predominantly black neighbourhoods in such bad shape? why are Inner City Schools allowed by the cities to rot out, to turn out ignorant and uneducated young people? Why aren't Community Leaders dealing with THIS PRESENT PROBLEM?
Because it's easier to bitch and blame, than it is to fix anything. It's easier to talk about the bad-old-days, than it is to address the problems of TODAY. And this Laziness is assisted by a political establishment that KNOWS it will always get the vote of the uneducated, ignorant, marginalized poor if it just mouths the right words and brings up the past with the right tone.
Vincent Booys said:
Reading over the comments of the past few days, I feel compelled to resubmit my earlier position. I do it just in case those who thought about it might consider what I pointed out - before making personal claims regarding a matter that requires a socially collective injunction.
Race should be a factor just as much as snake venom is a factor in counter-balancing the venom first inflicted by a poisonous snake in the first place! Without it the victim parishes!
There's a three hundred year history to this pandemic!
This society and the world for that matter has been inflicted with the venom of racism for about 300 years since colonization was dreamt up - soon after the establishment of the Enlightenment project in Western Europe.
In terms of the Enlightenment all the colonial powers started out from Western Europe to colonize the now Developing World, the New World (aka. the settler populated U.S.A. which became a world power along with Western Europe as a result of a gross human rights injustice, namely slavery and the religation of the domestic population to Bantustans). We all know that the colonial exploitation economically and otherwise has the Third World permanently on it's back!
Racism played a huge role in economical inequality Globally.
One may ask how racism systematically religated some to a lifetime of want. It definitely did not do so other than systemycally, so that it innocently started out from a relatively small sector of the global population who perceived of themselves as having the "light of reason" as opposed to those (outside Western Europe) "in the darkness of ignorance" - to borrow from Rene Descartes who believed that the Enlightenment would [free 'man' from the darkness of ignorance].
Well; some of the the colonizing agents, aka. Hudson Bay Company, Dutch and British East India Companies and others, proceeded to economically exploit those cultures they came into contact with and didn't see them as their equal. For that reason the colonizers saw themselves as of the "light"; hence White and the rest was color-coded: Africa - Black; Asia - Yellow; Native Americans - Red. That's how racism was systematically injected into the conscousness of the West and beyond!
Only in the 1960's - along came MLK and woke the West up to the blight of racism! Now the Seattle Public School system wants to turn around - less than 50 years after the civil rights era and insinuate that what MLK was attempting is Racist!!!
Shame on Seattle Public Schools and shame on the USA Supreme Court if it does not uphold that injunction by MLK to bring about a levelling of the social playing-field - ridding it of racism.
Race Matters as it does despite Innitiative 200 that got rid of Affirmative Action!
End selfishness and ignorance now!
Posted by: Vince Booys at December 4, 2006 10:59 AM
Dennis said:
i'm not sure about the specific details of this issue. but it seems to me that the longer we keep making race an issue, the longer racism will be around. let race go people. yes, i know it's alot to ask. since racism goes all ways. unfortunatly.
Carl said:
To regard race as a criteria is to insult those who allegidly benefit from it. As a Black person, I am insulted that it is believe I need this help. If I can't make it on my merits, on my skills, on my ambitions, then do I really deserve the rewards that come with having drive? I think note! Even I, as a black person feel nervous when visiting a black doctor at the hospital because I can't help but wonder if this person was allowed to "enter through the back door with inadiquate qualifications".
Furthermore, is the environmental toll that comes with bussing the kids all those extra miles. They hate it as I did, having to get up earlier in the morning, just to go to a school so much farther away than the one in their hood.
It is racism just as affirative action is. Afterall, aren't we all equals? These laws imply that we are inferior and this enrages me.
The only race that should be acknowleged is the race for education...we are putting these kids, in a position to be in our shoes, in fifteen or so years...(jaded) we are our own worst enemy when battling race issues......stop worrying about a kids color,and start worring about his/her comprehension of the studies at hand....sheeze..dont make these poor kids worry about anything more than studying....dont put on them what your problems are. leave them alone they might teach us something...
