My great-grandmother "Granny" Lucille McCrary. born 1895 transitioned 1990. Her front porch was burned down during the race riot here in Chicago in the 20's. Her mother was Native American and her father a runaway slave from Georgia. Her husband was one of the first Garveyites in Chicago during the 1920's. -Diane Urban
Grandma knew ALL about the astronomy and astrology!
"...My daughter, the only brown child in the class, loved Latin. She at the time was still planning on Pre-med for her major, before switching to Law. ...To make a long story short, she was asked by the teacher to do extra work not assigned for the rest of the class, to get credit for a low grade on one aspect of the project.
My daughter has always been an excellent speaker and presenter in school. It frustrated me that she was asked to do more to get the same credit as the other students received. Well...you know me! I called her Dean, the department chair and the teacher and we had a meeting. I questioned why was she expected to do more to get the same grade as the other students. The teacher, a first year teacher, gave some off the wall obviously racist explanation. I hit the roof. I stayed calm and began explaining the injustice of this request. I finally let him have it by stating this was a typical racist tactic used against her. He immediatly got flusted and the dean even tried to intercede by stating that race played no part in this issue. I politely let the dean know that she would not understand hidden racism because she does not recognize it when she sees it. I told her this is a common issue of us having to do more to get the same recognition. I then reverted back to the in your face dialogue of racism. The male teacher started tearing up and even my daughter asked me to be a little more calm. But when your daughter is 4th generation through that school, the only brown child in the class who happened to come home dancing and singing songs in Latin to be faced with this and the darker the next generation is from the previous one coupled with racist behaviour, I had had enough.
I got my point across... The one part of the project that my daughter received a low grade on was graded unfairly. The teacher lasted a few years and was eventually fired. The following year, I became co-president of APPLE (African American Parents For Purposeful Leadership In Education) of my high school. And that is another story or should I say book." -Diane Urban
"Diane, I agree with you. The presence of a parent in school is a powerful antidote for mistreatment." -Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
"Gregory-When I was co-pres. of APPLE (African American Parents For Purposeful Leadership In Education), you would not believe how many parents were intimidated by the system. The children of these parents were the most disrespected and shunned students. The school knows that their parents are intimidated... or ill-prepared and worst of all, the kids know mom or dad is not coming up there to check on them, which leads to either rebellious behaviour and llack of interest from the student. We often served as the parent and were instrumental in being the liason or negotiator for the students. Often parent, single mothers called us in the middle of the night, scared, confused and unsure of what to do for an incident involving their student. Our school district happens to be the most litigious school district in Illinois. When we confront issues, we really confront them. But that is the price for a good education, right? I don't know anymore." -Diane Urban, great-grandaughter of Lucille McCrary
OSHUN
"I will fight for my kids till the end until they can fight their own battles. The main goal it to school them properly. I could have reserved myself during this meeting, but she needed to see me call him out of his comfort zone.... Plus, I was not willing to leave defeated by someone's obvious disdain for my daughter's enthusiasm for Latin, which at the time was preparing her for her MSATs. Our children need to see how to handle this type of bigotry and racism. I could have cowered to her teacher and her dean, but after this episode, I had full cooperation regarding her needs from that day forward. It is a good feeling to walk into any school in this district and know that if there is anything out of line, I will call them on it with with no fear nor trepidation. Once the schools know you will defend your student when they are being labeled or ill-treated, your child learns." -Diane Urban, mother, activist, & co-president of African American Parents For Purposeful Leadership In Education
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