THE HELP: WHITE TEACHERS IN BLACK SCHOOLS

Ujijji Davis Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (USA)

udd2@cornell.edu

Abstract In the United States, it is no secret that inner city students receive an inadequate education in comparison to their counterparts in suburban neighbourhoods. In the dynamic of "salt suburbs, pepper cities," students of colour, specifically black students, receive the shorter end of the stick in terms of educational resources and investments. As a result, there is increased risk for black students to perform poorly on standardized exams, drop out of high school, and turn towards behaviours of juvenile delinquency. This 'achievement gap' thus perpetuates a cycle of low enrolment rates of black students in college or in other competitive fields. A common response to this issue is to increase the number of teachers within at-risk schools to provide more intimate and successful learning environments. However, many of the teachers introduced are white teachers, with limited knowledge and empathetic understanding of the more complex racial and class-based disadvantages their students face. They enter the schools with the notion that they will be uplifting struggling students, when in turn they are strengthening the paternalistic view of blacks depending on whites to succeed. Their position of power and their symbolic presence as a source of knowledge in an inner city school becomes the window and foundation of how young black minds view white people, and white leaders. It is this interaction that becomes the buttress for black students understanding roles of race relations intersected with class and power. In this paper, I will seek to identify the image of the white teacher in the mind of the black student of the inner city, through personal accounts, direct interview quotes and through the modern representation of white teacher-black student relationships portrayed in mainstream media.

Keywords: Education, Black Students, White Teachers, Inner City, Suburban, Decentralization, Help, Race Relations, Keynesian Economy, Neoliberal City, Title One, No Child Left Behind, Special Education, Suspension, Media.

1 HOW TO MAKE AN INNER CITY A commonly asked question is “Why are inner city schools in the United States so bad?” It is no myth: students of the inner city perform dramatically worse in academia compared to their white counterparts in suburban areas. This disparity then leads to high numbers in unemployment amongst black people in the United States, stigmatizing their ability to climb social and class ladders. This disadvantage stems deeper than overt discrimination or race-based prioritization; it is grounded in the change of city formation and supportive economies. Poor schools are a direct result of decentralization, the migration of money and resources from the urban core to the urban periphery.

This urban reformation is a result of economic shifts and federal priorities within the last fifty years in the United States, where changes in deficit spending and the political economy limited the government’s engagement in state and local affairs.

1.1 A Shift in Political Economy From the 1970s, there has been a general shift from Keynesian economics to a non-interventionalist state as a result of change in the political economy in the United States [1]. Keynesian economics, or the Keynesian state, is a political-economic agenda that creates effective demand through deficit spending in order to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and fiscal circulation. Keynesian economics focuses on monetary policy (reduction in interest rates), and fiscal policy, (government investment in public infrastructure and civil services). These focuses create a government fiscal deficit but work as a catalyst to build the middle class [2]. Examples of Keynesian economics are very clear in the 1930s New Deal, the 1940s GI Bill, the 1960-1970s Civil Rights Movement and arguably, with the Obama administration.

However, between the 1970s and the early 2000s, there was a shift toward “free market” economy, or unregulated trade, within in the market. The support of this economy had a profound effect on urban

areas as non-interventionalism —a “hands off” position— spread into other government interests. It discouraged social spending, leaving the urban core without the financial groundwork to maintain itself and progress [3].

1.1.1 Free Market Economy and Decentralization The laissez-faire economy, coupled with a non-internationalist attitude, disengaged the government from public responsibility and perpetuated the process of decentralization. In the free market economy, industry outsourced to the urban periphery and abroad, minimizing the labour force or even eliminating the labour market that provided a liveable wage [4]. As jobs left the city, businesses and able homeowners followed, taking with them federal and state investments in public infrastructure, economic development, and schools. White flight+ and the emergence of gated communities exacerbated decentralization as both an urban phenomenon and a racially charged migration [5]. This process changed the human geography of city structure into a dynamic called ‘salt suburbs, pepper cities’ [6], where people of colour live in the urban core, and the whites live on the urban edge. This also becomes a spatial formation based on class and poverty.

