The Rise of Black Home Schoolers, Plus, Love & Color and Other Links

 

MyBrownBaby Fresh links to stories we’re reading this week…

The Rise of Homeschooling Among Black Families
by Jessica Huseman for The Atlantic.

In a 2012 report published in the Journal of Black Studies, Mazama surveyed black home schoolers from around the country and found that most chose to educate their children at home at least in part to avoid school-related racism. Mazama calls this rationale “racial protectionism” and said it is a response to the inability of schools to meet the needs of black students. “We have all heard that the American education system is not the best and is falling behind in terms of international standards,” she said. “But this is compounded for black children, who are treated as though they are not as intelligent and cannot perform as well, and therefore the standards for them should be lower.”

Grappling With Gentrification As A Middle Class Black American
by  By Rahel Gebreyes for Huffington Post.

Interestingly, research on the complicated issue of black gentrification reveals that the motivation for black residents to head to lower income minority neighborhoods differs significantly from that of their white counterparts. In fact, feelings of racial exclusion and a desire for “racial solidarity” often push African-Americans to flock to certain areas with a history of black culture. As such, these residents are willing to invest in their communities with the intent of creating a “economically and politically powerful black neighborhood.”

The Right Words to Say: On Being Read as White
by Dahlia Grossman-Heinze for The Toast

I know that the way I am read is privilege. When people look at me they read me as a white woman and when they look at my mother they read her as a Mexican woman. Even though she has a PhD, I have heard white people speak more loudly when they speak to her, like she can’t understand. I know I walk through doors every single day because I have white-passing privilege. I will notice some of them. I will fail to notice others. There will be so many doors in my life that they cannot be counted.

Students Conduct Their Own Groundbreaking Research About Learning
By Katrina Schwartz for MindShift.

In one iconic project called Echos of Brown 50 Years Later, students and researchers delved into the history of Brown vs. Board of Education, interviewed civil rights leaders, and surveyed more than 10,000 youth nationwide about their experiences of subtle segregation in school. The group of 13 students represented various socio-economic levels and came from suburban and urban New York and New Jersey. Together, they created a multimedia expression of how their personal stories fit into the history of inequality, including spoken word, interpretive dance, and an interactive multimedia book that has since been used in teacher training. Echos of Brown is just one outcome of the Opportunity Gap Project, a longer running effort to involve the area’s youth in research about education inequity.

Skeletons Hug, Kiss, And Dance Before A Crowd. When They Step Out From The Screen? You’ll Smile.
posted by The Ad Council