Kathianne
06-15-2007, 03:43 PM
I think you'll appreciate this. Links at site:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010217
." FOX News Channel, 11 p.m. EDT Saturday and 6 a.m. EDT Sunday.
Whose Prejudices Matter Most?
This Washington story from the Examiner, a multicity newspaper/Web site, caught our attention:
Michelle Rhee heard the chatter 15 years ago, that as a Korean-American she doesn't belong teaching in an all-black school. So it will come as little surprise, she acknowledged, if similar criticism is leveled against her as chancellor of the predominately black D.C. Public Schools. . . .
"When I taught in Baltimore, when I first showed up I would say the community there was a little taken aback to see a Korean woman in their schools, which were 100 percent African-American," she said Tuesday, referring to her three-year stint at the Harlem Park Community School. . . .
The race issue is sure to crop up, [Northeast Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy] Henderson said--unfortunately.
"We are in many ways a city still polarized by race and disparity, and you see that most poignantly in the school system," she said.
One could make the obvious point that the story would be told quite differently--that is, judgmentally--if it were a black administrator contending with prejudice from people of pallor. At the same time, it's obviously understandable, in light of America's racial history, that white prejudice, especially against blacks, is seen as especially invidious.
But we'd like to suggest that in this day and age black prejudice, even in its most benign form, does far more to perpetuate de facto segregation than white prejudice does.
We got to thinking about this the other night when we attended a debate on "The Future of Black America" sponsored by the Smith Family Foundation and Demos, a liberal think tank. An audience member prefaced her question by saying that she is employed by a magazine that targets a black readership and is very happy to work in an office with "people who look like me." The woman evinced no hostility toward white people, merely a preference for the company of fellow blacks.
Suppose a white person in America similarly expressed a preference for being with "people who look like me." It would be, if not objectionable, at least odd--for the simple reason that the vast majority of Americans are white.
As of 2005, according to census estimates, 80.2% of the U.S. population was white and 12.8% black. That means that in a perfectly integrated workplace--one whose racial proportions match that of the population as a whole--there would be more than six white people for every black person. The reverse--an office with a black-to-white ratio of 6 to 1--would be highly segregated. And the more blacks are concentrated in mostly black workplaces--or colleges, or neighborhoods--the fewer blacks there are elsewhere.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010217
." FOX News Channel, 11 p.m. EDT Saturday and 6 a.m. EDT Sunday.
Whose Prejudices Matter Most?
This Washington story from the Examiner, a multicity newspaper/Web site, caught our attention:
Michelle Rhee heard the chatter 15 years ago, that as a Korean-American she doesn't belong teaching in an all-black school. So it will come as little surprise, she acknowledged, if similar criticism is leveled against her as chancellor of the predominately black D.C. Public Schools. . . .
"When I taught in Baltimore, when I first showed up I would say the community there was a little taken aback to see a Korean woman in their schools, which were 100 percent African-American," she said Tuesday, referring to her three-year stint at the Harlem Park Community School. . . .
The race issue is sure to crop up, [Northeast Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy] Henderson said--unfortunately.
"We are in many ways a city still polarized by race and disparity, and you see that most poignantly in the school system," she said.
One could make the obvious point that the story would be told quite differently--that is, judgmentally--if it were a black administrator contending with prejudice from people of pallor. At the same time, it's obviously understandable, in light of America's racial history, that white prejudice, especially against blacks, is seen as especially invidious.
But we'd like to suggest that in this day and age black prejudice, even in its most benign form, does far more to perpetuate de facto segregation than white prejudice does.
We got to thinking about this the other night when we attended a debate on "The Future of Black America" sponsored by the Smith Family Foundation and Demos, a liberal think tank. An audience member prefaced her question by saying that she is employed by a magazine that targets a black readership and is very happy to work in an office with "people who look like me." The woman evinced no hostility toward white people, merely a preference for the company of fellow blacks.
Suppose a white person in America similarly expressed a preference for being with "people who look like me." It would be, if not objectionable, at least odd--for the simple reason that the vast majority of Americans are white.
As of 2005, according to census estimates, 80.2% of the U.S. population was white and 12.8% black. That means that in a perfectly integrated workplace--one whose racial proportions match that of the population as a whole--there would be more than six white people for every black person. The reverse--an office with a black-to-white ratio of 6 to 1--would be highly segregated. And the more blacks are concentrated in mostly black workplaces--or colleges, or neighborhoods--the fewer blacks there are elsewhere.