Racialized groups in our local public school

by philg

From the folks who will, if all goes according to plan, eventually occupy what will be the most expensive (per-student) school ever constructed in the United States:

Dear faculty, staff, parents, and guardians,

As you know the district has partnered with NCBI (National Coalition Building Institute) to support us in our work to become an antiracist district and our larger AIDE work (antiracism, inclusion, diversity, and equity). One of the many facets of our plan this year is for NCBI to conduct focus groups with a series of stakeholders including students, parents/guardians, and district staff.

The list below shows all of the focus groups we plan to hold over the coming two months:

Boston-resident students in METCO program grades 4-6
Boston-resident students in METCO program grades 7-8
Lincoln-resident students in grades 4-8 who identify as Black, biracial, or mixed
Lincoln-resident students in grades 4-8 who identity as part of other racialized groups (LatinX, Indigenous, Asian-American, Middle Eastern)
Lincoln-resident students in grades 4-8 who identify as White

What’s a “raciliazed group”? From Wikipedia:

In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is the process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of the interaction of a group with a group that it dominates and ascribes a racial identity to for the purpose of continued domination; over time, the racialized and ethnicized group often gradually identifies with and even embraces this identity and thus becomes a self-ascribed race or ethnicity. These processes have been common throughout the history of imperialism, nationalism, and racial and ethnic hierarchies.

With almost everyone, except for Donald Trump, dropping dead from COVID-19, how important is this?

We recognize that everyone has a lot going on in life now — and we also believe that it is important for us to dedicate time to listening to the experiences of our fellow community members.

I would love to know who these people are who have “a lot going on in life now”!

7 thoughts on “Racialized groups in our local public school”

  1. Will part of their AIDE work include changing the grading system to “combat racism”, like the woke public schools in San Diego are doing?

    “By ethnicity, 23% failing grades went to Native Americans. Another 23% of failing grades went to Hispanics. And 20% of D or F grades went to Black students. By comparison, just 7% of failing marks went to White students. In an effort to change that racial imbalance, the school board voted unanimously this week to make several big changes … grades will now focus on mastery of the material, not a yearly average”

    https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/san-diego-unified-school-district-changes-grading-system-to-combat-racism/2425346

  2. @Atlas Shrugging How these people combat racism when their classification of ethnic groups is conflated with the language people use? For example, how much are you willing to bet that the Hispanics used in this survey have just as much (maybe even more!) indigenous Native American roots as those classified as being strictly Native Americans? So really we are looking at 46% of Native Americans (half those speaking English and/or native language at home, the other half speaking Spanish at home) with failing grades.

  3. It’s like Gilbert Gottfried’s unseemly joke that got him fired as the AFLAC Duck in the aftermath of the earthquake that caused the tsunami that caused Fukushima: “In Japan, the Beach Comes to You!”

    Lincoln is smart. They’re getting out in front of the regulation curve. In the Biden Administration, Black Lives Matter is going to have a big office at the Department of Education and there are going to be requirements drawn up, lists compiled, data generated, decrees issued, and scores settled.

  4. Administrating all of the Antiracism/Social Justice initiatives is going to become a bureaucratic and regulatory enterprise akin to (and probably larger than) the Department of Homeland Security. In many ways, the educators in Lincoln probably agree that it’s a more important task than anything DHS does. Scores of thousands of good administrative jobs are going to be created, at all levels of the government. We have plenty of money, and people need those jobs. Harvard and other similarly situated institutions are going to provide the training and accreditation, promulgate best practices, produce research, and host seminars, workshops and faculty development programs. This is America’s next growth industry.

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