TDSB Ponders Black-Focused Schools

[DENTROBATE54]

The TDSB has greatly increased the number of black teachers during that time. It has also added "Black History Month" to the curriculum. Despite this, if what you are saying is correct, things are getting worse. How so?

Meaning in spite of all those improvements black grades are still poor regardless of increased integration of so-called black values into the public system. BHM is more patronizing than uplifting, more "boo-hoo, woe is me!" pity-partying than actual motivation to do better. It reiterates to the black pupil that they're of conquered ancestry, that their efforts will never amount to anything because control and power is not within their grasp. These thoughts can degenerate into nihilistic or fatalistic narcissism putting themselves and others at risk.

Yet once again, how does this relate to the fact that the all black schools are from Kindergarden to gr.8 which is the proposed plan?

You got me there, I thought a high school was on the agenda as well. If you're suggesting black students would otherwise not interact with other ethnicites because they don't attend the same school then there are larger societal issues to be looked at, starting from within the home. My concern is the learned behaviours they'll grasp from their peers and how that'll influence their academic preformance.

Sports? More visions of granduer feeding the unlikely dream that they can make it through physical means only.

Good point. Pop culture has pigeon-holed how blacks preceive themselves and how others preceive them to the point they're considered failures just by not being atheletic. Stereotypes such as these put mental roadblocks to the learning process. Imposition of black-only schools may eliminate the need for blacks to prove themselves in this manner over taking up the books.

See the WB channel and programming... Just because we don't normally watch it doesn't mean it isn't there.

The WB? That dissolved a year ago. Anyway to see award-winning black actors dwindle in mediorce TV parts while their white contemporaries are headlining million-dollar movies is what I meant. Exposure to media creates subliminal impressions of what white culture is, what black culture is, etc. The need for interracial socialization dissolves as everyone's judged by how their protrayed in the media. It's already occuring (Jena 6 anyone?) so why act like an Afrocentric school will instigate it?

It was rewarding for teachers to teach him vs. the friends he had who had the defeatest mentality.

Hopefully we can create more students like him through this initiative . I'd be defeatest too if I was told I won't succeed in life which too often is the body language black youth recieve from their mentors.

 

[Hydrogen]

If you're suggesting black students would otherwise not interact with other ethnicites because they don't attend the same school then there are larger societal issues to be looked at, starting from within the home. My concern is the learned behaviours they'll grasp from their peers and how that'll influence their academic preformance.

Is being black an ethnicity, or is the black population actually made up of another of differing cultural groups? The latter strikes me as what actually exists insofar as this debate is about classifying people as being "black."

 

[Admiral Beez]

Meaning in spite of all those improvements black grades are still poor regardless of increased integration of so-called black values into the public system.

Misogynist hip hop, bling-centric, baby-mamas, absent fathers, idoltry of celebrity (sports and music), 50% of all (US) prison inmates, gangs, drugs, guns, drive-bys, colours....are these the black values that want to integrate into the public system? IMHO, this is the reality of black culture today.

If I was a black parent, I wouldn't want my kids within ten km of a school filled with kids with these values. Instead, I'd be asking myself, which are the best schools in the city, with the best scoring kids. Then, I'd be sending my kid there. That's what one of my best friends in high school did. Growing up in the vastly white WASP Beach(es) he was one of the only black kids at Malvern Collegiate when I was there (he lived in City Housing near Don Mount Court), and his single-parent mum made sure he went to the best school, regardless of colour. He's now an engineer at one of the nuclear stations, and a great example of academic success. He would have gained abosultely nothing by being sent to a black values school in some distant corner of Scarborough or wherever.

I think the faster we dump the above black cultural values or traits the better. Instead, why not concentrate on values that everyone of all backgrounds can aspire to? Starting with value of hard work, value of an education, taking responsibility for your own actions and life, self respect, taking ownership and control of your life circumstances, building stable families, etc...? You can be orange or purple and these can apply. I remember Oprah saying, when asked why she was building a school in South Africa instead of in a poor (ie. black) area of the USA, that when you ask a youth in the USA what they dream of, they say iPod, PS2 or whatever bling toy, whereas when you ask a youth in South Africa what they dream of, and they all say, simply, an education. Now, where are those "black" values in Canada?

 

[EnviroTO]

Not an entirely new system. Alternative public high schools already exist for Natives and homosexuals.

And they are bad ideas.

