Back to School

This most recent article (click on the title of this post above for the article) published in The Ithaca Journal on the racial tensions at the Ithaca High School and the communities it serves, shows how important it is for diverse communities to work together. It also indicates how segregated the neighborhoods continue to be even in very liberal Ithaca. It's worth asking, who is your neighbor? If that person is a lot like you or if you are the only one like you, you’re likely living in a segregated neighborhood.

What's happened at the Ithaca High School also shows that "celebrating diversity" is only genuine after conflicts have been addressed, otherwise it's just another party, which is nice don’t get me wrong, but don't call it social justice, equity, or multicultural education.

The last several weeks at Ithaca High School are a microcosm, not just of our region but also in the U.S. This is going to seem obvious, but here it goes; high school students attend college and therefore the same issues that are present in high schools come to colleges. The three months (for traditional aged students) between high school and college are not enough time to unlearn the biases and prejudices that have been socially learned for the previous years. Most bias and prejudice arises out of fear and not knowing people different from ourselves. And this happens because we live in segregated neighborhoods based on race and class as well as in a society which continues to be racist, classist, sexist, abilist, ageist, and homophobic (and a whole lot more of intolerant and violent things). So when we all get together at school, whether it’s high school or college and I’m including here students, staff, and faculty, most people don’t know how to be friends with the stranger because we lack experience of living with people different from ourselves and are socially conditioned to fear the other (xenophobia). It’s a pretty big shock to be thrown together like that in a classroom and celebrate it, too.

The vote by the ICSD School Board which reversed its previous decision and the new attempts at bringing understanding about what people have in common as well as what is different is a good step. But it came about not through celebration, but through active student and parent protest. What will now happen with the Kearney vs. ICSD case remains to be seen, but this community has begun to look itself in the mirror. I have to say, what’s been going on in Ithaca is likely one of the best lessons about diversity ever taught at that school. It hasn't been nice and it hasn't been pretty, but it's been real.

Oh, and here is a weird thing. Last night I got a text message that said, "Hi babe its me. My phones being gay" and then another text from the same number, "Text me on here." I checked the number because it was one that I didn't know. The call came from Utica, NY. It must have been a mistake. But, still... you get my point. This is out there. Let's face it.