Penny Hardy said:
[Posted by: Vince Booys at December 4, 2006 10:59 AM]
{Race should never be a factor in the education of our children. We all have brains to think with, we all have ears to hear with, we all have hands to hold a pencil with, we all have feet to walk to school with, and we all have eyes to see the words on the chalk board with. Skin color or ethincal background has nothing to do with education. We all learn the same things, so what's the problem here?}
What I pasted above is what Vince Booys said. And comming from the mouth of a freshman in high school, I must say I agree. We are all human, nothing should come down to race. For example I live in a very diverse neighborhood and went/go to a diverse school. But not only diverse by ethnicities but by "cliques"...goths, thugs, rockers,ect... And I dont see color or judge people because of the way they look. I see human; we all have feelings, we all can get hurt. So I dont see how ethnicities even matter.I have all diffrent race bestfriends/friends. And it hurts me to see racism is still out there, ecspecially when they use it against my friends, becuase it really does hurt my friends. Not only do I agree with Vince Booys, but that is my teacher at my high school. He is actually teaching us on the African Unit right now. And he is the perfect person to teach it because he actually has a background of it and not just read about Africa.
-Aspen (Penny) Hardy
Loretta said:
Absolutly not. We are all human beings. We are all born the same and have the same color blood. NO one person or race is any better than the next. WE ARE ALL EQUAL.
Vince said:
Go to school.
Do your work in school.
Get the best grades you can...., I mean, be intentional about getting an education.
ONLY thereafter - come back to any forum like this - and provide a well thought out analysis of the polemic. Not until then!
No I dont think that Race should be a factor in deciding who should be allowed into a school. As a mother I try hard to teach my son that the color of a person's skin does not reflet the type of person he/she is. Getting into a Public School based on the color of your skin is wrong. It should be based on their over all grade avarage. When a Child makes friends in a school and they are not allowed to attend the same school as their friends because of the color of their skin, it can and will create social problems for that child and cause stress which could undermine their learning process.
no. reverse discrimination is all to pervasive already.
NO I DONT THINK RACE SHOULD BE AN ISSUE, IM A 30 YEAR OLD MOTHER AND WIFE, AND DAILY THERE ARE RACE ISSUES: IN THE NEWS, AT HOME, AT WORK, AND SOMETIMES DURING RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES. THE ISSUES THAT WE SHOULD BE CONCERNING OURSELVES WITH SHOULD BE ' WHEN OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR AGE, WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SOCIALIZE WITH THEIR NIEGHBORS IN A MANNER THAT WE HAVE YET TO DISCOVER'. WE ARE HARMING OUR KIDS GROWTH LEVEL IF WE DENY INTERGRATION.
My first reaction is definitely No. I remember when I entered the police academy; we had one African American who failed our first three tests. The reason? He couldn't read! I know he didn't pass the civil service exam to get in. I think race should be not be used. It promotes the division of American into them and us. Instead, individual ability should be a factor. If a child is lacking, then they should be put in specialized programs to bring them up to speed. But skin color? That's just plain stupid and it promotes the very thing its allegedly designed to alleviate. Racism
NO. I am tired of reverse discrimination,
I'm for neighborhood schools. If need be,
bring the quality of education up - not move the kids everywhere via bus.
Racism should be outlawed. Yet, race shóuld be a factor in attempting that end.
Race should be a factor as much as snake venom is a factor in counter-balancing the venom first inflicted by a poisonous snake in the first place! Without it the victim parishes!
This society and the world for that matter has been inflicted with the venom of racism for about 300 years since colonization was dreamt up - soon after the establishment of the Enlightenment project in Western Europe.
In terms of the Enlightenment all the colonial powers started out from Western Europe to colonize the now Developing World, the New World (aka. the settler populated U.S.A. which became a world power along with Western Europe as a result of a gross human rights injustice, namely slavery and the religation of the domestic population to Bantustans). We all know that the colonial exploitation economically and otherwise has the Third World permanently on it's back!
Racism played a huge role in economical inequality Globally.
