Another Black History Month Celebration.
Black Community, Where is the Outrage?
Part One
by: Richard A. Rowe
 As another Black History Month comes to a close, the African American
community will celebrate the courage and accomplishments of those men and
women of yesteryear who sacrificed everything they had - even their lives -
to read, write and become educated. Unfortunately, it is quite apparent that
we have come so far and forgotten so much. How many more black students have
to have their dreams deferred, hopes dashed and futures forfeited before the
African American community becomes outraged at the savage inequalities taking
place throughout the school system daily without an end in sight? How many
more Sun paper articles are necessary to cause the African American community
to reach the level of outrage demonstrated in the movie "Network" by the
character, Howard Beale.
Mr. Beale was so fed up with the insidious and banal
programming of television, that he urged television viewers to rush to their
windows, raise them and shout to the top of their lungs that "they were mad
as hell and would not take it any more"? Does the African American community
really believe that their children can take another Mayoral administration or
another attempt by another superintendent to transform the "system" and make
it "right" for its "minority" students? The last Mayor had twelve years to
fix the schools and could not, and there have been four or five
superintendents who "gave it their best shot and failed miserably." Most of
them left before their contracts were up for renewal. What is the African
American community waiting for? Is our mis-education so obvious and our
history so meaningless. Again, where is the outrage?
"True violence, stated NAACP board chairman, Julian Bond, is sending black
children to school for twelve years and only giving them six years worth of
education." Numerous front page articles have appeared in the Sun papers
over the past fifteen years - and I have most of them- that have literally
concluded that the longer black children attend Baltimore City Public Schools
(BCPS), the dumber, or the politically correct term, less educated they
become. Where is the outrage? And what about the discouraging information
about our schools that never hit the pages of The Sun, or any of the local
papers.
From MSPAP test scores, to unbelievable drop out rates; to rising
suspension and expulsion rates; to disproportionate placements in special
education classes; to very low success rates attending and succeeding in
college; to State takeovers of failing schools; to the outright failure of
students having the requisite skills to perform basic task like writing a
simple essay. If these serious issues highlighting a failed school system are
unable to move a community to outrage and action, then it is obvious that
that community has a short memory and has abdicated their responsibility to
both their children and to those whose lives we are celebrating this month.
Several months ago (December 18, 2000) in a front page Sun paper article, the
caption read, "At last, weak link in chain of failure." Underneath the
article was a picture of an ill-prepared African American male student,
Derrick Cuffie, a senior of Northern High School who wanted to go college but
has never written a research paper. In and of itself, that was bad enough,
but the article opened with a statement that was both tragic and frightening
for Derrick and the entire community. "In the insular world of his Baltimore
high school, the article begins; 17-year old Derrick Cuffie is a success. He
has stayed in school, even as 400 of his classmates have walked out and never
come back. He has listened to his teachers while other students have
routinely napped at their desk. He has maintained B's and C's putting him in
the top half of his class. And he has dodged drugs and trouble at school
where both are easy to come by. But when he graduates from Northern High
School in June, he will leave with a diploma that is not a sure ticket to
either a good job or college education." Black community, where is the
outrage?
This article was for me, and I had hoped for others, the last straw, because
it further demonstrated how the hopes, dreams and futures of so many black
students in the system have been sacrificed to myriad school reform
experiments. The school board president was quoted as saying "he did not
recognize high schools are highly visible and vulnerable" If he wasn’t
misquoted, or his statement taken out of context, then we are all in trouble,
because neighborhood high school drop out rates have been dismally high for
the past 10-15 years.
Moreover, this article spells trouble, not only for
Derrick and the thousands like him in Baltimore city, but for the thousands
of black and brown students throughout the state of Maryland who are not
receiving even the basic skills needed for tomorrow's economy. And if we
continue to ignore the academic, social, cultural and economic nuances
implicit in this article, then solving the educational problems related to
minority underachievement will never be achieved. One only has to look at the
minority achievement problems plaguing more affluent counties including
Baltimore, Howard and Prince George’s counties. So it is not just a problem
afflicting the poor as some educators and officials would have us believe. No
other community would tolerate this abomination.
END OF PART ONE: go to part 2
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