Tag Archives: African-Americans

The Performance Gap between white and black students is the Civil Rights Issue of our Time

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African-Americans have been fighting discrimination since the Emancipation Proclamation. During the 1950s and 60s, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the legion of heroes of the civil rights movement fought discrimination relentlessly. As simple as I can state it: disadvantaged children, a disproportionate percentage of whom are black and other minorities, are the victims of systemic discrimination and they will continue to suffer until their advocates stand united in their determination to alter this reality. The performance gap between black and white students is the civil rights issue of our time and it demands action on the part of everyone who has a stake in the future of these children.

Public school policy-makers are very much like the US Congress in the 1950’s. If it had not been for the heroes of the civil rights movement, we might still be waiting for meaningful civil rights legislation. Disadvantaged children must not be made to wait. They are counting on us and we must act now. What a tragedy it will be if, in twenty years, our children’s children are still languishing as a result of an obsolete education process because we were reluctant to act; because we believed ourselves to be powerless. This is the antithesis of positive leadership.

Public school educators and their advocates have proclaimed that public education is better than it has ever been. That may be true for some children but it could not be further from the truth with respect to disadvantaged children, many but not all of whom are black and other minorities.

The fact that, for a half century or more, we have been accepting the performance gap as an inevitable outcome of poverty is a gross injustice. The test for discriminatory practices is whether or not an action creates a disparate impact. If the performance gap is not incontrovertible evidence of disparate impact, I don’t know what is. It is an injustice that has sentenced millions of disadvantaged kids, young men in particular, to a life of failure, poverty, violence, and incarceration. That we have accepted the assertions of public school teachers that the education process works for everyone, strains all semblance of credibility.

It is the job of public school teachers to teach all children not just the ones who come primed and ready to learn. The fact that so many children are failing means that something is terribly wrong; that something is not working. In any other venue we would never accept that there is nothing we can do to improve unacceptable outcomes. Teachers are not to blame for the failures of the system but they have an obligation to stand up for their students, when needed.

The performance gap between black and white students is not because black kids are incapable of learning. That millions of kids who live in our poor urban and rural communities are disadvantaged in any number of ways does not mean they cannot learn, it just means they need a little extra time, patience, and attention. They need educators to keep trying new approaches until they find one that works.

Whether manufacturing a product, providing a service, or selling something, there is always a solution if the outcomes are not what we want. This is also true with the education process utilized in schools all over the U.S. Finding a solution is not even complicated. It is simply a matter of clarifying purpose; being willing to try something new; learning from our mistakes; applying the principles of organizational management, systems thinking, and positive leadership; and, being committed to relentless improvement.

I have developed a solution that will work but I need the help of black leaders to come together and convince public school superintendents with underperforming elementary schools to test my model. With the right kind of pressure some will be compelled to act. Teachers may well be skeptical but if they want success for their students they must be open to a new way.

Please check out my education model, which I will offer for free, and the accompanying white paper that lays out the logical foundation at https://melhawkinsandassociates.com/education-model-white-paper/ All I ask is the credit of authorship. Right now there are millions of disadvantaged children who are learning how to fail and their lives will be irrevocably damaged unless people like you decide it must stop.

Lack of Insight and Empathy are Subtle Forms of Racism

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It is amazing how many white people think there is no reason why African-Americans, poor black people specifically, cannot pull themselves out of poverty and live their lives like we do. When a black person is shot by police these same people will say “if they don’t want to be stopped by police they shouldn’t break the law!” These Americans have no insight into the implicit pre-judgment in their minds that the black person must have been doing something wrong,” or even worse, that “they should not have been there in the first place.” How can America be great if there are public places to which access is denied because of race or religion?

These white Americans do not understand why anyone whose car broke down along a highway would be afraid of an approaching police officer. They cannot imagine that that they would be perceived as a threat when walking through someone else’s neighborhood. Most white men cannot imagine that women, whom they pass on a sidewalk or other public place, would feel endangered by their nearness just because of the color of their skin. White Americans do not understand what it is like to be profiled by the color of their skin.