One may ask how racism systematically religated some to a lifetime of want. It definitely did not do so other than systemycally, so that it innocently started out from a relatively small sector of the global population who perceived of themselves as having the "light of reason" as opposed to those (outside Western Europe) "in the darkness of ignorance" - to borrow from Rene Descartes who believed that the Enlightenment would [free 'man' from the darkness of ignorance].
Well; some of the the colonizing agents, aka. Hudson Bay Company, Dutch and British East India Companies and others, proceeded to economically exploit those cultures they came into contact with and didn't see them as their equal. For that reason the colonizers saw themselves as of the "light"; hence White and the rest was color-coded: Africa - Black; Asia - Yellow; Native Americans - Red. That's how racism was systematically injected into the conscousness of the West and beyond!
Only in the 1960's - along came MLK and woke the West up to the blight of racism! Now the Seattle Public School system wants to turn around - less than 50 years after the civil rights era and insinuate that what MLK was attempting is Racist!!!
Shame on Seattle Public Schools and shame on the USA Supreme Court if it does not uphold that injunction by MLK to bring about a levelling of the social playing-field - ridding it of racism.
Race Matters as it does despite Innitiative 200 that got rid of Affirmative Action!
End selfishness and ignorance now!
Race should never be a factor in the education of our children. We all have brains to think with, we all have ears to hear with, we all have hands to hold a pencil with, we all have feet to walk to school with, and we all have eyes to see the words on the chalk board with. Skin color or ethincal background has nothing to do with education. We all learn the same things, so what's the problem here?
I think that was a bad decision by the school district. It should be who has the best grades and desire to be there not just to allow the kids to be exposed to something different. I am sick and tired of white people being discriminated against!! This is america and if you are a citizen here then we should all have equal rights, regardless off anything!!
If our school districts placed more emphasis on educating the children they HAVE, and less on what color those children are, we would have educated young people instead of ignorant hoodlums.
It is, of course, easier to spend resources and effort playing the race game, than it is to actually
EDUCATE. Washington's education quality has lagged behind most of the country for more than fifteen years (That I know of, it was 43rd in the nation when I graduated from High School in 1991), and the recent WASL scores prove the point better than anything else-our education administrators are more interested in what the ethnic backgrounds are, than teaching.
How this ever got to such a point of ridiculous that it's in front of the Supreme Court is, frankly, obscene. Court cases cost money, and money is what School Districts are constantly looking for... is that bond issue going to textbooks, or Law-books?
Using race as a qualification factor causes racial tentions.
Students should be aware of the racial differences, but they should be more concerened about their education.
Education should never be about "where my friends go" (to school) and whether or not there are people there of a different race. I do not send my children to school to make friends and notice if someone is of a different race, I send them to school to get an education.
We are a race conscious people, but we need realize that we are all JUST PEOPLE.
Troy E Bouchard
NO, race should not be a factor in school policy of any kind for any reason.
Yes, Because while this country is at war and in the past, race mattered and if an American does not represent the red, white and blue their considered UNAmerican. In other words, African Americans can fight for this country in a war. But, can not have the same ammenities as a white person in an educational system. So, again! Yes, race does matter and is a factor. By the way, I did 20yrs of military service and retired USN.
No, race should not be a factor. Apart from teaching children that the color of their skin is a factor, it is also hiding another issue: if the reasoning is to give a less advantaged child a break, then the real fix should be to properly fund ALL schools regardless of their geographic location or demographics of the student population. Then the advantages would be evenly distributed. The level of education of our children today is intimately tied into the quality of our civilization tomorrow, so education is a proper investment for our tax dollars.
Race should never be an issue in decision involving government or public, or life in general.
The only time I can see race as being an issue is in determining what level of sunblock to apply. Maybe not even then.
As far as the school issue use distance from home, scholastic achievement, or flip a coin.
Absolutely not!
I dont think schools should be seperated by race. Sice most kids around my age enjoy there friends that they know and what ever there religon is. This is starting to be like when how our lives used to be before when schools were seperated by color. It is really confusing but it is realy stupid to make our schools to only take one type of race and not another.