The “truly disadvantaged” are the ones left in these urban areas, without the resources to either suburbanize or to contribute monetarily toward the revival or upkeep of their neighbourhood [7]. The economically challenged are also economically excluded from better neighbourhoods, causing the poor to migrate within, or remain in, affordable and declining neighbourhoods. Many of these inhabitants are people of colour.

This human dispersion dismantles the revenue development in the core, worsening civic disinvestment and perpetuating a major de-prioritization of public services. With less businesses open and inadequate fiscal circulation, these particular urban areas appear rundown and dilapidated, as both the physical and social conditions deteriorate. [8] Some neighbourhoods become subject to demolition or labelled as slums, continuing to uproot poor people.

In the absence of local enterprise and business, there is also an absence of illumination, and eyes on the street, a sense of watchfulness, awareness, and community accountability [9]. Darkened streets become more susceptible to violence and criminal activity, and streets without businesses concentrate and localize poverty.

These areas become what we know as the inner city, the ghetto, or the Urban Frontier: a place of social pathogens, uncivilized crime, and an array of educational barriers [10]. It is here that many black children in the United States live, learn, grow, and die. Concentrated in areas with little opportunity due to disinvestment, there is little money to invest in schools or train teachers. As a result, these students navigate through life— specifically through a lacking education system— with varied chances of success and survival.

2 EDUCATION AND THE INNER CITY With urban decay as a cyclical process in the inner city, social networks disseminate. Families and community ties weaken and role models become scarce. With low incomes and few examples of leadership, inner city youth fall further behind in what is called the “achievement gap.” The “achievement gap” in education is defined by the disparity in academic performance between groups of students, categorized by race, gender and class. It is measured by test scores and grades, as well as high school and college completion rates [11]. Understanding the changes in the economy and its effect on the built environment helps to understand the effects of the mis-education of black students in the United States.

2.1 Black Students and the Achievement Gap The “achievement gap” is often attributed to socioeconomic factors. According to the Census Bureau of 2009, about 5 million black children under the age of 18 live in poverty. Studies show that children who live in poverty only learn one third of the vocabulary of their higher-income peers by the age of 3 [11]. This means that by elementary school, many black students are far behind white students in reading comprehension and math proficiency as shown in Fig. 1 [12]. A recent study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that children who both live in poverty and read below grade level by the third

+ White flight is a term that originated in the United States, to describe the large scale migration of various ethnic whites from racially mixed urban areas to more racially homogenous subsurban regions as a response to fear, anxiety and xenophobia.

grade are three times as likely to not graduate from high school as students who have never been poor [13].

High school becomes an ultimate struggle. The U.S. Department of Education reported that 68% of 12th-graders in high poverty schools graduated compared to 91% of 12th-graders in low-poverty schools. These numbers correlate with graduation rates of white and black students, where white students graduate at an average rate of 78%, compared to black students at 56%. [14]

There have been several government-based efforts that addressed the identified “achievement gap”, including the Title One Act of 1965 and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. However, due to flaws in the acts, and changes in the political agenda, the acts were mostly ineffective. The shift in the political economy resulted in the backfire in these programs, steering the government’s help further away from needy schools.

Figure 1: NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, National Reading Scores 1971-2008

2.1.1 The Title One Act and Ronald Reagan The Title One Act, or The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, marked the creation of an intergovernmental policy system where the federal government provided additional resources and funds targeted at particular students. [15].The disparate achievement gap between white and black students at this time was very apparent, as well as the high unemployment and underemployment rates of black workers. As a mission to help battle racial discrimination, social inequity and advance civil rights, the Title One Act targeted under-funded schools overpopulated by minority and impoverished groups. These policies sought to equalize educational opportunity through integration and compensatory education, and to redistribute resources to students who were deprived or discriminated against. [15]

President Ronald Reagan had a different political agenda: he did not believe that the government should have such a large role in state affairs, especially education. [15] His solution was to offer federal aid, for which the state and local governments could prioritize however deemed fit. In his model “excellence in education,” Reagan also administered the direct link between federal aid and standardized testing exams, which prioritized funds to states with high achieving schools. However, with minimal government intervention, the state was free to use the funds in other sectors, including public infrastructure or toward the support of suburbanization. The schools that were already performing poorly would see little to no funds. [15]

