Central High School Register on Race

Exposing OPS Racial Failure

Jane McGill, an editor of the Omaha Central High Register publication wrote a very insightful and informative article on race relations and advanced placement courses (https://www.omahacentralregister.com/9546/news/the-honors-gap-how-centrals-advanced-classes-perpetuate-inequality-among-students/). This article resonates with what I experienced and had heard of many times before. I actually wrote a Public Pulse letter to the Omaha World-Herald well over a decade about this problem. However, too often the focus is on race when cultural distinctions are coming into play at a very young age. By the age of 10, the differences between groups begin to emerge and just keep on growing.

Many White parents start drilling down hard on their children to accelerate in school, and everything else. If their child had a weakness, they would help their child to overcome it. Where their child had a talent, they would feed, and encourage it. The focus on higher education is also very strong among many White people. I was stunned to learn my sixth-grade fellow White students had already started applying for grants for colleges and universities when I had not even given a thought to such education.

For many minorities, their parents just simply presume their child cannot excel and other people feed into such low expectations, especially Omaha public schools. For the child to overcome this is quite difficult. I have personally witnessed this and it is a bit heartbreaking. A dad says he is a truck driver and sees no problem with his son becoming a truck driver. Yes, he wants his son to attend school but expects little more. What do you do? Do you say “Hey, it sucks to be a truck driver when your kid could be a doctor?”. Of course not. But this is largely why minority students end up in remedial English courses. In fact, this is why more and more White students are ending up in remedial courses. Adults must expect more but they are surrendering to the comfort of their children.

Black people have lots of skills but many are biased or resigned to being laborers. Black leaders do know how to negotiate, but they really need to question just what they are negotiating for. How bad is Black leadership in this country? The NAACP is claiming Florida is dangerous for Black people (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/naacp-travel-advisory-florida-says-state-hostile-to-black-americans/). How misguided and partisan can they get? I assure you, no matter what the controversies may be about Disney, if your kid wants to go to Disney, you are going to Disney. Screw the NAACP!

This problem comes down to the very local Omaha level. Recently, a statue of a White sailor kissing a White woman was put up at Memorial Park. While some are upset with it being about sexual assault, I was perturbed by why the heck is a sailor statue being presented in the most landlocked state of the Union which is the farthest from any ocean being put up in Omaha? Was the sailor an admiral in Nebraska’s Navy (https://history.nebraska.gov/great-navy-of-the-state-of-nebraska/)? Maybe I should request Governor Pillen to grant him such admiralship.

So, in front of this statue of a “White male sexually assaulting a White woman” was a crew of men patching the road with asphalt, maintaining the civilization we live in and enjoy. They were apparently contracted by the City of Omaha which makes a point of awarding minority contracts. They were attractive, polite, and hard-working men.  And, all of them were so deeply Black, they could not possibly pass the “brown bag” test (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Paper_Bag_Test) let alone a black bag test. If they had laid down on the asphalt, they would have become completely invisible to all unless they bared their white teeth. The contrast between them and the statue was quite stark and unnerving. However, this was not racism but a matter of two different cultures operating under two completely different orbits and expectations in the same reality. 

There should be more minority teachers but this is not going to happen if minorities are happy with being laborers laying asphalt and don’t put more expectations on each other as well upon those who think they are weak and incompetent. At the same time, when anyone of any background encounters a person of a different background and wants to help: be not only polite but engage in uplifting small talk. Also, when you see someone with talent, encourage them to go further. When you see someone with a weakness, help them overcome it. Yet, many people, especially White people, have not figured this out and they simply blame racism to enjoin the "amen" of the elitist Black choir and simply ignore the differences in cultures which can be overcome. The end result is White people surrender to such low expectations.

Public schools simply do not solve this problem. Many want the government to intervene and "do something" but at this stage, the culture has to change. Yes, State Senator Justin Wayne is right to support school choice, but what happens if Black families and other minorities are apathetic to the opportunity? How does anyone propose to overcome this? Individuals must identify the problem and alleviate it.

All of this is hard work. Utopia is not an option, hard work is in abundance, and ignorance is a prolific pollution of the mind which requires great maintenance. Life is not easy. To help break through the problem, people should read biographies, not just of their favorite people but of the people they hate most. Merely reading helps build empathy, tolerance, and the ability to reach out to people. This applies to children too.

But there is more to this. If you think your child is confronting racism, make race matter less.  Cut back on television and screen time. Tell them they cannot wear t-shirts unless they attend to break a sweat such as sports. Yep, button-ups,  and polo shirts only for school, church, work, and ball games.  Have them scheduled to be reading books 30 minutes a day. These sound simple but they can be hard to implement but the impact on the child will be noticeable as the weeks and months go by. They learn to respond to expectations and to make a point of improving themselves instead of slacking off. They may still end up putting asphalt on the road, which is fine, but they will have a better understanding of the world and the expectations of others. Simply, you have to expect more to get more.