A new school in contrast to parents encouraging students to drop-out altogether to help raise younger siblings or take on full-time jobs to breadwin the households? Or worse yet youth turning to gang culture to achieve the acceptance and family one could never find in general society?

A different school doesn't change the motivation to breadwin or turn to gang culture. If anything putting them all together in a single facility where they are expected to conform to some black definition would be worse.

You've misunderstood my support of Afrocentric schools if you didn't realize I knew it was geared towards at-risk individuals and not blacks whose parents can buy their way into better schools.

You don't need to buy your way into different schools. Parents without significant effort can get their high school aged kids into any of the Toronto high schools with the cost of a TTC student bus pass.

Who live in a society more invested in their success than that of black youth. I've seen countless gov't sponsored programs, school clubs, scholarships, remittencies in place for Causcasians and Asians but little to none for blacks.

That is a load of crap. Show me a youth club for whites. Optimist Clubs, Lions Clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA/YWCA exist for the whole population, not for some racial segment of it.

I could get into a long debate about how the socioeconomic divide and Old Boy's Club cruenyism have biased the system against blacks more so than any other minority but I digress.

There are plenty of Asians and White people not in "the club" either. Pretending that having no connections is a black thing is nonsense. How are black students going to an all black school going to develop connections with the youth with connections when you have completely isolated them?

98% of North American media features white celebrities, white new anchors, white characters from white perspectives. If something's written about minorities in usually done from the white outsider's prespective in a patronizing or condescending manor. Don't beleive me, look at what shows have black characters and what roles they play.

OK. Grey's Anatomy: black person in charge, Private Practice: black couple in charge, Everybody Hates Chris: lead role, CSI Vegas: one of the CSIs, Amazing Race, other reality shows: equal regular contestants, America's Top Model: lead role, models, Star Trek DS9: Captain, Star Trek NG: Head Engineer, etc. That's on the main channels.

On BET, there are hip-hop artists, colourful language comedians with poor grammar, scantily clad T&A shakers, etc. No hospital heads, no top cops, no captains, no engineers.

 

[Admiral Beez]

A different school doesn't change the motivation to breadwin or turn to gang culture. If anything putting them all together in a single facility where they are expected to conform to some black definition would be worse.

If we're against ghetto housing, where we put all the at risk housing together in one area, shouldn't we also be against ghetto schooling, where we put alot of the at risk students together in one school?

 

[syn]

If we're against ghetto housing, where we put all the at risk housing together in one area, shouldn't we also be against ghetto schooling, where we put alot of the at risk students together in one school?

That's income based, not race based. Being black doesn't mean you have a higher chance of being a criminal, etc.

 

[adma]

Misogynist hip hop, bling-centric, baby-mamas, absent fathers, idoltry of celebrity (sports and music), 50% of all (US) prison inmates, gangs, drugs, guns, drive-bys, colours....are these the black values that want to integrate into the public system? IMHO, this is the reality of black culture today.

If that's the plain-and-simpl(istic?) case, let's also address the equivalent reality of white culture today

 

[Admiral Beez]

That's income based, not race based. Being black doesn't mean you have a higher chance of being a criminal, etc.

But this school idea is being targeted at the "at risk" black kids, since the whole reason the black school is being considered is to "rescue" the underperforming black students. Excelling students, of all colours, wouldn't want to be anywhere near this school, since it's being built to serve a specific troubled community.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If that's the plain-and-simpl(istic?) case, let's also address the equivalent reality of white culture today

You'll always have southern white trash.

 

[Mystery White Boy]

Believe it or not, such schools already exist. Toronto universities have a larger Asian population in proportion to Whites and Blacks combined. And how on earth could one organize a gays-only school? Not to offend anyone but statistically Blacks do perform at a lower standard than other ethnicities. But I can understand the reasoning behind it. If not alot is expected of you, why bother? Blacks just aren't getting the one-on-one attention from teachers the white and Asian students get and are surrounded by Eurocentric curricula. I remember back in high school they tried to organize a 12th grade class which only accepted Black students and would offer a African Diaspora class but only a few students were interested, despite my school being one-third Black students, so they scrapped it.

It's not that blacks aren't getting enough attention from the teachers. Many of them live in single family homes and have a lack of parental guidance and support. Throw in the negative hip hop lifestyle that many black youths are associated with and what do you expect?

 

[AndreaPalladio]

You'll always have southern white trash.