2.1.2 No Child Left Behind Act and the Current Status of Our Schools The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was meant as a resurgence of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s institution of the Title One Act. It brought new awareness to the “achievement gap,” pushing for state accountability for its students’ successes and failures. It gave new requirements for schools,

including increased qualifications of teachers and other educational resources, increased focus on underprivileged and minority students, and community outreach and parent inclusion. However, many of the requirements of the NCLB Act were difficult to comply with, such as 100% proficiency and adequate yearly progress. [15] If a school could not perform accordingly to the Act, the school lost federal funds. As a result, schools began centralizing their curriculums around the standardized exam, leaving out culturally relevant histories or other life skills solely for passing grades. Most states were forced to make budget cuts in non-tested school subjects, such as science, foreign languages and arts, as well as school supplies and field trips [15].

It is clear that properly funding education in the United States has been a major dilemma for quite some time. From President Reagan to Bush Jr., the reliance of standardized examinations for federal aid allocation was widely adopted, although it failed to address the problem of closing the “achievement gap”. Many will look to President Obama for federal insight, as his administration has vocalized support for charter schools, performance pay, alternative pathways and a willingness to consider market approaches to education [15]. However, at the present moment, education reform is at a stand still.

2.2 Achievement Gap into Opportunity Gap With disparities between young populations in education, the chance for impoverished students to excel in academia decreases. The additional factors associated with poverty, like unemployment, substance abuse, poor health, stressful home environments and absent parents manifest into complex issues that often result in violent crime. Black youth are disproportionately exposed to high rates of violence, delinquency, and even early death and homicide. Fig. 2 shows a report of death of youth aged 10-24 from 1991 to 2007, and it is clear that black youth suffer from greater deaths than their counterparts of any other race in the United States [16].

Figure 2: CDC 2008 Trends in Youth Homicide Age 10-24

Note: Based on the U.S. resident population estimates for Mid-year, 2003-2007, by gender, race, Hispanic origin, and age. Detailed categories exclude persons who reported two or more races.

This extreme environmental factor turns the achievement gap into an “opportunity gap”: the chance to survive to a certain age and still have the skills to be successful and productive. In the case of education, the opportunity gap can even mean the opportunity to live until graduation. The opportunity gap is one of the major divides between young black and white children growing up, and for black children, steering through the opportunity gap is normative. Popular music, especially Hip Hop and Rap music, often describes the opportunity gap as an unexplainable but common casualty in low-income neighbourhoods.

“I’m trying to find my friends, but they’re blowing in the wind/ Last night, my buddy lost his whole family/ It’s going to take the man in me to conquer this insanity/…While all the rich kids are driving Benz’s, I’m still trying to hold onto surviving friends....” Tupac Shakur “Keep Ya Head Up” (1993)

“We in the streets, player get ya mail. It’s only two places you end up: either dead or in jail…I basically know now we get racially profiled/ cuffed up and hosed down, pimped up and hoe’d down” Kanye West feat. Mos Def “Two Words” (2004)

“Drug boy steady shooting/ The streets don’t give a damn/ They’re filled with such pollution/…We’re trapped inside the matrix, forced to play our hand/ The kids don’t stand a chance/…Sometimes it’s hard to grow while living in fear of the unknown…/a child can barely sleep at night, too worried about tomorrow/ And whatever he holds, he drowns himself in his sorrows…/The kids don’t stand a chance.” B.O.B. feat. Janelle Monae. “The Kids” (2010)

The odds for black youth survival dwindle, making education one of the few safe outlets for black students to grow. Understanding the threat the Urban Frontier poses to its youth, there needs to be a guarantee that these children will graduate high school, succeed in college and have a shot at the globally competitive market for high-skilled jobs.

Looking into the history of the educational system conjoined with urban changes and racialized discrimination, it is important to understand the blight black students suffer under. They struggle, not only because their schools don’t receive funds, but because funds have been deliberately prioritized to seemingly more important matters. It is this dynamic that sets the stage of an already-heightened racial tension as the students begin to understand the racial disparity with their white counterparts at other schools. Black students begin to put the face to the puppeteers behind their consistent retardation, and their introduction to such a system is through the Help.