White Americans are incensed when a millionaire black athlete kneels during the National Anthem as a form of protest over the death of yet another black man at the hands of police. These white people have no insight into the fact that the reality in which young black children are reared in the U.S. is not the same reality with which they are familiar. They do not understand that the chasm that separates poor blacks from mainstream American society seems as wide as the Grand Canyon to black Americans. Most whites Americans cannot comprehend that life in poor urban and rural communities is not a matter of choice. They do not see that the black athlete who kneels during the national anthem is using his platform to speak on behalf of young people who are unable to speak for themselves.

White men and women who ridicule the idea of “white privilege” are oblivious to their own lack of empathy. Rather than seek to understand or work to find solutions they opt, instead, to pass judgment on their fellow citizens. They are so busy exercising their “white privilege” in response to their perceptions of black America that they have no insight into how they, themselves, are perceived by that other America. Sadly, far too many do not believe that blacks are entitled to such privilege and they do not care what black America thinks. These Americans reject the assertion that their behavior is a subtle form of racism. They also reject the possibility that they could ever be wrong.

It is because of such intransigence that we remain divided as a nation, unable to assuage the pain of past and present injustice. When are white Americans going to acknowledge that the greatness of America is a matter of perception and that we do not all enjoy the same opportunities and freedoms?

Rather than strive to address the inequities of our society and the prejudices of the American people, conservative white men and women want to turn back the clock to a simpler time when they felt safe, secure, and in control. We cannot achieve the future we seek by bullying, calling people names, blaming others when we do not get our way, by clinging to the past, or by abandoning our democratic principles. What we all must understand is that there will never be a simpler time.

The reality that is early 21st Century America is a function and consequence of our government’s policies since the end of World War II; both republican and democrat, liberal and conservative. Since the world has changed exponentially, we must be willing and able to think exponentially, which is just another way of saying “think outside the box.” The one thing of which we can be certain is that the problems of the balance of the 21st Century will not be solved by the solutions of the past. The sooner we accept this truth the sooner we can begin working together to repair the widening breach that divides us.

Racial Violence and Police Brutality Have a Similar Genesis!

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The rioting taking place in Baltimore over the past couple of days is not the first nor will it be the last incidence of young blacks, mostly men, acting out in anger in central cities throughout the U.S. Unlike those who engage in thoughtful protest, violence is all many of these young people know.

They are part of a growing population of young people, a large percentage of which are black, who are disconnected from mainstream society. They have been chewed up a spit out by a flawed educational process, have access to minimal health care, feel targeted by the criminal justice system, and feel imprisoned in their own communities. Do these factors justify such behavior? Certainly not, but we are not seeking justification.

What we are seeking, what we must seek, is understanding. Until we understand the forces that drive such behavior we can only react to it and reaction only prompts a chain reaction. We need understanding if we are to have any hope of a meaningful resolution.

That being said, is the rioting in the streets in Baltimore any different than a group of cops losing control and beating a black suspect in the streets? History is full of examples in which seemingly peaceful groups of people can, when conditions are ripe, morph into a violent mob to which they seem compelled to relinquish their self-control.

That human beings have a propensity to surrender to the mob is a given and it is a powerful force of human nature. What concerns us are the factors that trigger such behavior.

In the case of white cops and young black men in urban America, the dynamics that trigger such violence are remarkably and ironically similar. In both instances, the triggering emotion is a heightened sense of frustration born of powerlessness in the face of forces that affect their daily lives. Let us remind ourselves that the overwhelming majority of African-Americans do not engage in senseless rioting in the streets of any neighborhood, let alone their own, and the overwhelming majority of police officers do not engage in the senseless beating of suspects of any demographic.

Young people living in poverty, hopelessness, and powerlessness are reacting to a world that does not seem to care about them and from which they see no escape. While this group includes people of all races, creeds, and ethnic heritage, African-Americans are disproportionately represented and possess a unique sensitivity to discrimination. This burgeoning population of Americans live in a world that is separate and apart from what is perceived to be mainstream society and the chasm that separates them is widening, relentlessly.

