Week 3: Assignment B: This American Life -- The Problem We All Live With

Week 3: Assignment B: This American Life -- The Problem We All Live With

This week's assignment was one that I found to be very intriguing as it discussed a lot of uncomfortable dialogue that occurred during the period of desegregation in the Francis Howell school. 

I honestly could not handle some of the comments that the parents were making in regard to desegregating Francis Howell because of the transfer law that went into effect for Normandy. There was a quote that a mother of a student made that states, “Years ago, when the MetroLink was being very popular, St. Charles County put to a vote whether or not we wanted the MetroLink to come across into our community. And we said no. And the reason we said no is because we don't want the different areas [INAUDIBLE] coming across on our side of the bridge, bringing with it everything that we're fighting today against.” How are we supposed to ignore the racist undertones that come up with this statement? How are we supposed to act as role models to our children if the comments we are making have to do with not wanting people from “across the bridge” to come to our schools? (sorry, I took this personally and began to think about it as if I were one of the parents in the gym)

These comments made me wonder if these parents ever look back and wonder about how their comments could have affected the students that were to be coming to the school. The sad part is, probably not. Looking back on some of the readings we did in this course, I couldn’t stop think about Johnson. He constantly argues that we need to name the issues in order to move from it. The parents here never named it. In fact, the continue to argue that it IS NOT a racial issue but IS a school issue. Really? Then why comment on the MetroLink and not wanting it to come to your community? Why comment on the bridge being a divider between communities? I think this lady could have used a lesson in red lining and how that affected the school districts.

This video on YouTube by “Adam Ruins Everything” explains red lining in a comical way by using a game board to explain the way redlining works. The comment about the bridge separating the areas connects to this idea of racism and the separation of people based on color. This image by Alex Williams allows us to see the ways in which the line was created to separate the two groups of people. The white groups are represented by blue colors and groups of color are represented by red or orange colors. It is absolutely ridiculous that by simply drawing on a map with a red line has allowed for these systemic issues to take place, such as segregation. It is even more embarrassing that individuals (in the year 2015) were still acting in this way and making comments that were so rude. I guess in a way I just thought that people were more into helping others than fighting so fiercely to keep things like segregation in place.

Here is the link to my TAL Integration worksheet with notes from the video.