Black-Only or Afro-Centric Schools - Are You Kidding Me?

Ah, leave it up to the liberal establishment in Toronto to float an idea that reeks of racial preference and reverse discrimination under the guise of "increased tolerance" and "racially advantageous education". If you haven't heard by now, Toronto has approved the start-up of a racially segregated school. Yup, you heard that right, and nope, we're not back in the 1950s in the American south, ladies and gentleman. In 2008, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, there will be the establishment of an essentially all-black school. I suppose afro-centric is the proper politically correct name, but since this isn't the Toronto Star, black-only school is more than sufficient to describe what will undoubtedly be a inevitable failure. I don't agree with much with the very liberal premier of Ontario, one Dalton McGuinty, but I have to say that I am in full concurrence with him in his uneasiness and opposition to such a school being put in place.

Unfortunately, such an issue can not only be a contentious one, but has an extremely high risk of polarizing people racially. From what I've seen and heard, not unlike many race issues, we see a clear divide in how members of racial groups (in this case, the reaction is generally broken down along historical Black/White lines). However, despite what the media may report, not all Black folks are keen on this idea.

Earlier last month, my wife and I had the opportunity to accept an invitation to have "brunch" with one of my wife's clients. I don't know them very well, and to be honest, didn't really want to go, but she insisted, so I went, mostly to serve as an example to my son that you can't always do what you really want to do. The family is part Haitian/part African (for the sake of this discussion, it would be safe to simply say that they were Black). Anyhow, we show up and the food is not ready. For a brunch, we didn't eat until 3PM. While to me it is generally not generally a significant detail as far as social interactions go, I did chuckle to myself, as this late lunch sort of underscored a prevalent societal stereotype about Black folks - that late is OK (of course, I'm always late, so it may be an Asian thing as well). Anyhow, we thought it would be an oppotunity to get to know this family better. Between trying to make conversation over the large Samsung LCD TV that was blasting away the soundtrack portion of some clearly pirated DVD, we found out that we weren't the only ones that were invited to this late brunch. In fact, there are lots of people invited. Fantastic, I thought, it's going to be a freaking house party now, as if the CD player blaring in the background, trying to compete with the aforementioned DVD, wasn't loud and irritating enough.

Their friends showed up, and not surprisingly, they were all Black. The conversation turned to world current events and then proceeded to focus back on local Canadian issues. It was a pretty interesting conversation, with some very knowledgeable and articulate folks there, not the least of which was this news junkie, who like me listened to talk radio and had an opinion on almost any current event. To no one's surprise, after some ice-breaker topics, the subject shifted quickly to the (at the time) proposed all-Black school in Toronto. The fellow turned to me, and with other eyes turned my way, he asked what I thought of the idea. Now, what the heck would you say to a group of Black folks huddled together to discuss such a topic, particularly if you were the only non-Black there (my wife was there as well, but didn't say a whole lot and was subtly tapping my foot with hers as code to say that it's time that we went home)? Of course, I am not one to be shy with my opinions and since I figured that I am not exactly bursting with politically correct diplomacy skills, I may as well state my honest opinion, and if I do get attacked (figuratively or physically), there were several exit routes I could have taken. So I told the group how I thought it was such a terrible idea, not because it was contrary to some contemporary utopian view about how everyone should simply get along and ignore the differences between us, but that the idea did not have my support because it was essentially a weak, bailing-out type of response, which is not uncommon in today's lack-of-responsibility and throwning-in-the-towel mentality. People nowadays do not deal with challenges very well, whether it be societal, financial, emotional, physical, etc. People as a whole have also generally abandoned long-coveted virtues such as hard work and paying your dues, to use an overused cliche.

Here's the rub, essentially, I continued to tell them. The idea of this school was floated, in part due to some Blacks (in mostly urban centres) not performing as well academically, in relation to their non-Black counterparts (White, Asian, etc.) Now, there are people, like that sociologist (what's his name? Russell or something?) who make claims that Black people are as a whole less intelligent than Whites, and especially Asians, due to brain size, etc.) I don't give that guy's argument much credence, because over time, I have seen more than my fair share of Black nerds out there, just as much as I have seen White nerds, though hardly competitive with the amount of Asian nerds out there. Still, I don't think any of this is due to any racially-contributed gifting of natural intelligence. Have a look at where these Black kids come from? Fact is, many of them in urban areas come from single families, the vast majority of which are headed up by a Black woman who has to work to support her kids that she more than likely had out of wedlock. The father is nowhere to be seen. No one can debate this - it's just a fact. Now, these kids grow up with essentially an absentee mother (who, to her credit is working) but there is no one at home to stress the value of education and academic achievement. Contrast that to the amount of White families who have a mother and father in the house (I know this is changing, but the incident of two-parent White families is considerably higher than Blacks) and contrast that particularly with Asian families who almost certainly have a mother and father at home and are culturally achievement-oriented. That's why you see Asians excel at school. Culturally, they have no choice, since any slacking at a young age would be met with spanking or worse, a paternal beating (netiher of these are kosher in today's sensitivity-trained politically correct environment). So having all these Black kids, who are underachieving, in their own school will do nothing but perpetuate mediocrity.

