YOUTH WORK IS SOCIAL JUSTICE

Share a brief summary of the podcast you listened to. What are YOUR key takeaways? What do you want us to know? How does this connect to social justice youth work as described by Ginwright + Cammarota?

As I cautiously listened to the podcast Nice White Parents: The Book of Statuses I couldn't help but think about my current experience as a parent of children attending schools in Providence. The podcast focuses on a public school in New York where majority of the students attending the school were Black and Brown children. Over the years, the school struggled with numbers and when the school was threaten with the possibility of closing down because of the low numbers of students attending, the principal began to look for ways to bring more students in. This lead to bringing in more white parents from the neighborhood so that their children would also attend the school and increase the numbers. What led to white parents making the decision of having their kids go from a private school to public was that they were promised a French program similar to the one at the private school their children were attending. Having this French program brought the attention of more white folks, changing the school culture completely, and the dynamics of the Parent Teacher Organization. 

The podcast focuses on how obvious the power of white parents quickly dominated the school. In particular, when donations and fundraising began for the school with the word spreading that it would be for the French program. In some ways the culture that was there was completely removed and the Black and Brown students were no longer the focus, instead this new French program became the attraction completely ignoring the fact that the children already attending there spoke other languages and not recognizing the great work that the school had accomplished when only Black and Brown students attended. 

What was surprising to me was how the principal completely went with all the ideas of the white parents without acknowledging the great work that had been going on for years at that school, all because of numbers and money. Also, that before visiting the school those were the same white parents that thought the school was violent and kids needed to go through medal detectors, etc. This whole podcast was relevant to me because I feel like the same is happening in Providence schools, just not with race, instead with the different social economic statuses & based on the generation of immigrants you belong too. There is a lot of focus on the MLL population, but they seem to be forgetting about the generations that have already been here who may no longer be MLL leading to more Charter schools opening to give those parents with children who are now second and even third generation other school choices while at the same time still being keep out of other schools like private ones. There is a big division that continues to expand over time, and some of us just don't want to see the realities. This whole idea connects to social justice youth work because of the idea of belonging. Rather than using the strengths like languages & culture of the youth population you are working with, we want to bring in new things that sometimes have no connection with the population being served. It also continues with the idea of providing a space for students where they feel like they are part of the solution, not the problem.