“How does it feel to be America’s problem?”
I thought about that quote from author/playwright/activist Amiri Baraka as I read, heard or saw commentary on the school transfer saga. Baraka’s rhetorical, yet poignant question, suggests that post-slavery, America doesn’t know what to do with its black population. It doesn’t need them, it doesn’t want them. Black kids in the St. Louis region have been hearing themselves discussed by adults/institutions who don’t want them.
This week Kansas City Star projected a headline “To improve education, abolish the Kansas City school district.”
Says Star reporter Steve Rose, “with a bold move, Kansas City schools disappear, and with them goes a horrible reputation that plagues the city.”
Yeah. I bet Rose wished that black folks would also disappear.
Check out my piece on school transfers. Click here.