3 THE HELP The Help is characterized as white teachers that crusade into underprivileged schools with intentions of uplifting struggling students to shrink the “achievement gap” to overcome educational inequity. Educational inequity limits life choices, incomes and weakens personal relationships [17]. Educational inequity, simmering in a pot of poverty, low expectations, discrimination and financial restrictions, is solely a recipe for failure and downfall. In almost all cases black students are taught by white teachers who see through different life experiences and racial lenses. White teachers represent almost 84% of all teachers in the United States schools system, whereas students of colour represent over 40% of all matriculated students in public schools. Statistically, there is only about a 20% chance a black student will be taught by a teacher of a similar cultural background. [18] It is in these classrooms that not only a teacher-student relationship is developed, but also the foundation and clear understanding of white privilege and black disadvantage.

3.1 The Help and Race Relations The Help, generally and collectively, have far few struggles compared to the demographic they serve. They are beneficiaries of white privilege, a social system that works to benefit whites with more opportunity, more lenience and higher expectations [5]. Their presence in an underserved community fortifies a racial structure long existing in the United States that works in their favour. They are physically and socioeconomically mobile, able to move in and out of the city – and up and down social ladders— more freely than their students [5]. For some of these teachers, placement in underserved neighbourhoods follows a modern interpretation of the white man’s burden= in not just a social obligation to help underprivileged individuals, but a moral duty to help the poor “better” themselves.

With so many white teachers in predominately black students, the relationship that is built gives the students insight on their positions of power and their symbolic presence as a source of knowledge and morality in an inner city school. This becomes the window and foundation of how young black minds view white people, and white authority.

It is here that the racial difference becomes very prevalent to the student. The black student begins to construct and understand whiteness: a higher status ordained with power, acceptance, and minimal socioeconomic-based issues [19]. Whiteness begins to mean mobility, empathy, assimilation, success, family, mercy, and intelligence. Furthermore, the black student also begins to construct blackness: a low status burdened with subordination, discrimination, and life threatening obstacles [19]. Blackness begins to mean helpless, failure, dependent and ignorant. This is a clear distinction as black students begin to assess and compare their own living situations and academic inadequacies.

= The White Man’s Burden is a term based on the poem by Rudyard Kipling published in 1899. It was a phrase that characterized the approval of Euro-centric imperialism into other nations. The notion behind it is that the white man, more advanced and civilized, had a divine duty to bring other nations and peoples into civilization as well.

As the relationship between the teacher and the student develops, the white image in the mind of the black student of the inner city is also established. The image is one of two sides: one image of power and major authority, and the other image of a redeemer and saviour. These images come from the understanding of how much power the teacher has over the student: they can either help them to rise up, or be the leading hand that keeps them down.

3.1.1 The Help Backlash The first half to the white image in the mind of the black student of the inner city is that of full authority, not just in classroom conduct, but also in familial affairs. In many cases, it is the Help that assists in maintaining the “acheivement gap” because of the cultural and racial disconnect, and the ultimate failure to properly recognize and assess particular behaviours. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University found in a 2001 study that black public school students in the United States are three times more likely than whites to be identified as mentally retarded or in need of special education services. In addition, the study said, black students with learning disabilities are often misdiagnosed as being “emotionally disturbed.” [20]. Dr. Umar Johnson, a clinical school psychologist in Atlanta GA, calls special education a “trap,” as it is used to alienate black students from the general academic course. The cultural barrier between the white teacher and the black student plays a major part here, as racial differences or charcteristics like physically demonstrative, tactile and kinesthetic, [21] become misintrepreted as learning disabilities or failures. A fidgety black student in class will not be assessed to identify academic potential but will be evaluated for mental disability and sub-par social skills. Black children constitute for 17% of all students, but comprise 41% of all special education placements, primarily educable mentally retarded and behavior disorders. Black boys are disproportionately represented at a stunning 85 %. [22] This mass herding of black students in special education delays black graduation rates, retards learning levels, and establishs hostile relationships between teachers. In addition to high representation in special education, black students also lead in suspension rates. Black students are three times more likely to get suspended from school than their white counterparts, where they lose valuable classroom time during a crucial period in both academic and social development [23]. An earlier study of all out-of-school suspensions in one state found only 5 % were issued for incidents considered dangerous, such as possession of weapons or drugs. The remaining 95 % were either categorized as “Disruptive Behavior" or "Other." Meanwhile, there is no evidence that racial disparities in school discipline are the result of higher rates of disruption among black students. [23] Excessive loss of class time makes it difficult for any student to catch up. For black students, who disproportionately face multiple suspensions, it can mean repeating the same grade or dropping out of school, which is a scary thought as 60 % of young black men who drop out of school land in prison by their thirties [17]. High suspension rates and special education representation amongst black students are direct results of racial profiling. Without much care for proper intellectual assessment, or consideration for external factors that affect the child’s behaviour, black students are often labelled as intolerable, mentally challenged, unteachable, and dangerous. The racial profiling that is performed by the teacher negatively affects the students as it turns them away from school and learning and removes them from the classroom. Black students are reprimanded more harshly than their white counterparts because of this racial lens, and common classroom misconduct like loquacious or aggressive behaviour, becomes a greater conflict that overall affects the student’s academic standing. The white teacher is empowered, by both designated authority and racial positioning, to penalize the black student more severely than any other student. Because of their race and socioeconomic background, black students are pre-labelled by their teachers, and with any disagreeable action, are treated as such. The dichotomy of whiteness and blackness is now fully understood.

