Right now, the country is having the most public, detailed discussion about race and racism we’ve had in decades, which is a good thing. The heat generated by the discussion is intense on both sides, or I should say on all sides, since you hear such a wide range of viewpoints. Look at the passionate and wildly different reactions to the deaths of black men and boys at the hands of police. Look at the contrasting reactions to the controversy over the Confederate Flag. With controversy flying and tempers flaring, you might conclude the divisions are deeper now than they were before. I don’t know if that’s true. More likely, the divisions are just more out in the open.
Lately, I’ve felt an increasing need to understand the history of race and racism in this country and the way it manifests itself today. Along with trying to keep up with the events and analyses in the media, I’ve read a few books that have given me a deeper understanding of a subject which, being a white man, I can only know secondhand. A few days ago I recommended the book, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an important, beautifully written book I believe will be read and talked about for decades. Today I want to recommend a very different book: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The book, published in 2010, discusses the War on Drugs, the policing of black communities, our legal system, and mass incarceration, subjects that were talked about far less five years ago when the book came out than they are today. It’s reasonable to say that Alexander’s book brought focused attention to those problems and laid the groundwork for the way we’re talking about them now. It’s still the best text on the subject I’ve read.
Alexander is a Civil Rights lawyer, and she writes the book like a lawyer arguing a case. She brings together numerous incidents and witnesses, creating an overwhelming preponderance of evidence to prove her point. Alexander creates a complex thesis which is hard to summarize in a few words. Basically, she shows how the crackdown on drugs and crime has been directed disproportionately toward black people and black communities and how harmful it has been to black lives, comparable in ways to the Jim Crow laws which legalized segregation and discrimination before the passage of Civil Rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2015.
David Safier’s Checklist of Possible Topics to Cover, w/ notes on Pros and / or Cons:
Lack of Transparency in TUSD — can’t go there, it would make HT, Adelita and / or Ann-Eve mad.
Changes to TUSD audit committee — can’t go there, see above.
Labor concerns relating to outsourcing of subs and transition to more part-time staff in TUSD early childhood centers — can’t go there, see above.
Failures to meet desegregation goals in TUSD — darn, can’t go there, see above.
Selectivity of Basis — flogged that one pretty thoroughly, it’s getting boring, plus the comment stream might pull up facts about UHS policies that are embarrassing to TUSD. Better give that one a rest until those annoying UHS parents settle down.
How Funny Diane Douglas Is — made some people mad with that one recently, but so what, I don’t care what the commenters say. Sometimes I don’t even read their comments. (They’ll never know…) Will write on this again soon as DD provides some more quality comedic material.
Racial Sensitivity Failures or Discriminatory Policies of other Districts (not TUSD) – this might be OK if it doesn’t involve pillorying a teacher. That got some people pretty angry at me recently…(I wonder why?)
Punitive federal testing policies — I’m pretty good on this topic. The only people who disagree with me here are the trolls. Keep pursuing it.
Review books on racial justice — by far the easiest and gets the least push-back. Let’s do another one…
It would seem that Black lives only matter when the shooter is White. Blacks kill each other on a wholesale level in our major cities daily, not one Black activist bothers to even comment. They are too busy with their agenda, splitting the races, through fear and hate. It keeps them in the public eye. I include Mr. Pitts in my comment; according to him, ALL lives don’t matter, just Black ones.
The Crow book is excellent. There are unaddressed issues relating to race, the justice system and policing in this country. The system does need reform.
It’s a shame that the role Safier has played defending the TUSD board majority and superintendent is undermining his credibility, because on this particular topic (the merit of this book), he is right.
Both books are enjoying a wide audience, as they should. An important thing to keep in mind is the fact that school is often where the road to prison begins by referring students to juvenile detention centers. Too many schools are failing in their responsibility to meet the educational needs of all students, most especially minority and poor students. I think, in general, this blog is good as its goal appears to me to be the improvement of education for all; a noble and important goal. And this includes recommending worthy books deserving of being read.