No. You might leave.

 

[Admiral Beez]

It's not that blacks aren't getting enough attention from the teachers. Many of them live in single family homes and have a lack of parental guidance and support. Throw in the negative hip hop lifestyle that many black youths are associated with and what do you expect?

We should agree, I hope, that while the method (i.e. black only schools) may be flawed, the motivation is sound (i.e. trying to stop blacks disproportionally failing at school). So, if black schools are not the answer, what is the solution?

 

[Admiral Beez]

Less B.E.T.

Do people actually watch that channel?

 

[DENTROBATE54]

And they are bad ideas.

Sparing people from the unwanted and distracting likelihood of discrimination and intimidation in their formative years is a good idea.

If anything putting them all together in a single facility where they are expected to conform to some black definition would be worse.

Black definition? Try actually teaching someone positive values instead of leaving people upto their own vices. Perhaps its lack of attention to what could go wrong is what leads to someone actually going down the wrong path. Nip the problem in the butt early on before gang/hip-hop culture becomes too inticing for youth to ignore. Explain the ills of urban black life in a constructive, not patronizing manner and listen to student accounts. Set a child aside and ask if their home lives are okay. Invest in our future citizens so that they'll live amongst us, not behind bars. This isn't a mental (defeatest cycle, antisocial persona) or physical jail, this is the initiative that'll save youth from it!

Parents without significant effort can get their high school aged kids into any of the Toronto high schools with the cost of a TTC student bus pass.

Students are restricted to schools by their postal code. Sometimes people have to change addresses/uproot their lives to school their kids properly. Isn't the gov't putting too much pressure on the individual to produce good, law-abiding citizens? Isn't it time the community helps?

That is a load of crap. Show me a youth club for whites.

Something multicultural in theory can be discriminatory in practice i.e. racial profiling by cops, gov't office workers, employers, etc.

There are plenty of Asians and White people not in "the club" either. Pretending that having no connections is a black thing is nonsense. How are black students going to an all black school going to develop connections with the youth with connections when you have completely isolated them?

So that blacks can formulate jealousy and resentment of the privileged? I'm sure blacks love hearing about trips to Australia and cottages in Mustoka (sp?) when their families barely can provide food and shelter. Yes there is urban poor whites and Asians too but not to the extent of or certainty not publicized the way blacks are.

OK. Grey's Anatomy: black person in charge, Private Practice: black couple in charge,

You know the saddest thing about your list, some of these shows are the very ones I was referring too. Just because there are black characters doesn't mean they're the focus of the show. They're just there, to make Hollywood not seem so one-sided in its representation.

Chandra Wilson and James Pickens are supporting characters that barely get any airtime in contrast to their white and even Asian counterparts. Isaiah Washington was fired due to pressure from the white homosexual community. Diddo for Priviate Practice. Lost graudally lost all its black players: Micheal, Walt, Mr Ecko, Miss Clue. Latinos were also killed off while mostly all the originating white charcters are still around. Other shows like Desperate Housewives and Prison Break protray them as criminals, often irredeemable and are short-lived on screen. Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Bionic Woman killed off their audience-liked black characters and the list goes on. Reality shows, seriously? Black-centric TV and movies aren't well received by society at large and filth like BET only perpetuates negative stereotypes and is financied by, you guessed it, the white media machine. Racism isn't born, it's learned and if a five-year-old knows more about every lyric to a rap song than they do reading a book, then future is bleak for us all.

Excelling students, of all colours, wouldn't want to be anywhere near this school, since it's being built to serve a specific troubled community.

Stop to consider what might happen if we don't intervene in time to save at-risk youth? "Summer of the Gun" anyone?

Apparently. It wouldn't still be around if they didn't.

What's worse they're now introducing a Muslim-values version of MTV to the Middle East. Soon we'll have a worldwide population of degenerates.

 

[EnviroTO]

Sparing people from the unwanted and distracting likelihood of discrimination and intimidation in their formative years is a good idea.

Oh sure, rather than tackling the problem of bullying why not create a school for the whimps while their at it.

Black definition? Try actually teaching someone positive values instead of leaving people up to their own vices. Perhaps its lack of attention to what could go wrong is what leads to someone actually going down the wrong path. Nip the problem in the butt early on before gang/hip-hop culture becomes too inticing for youth to ignore.