Race should not be a factor in schools. if that is the case then we should discriminate against people who have blonde and brunette hair. Education should be open to anyone who is willing to learn. If someone wants to learn then let them learn. There are enough people that are dumb in this country and we dont need more so why tell people they cant go to a certain school for something they cant change. I thought we had grown more then this. It makes me sad to hear of this story in the news.
Jackie, you should be ANGRY that it is an issue. Things like this become "Issues" because the people that are hired to run these systems don't want to do their jobs or take any responsibility for the output of their work. (unless it's Positive. They'll take all kinds of responsibility when it looks good, even if they had nothing to do with it.)
Look at this court-case, then look at WASL scores, and think about where the emphasis REALLY is. It isn't in cramming skills into young heads, it's all about rearranging the deck-chairs on a sinking ship, and wasting oodles of money while bitching about how little is being spent.
You need to start holding your School Board accountable, rather than whining because Junior can't pass a math test that's about eighth-grade level in the rest of the nation. Things like this policy are dodges to avoid having to account for shitty work and an overemphasis on Administrators.
It's also the outcome of Parents who think school is free babysitting/Daycare instead Education. White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, or Green, kids are kids, they share certain common traits, the main one being that if they aren't educated, they end up living like animals on subsistence-wage jobs or in prison.
We have standardized testing that has suddenly gotten controversial-why? because your kids aren't being taught anything, they're just warehoused in a big daycare system until they're eighteen, when they find out that they haven't learned enough to live on, and admission policies to "Popular schools" that are written to paper over a chronic problem with the people who run those schools.
Deck Chairs on the Titanic, first you need to have an education system that EDUCATES, then you can worry about what the Hudson's Bay Company did to someone's distant ancestors. I'm pretty sure most of the victims of the Ignorance System that runs our schools don't even know what the Hudson's Bay Company WAS.
No ,race should not be a factor.When i was going to school,Going to the schools i wanted too was a plus,if i was going to school today and was told you can't go to that school ,i probly quit and not go to school. I was lucky to go to 3 nearby schools for my schooling.Today schools are over stepping their power.Student and parents choice is a must.
Depends on what you mean? How does Race factor in Admissions? The question itself is racist.
Depends on how the Academic Institutions use Race in factoring Admissions.
Institutionalized Racism is what Washington State is known for, anyway! What difference would any of this make if the Teachers are still judging students by their race? They teach according to some cultural code that children of color cannot readily understand as well as their non colored peers. I've witnessed this at the University of Washington and Shoreline Community College! It got to a point where students would warn each other which Teachers were racist and would grade students accordingly.
This was several years ago, maybe it's changed by now; however, if you're a person of color, you might have better luck at a University outside of Washington. Young students need to befriend schoolmates of different races in this Globalizing world if they want a successful future. It'd be stupid to allow children to only interact within their own racial type all throughout their school years. Schools need to be equally mixed so a students experience will benefit our Globalizing World Society.
If Washingtonians want a more secure and prosperous future for their children, then introducing them to racial differences now, will make it better for them in the real world later.
Think about it! There are more people of color, on this planet. China is fast becoming another Asian Economic Super Power akin to Japan,.. do you want your children to be so racially narrow-minded in such a globalizing world ?! Our children’s futures will be dependent on how well they can relate to people of different races. If you can't understand this, I feel sorry for you and your children. Look at Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com), take a tour, you'll find people of many different races working together. It's a shame such a question is even asked.
Race and schools? We should be thinking in terms of neighborhoods and schools, friends and schools, support group and schools. If we consider race an issue in getting into schools (or not), it's teaching discrimination--those kids will grow up thinking that their skin color will assure a desired job. White "guilt" at slavery didn't rebuild the South (ever been to rural Mississippi?), and it didn't much help integration in the North ("reverse" discrimination is just that--discrimination: "a rose by any name will smell the same..."). Wake up and smell the 21st century--teach core skills in all schools, and if a child wants to go to another school because their friends are there--let them! I grew up white with a Japanese best friend (because she lived next door to me), and also became friends with the only black girl in my grade in my school (at that time). We weren't forced to be friends--you can't create the ideal world by telling kids who their friends must be. Just as you can't convince grownups of the same thing. So, you want your children to bear more than YOU had to bear? No wonder we've got problems in our society!! Raise kids secure in their identity, whatever that is, but don't teach them that race is the tie-breaker in who they are and where they can go!!
