April 2007
Celebrating diversity has become one of the main goals of
American schools. Students are being taught to think of themselves primarily as
members of different ethnic groups, while being discouraged from developing an
American identity.
Consider the case of Mount Diablo High School in Concord,
California. Mount Diablo’s website states that students will "celebrate
diversity by being respectful to all walks of life." In keeping with that ethos,
last month the school divided students by ethnicity for separate assemblies.
School officials explained that the purpose of segregating
the students was to talk about test scores, recognize achievements and
celebrate different cultures. Spanish was presumably spoken at the Hispanic
assembly because student Ronald Mares said, "When I went to the assembly, I’m
Hispanic, but I don’t know how to speak Spanish, so I couldn’t connect."
Freshman Jason Lockett was disappointed with the African-American assembly, at
which the words "Black Power" were projected overhead. "It was to compare us and
say how much dumber we were than everybody else," Lockett told the Contra
Costa Times.
Mount Diablo is not the only Golden State school to
experiment with this sort of segregation. California High School in San Ramon
decided to hold pre-test assemblies for only the black and Hispanic students at
his school last year. The school asked the students, whom they divided by the
race marked in school records, to meet in separate locations during school
hours.
The school’s principal explained that the meetings were "much
like a coach would talk to you before a game. It was all motivational." But the
sports analogy is easily refuted by a simple question: Is there a coach alive
who would ever dream of separating his players by race before a big game?
The stories listed above are the ones that make headlines,
but the battle against assimilation is being waged in schools throughout the
country every day and forced segregation is just one of the tactics. Schools in
California, Arizona and Colorado have banned the display of American flags and
patriotic clothing. The Virginia Beach School Board has created a Diversity Task
Force and included diversity as one of its seven strategic goals. (Teaching
American values isn’t one of the other six.) The Seattle Public Schools stated
on its Equity and Race Relations Website that "emphasizing individualism as
opposed to a more collective ideology [and] defining one form of English as
standard" were all forms of racism.
Principal Hansen of Mount Diablo High says, "In this country,
race is a very uncomfortable topic, and it’s time we got over it." Until that
day, apparently, she’ll go right ahead making her students feel uncomfortable
by reminding them of the color of their skin in segregated assemblies.
Aaron Hanscom a freelance writer in Los Angeles, teaches elementary school for the Los Angles
Unified School District.
www.tcsdaily.com, March 6, 2007.
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