z42\doc\web\2000\06\chicapar.txt From: George N. Schmidt [mailto:Csubstance@AOL.COM] Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 12:22 PM To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU Subject: Apartheid and Accountability Of those 597 public schools, 158 are between 90 percent and 99.9 percent Black, while 110 of them are 100 percent Black. Of those 597 public schools, 48 are between 90 percent and 99.9 percent Hispanic, while one is 100 percent Hispanic. [All of these data are from the Chicago Board of Education's annual "Racial Ethnic Survey of Students as of September 30, 1999"]. May 19, 2000 Hello Colleagues: Sometimes it's difficult to explain things out of context, and at some points in history certain anniversaries (such as the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education) carry a heavier weight than others. Wasn't this past week the anniversary of Brown? May 17, 1954, to be precise? This week, Chicago continued business as usual. This school year (1999-2000), the public schools of Chicago have a total of 431,750 children in them. Of these children, 42,970 are White; 226,611 are Black; 733 are Native American; 13,731 are Asian; and 147,705 are Hispanic (112,914 of those being of Mexican or Mexican-American origin). Those children attend public schools in 597 schools, special centers and branches. The school board officially states that Chicago has 597 public schools. Of those 597 public schools, 158 are between 90 percent and 99.9 percent Black, while 110 of them are 100 percent Black. Of those 597 public schools, 48 are between 90 percent and 99.9 percent Hispanic, while one is 100 percent Hispanic. [All of these data are from the Chicago Board of Education's annual "Racial Ethnic Survey of Students as of September 30, 1999"]. This week, Chicago's test score data came out, and one school had a small riot when half its eighth graders learned they would not graduate. The school board has not released the precise numbers of the children being retained in 8th grade yet. Instead, the our CEO, Paul Vallas, announced that he will begin a policy of issuing report cards to parents next year. Today, both major newspapers (Chicago Tribune; Chicago Sun-Times) lead their editorial pages with editorials praising Vallas for what amounts to cracking down on parents. The city held a "Principal for a Day" day on May 16. Principal for a Day drew more than a thousand big shots and celebrities to the schools. Michael Jordan, for example, was principal for a day of John Marshall High School on the West Side (where I taught for a year during the 1970s). Marshall this year has 1,164 students, all of whom are Black. Four miles west of Marshall the suburbs begin. Three miles east of Marshall, our newly developed South Loop (adjacent to Lake Michigan) sports townhomes costing between $250,000 and $500,000. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the anniversary of Brown here in Chicago was that our City Council passed a resolution supporting reparations for the descendants of slaves. It was very popular, passing by a vote of 49 to 1. Few people in Chicago, if any, ever owned slaves from the time the city was founded in 1835 until today. After the Civil War, our public schools were named after Union Army generals (Thomas, Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, McPherson, Logan, McClellan, Pope, etc., etc., etc.) but never after Confederate generals (not one Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, or -- especially -- Nathan Bedford Forrest here). But it certainly was interesting to read about the debate about the reparations question, and read the commentary on it. The day the reparations story was reported in the newspapers was the anniversary of Brown, which wasn't mentioned. Nor was it mentioned that Chicago has more all-Black schools and more all-Hispanic schools now, after four years of City Hall "reform," than we did when Daley and Vallas took over. For the past week or so, I think I've flamed a bit here on this list. Perhaps it was because of these facts. To anyone I've offended, consider this an apology. If there is anyone anywhere with segregation data comparable to those I offer above, please let me know. I don't want to be inaccurate when I discuss Chicago or mistakenly say that we're the city that is pioneering New Age Apartheid here in the United States. However, if you are providing a opinion that someplace else is more intensely segregated, please also send us the official data to back up the claims. I don't think there are 110 all-Black schools in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia combined -- but there are that many in Chicago today. Richard M. Daley doesn't fly the star and bars over Chicago's City Hall, and we don't have any equestrian statues (of Nathan Bedford Forrest) on the side of our Interstate highways (as there is south of Nashville) commemorating the founder of the KKK, but there are certainly some peculiar institutions up north here. I was interested to read that Birmingham will be prosecuting two KKK members for murdering those kids 36 years ago. When I read that, I wondered how many schools in Birmingham are completely segregated (and 100 percent Black) today. If I'm missing something, I'll be glad to correct my impressions -- but only if there are some facts to back the alternatives up. George N. Schmidt Editor, Substance 5132 W. Berteau Chicago, IL 60641 773-725-7502 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.