A commenter asked me to blog about a recent article that discussed the Racial Violence incident that occurred at South Philadelphia High School. The article was about a group of Asian students returning to school. Apparently the previous December, some Asian students were harassed by other students (mostly Black) who they said were antagonizing them. The word was the mostly Black student body felt the Asian students were receiving preferential treatment so they hazed the Asian students. The article details how the Asian students felt they had enough and they started picketing the school letting the powers that be know they had enough. Afterwards the hazing stopped. Now, ten months later, this article detailed the struggles of the Asian students that are returning to school.What I found most interesting were the comments. Most were from Anglo commenters complaining that "This story confirms what many Americans already know about Phili. Phili, like Detroit, has a demographic that is predominately African American as a result of white-flight, brown-flight, and anyone-who-could flight.While African Americans have successfully portrayed themselves as victims of racism, their perpetrating racism is also part of the African American experience. "Get the Whitee" has been expressed in more ways than just a verbal altercation."
I read this same story in numerous news outlets and the rhetoric in the comment sections were the same.
I decided to go back to earlier articles about the incident at SPHS. It turns out the December, 2009 incident wasn't the first incident. It seems like similar bullying incidents have been happening for some time. The Black Students, not content with the limited services they were receiving, were angry that the Asian Immigrants and Latino students were receiving additional counseling/coaching in ESL type classes and other services.
I started thinking about these incidents, my own high school experience and about poverty stricken neighborhoods. When I was in high school, there was always a hierarchy. At the top of the heap were the Jocks and the Cheerleaders. Next came the Brains and kids with money. Then the regular students. Then the minorities and the nerds. The Jocks, Cheerleaders and Brains/Rich Kids were the stars of the show and people, including teachers, catered to them. By the time my children came along, I learned that in order to help them succeed, I had to move to the suburbs and make sure they were enrolled in team sports and I made sure they studied. Even so, the hierarchy remained basically the same.
The biggest difference was my flight to the suburbs. The inner city schools did not have the services to help me or my children learn, as in South Philadelphia. I could see from the articles, the struggle on both sides.
In the recent SPHS (South Philly High School) articles, I was glad to see the Asian students stood up for themselves and marched to make sure their voices were heard. New Immigrants have even more obstacles to surpass than the traditional school hierarchy. I also felt sad for the young Black students who must be challenged even more, in the poverty stricken inner city schools, with limited services in a very poor environment. The real answer is for our school systems, especially in the inner city, to provide adequate educational services for all students.
Now is the time for Unity, not for divisiveness. We all need to overcome the bullying of the past. We also need to unify to ensure our students, especially the inner city students receive all the tools they need to succeed. After all, Education is the Great Equalizer! Let's not create lines or divisions. Let's unify so all students can succeed.
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