3.1.2 Teaching and Redemption “To wait in heavy harness/On fluttered folk and wild/Your new-caught, sullen peoples/Half devil and half child.” Rudyard Kipling “The White Man’s Burden”, 1899.

The second half to the white image in the mind of the black student of the inner city is actually an image that is broadcasted and supported from the perspective of the white teacher. It is the image of the redeemer or the saviour, a reflective image on how some white teachers see themselves. These images may come from certain types of presentations or dialogue between the teacher and student, or more famously, through mainstream media. It is this constant out-going perception that has the ability to affect how some black students view their white teachers, as their white teachers, or white authority, impose how they view themselves and their positions upon their black students.

A widely accepted view about the relationship between black students and white teachers is that white teachers help their students to become “better” people. It seems that “becoming better” means to share the same morals and values as their teachers, which then makes them easier to teach. This idea is very similar to that of the white man’s burden doctrine, the idea of sharing or imposing one’s ideals on another to guarantee mutual understanding instead of learning of and adjusting to each other’s differences. In a National Public Radio (NPR) interview, an eleventh grade English teacher in East Harlem, New York, describes her experience teaching predominately black students:

I'm teaching a bad class. It's a reputation they've earned. Over the last couple of years, the reports I heard about them ranged from disappointing to horrific. I could see it myself…They are a bad class. Not in the classroom. I can still teach them English just fine. It's actually pretty easy to take all that personality and channel it to literature study. It's easy to find juicy questions about life and society and character to throw their way. And since I've told them over and over that they're really good at this work they now respond with fine work habits along with good discussion. They don’t seem as thoughtful about their own lives as they are about the characters in the novels we read. Unlike other classes I've taught they seem to have no capacity or even desire for self-evaluation. I don't want to say it's hopeless but I really get the feelings some mornings that this bad class is a ship that has sailed, and that I can't do anything for them as people.

In the classroom I know they are learning lots about literature and writing, but I want to do both. When I started teaching I thought that getting to talk about books all day long would be the most important aspect for me. But now I realize that getting to make better, more moral thoughtful people is. I now know that this role is the one that people are talking about when they gush to me that teaching must be so fulfilling. It is, sometimes. But right now with my bad class it isn't [24].

In saying that her students “have little or no capacity for self-evaluation” suggests that the teacher believes that her students aren’t self-aware or have the moral standing to learn from their mistakes. In calling her class “bad” four times it seems that she has a high disdain for teaching this group of students, and the word combination choice of “bad class” implies that she is working with a class of people for whom are beneath her. Although she doesn’t represent every white teacher in the inner city, her honest account does give a window in how the students are viewed, and how she views her job and role as a teacher. In saying “getting to make better, more moral thoughtful people,” suggests that she views the students as having little conscience of their own. She sees it as her job, to not only teach English, but to recreate the students in her own liking. She, like many speculators, view inner city youth as threats to others, each other and themselves. It is true that inner city children face more issues that other children living in different areas, but it is not true that they are immoral and conscienceless.

