Afrocentric schools- an exercise in self-marginalization

Systemic. It’s a word that’s often used in conjunction with other words to give those words more punch, as in “systemic racism” or “systemic sexism” or “systemic discrimination”.

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In fact, there are people in our society who really believe that there is such a thing as systemic discrimination, meaning that the culture is structured to purposefully keep a certain class, race or gender subjugated. But then there are also people who believe in the tooth fairy or that the earth is flat. This includes those poor, misguided souls that believe an Afrocentric school will cure all that’s ailing the black community. Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, president of the Jamaican Canadian Association in Toronto is one of those poor, misguided souls. She honestly believes there are “systemic and structural barriers” that are responsible for the generally poor performance of black students in the Toronto school system. She says that by establishing a school that focuses on supporting the cultural identities of black students it will serve to increase the opportunity for those students to succeed. Good luck and God bless, but it’s hard to see how the mere act of sending black kids to schools that focus on their cultural identities will increase those kids’ chances of success. My guess is that it will have the exact opposite effect. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that all the kids’ grades will improve and none will flunk, as such an experiment can’t be allowed to fail. But once the graduates of this Afrocentric high school find their way into the real world, it’s highly likely that they won’t perform at a much higher level than black kids who attended regular schools. Ms Carnegie-Douglas is committing the age-old mistake of blaming the failures of the black community on others, such as the white power structure and thus absolving blacks of any responsibility for their own shortcomings. By following the logic Ms Carnegie-Douglas advocates, then all schools should be segregated according to the cultural identities of the various student groups. Only problem is, currently certain cultural groups outperform all others and do not attend special schools to do so. In science, math and even language skills, students of Asian descent consistently outperform all other groups. Does this mean that “systemic” discrimination in favor of these groups is responsible for the high levels of achievement, or could it be other factors? Carnegie-Douglas and the Toronto District School Board have fallen into the easy trap of placing responsibility for minority failure on the curriculum. But school curriculum has very little to do with the squalor that permeates a substantial percentage of the black community. Nor do “systemic and structural barriers”. It’s much more likely that the poor performance and high drop out rates among black students is related to father absent households, drug abuse, gangs and easy money through crime. Why bother getting an education when you can make $1,000 a night selling crack cocaine? I don’t have a problem with Afrocentric schools per se. If black students are more comfortable in a culturally sensitive setting, then more power to them. But to expect this kind of school to be a panacea for all that’s ailing the black community is more than unrealistic; it’s downright foolish. If Ms Carnegie-Douglas really expects her Afrocentric school scheme to work, then she may wish to make some suggestions to the black community that go hand in hand with the new schools. These include encouraging men to stay around to parent their children, cooperating with the police to combat crime in their neighborhoods, driving out gangs and discouraging drug abuse.