class and race

[ulysses]

I'm preparing to begin the school year teaching in a public middle school just west of the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta. The school has been undergoing an extensive renovation over the last year, and there are still dozens of construction workers and contractors on campus.

The neighborhood is "at-risk", by which we in the south of course mean minority and violent. The student population in the school is 100% African-American, the faculty 98% African-American and 2% crazy white idealists who believe in the promise of universal education like myself.

In the bathroom across the hall from my classroom yesterday, I found the words "White Power" scrawled across the handicapped-access stall.

Now, I'm sure that the fool construction worker who put those words there thought it a fine joke to express the superiority of the race he and I likely share in the context of a poverty-stricken black neighborhood where people have died of gunshot wounds on the campus. You might well guess that I have a somewhat different take on the situtation, and additionally might well guess that I'm wondering what the fuck we might do at this pass to pull the heads of at least some working-class whites out of their working-class asses regarding race.

You might well be right.

[realisticphish]

1. shoot 'em

but seriously...as much as i want to change people, a lot of these morons WONT LISTEN. nothing changes their opinion. the only hope, IMHO, is to educate the children othewise, and let those of that generation die out. not that we shouldn't stop trying, but we shouldnt expect great results with that generation

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[cprise]

2. Stop the nightly Fear-casts at 6 and 11 o'clock

We will need to change the news culture in this country before we can effectively deal with racial issues. They will play-up anything that divides working-class people. The poison seeps into everything we do.