But why is this a black thing. Aren't underproductive white youth in baggy pants an equally important issue? There could be an equal number of youth in the same situation who are not black but because of the statistical game will not get any focus.

Explain the ills of urban black life in a constructive, not patronizing manner and listen to student accounts. Set a child aside and ask if their home lives are okay. Invest in our future citizens so that they'll live amongst us, not behind bars. This isn't a mental (defeatest cycle, antisocial persona) or physical jail, this is the initiative that'll save youth from it!

I agree. This does not require a black dedicated school.

Students are restricted to schools by their postal code.

No. Through the Optional Attendance program a student can go to any school in the city which is not at capacity.

Something multicultural in theory can be discriminatory in practice i.e. racial profiling by cops, gov't office workers, employers, etc.

Racial profiling is multicultural in theory? Whose theory? By definition racial profiling is categorizing based on race which is not multicultural. Also, a black school is not multicultural either.

So that blacks can formulate jealousy and resentment of the privileged? I'm sure blacks love hearing about trips to Australia and cottages in Mustoka (sp?) when their families barely can provide food and shelter. Yes there is urban poor whites and Asians too but not to the extent of or certainty not publicized the way blacks are.

There is only one person on the planet that doesn't need to live with the fact there is someone with more wealth out there. Nowhere close to the majority of asians or white people have cottages in Muskoka. People need to accept where they are in order to chart a path to somewhere else. I all the times I have walked around the streets of Toronto I have not once seen a homeless black person, they are all white. Does that mean all whites are less well off than black people? Of course it doesn't. Pretending that what is publicized and easily seen is automatically true is irresponsible. Just because there is a traffic jam in the summer heading to Muskoka doesn't mean that the majority has cottages in Muskoka. Total gridlock hits downtown Toronto when there is a packed Rogers Centre and ACC and that only totals 70,000... a small fraction of the 2.5 million living in Toronto proper.

Just because there are black characters doesn't mean they're the focus of the show. They're just there, to make Hollywood not seem so one-sided in its representation.

I missed that press release. Could you point it out to me. If a black person gets a job it is automatically to make whoever is hiring not seem racist or one-sided? So damned if you do and damned if you don't then I guess.

Chandra Wilson and James Pickens are supporting characters that barely get any airtime in contrast to their white and even Asian counterparts.

Who cares. James Pickens plays the boss of all of them.

Isaiah Washington was fired due to pressure from the white homosexual community.

Wrongly? Michael Richards, Don Imus, and some new nutball that is in the news now have had their careers ended due to pressure from the black community. So what? These people were rightly held responsible for what they said.

Diddo for Priviate Practice.

How? Taye Diggs and Audra McDonald and central characters running the practice. Everything that happens in the practice goes through them.

Lost graudally lost all its black players: Micheal, Walt, Mr Ecko, Miss Clue. Latinos were also killed off while mostly all the originating white charcters are still around. Other shows like Desperate Housewives and Prison Break protray them as criminals, often irredeemable and are short-lived on screen. Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Bionic Woman killed off their audience-liked black characters and the list goes on.

Wouldn't you rather there not be black characters that are Lost, Desperate, or breaking from Prison. I can't watch those shows at all... they are probably better off not being on them. Who knows why those characters disappeared. There are white characters disappearing from shows all the time and it is usually plot or salary negotiation related.

Reality shows, seriously?

Tyra has a successful modelling show. No credit for her? No credit for Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino?

Black-centric TV and movies aren't well received by society at large and filth like BET only perpetuates negative stereotypes and is financied by, you guessed it, the white media machine.

Well if the TDSB creates a black school and it ends up like BET or being the worst performing school in the province-wide tests you will probably be the first to point out that the majority of the school board trustees are not black and the reason the black school isn't working is because of the damned white people.

Racism isn't born, it's learned and if a five-year-old knows more about every lyric to a rap song than they do reading a book, then future is bleak for us all.

True. But what is the lesson of a black school if it isn't blacks can't work together with the rest of multicultural population that is settling here, or maybe blacks only like hanging around blacks, or blacks don't learn the same way as everyone else, or blacks are discriminated against more than anyone else, or blacks need special treatment, etc, etc, and the list goes on? Will success after high school depend on the banks creating black departments or do these barriers that warrant a black school miraculously disappear upon graduation? The reality is that a black school is the symbol of racism. How can one claim to making progress on getting rid of discrimination and eliminating racism while creating race targeted institutions?