Mar 22, 2018

Second Reply to the Center of the American Experiment and Katherine Kersten >>>>> Julia Hill and Dana Bennis, “Let’s Discuss Race Issues in Schools--- Calmly: Katherine Kersten’s Recent Commentary on School Discipline Brought the Fear, Not the Facts. It won’t work--- people know better.” (Star Tribune, Opinion Exchange, 20 March 2018) >>>>> Another Exercise in Recognizing Subtext for My Readers

A Note to My Readers   >>>>>

 

As you scroll on down this blog, you will come to a bevy of articles that I am posting for a multiplicity of reasons.  The overarching reason concerns the low-grade quality of most of what gets published in the Star Tribune pertinent to K-12 education.  

 

Star Tribune editorialists and staff members themselves have very little knowledge of K-12 education and are largely ignorant of the inner workings of a local school district such as the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Those who write opinion pieces and secure publication in the Star Tribune focus on particularistic concerns of the moment but rarely discuss the most fundamental factors abiding in the education establishment that impedes movement toward K-12 excellence.

                                                                                       

Because of the lack of knowledge betrayed by both Star Tribune staffers and most of the opinion writers whom the editorial board opts to publish, readers must ever be attentive to subtext and the underlying issues.  This blog provides the information that readers need to be properly informed about K-12 education generally and the locally centralized school district represented saliently by the  Minneapolis Public Schools specifically.

                                                         

As you scroll down the blog, you will see two opinion pieces written in response to ideas emanating from the Center of the American Experiment, the latter including those expressed by Katherine Kersten in an article published on the opinion pages of the Star Tribune on Sunday, 18 March.  Before I post my own response and interpretation of the Kersten article, please read these responses and evaluate the arguments of the writers against those of Kersten and the Center of the American Experiment with which she is associated. 

 

Second of the two responses was written
by Julia Hill and Dana Bennis, as follows >>>>>

 

Julia Hill and Dana Bennis, “Let’s Discuss Race Issues in Schools---  Calmly:  Katherine Kersten’s recent commentary on school discipline brought the fear, Not the facts.  It won’t work---  people know better.”  (Star Tribune, Opinion Exchange, 20 March 2018)

 

Katherine Kersten’s contemptible March 18 commentary “Undisciplined” was yet another attempt to create fear of people of color in order to further dangerous and racist policies---  in this case a fear of students of color in order to instill even harsher school discipline policies.

 

Yet Minnesotans can see through her scare tactics, her misleading claims and her cherry-picking of data.

 

Kersten begins by making up a false argument:  that those working to reduce racial disparities in  school suspensions believe that racist teachers are to blame.  In her mind, there has to be someone to blame, so rather than teachers she blames the students of color themselves, allegedly proving her case by selecting a few incidents.

 

This is the typical dog whistle meant to portray people of color as either lazy or violent.  The truth is there is no one person or group to blame.  Disparities in school suspensions exist for the same reasons we have mass incarceration of people of color:  an incredible wealth gap between white people and people of color, disparities in rates of homeownership and much more---  the pervasive, centuries-long history of institutionalized and systematic white supremacy and racism.

 

This is not the time for a blame game.  This is a societal reality whose existence and solution involves every one of us.

 

Kersten then brings out the tired statistics about out-of-wedlock births and the myth that fathers of color are not involved in their kids’ lives.  In fact, a 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that black fathers are actually more involved in playing with, reading, and feeding their children than are white fathers, whether or not they live with their children.

 

What’s most important to know here is what Kersten conveniently left out:  that schools and districts around the country are implementing policies to reduce racial disparities in suspensions using research-based practices such as restorative justice and circle processes that are tremendously effective.  They provide young people and educators with the chance to see one another as humans, to look at the reasons behind the actions, and to seek out solutions that result not only in reduced violence but also greater understanding of how to sustain strong communities of support and trust.

 

Furthermore, in the St. Paul Public Schools in particular, where 82 percent of the teaching staff is white while 79 percent of students are children of color, the district and the St. Paul Federation of Teachers are trying to take on the real work of supporting teachers to own and understand the role that white privilege and institutionalized racism play in the struggles we face in public education.

 

Scare tactics and dog whistles won’t work any longer.  People are wising up and rising up.

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