Separation can never be equal!

by: Emese Bata

Nikole Hannah Jones is an investigative journalist who writes for the New York Times and other prestigious papers. She addressed one of the most important problems in our country that needs to be talked about: school segregation. While presenting in Philadelphia this October, she admitted in the beginning that her “work is not hopeful” and neither is she. The rest of her presentation stayed true to these words; it was dismal and pessimistic, but it definitely was interesting and thought-provoking as well.

Undoubtedly, public schools play an important role in the success of the United States. Hannah-Jones thinks that in order to build a successful public school system for everyone, we have to start from the ground. Her explanation is that historically, public schools were established to favor white students at the expense of black students, and as long we are trying to fix the current system, it will always follow these hidebound patterns and disadvantage minorities. America prohibited black people from receiving an education since slavery started, and this is still present in the inequality that exists in the US regarding the funding of public schools. It has been proven over and over that schools that have majorly white student body are more equipped, students have more opportunities, the teachers are more experienced, and the schools offer more AP classes than schools in which students are predominantly black. This is an issue that has to be dealt with.

Hannah-Jones heavily emphasised that separation can never be equal. She also added that resegregation comes from the fact that most people want to separate and live in their community instead of integrating. Most parents want what is best for their children, and not what is best for other children, therefore many people don’t do anything to solve the problem, leaving poor, black schools disadvantaged. She said that, “we have enough resources to serve all kids, but we don’t,” and that causes the system to be so unequal.

So what’s the solution you might ask? Hannah-Jones said that her job is only to shed light to these issues, not to solve it, but she added that it is historically shown that the “only thing that works is integration.” The question then is, when will the government find a way to end segregation?

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” She ended her talk with this quote by James Baldwin, which left the audience feeling a bit more cheerful compared to the rest of the presentation. It was a perfect ending: it didn’t leave the audience feeling that there is nothing that can be done to solve the problem, and instead it emphasized that if we don’t face and try to fix the broken system, the problem cannot ever be solved.