Neighbor News
When "Diversity" is no longer enough
As an alumni of CHS and current Ph.D. in Education student, I wanted to respond to the elementary school incidents regarding race
About a month and a half ago, a story broke that an elementary school was getting criticism for holding a mock slave auction. Disgusted and shocked, I wrote this off as being an example of a community with huge issues of racial insensitivity and disregard for communities of color. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I found out that this had actually happened in the community that I grew up in. Maplewood/South Orange, fondly known as MAPSO, is a school district and community that prides itself on progressiveness, acceptance, and diversity. What this incident reminded me is that when it comes to schools and true commitments to acceptance and equity along racial lines, diversity for the sake of diversity is not enough. We should stop pretending that it is.
Getting students of different races in the same room and claiming equity means nothing when you don’t discuss or attempt to explain existing historical power structures. Claiming equality without delving into the historic injustices of racial tensions and oppression in the United States places an undue burden on students of color to temper and silence themselves because their real, racialized experiences with oppression are not valued or affirmed. One might argue that delving into these kinds of injustices seems like a lot to do with young, elementary school students. Research shows that this is in fact, not the case. We should stop making excuses for bringing this kind of teaching and knowledge into our curriculum and instead actually empower students to address the systemic issues that exist for them as young people of color in American society.
Holding a mock slave auction with no further context is irresponsible and truly troubling. I
encourage my community and other mixed-race, diverse communities to remain reflective about the ways that they choose to address these issues. Naming historical, factual racial oppression and giving students the language to recognize their racialized experiences is a good place to start.