But Mark, will they choose good SCHOOLS, or schools with good SPORTS? This is a serious question, Seattle schools are located in a county that can't maintain its roads, but levied taxes and spent to build three Sports Stadiums (on credit), one of which isn't paid for, but has been demolished. UW's Huskies get a LOT more funding than their Science or Engineering programs (probably due to a lack of kids applying who can actually handle the coursework), and the mess our schools are in, is due in part to the choices being made by school boards that are ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE.
The Policies of the Seattle School Board reflect the priorities of Seattle's inhabitants, as expressed by school-board elections. If you're too apathetic to know who the people on the ballot for your school board are, then... you get what you get, and in Seattle's case, that means you get Racial Politics, instead of hard-nosed education.
Depends on what you mean? How does Race factor in Admissions? The question itself is racist.
Depends on how the Academic Institutions use Race in factoring Admissions.
Institutionalized Racism is what Washington State is known for, anyway! What difference would any of this make if the Teachers are still judging students by their race? They teach according to some cultural code that children of color cannot readily understand as well as their non colored peers. I've witnessed this at the University of Washington and Shoreline Community College! It got to a point where students would warn each other which Teachers were racist and would grade students accordingly.
This was several years ago, maybe it's changed by now; however, if you're a person of color, you might have better luck at a University outside of Washington. Young students need to befriend schoolmates of different races in this Globalizing world if they want a successful future. It'd be stupid to allow children to only interact within their own racial type all throughout their school years. Schools need to be equally mixed so a students experience will benefit our Globalizing World Society.
If Washingtonians want a more secure and prosperous future for their children, then introducing them to racial differences now, will make it better for them in the real world later.
Think about it! There are more people of color, on this planet. China is fast becoming another Asian Economic Super Power akin to Japan,.. do you want your children to be so racially narrow-minded in such a globalizing world ?! Our children’s futures will be dependent on how well they can relate to people of different races. If you can't understand this, I feel sorry for you and your children. Look at Microsoft, take a tour, you'll find people of many different races working together. It's a shame such a question is even asked.
I believe that race should NOT be a factor in school admissions. We teach our children not to discriminate so why should adults? Even though students can think for themselves they still need and want role models. What kind of role models are we we say what not to do and do the opposite? I believe that right there is hypocrocy. We teach our children not to judge a book by its cover and to treat others the way we want to be treated. Come on people, set an example. I am a mother of two and I sure want what's best for them.
Young kids look at a person based on their personality, teenagers try to do the right thing, ADULTS KNOW BETTER!
The sad thing about using the "Race" base assignment for schools such has Seattle has done, it is in direct conflict with 'No Child Be Left Behind' program.
Telling that child that he/she cannot go to that particular school[within their community] based on race- is nothing more than "Force Bussing".
There is nothing wrong with 'community base' schools where the child just has to walk down the street from the home they live, not being bus across town because he/she lost the flip of the coin due to a race tie.
"School Voucher" program is better then slice bread! The parent doesn't have be depended upon the local government education program tell her where her child can go to school.
Theoldog,
Guarding Our Heritage!
I'd be interested in having more background information reported by NWCN on this issue (especially since none of the other media seem to have looked at the following issue):
I gather that the US Supreme Court was considering whether or not the tie breaker in the Seattle School District violated the United States Constitution, and that the Court did not consider any issues of state constitutional law (since Washington's state courts, not the US Supreme Court, would decide what Washington's Constitution means).
Section 1, Article IX of Washington's State Constitution says: "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste or sex."
Has the Washington State Supreme Court (or the Washington Court of Appeals) ruled on the constitutionality of Seattle's "racial tie-breaker" in the context of the language of Section 1, Article IX, of the Washington Constitution which states, "...without distinction or preference on account of race, color,..."?