When these young people take to the streets, it is almost always begins as a reaction to what they believe to be police brutality or other forms of institutional racism.

The police officers who respond with violence are reacting to their own sense of frustration over their inability—their sense of powerlessness—to bring perpetrators of a virtual avalanche of criminal activity to justice in an environment in which they believe the courts to be ineffectual. Imagine how any of us would feel about a job in which the problems that keep us from doing our job are overwhelming and where our employer seems incapable of doing anything about it. None of this excuses this type of behavior but it does help us understand.

The reality that we face as members of a democratic form of government is that the world is changing faster than ever and the tools we have at our disposal are becoming obsolete. No matter how much some people might wish it, we cannot turn back the clock to a time when the white man ruled the roost and values were simpler and clearer. This is true whether you are viewing the scenario as a conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, tea-party member or socialist.

The combination of conservative and liberal policies employed by our leadership over the last 65 years are what brought us to this point in history. These policies did not work then and they have even less chance of working in a world in which the gaps that separate us as a people seem impassable; where the population is growing steadily more diverse; and, in which our elected legislators seem incapable of working together.

There are tens of millions of young people who feel disconnected from mainstream society and the number grows, daily. Somehow we must find a way to pull them into the mainstream, not shut them off from it. We need new ideas, new solutions; we need to think exponentially.

These new approaches must begin in our public schools where public school teachers are presently under attack by educational reformers who do not understand the challenges of public education; who think that simplistic, jingoistic solutions can solve complex problems; and, who are oblivious to the damage they do!

We must call upon professional educators to acknowledge that the way we have been teaching kids for decades no longer works. We need them to come together as a profession and seek new educational processes that are focused on the meeting the real needs each and every child and to create the necessary structure to support that effort.

To paraphrase Zig Ziglar, “if we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting what we’ve been getting.”

The reader is invited to explore my book, Reinventing Education, Hope, and the American Dream: The Challenge for Twenty-First Century America, where I offer a blueprint for action.

We Need Fresh Ideas for a New Era of American History

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Both conservative republican and liberal democratic tenets of 20th Century America have gradually taken on the characteristics of dogma in that the underlying assumptions of their respective conventional wisdoms are rarely challenged or evaluated for their efficacy.

This is particularly concerning as we move into a new century where the problems we face as a nation, society, and world community are of an unprecedented breadth and scope. The unfortunate reality is that many of the challenges we face as members of an increasingly diverse people in an ever-more-complex new century are the consequence of the choices and policies of both republican and democratic leadership in the 20th Century. Those policies, choices, and ideologies will no longer take us where we need to go.

Most troubling is the emergence of the “tea party movement” that is striving to take us back to a time in America history that is perceived as better; a time when values seemed clearer. The problem, of course, is that the only people for whom that idyllic past was better were non- poor, white Americans. It was a time when white Americans represented the overwhelming majority and when they lived in a world in which they occupied a special place in society. This past is not recalled with the same reverence by black Americans and other minorities or by poor, white Americans.

Interestingly, this cherished past was a time in which blue-collar America, thanks to strong unions, enjoyed a level of economic success at least approaching that of “white collar” middle class Americans. The present day irony is that tea party and other conservative politicians and policy makers are doing their best to emasculate present-day unions as if they somehow pose a threat to the middle class. Why we would ever think that a strong working class able to earn levels of income to provide for their families, contribute to a vibrant economy, and pay their fair share of taxes is a bad thing is difficult to fathom.

The actions and policies of conservative politicians and policy makers seem to be driven by an equal resentment of the interests of African-Americans; other minorities; new immigrants, illegal or not; Muslim-Americans; gay and lesbians; and any other population of human beings who are perceived as different.

The unalterable fact is that African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and other groups as defined by race, color, creed, faith, or sexual preferences represent one of the two fastest growing segments of our population and will soon replace white Americans as the majority. The needs of these growing segments of the American population, simply stated, cannot be ignored or otherwise abused without placing our entire society at risk.

