Hamlet: Task force will examine disparities, biases in safety at Pittsburgh's public schools
The Pittsburgh Public Schools on Tuesday announced the formation of a task force that will support efforts to eliminate systemic race- and ability-based...
www.post-gazette.com
“Our district will not bring back our Black students to live and learn under the same racially biased environment that they left a year ago,” Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said during a press conference.
So here you have it. The [Black] Pittsburgh schools Superintendent declares that the district he has led for the past five years constitutes a "racially biased environment." If that this the case, where is his own personal accountability in this terrible situation? Should he resign in disgrace...do the honorable thing?
My view is that there is no such thing as an "environment" being racist. Only PEOPLE who are "racist." The environment doesn't discipline students, SOME SCHOOL OFFICIAL makes those decisions. And the article goes on to say that 80% of school suspensions last year were Black students, who comprise only a little over half of the students. How about this? I DEMAND THAT THE RACIST ADMINISTRATORS BE FIRED! We know what their names are...manifestly. There is a written record of every single one of these school suspensions, and SOMEBODY has their name signed at the bottom (figuratively speaking) of each and every one of them. FIRE THE BASTARDS!
But Superintendent Hamlin won't do that, of course. Why not? Because they are not racists - far from it. They are good, conscientious administrators with DECADES of experience in education, and they are properly looking out for the interests of the students who did not disrupt the classes with abhorrent behavior, all the while looking over their shoulders for the inevitable criticism that befalls them when they discipline a Black Yoot, regardless of how egregious the conduct was. It is likely under the circumstances that they are already "bending over backwards" to minimize the number of Black disciplinary actions that are implemented.
So here we go again. The City of Pittsburgh schools has the two awful conditions that plague every single school district in the country that has a significant plurality of Black students: (1) Black males and females being disciplined more frequently and more severely than "other" students, and (2) the dreaded "achievement gap," which quantifies the inferior grades and test scores that Black students inevitably earn. The Leader of the school district promises to embark on YET ANOTHER campaign to root out the "racist environment" and rectify problems #1 and #2 above.
And it won't happen, because the causes of Nos. 1 and 2 have nothing to do with the school district, the teachers, the administrators or the Superintendent. And it has nothing to do with the pigmentation of the students in question. It has to do with the Black subculture from which those students come to school. It is a subculture that GENERALLY disdains education, authority, middle-class values, and "acting white."
Superintendent Hamlin was hired because he is Black and had a credible resume, on the assumption that a Black superintendent, if competent, could cure Nos. 1 and 2. The irony of him, personally, excoriating the nonexistent "racially biased environment" more than five years into his tenure is a preposterous fantasy, and every reader knows it.
This campaign is based on a slanderous accusation against the decent, hard-working, cadre of school administrators, but because this happens so often and so inevitably, nobody even stops for a moment to recognize that that is what it is: He is calling his administrators RACISTS! But those hearty souls don't even care enough to be insulted because it is so transparently phony.
And there is another dark side to this (no play on words intended): What if the aforementioned Administrators take it to heart? What if they allow EVEN MORE disruptive, antisocial behavior by the District's Black Yoots in an attempt to make the numbers fit the Superintendent's promises; What if they further water down the already absurd academic standards to make it appear that Black students are on a par with the "other" students? What will that accomplish? I dare say, nothing good. It will make a bad situation worse.
Welcome to the Brave New World of Academe.
