Colorblind Universalism

 

Is it time to step back to reflect on whether proposals which stress colorblind universalism is working as a policy in our country?  Regardless of what many thoughtful people might suggest, three centuries of racism in America and remaining vestiges of structural and institutional racism, creates an enormous slog for those who work to suggest we are in a post-racial period.  As we have written and published, the disproportionality of African-Americans in dead-end special education programs, in prisons, on parole, engaged if you will in the penal system, denied sufficient housing and jobs, and for the most part, segregated in communities throughout the U.S., suggest the challenges to the theories and advocates for positions promoted by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan more than 30 years ago.  Might we suggest that a "pragmatic," "fair and balanced" national strategy is required which calls into question race neutral solutions, i.e., a focus principally on the need for universal and colorblind remedies for problems that beset those people of color challenged by poverty. 

 

The work of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva provide some illumination: "...in which whites, under the guise of being color-blind, refuse to acknowledge the reality of racism and reject any consideration of how their own racial identity provides them with privileges vis-a-vis people of color."  Silva's concept of racial identity leaps to mind in the context of "identity contingencies," Claude Steele has researched and written.  What also is clear are the anti-racist narratives taking hold in districts and schools in distinctly different localities such as San Francisco, Oakland, Eden Prairie, East Allen, Newark, Bridgeport, Wayzata, Edina, Hopkins, Greene County, Liverpool and Seattle to name a few.

 

Just a few thoughts on a beautiful day in the East.

 

All the best and in solidarity to the purposes you lead,

Eric @ www.nuatc.org

 

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From: sadams@aasa.org
Reply-to: NABSE@yahoogroups.com
To: NABSE@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 9/15/2010 9:49:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: [EDNews] Racial Disparities in Suspensions

 

 

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Racial Disparity in School Suspensions
The New York Times, Sept. 14
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A new study, "Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis," shows that young black males in many U.S. middle schools were three times more likely to receive school suspensions than their white counterparts.  New York Times