What conservative Americans do not seem to comprehend is that the more the interests of these “other” Americans are left unattended, the more likely they will be to rise up and begin exercising their right to vote. Given that these groups, in the aggregate, will represent a statistical majority, such an eventuality will bring the conservative agenda to an abrupt but judicious end. We can only hope that the traditional liberal agenda will also be laid to rest.

We have not even addressed the issues involving the other fastest growing population of Americans made up of baby-boomers who are joining the ranks of the retired; a group whose political clout will also mushroom.

The best hope for preserving our liberty and providing a safe and affluent future for our children and grandchildren is through leadership that embraces our diversity and engages all Americans in the quest for new and innovative solutions to the challenges of the 21st Century. At present, we are not even seeking new and innovative solutions, much to our great disadvantage.

In my novel, Light and Transient Causes, I show what could happen if we relax our vigilance and abdicate our responsibilities as citizens of a participatory democracy.

A CALL TO ACTION: A New Civil Rights Movement Focused on Public Education!

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Education is a civil rights issue today just as it was in the 1950s during the initial years of the historic civil rights movement. Back then, the challenge was breaking down the barriers that prevented black children from attending public schools. Today, the issue is virtually the same but with a new twist.

Southern public schools in particular discriminated against African-American children by denying them entrance into public schools and universities. Today, African-American, Hispanic, and other minority children, along with white children living in urban America already attend public schools. Today’s problem is that our government, both federal and state, are discriminating against public school corporations by siphoning off revenue through voucher programs that allow families to transfer their children to charter schools and other private and parochial schools.

Our government and the corporate reformers who support and encourage them are claiming that charter schools the other alternatives are doing a better job than our public schools and they cloak their advocacy under the blanket of “freedom of choice.” While they promote the development of charter schools and encourage families to take advantage of vouchers they attack our urban public schools with the charge that they are failing and that the blame for such failure rests on the shoulders of public school teachers. Therein lies the fallacy of current corporate and government education reforms.

The simple but compelling fact is that the teachers who populate our charter schools and other private and parochial alternatives are educated in the same colleges and universities and are license pursuant to the same state standards and qualifications as their public-school counterparts. How can we think that whether or not a qualified and licensed teacher will magically perform at a higher level is a function of the fact that they teach in a charter, private or parochial school rather than in a public school in the same community?

The problem is not “choice” and no right thinking American would deny the importance of giving families choices. The problem is that while luring students and their associated revenue away from our public schools our government is making no effort to address the real challenges that such schools face. As they heap more and more blame on teachers and schools for low scores on state competency exams and reduce the revenue upon which these schools depend, more and more teachers are leaving the profession. In many cases it is the most experienced and most capable teachers that are fleeing the field of education making it that much more difficult for the abandoned schools to meet the needs of their students.

Right now African-American citizens and other parents concerned with the quality of their public schools are in possession of a wonderful opportunity to change the reality for their children. Community leaders from each of these groups, working separately and in concert, need to rally their communities in support of their public schools and teachers.

Concurrently, public school teachers, both individually and collectively, need to reach out to the leaders of the local communities and offer to work together to rise to the challenges facing public education. Make no mistake. A partnership between public school teachers and the parents of their communities working together to serve the best interests of children will transform public education as surely as rain will make the flowers grow.

At the national level, we need high profile leaders of all of our minority communities to link together and take a stand on the issue of public education with the same commitment that we witness anew in the movie Selma. We beseech these leaders from business, government, entertainment, and professional athletics to come together on this most important issue and to reach out to the American Federation of Teachers, to the National Education Association, and to such groups as the Bad Ass Teachers Association. At the same time, we need the leaders of the AFT, NEA and BATs to reach out to community leaders.

Not since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his colleagues and supporters marched to Selma has there been an issue as important to the future of our nation and its children as exists today with the crisis in public education. Never has there been an opportunity to bring about such transformational change as exists right now, in cities across the United States of America.

If you are reading this message, today, please pass on this call to action to everyone you know. It may be the most important thing you can do for your country.

