A New Jim Crow Era: Segregated Schools

 New Jim Crow Era (full series)
Blacks Only | Modern Parallels
Segregated Schools

---

Segregated Schools

In the classroom, it is often the teachers unions behind such modern segregation efforts. For example, the NEA is complaining that some states are starting to close segregated spaces on college campuses. It’s a sad fact that we have to fight the segregation battle all over again.

A 2001 National Center for Education Statistics analysis revealed that during the 1970s and early 1980s, Black students saw significant improvements in academic achievement and high school completion rates, with the performance gap between Black and white students narrowing considerably. However, by the 1990s, this progress had stalled, and achievement gaps across all grades and subjects began to widen again. Today, schools are more segregated than they were in the late 1960s.

For example, New Jersey’s political leaders boast that they have one of the best public educational systems in the nation. This is true, frequently having national assessment scores and graduation rates that beat most states, but they also have a huge segregation problem. The reality is that most of their black and white students are in separate schools, with New Jersey having a school segregation rate that is three times the national average. No doubt, this segregation problem is fueled by the New Jersey Education Association, which had segregated spaces at their conference, including a NJEA Members of Color Diversity Brunch.

Most of our teachers unions have only contributed to a more color-focused society, encouraging their teachers to treat their students differently based on their race. They are pushing for equity policies that lower the standards for black and brown students and demonizing the vision of a colorblind society. In a recently produced “Racial Justice in Education” a resource guide created by the National Education Association (NEA), the case for racial preferences is made thus:

Being “colorblind” often serves as a pretense to downplay the significance of race, deny the existence of racism, and erase the experience of students of color. Be willing to lead the uncomfortable conversations and turn them into teachable moments. Learn to break through your discomfort to embrace the tensions and unknowns. When racism needs to be addressed but is being avoided, make it your job to initiate and facilitate a constructive conversation. Don’t put the burden on students of color to have to bring things up or do all the heavy lifting to help white students learn.

What exactly are these uncomfortable conversations that they want teachers to lead with the goal of “teaching the white students?” It may be justified as fighting racism, but the result is division and hyper-race-focused classrooms and the uplifting of one group over another.

It should be noted also that the old Jim Crow Era had its share of justifications, as did slavery advocates. They argued even back then that their policies of racial segregation and supremacy were actually suitable for all parties and often pretended there was a threat from blacks that needed to be watched against, thus giving whites a victim mindset. I’m reminded of the proverb that there is no new thing under the sun, as the same rhetoric is used today.

A video included with the guide about “white supremacy culture” includes perfectionism and a sense of urgency as some of the traits. They are citing deadlines as an example of “white supremacy” culture. So, if a teacher requires their black students to turn in their papers on a specific date or make sure that their grammar is perfectly written, they are contributing to a white supremacist culture, according to the NEA.

The NEA has partnered with the non-profit Color of Change, which frequently launches popular campaigns “powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back and champion solutions that move us all forward.”  Color of Change recently claimed victory for getting One America News removed from DirectTV. “This is another step towards making sure the media isn’t allowed to amplify racist lies that lead to real-world violence against Black people.” Color of Change has another campaign to get all the major broadcasters to drop Fox News. Stating that “FOX is simultaneously shaping and being shaped by racist rhetoric that fuels white supremacist violence against Black people.” The group went on to blame Fox News for motivating the attacks on black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, and Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York. When groups like Color of Change work closely with the teachers unions, it’s no surprise that the unions then push for more racial segregation.

I wish I could offer big, bright solutions to this neo-racism we are seeing in today’s schools, workplaces, media, government, and culture. But this isn’t going to be an overnight fight. Like the past Civil Rights leaders, we need to be in it for the long game. First, there must be recognition of wrong. At least the Civil Rights leaders were able to get the national press on their side. When black Americans were being abused in the South, published pictures of people having their clothes stripped by hoses and being attacked by police dogs caused a backlash of public opinion. However, with the major news media often on board with the tactics of the left, this strategy to shift public sympathies through news stories is no easy task.

Furthermore, when news does reach the ears of the masses, many have been effectively inoculated against potential outrage that would be the normal reaction to stories of racial segregation and unfair treatment of different races by their politics. These practices are justified as good things among left-leaning people. Perhaps things need to get worse before they get better before they are shocking enough to wake people up. But when a group of black students forcing white kids to bow down to them doesn’t spark national outrage and change in the minds of leftists, I’m not sure what will. In the end, the Jim Crow Era ended begrudgingly in the South, by force of law, as well as the shaming of that culture of racism in the eyes of the nation. Indeed, it will take no less than a similar effort to end the rise of the New Jim Crow we see today. Hopefully, we will not wait to rally our energies to meet this foe until things have devolved to the extent that it’s as bad as it was back then.

---

This article was published in the July 2024 issue of Capital Research magazine.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/a-new-jim-crow-era-part-3/