” this blog is good as its goal appears to me to be the improvement of education for all”
If its goal is “the improvement of education for ALL” why are various needs for improvement in TUSD’s treatment of racial justice never mentioned here? The current TUSD board majority and superintendent have been in almost constant conflict with the court-appointed Special Master for the past two years. Here are just a couple of areas where the desegregation authority has found fault with TUSD’s approach to desegregation and / or oversight of the application of desegregation funds:
http://tucson.com/news/local/education/tusd-plan-to-expand-sabino-fruchthendler-rejected/article_aa0cbbc7-b60d-55df-88e8-a3721f47a0c6.html
http://tucson.com/news/local/education/tusd-effort-to-decrease-discipline-issues-failing-audit-finds/article_6667e495-170b-5f67-ac1a-150cc9616558.html
Safier endorsed the current TUSD board president:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/09/22/my-picks-for-the-tusd-school-board-adelita-grijalva-and-jen-darland
It’s easy to write that you’re in support of racial justice and to recommend books to your readership. But when you’ve gone on the record endorsing a politician and that politician is openly criticized by desegregation experts for the way her board majority and superintendent are handling issues relating to racial justice, you lose credibility as “racial justice advocates” if you remain silent.
Is the Special Master wrong to criticize decisions made by the TUSD board and superintendent? If so, why and how is he wrong? Let’s hear it.
A NOTE TO COMMENTERS: I love the comments section on my posts. The pro and con arguments, and those in between, can be thoughtful and informative. But I dislike seeing the posts being hijacked, taken in a direction that has nothing to do with the topic I wrote about.
From this point forward, if I think it’s warranted, I’m planning to delete comments that move too far off topic. I think since I’ve been writing on The Range, I’ve deleted two or three posts total, and never because I disagreed with the ideas expressed. But if you see something you’ve written appear in the comments section then disappear a while later, you’ll know why.
David Safier: There’s not a single comment on this blog or on other blogs you’ve written in recent weeks that has nothing to do with the topics you’ve been writing about.
However, thanks for “the heads up” that you’re going to start deleting comments. I recommend that commenters save what they post and re-post it if it is deleted, at the same time sending e-mails to the editor of this journal (and to others who take an interest in local education issues), noting that a comment that was not unrelated to the topic of one of your blogs has been deleted.
TW provides the ability to post anonymous comments, and this, as you noted, creates good dialogue. The dialogue will be damaged if TW starts allowing you to censor comments that are not inappropriate or out of line because these comments ask questions about how your expressed views jive with what’s going on in local school systems. If you’re unwilling to have these kinds of questions be asked, you should give up blogging on education.
Disclaimer: I’m off-topic. It might be timely, David, to examine the new School City assessment purchased at God-only-knows what price from the makers in Bangalore, India that is being shoved down our throats to take up endless hours of instructional time this year. It looks like pre-assessment and post-assessment “growth” might be used as a gauge for teacher evaluations. I envision a massive effort to lower the pre-assessment scores by any means possible to ensure “growth.” The assessments are all online, so no erasures can be noted by the oversight teams, although teachers are allowed to complete tests for students. My crystal ball indicates much trouble ahead.
David, I see you forgot to reference your “WHITE PRIVILEGE” in this article.
This is Arizona David, why don’t you try and write about Hispanic/Latino/Mexican and White race relations here? Or recommend some books that touch on those issues. You know, issues that are germane to the this city and region.
I look forward to the censorship in your comments, I don’t want your feelings to be hurt or to damage your echo chamber.
I’ve been warned twice before so there’s no way I’m getting off topic.
But I sure wish we could. It would give us a much wider array of interesting discussions, rather than squelching honest opposition.
I was just lucky to find this on topic tonight.
After the murder of the white Houston Police Officer this weekend, maybe it’s time for the President to speak out. He always did before, but this last week he has been silent.
Except for erasing Mt McKinley from the map and our history books.