The Movie “Selma” Could Not Have Been Released at a More Opportune Time

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Given the issues that affect African-Americans, specifically, and other minorities and the poor in general, the release of the movie Selma could not have been timelier. Selma is a movie that is more than just a work of historical significance, it offers a prescription for addressing the challenges of Twenty-first century America.

The focus of African-Americans has been directed to the two most recent incidents in a long history of violence against black males on the part of law enforcement officers. In the midst of the violence that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere and the impassioned plea for justice, many African-American men and women, including many in positions of prominence, adopted the symbolic gesture of raised hands. It was a brilliant move that not only symbolizes the unity of the black community and its supporters on this issue but also provides a visible reminder to African-Americans and others to make good decisions when stopped by a police officer.

I will continue to believe that the overwhelming majority of our nation’s law enforcement officers are dedicated professionals who do their best to keep the peace in every sense of the word. The problem, of course, is that young people who encounter the police in the community or on the streets are no more able to differentiate between good cops and bad than a police officer can distinguish between a young black person who is up to no good and those who are minding their own business.

What we need from both sides is restraint. Sadly, recent attacks against police officers only puts them all on edge, making restraint more difficult to sustain and that much more necessary.

Prior to the two most recent incidents of violence against young blacks by the police, citizens have been coming together and are engaged in an effort to bring an end to the violence that pervades so many American cities. Often, the violence such communities are forced to endure are violence of gang- and crime-related attacks of blacks on blacks or Hispanics on Hispanics, etc.

If the African-American community can capitalize on the unity and cohesiveness created by the issues cited above and channel the anger, they could apply the lessons learned from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the hundreds of other civil rights leaders who changed American society.

One of the goals of the civil rights movement, beyond campaigning for laws against discrimination, was to make the American dream a reality for all children including blacks and other minorities. The fact that this movement changed America is an example of just how powerful such grass-roots movements can be.

Now, a half-century after the height of the civil rights movement, a significant population of African-Americans and other minorities are not participating in the American dream and neither are millions of poor white Americans. Let’s seize this opportunity to shout out a call to action to make the American dream a reality for all American children.

Once the laws of the nation were rewritten to insure that all Americans must treated equally under the law, the key to realizing the American dream for those not born into affluence has been a quality education.

Many American parents have lost trust and faith in both our systems of public education and the American dream much as they have lost faith and hope in our justice system. Because public education failed them, at least in their own minds, they do not teach their children that an education is the key to better opportunities and to a life out of poverty. They do not stress the importance of working hard in school to their children. The children of these parents arrive at school poorly prepared to succeed, academically, and with little or no motivation to learn.

Because of the level of distrust that exists for these parents, when their children have problems at school, they rush to the defense of their children. They do this because they do not believe the teachers have their children’s best interests in mind.

Many African-Americans and others believe that the schools discriminate against their children. There is a strong sense that the entire system of public education is racist. This is a belief that must be put to rest, permanently. Our public schools are not rife with institutional racism in which minorities have no chance and Fort Wayne Community Schools provides a perfect example. FWCS is led by an African-American superintendent, and is populated by African-American administrators, principals, and teachers.

Yes, racist teachers exist just as the U.S. is populated by many citizens who are racist. The overwhelming majority of public school teachers, however, are dedicated professionals who want all of their students to be successful just like the overwhelming majority of African-American men and women are law-abiding citizens and the majority of police officers want to serve the interests of justice.

As we speak, led by the corporate community and the federal government, Indiana and other states are aggressively pursuing strategies to not only weaken the bonds between communities and their schools, but are also weakening our public schools. These forces are attacking public school teachers and are blaming them for the problems in public education. It is clear that these are not strategies designed to address the problem of our poorest communities and our most challenged public schools.

This scenario creates a unique opportunity for minority communities to link forces with the public schools in their communities and with the teachers of those schools. In my next post I will propose a number of specific strategies. These strategies will be constructed on the lessons we have learned from the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.

The essence of that message is that if people want to change the world around them they need to accept responsibility for bringing about those changes rather than wait for someone else to do it for us. Many of these strategies have been detailed in my book, Reinventing Education, Hope, and the American Dream: The Challenge for Twenty-First Century America.