What are your thoughts on some of the issues raised in the article and in the video? Are there any clear solutions? Where does responsibility lie?

I think that both the article and the video made it very clear that although they have been trying to tackle racial issues for over 65 years there is still more that can be done. It is clear in the data that is shown and how the people of Shaker Heights, both black and white see this issue as something that not only needs to be sorted out but also something that should not occur especially in a community which has such a prevalent integrated society. One of the main issues raised was that there is a clear gap in how many black students excel in school compared to white students, with even a black student questioning the number of people in her AP English class. As well as the clear difference, you can’t change how people perceive things. For example, a black mother talked about how three weeks into the school year the teacher automatically went to tell her that her daughter needed to go to a lower level instead of insisting on helping her before considering this. To the mother, this seemed like it was racially charged as she believed that her white counterparts wouldn’t have gotten the same treatment and that the teacher would’ve come up with other solutions. And then there is the other side where a white teacher told a black student off for being on their phone and their mother thought that was racially charged and “bullying”. The problem with that was that the teacher was in fact treating the student like any other yet because it happened to be them that was singled out they believed that it had something to do with the colour of their skin. I don’t think that there are any clear solutions because it has been shown that both sides don’t understand each other well enough to be integrated. I think that a mother said it very well, that though there may be easy answers to why black people don’t show up to things such as PTO meetings, that it is more likely the feel of the room as it is primarily white people there so why would you put yourself in an unnecessary uncomfortable situation. I think that responsibility lies upon everyone. There is no way that you can have an integrated society if it is only one half’s job to fix the problem. Both sides need to come to an agreement about how to tackle the issue and then see how that works from there because obviously though they have been trying for so long, something isn’t right.

One thought on “What are your thoughts on some of the issues raised in the article and in the video? Are there any clear solutions? Where does responsibility lie?

  1. Thank you for sharing and even more interesting to read considering the events of the last week. What are some specific ideas that you think would be productive within Shaker?

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