Topic for
6/27/97:		 Should integration of schools continue to be a NAACP initiative or, given the hardship (busing) and shortcomings of integration, should segregated schools instead be viewed as an acceptable alternative?



Name: Brother Akindele of MAD Writer Productions
Email: akinyemi@online.emich.edu
Response: Raahubaat usra. First, why should the NAACP or any organization in this day and time should be pushing for the intergration of schools? Most schools are ALREADY intergrated and most of our children are being ingrained with HIS-STORY and HIS WAYS OF THINKING. I'm not saying that a multicultural education is a bad thing because it can help many children of all colors in a positive way. However, other than trying to always intergrate with pale face, maybe we should push for Afrikan-Centered Academies for the youth in our community. Remember, we are dealing with the National Association for the Advancement of COLORED PEOPLE. Another false group that are pawns for the pale man to help usher in the New World Order.


Name: Ralph A. Randall
Email:
Response: I am not a member of the NAACP, however, I believe that any education intergration efforts should focus on the facts and figures contained in school-BOOKS. I believe a major problem with intergration was the over-emphasis on racial make-up of student body popoulation versus a fair represetation of America's history. I believe if the textbook materials fairly documented African Americans and others, then, social integration (neighborhoods, relationships, etc.,) would evolve. The evolution would be based on knowledge of accomplishments and the empathy that follows. Time or history shown us (Africans in America) that pity yields no respect. The great grand sons and great grand daughters of former slave owners have no empathy for a people (they have learned about) who are lazy and otherwise inferior. Textbooks do not inform them of the stregth of Africans in America. The creative genious of George Washington Carver. Text books do not teach of George Washington Carvers humbleness to his GOD and his believe that all that exist in the world belonged to GOD. So patents and copyrights were contrary to his religous believes. The textbooks do not discuss the brutality of White endentured servants as so servere that the Leaders of the day choose Black indentured servants/slaves for identification purposes. Textbooks do not paint white's as brutal. But rather paint Blacks as ignorant beast. So, again I state that a campaign for integration of schools should target text books.


Name: Serious in Chicago
Email:
Response: The question asked speaks of "...shortcomings of integration...." We have never been 100% integrated and never will be. Most of all who cares. We've always attended predominately Black schools, so what's the excuse for our children not learning? Jesse Jackson said out of his own mouth (paraphrase) that we now run most of the public schools in our areas. WE ARE the principals, teachers and administrators, the policemen, the news anchors, etc. We cannot totally blame the current state of our schools on "the white man". And as the years go by, the teaching staffs in our schools are becoming more and more predominately Black. Sure, there is a lack of money. Sure, it is unfair that predominately white and suburban schools receive more money than ours. But when did this change? This is nothing new. We've been short changed for centuries and have managed to overcome in spite of. We have turned out scholars from the cotton fields, factories, etc. You didn't hear those folks complaining. As miserable as they probably were, they endured. No one said it was going to be easy, and neither am I, but we are going to have to get a grip and start working for what we want. We are the ones who are truly segregated. In mind, body and spirit. The NAACP can only do so much. And quite frankly, I don't see them visiting inner city schools in poor neighborhoods, counseling educators on possible ways to improve the situation at hand. Most of the folks that head the NAACP are educated and very wealthy. I am starting to wonder if they really give a hoot. It is evident by Chavis' resignation that he didn't give a damn. He was too busy skimming off the top. I watch us debate and exchange dialogue on CNN, CSPAN, and other networks, but all we do is talk. I know that this dialogue is much needed, and we have some successful debates on a weekly basis. But what are the results of it. We have some serious work to do.


Name: D. Walker
Email: alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Response: Regardless of what type of school kids attend, it will be the responsibilty of the parents and local organizations to make sure that the schools are doing what they are suppose to be doing. I understand why some people feel attending intergrated schools have not helped many blacks kids, however, I also know that some predominate blacks schools haven't helped either. We as parents have do our part and stay on the case of teachers, administrators and school boards in order to make sure they are being responsive to our children. I've attended both and each time where the parents where active in their kids education, he/she did well. I know some parents are not as proactive as others, but will focusing on segregated schools change that? I guess maybe a teacher could pick up where a parent falls short.


Name: Rising
Email: s015lab@desire.wright.edu
Response: Schools should not be segregated by law, but, for those of us who choose to send our children to Independent African Schools and HBCUs to ensure the nurturing environment often provided by teachers from our own communities is quite acceptable, and even wise. As far as the public schools, that are segregated because of location in the ghetto, or what-have-you, yes, they should be desegrated. If the rich white kids are bussed into the inner-city schools to integrate them, and not leave them brown and Black, then the government would take more serious measures to clean those neighborhoods up, and provide new and updated materials for their schools. Even though the whitefolks would promptly take their children out of the public school system and put them in private school if bussed to the inner city, no matter, because at least the government will have properly and sufficiently funded the inner city school just IN CASE some white kids actually did go there. In short, integrated public schools work to our advantage as a second-best alternative for those of us who are finanically unable to send our children to Independent African Schools, like Nationhouse Watoto in NW D.C., and must go the public school route.


Name: Solomon Landers
Email: Numberup@worldnet.att.net
Response: I am a member of the NAACP, but one of those heretics who do not believe that sitting next to a white kid is any guarantee of a good education. Integration should remain an NAACP objective, but not through busing. Busing is not effective when residential patterns are segregated. Integrate communities, and schools will be integrated. But I do not feel that an all-black education is inherently inferior. My high school was segregated, my colleges integrated. My children attended integrated schools. I consider the education I received at then-segregated Fairmont Heights High to be second to none. I am for quality education, but fail to see where this must be connected to the number of whites involved. Blacks must be committed enough, vocal enough, and participants enough in the democratic process to secure quality education regardless of the color of the classroom.


Name: CAD
Email: Blkcat411@aol.com
Response: The NAACP should be focusing on cooperative economic plans which will enable African Americans to have a solid economic base from which to operate. Once you have the money, the goods and services will come to you. We won't have to worry about intergration because our particapation will be sought after by those who desire our financial backing. Further I am very disheartened by the loss of self supporting African American institutions due to the false sense of psuedo-intergration gave African American people. The main focus of the NAACP regarding education should be that the schools in predominantly African American communities be the best in the country, holding our students to the highest standards, which they should be preparing them to be able to meet. We have got to stop accepting substandard treatment in all segments of society and only believing that through interaction with whites we can achieve. Remember the simple saying, 'Everybody Loves A Winner'. We should be striving to create schools that everyone would vie to attend, and finally "We Must Stop Looking Outward For Our Solutions and Find Them Within Ourselves".


Name: Frances Murphy
Email: FrankieLou@aol.com
Response: We have finally come full circle- from segregation to integration and now back to segregation and American schools are not teaching our children even the basics. What we need is schools lls that teach our children the old-fashion stuff like reading,writing and arithmetic. I don't care who is sitting besides my child - Black, White, red or yellow. If teachers would get back to teaching, our children could learn. America needs a good school system or other countries will soon take over especially in the sciences. Let's stop talking race and start concentrating on education. Open all schools in all neighborhoods to anyone who wants to attend. We need to make each school a model school with all the necessary tools for learning. God save America!!