If so, what did the Washington state courts decide, and what rational did they give? If not, is there a case pending that requests review of the racial tie-breaker under Washington's State Constitution?
The term "Reverse Discrimination" is nothing but a false term used by White Supremacists to perpetuate poverty and inequality for Black Americans and other Americans of color. YES Consider Race! Whites in this country have blatantly discriminated (stolen land, murdered / lynched, committed genocide, enslaved, raped, and destroyed whole communities & businesses) AGAINST blacks and other peoples of color for CENTURIES! Now in less than 5 decades (actually less than two if you consider the Baake Decision), WHITES want to re-install INEQUALITY that favors them. It's Sickening reading the comments of your readers! Have they No Historical perspective? Have they No Moral conscience? Fix the problems with Affirmative Action, but Don't End It unless you are willing to PAY REPARATIONS!
Geoffrey, Let's talk historical perspective.
African Americans still lag far behind other minorities who didn't get nearly as much from Affirmitive Action-why is that? Could it be because this crap lets the system do the bare minimum, instead of employing a higher standard?
Why are Inner City schools the ones that are rotting? This "Racial Tie-breaker" and controlled admissions to public schools, allows the REAL racists to keep the bulk of the minority population down. Affirmitive action is broken, it DOESN'T WORK THE WAY IT IS ADVERTISED.
"Equality" is a real standard, "Preference" allows the lazy bastards to avoid being held to that standard, to pursue pet-projects instead of doing their duty. Quota systems allow min/maxing behaviour that permits closet-racists to get away with continuing to be racist, while looking good.
It's bread-and-circuses as policy, and it prevents real change from occurring. Nobody will just 'give' you anything worth having, you have to fight for it, you have to work for it. when someone says they're 'helping' you, ask what they're getting out of it, what they expect to recieve, because there really ISN'T any such thing as a free lunch. Housing projects turn into poverty-pits, schools are abandoned to fund other schools, and the governing authorities pat themselves on the back because they're 'enlightened' enough to let in some token black people, or Asians, or Mexicans-while the schools those kids live closest to are virtual anarchies with substandard teaching, books, buildings, and a crime problem.
The odds are, further, Geoffrey, that African Americans will be "paid" when Irish Americans recieve payments for being starved and forced off their land by the English, who've occupied Ireland for six hundered years, when the Normans pay Saxons for Hastings, or when the Italians pay Israel for burning the Temple of Solomon and dispersing their people to the provinces in the first-century CE. For "Reparations" to happen, you have to have someone who alive who was THERE.
Demanding "Reparations" just makes you look stupid, and stupid people don't get paid.
Demanding Accountability for what is going on RIGHT NOW, that's smart. Why are predominantly black neighbourhoods in such bad shape? why are Inner City Schools allowed by the cities to rot out, to turn out ignorant and uneducated young people? Why aren't Community Leaders dealing with THIS PRESENT PROBLEM?
Because it's easier to bitch and blame, than it is to fix anything. It's easier to talk about the bad-old-days, than it is to address the problems of TODAY. And this Laziness is assisted by a political establishment that KNOWS it will always get the vote of the uneducated, ignorant, marginalized poor if it just mouths the right words and brings up the past with the right tone.
Reading over the comments of the past few days, I feel compelled to resubmit my earlier position. I do it just in case those who thought about it might consider what I pointed out - before making personal claims regarding a matter that requires a socially collective injunction.
Race should be a factor just as much as snake venom is a factor in counter-balancing the venom first inflicted by a poisonous snake in the first place! Without it the victim parishes!
There's a three hundred year history to this pandemic!
This society and the world for that matter has been inflicted with the venom of racism for about 300 years since colonization was dreamt up - soon after the establishment of the Enlightenment project in Western Europe.
In terms of the Enlightenment all the colonial powers started out from Western Europe to colonize the now Developing World, the New World (aka. the settler populated U.S.A. which became a world power along with Western Europe as a result of a gross human rights injustice, namely slavery and the religation of the domestic population to Bantustans). We all know that the colonial exploitation economically and otherwise has the Third World permanently on it's back!