Now, there are the racial and social aspects. Some parents claim that their kids would perform better socially with people who are the same as them. I won't dispute this claim, since I am pretty certain of its validity. Growing up in an all-White school, I think I would have gained more social skills at an earlier age, if there were more people like me at the school. Instead, I was a bit of an outcast, carrying my Chinese food-based drink and wearing my Hong-Kong inspired clothing to class, where I was met with jeers and worse. However, if I were to do it again, I wouldn't do it any differently. Reason why is because despite my being ouside of my own comfort zone, I did realize at an early age (grade four) that by going into a shell and keeping to myself, I wasn't going to make matters any better. Sure I wanted to fit in, but moreso I wanted to desperately show that I wasn't much different than they were. I believe through my efforts, I have diffused future racists from developing. Could you imagine if there were more Asians in my school? No doubt I would have gravitated towards them. We would have formed our own clique. Probably ate lunch together and avoided the rest of the White kids. What would that do? I'd certainly feel more comfortable and to a degree, safer. But make no mistake, I would have perpetuated all the stereotypes that others already had about Asian kids. I have always maintained that mentality, from childhood throughout adulthood. My disgust over a city like Toronto which claims to be multicultural and "tolerant" (which is as much of a hogwash term - I had a stronger word, but this is a family show - as I've ever heard), while they in essence practice a sort of isolationist politic by allowing ethnic ghettos to develop and remain self-sustaining (like it or not, places like Chinatown, Greektown, Koreantown, Little Italy, etc. are in essence all segregated ethnic ghettos) is something that constantly leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Being a born-again Christian, I find it absolutely abhorrent that Christian believers have chosen to segregate themselves in various ethnic churches, under the guise of cultural limitations). The former pastor of the church that I currently attend once told me that he was faced with a decision long ago - shall they do the right thing and stay in the increasingly Asian community that they found themselves and partner with other Asian ministries, or shall they pick up and leave. At the time, the church's demographics were heavily white and middle-age/elderly, and when the church decided that the right thing to do was stay put and partner up with an Asian church, 20% of the congregation left. My former pastor impressed upon me while a homogenous church will likely grow faster than a heterogenous church, is catering to one's self-absorbed sense of comfort and ease the right thing to do?

My opposition to an all-black school carries the same tenets of arguments that I espouse for other ventures that try to cater to a castle-type of mentality. It is no surprise to anyone that I hold a very strong view against things like homeschooling, which are really segregationalist schools for White parents who hold either religiously fundamentalist views, or who have a fortress mentality to child-rearing. In either case, it's not much different than the all black-schools argument. I suppose you can take me to task and argue that there is no difference between black-only schools and private schools. In private schools, however, there is generally no overtly sinister intention - that is, there isn't any racial overtones, though it may be argued that subtly, some parents by sending their kids to a private school are in essence keeping their kids away from urban minority youth. Private schools are also not funded by any level of government, whether it be municipal or provincial. The old adage applies - it's your money - you do whatever you want with it - as long as I'm not paying for your private school or segregated school, I don't really care.

It is funny that this whole thing has cropped up this year. Last year, in the Ontario election, Progressive Conservative leader John Tory was roundly criticized for his position on allowing faith-based schools to be provincially funded. While I disagree with Tory's position (in which he has since backtracked), I find it funny that there seems to be a modicum of support for an all-Black school, while there was vocal opposition to a provincially funded all-Christian or all-Jewish or all-Muslim school (all of which I oppose, as well as the currently government-funded Catholic school system in Ontario).

Some of the other problems with a all-Black school include an unhealthy focus on race. Yes, February is officially Black history month (not sure who decided this, but I neither observe nor support it), but you would think that with all the struggles that Black civil rights leaders have fought to achieve, that the best that the community can come up with is a all-Black school. There are more than Black people in a city like Toronto, in academia, is there really a racial distinction when it comes to core subjects like math, science, reading, etc. - which brings me to my next point: in the global economy and in today's business world, one has to be prepared and able to work with a diverse employee base. I mean, I have worked with people who are of all races, and have worked with gay peple as well as an individual who had a horrific sex change. Did I enjoy all these interactions? Absolutely not. Did I agree with these people's personal views? No. But I have to work with them. And, I believe that in learning and interacting with different people during my academic and educational days, it well prepared me in dealing with a diverse group of people, some of which I don't agree with and even some that I may not particularly like. In perpetuating a Black school, I believe its students would not be as well prepared to work in the workplace when they graduate (except for working for B.E.T. or something like that).

Last week, it was revealed that a Barrie police inspector circulated a email that essentially played up the stereotypes of Black people, in the context of the all-Black school in Toronto. Many were offended by the email, which posed mathematical problem solving scenarios based on drive-by shootings, drugs, or prostitution. I can't say that I was necessarily offended by this, but I do thing that another negative by-product of such a school is to create more racists, or possibly bring racists that were in the closet out in the open. I can forsee Whites glad to see Blacks no longer attending the same schools as their kids. Add to that the fact that these all-Black schools are essentially a double-standard: if several Whites came together to propose an all-White school, would that have much traction? Likely, the societal condemnation would be fast and swift. In my view, having an all-Black school is no different than an all-White school or an all-Asian school. It is essentially a poor effort to address a symptom of a larger issue.