White Privilege: Teaching Race at The University of Delewar

For a long time I debated myself on writing on the topic of white privilege. Did I really have the skill to describe and debate such an important and complex topic? Did I really want to get into all of that? I could keep a whole blog for a long time on just the topic of white privilege. Recently, with all the talk of living in a post-race society now that we have a black president, and with the current discussion here at LC21 and over on Free Racine, I decided that this was an important topic. However, how would I bring it up? I pondered this for a while until I stumbled onto the clips that I have posted below.

I found these clips posted at an apparently conservative blog called Founding Bloggers. It's an infomercial/PSA about a former University of Delaware residential life orientation program that was essentially exposing students to the concept of white privilege. In the videos, members of trustee boards are warned not to let similar programs destroy the reputations of their schools. If you live in the Philadelphia media market, you may remember this story.

Now, of course, I have my own opinion on this. If you follow my blog you can probably guess that I agree with the basic aim of the residential life program, although I wouldn't approve of all of the activities as they are described by those in the video.

So, here you have it, my foray into the hotly contested area of white privilege. For now, I'll keep posting videos from voices on either side of the issue, with some of my own commentary mixed in. One of these days, I'll get around to writing in depth my own observations.

Enjoy and Comment!

Stat of the Day: Minority Enrollment in Public Schools

From the National Center for Education Statistics:

From 1993 to 2003, minorities increased as a percentage of total public school enrollment, from 34 percent to 41 percent.

You can read more about this trend and other trends in the area of public education here.

Stat of the Day: School Spending in Philadelphia Area

Today's stat of the day looks at the per-pupil spending for the Philadelphia school district in relation to surrounding districts.

$10,189: 2005-2006 per-pupil spending for the School District of Philadelphia. This places the district in the LOWEST quintile for all school districts in the five-county Philadelphia.

Surrounding school districts by comparison:
$19,543: Lower Merion
$15,093: Colonial
$15,687: Springfield Township
$14,757: Cheltenham
$13,125: Abington

Remember this when you hear conservatives insist that black inner-city children don't learn because they're lazy brats born to single-parent, welfare-queen, crack-whore mothers who think that being smart is bad because it's acting white. Remember this when you hear the argument that money doesn't matter in public schools. If you can't remember the text above, remember the chart below:

Now, if money doesn't matter, let's see how quickly those other school districts give up theirs.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer School District Report Card

Gifted Children

I'm sitting here watching the Today show and they're doing a segment on child prodigies. I have one question: WHERE ARE THE BLACK CHILDREN?

Why don't we ask why black children are not often found in stories about these groups?

They define a prodigy as a child under ten years of age who is performing at an adult level. So what if a child has the ability to do such a thing, but they don't have the opportunity to use it? What if they have the ability to we a world class violin player by the age of five, but never get the chance to pick up a violin?

Why don't more people naturally ask these questions?