Racism played a huge role in economical inequality Globally.
One may ask how racism systematically religated some to a lifetime of want. It definitely did not do so other than systemycally, so that it innocently started out from a relatively small sector of the global population who perceived of themselves as having the "light of reason" as opposed to those (outside Western Europe) "in the darkness of ignorance" - to borrow from Rene Descartes who believed that the Enlightenment would [free 'man' from the darkness of ignorance].
Well; some of the the colonizing agents, aka. Hudson Bay Company, Dutch and British East India Companies and others, proceeded to economically exploit those cultures they came into contact with and didn't see them as their equal. For that reason the colonizers saw themselves as of the "light"; hence White and the rest was color-coded: Africa - Black; Asia - Yellow; Native Americans - Red. That's how racism was systematically injected into the conscousness of the West and beyond!
Only in the 1960's - along came MLK and woke the West up to the blight of racism! Now the Seattle Public School system wants to turn around - less than 50 years after the civil rights era and insinuate that what MLK was attempting is Racist!!!
Shame on Seattle Public Schools and shame on the USA Supreme Court if it does not uphold that injunction by MLK to bring about a levelling of the social playing-field - ridding it of racism.
Race Matters as it does despite Innitiative 200 that got rid of Affirmative Action!
End selfishness and ignorance now!
Posted by: Vince Booys at December 4, 2006 10:59 AM
i'm not sure about the specific details of this issue. but it seems to me that the longer we keep making race an issue, the longer racism will be around. let race go people. yes, i know it's alot to ask. since racism goes all ways. unfortunatly.
To regard race as a criteria is to insult those who allegidly benefit from it. As a Black person, I am insulted that it is believe I need this help. If I can't make it on my merits, on my skills, on my ambitions, then do I really deserve the rewards that come with having drive? I think note! Even I, as a black person feel nervous when visiting a black doctor at the hospital because I can't help but wonder if this person was allowed to "enter through the back door with inadiquate qualifications".
Furthermore, is the environmental toll that comes with bussing the kids all those extra miles. They hate it as I did, having to get up earlier in the morning, just to go to a school so much farther away than the one in their hood.
It is racism just as affirative action is. Afterall, aren't we all equals? These laws imply that we are inferior and this enrages me.
The only race that should be acknowleged is the race for education...we are putting these kids, in a position to be in our shoes, in fifteen or so years...(jaded) we are our own worst enemy when battling race issues......stop worrying about a kids color,and start worring about his/her comprehension of the studies at hand....sheeze..dont make these poor kids worry about anything more than studying....dont put on them what your problems are. leave them alone they might teach us something...
[Posted by: Vince Booys at December 4, 2006 10:59 AM]
{Race should never be a factor in the education of our children. We all have brains to think with, we all have ears to hear with, we all have hands to hold a pencil with, we all have feet to walk to school with, and we all have eyes to see the words on the chalk board with. Skin color or ethincal background has nothing to do with education. We all learn the same things, so what's the problem here?}
What I pasted above is what Vince Booys said. And comming from the mouth of a freshman in high school, I must say I agree. We are all human, nothing should come down to race. For example I live in a very diverse neighborhood and went/go to a diverse school. But not only diverse by ethnicities but by "cliques"...goths, thugs, rockers,ect... And I dont see color or judge people because of the way they look. I see human; we all have feelings, we all can get hurt. So I dont see how ethnicities even matter.I have all diffrent race bestfriends/friends. And it hurts me to see racism is still out there, ecspecially when they use it against my friends, becuase it really does hurt my friends. Not only do I agree with Vince Booys, but that is my teacher at my high school. He is actually teaching us on the African Unit right now. And he is the perfect person to teach it because he actually has a background of it and not just read about Africa.
-Aspen (Penny) Hardy
Absolutly not. We are all human beings. We are all born the same and have the same color blood. NO one person or race is any better than the next. WE ARE ALL EQUAL.
Go to school.
Do your work in school.
Get the best grades you can...., I mean, be intentional about getting an education.
ONLY thereafter - come back to any forum like this - and provide a well thought out analysis of the polemic. Not until then!