This idea of redemption is a theme that is often romanticized by mainstream media. There are several movies and television sitcoms that explore the black student-white teacher relationship. However, the black students are often characterized as troublesome, violent, uninterested in learning, and emotionally unstable. In contrast, white teachers are resilient, knowledgeable, civil, and emotionally invested. They are the victim and the hero, as they are burdened with unteachable youth, but triumph in the end through perseverance. In these relationships, it is the black student that needs the white teacher, to use school as a tool to escape whatever social and psychological problems they have.

In the movie, “Dangerous Minds,” Michelle Pfeiffer plays a white teacher placed in a school with troubled, underprivileged teenagers, who refuse to engage in any academic material. Coincidentally, all of them are in gangs and substance users. They badger her with racist slurs, but her perseverance in teaching them the curriculum touches them. In her effort to relate to them, she begins to dress and talk differently. She succeeds in introducing them to poetry, although some of the student’s parents are adverse to her efforts to bring them culture. As she gets closer to the students, she learns that two of them are in danger and tries to help them through the capabilities and constraints of the school board. Although she loses two students to murder, she continues to teach in the school due to the claims that her students need her [25].

In a similar movie, “Freedom Writers,” Hilary Swank plays a white teacher placed in a similar school populated with a similar demographic and age group. However, in order to earn their respect, Swank’s character teaches her students about the Holocaust and introduces them to living survivors. As the children learn about Jewish annihilation, they openly accept the surviving Jews as their “heroes,” and they comply with Swank to learn. She also introduces them to journal writing and poetry, and finds that they are good writers. She too continues to teach in the school due to claims that her students need her [26].

The media continues to frame inner-city students as the same gang-related, drug using, volatile, ignorant youth group that need saving, which plays into how white teachers see themselves and their students, as well as how black students see themselves and their teachers. In both movies, the teachers go beyond inspiring their students; it has now become their job to swoop in and rescue them from the adversaries of the inner city. They seemingly care more about the students’ lives than their own parents. Looking back at the NPR interview, it is not the student’s intellectualism that the teacher struggles with; it’s their personal value systems that she doesn’t find acceptable. Racial profiling is the criminal in this second part image of the white teacher. Although exerted from the point of view of the white teacher, and white society, it casts the two racial groups into two sectors, one having more moral authority than the other. It is the white teacher that doesn’t only teach the curriculum but a value system that goes with it. This is the image of the redeemer; the one who helps to absolve the sins of the black student to make them morally better in the eyes of their white teacher.

4 HELPING THE HELP This is the image of the white teacher in the mind of the black student of the inner city: part leader, part redeemer. Looking at the high rates of special education admittance and suspensions shed light on the former part, and imposed perceptions from the defending white teacher shed light to the latter. Their position of power in an inner city school becomes the window and foundation of how young black minds view white people, and white leaders. It is this interaction that becomes the groundwork for black students understanding roles of race relations intersected with class and power. White teacher teach through a racialized lens, a perception that can hurt their students more than help them.

The lack of black teachers greatly impacts black students of the inner city, who in many other cases outside of school, do not have many accessible role models. It shows their students identifiable positions of power and leadership, as well as an ethnic bond that cannot be established with teachers of another race. It also offers a view for students to observe different people playing the same roles.

It would be inconsiderate and inappropriate to suggest that white teachers should be replaced with black teachers, and that because of the racial stigmas of our society, they shouldn’t be allowed to teach in black schools. However, understanding the racial relationship that can be established between teacher and student should be taken more seriously. More black teachers should be trained and recruited to work and teach in black schools, but more importantly, all teachers that work in predominately black schools should engage in intensive teaching programs that focus on how to teach urban youth. There they can learn about the barriers their students face— economically, socially and racially— to better assist their students and create healthier learning environments.

This introduction of cultural literacy equips teachers with in-depth understanding of their students, the represented heritages and backgrounds, as well as conquering their own prejudices before entering the classroom. Most black students in the classroom are not the same students from “Dangerous Minds” or “Freedom Writers,” and they shouldn’t be pre-labelled as such. Furthermore, if identified students require mental evaluations or assessments, they should be looked at by the primary physician of the family, not by a biased teacher and in-school psychologist. This will surely decrease the number of black students sitting in special education classrooms.

Still, much of education is revolved around government spending and standardized exams. In the past, there was significant change and investment in people and civil services under a Keynesian economy, where the government invested in schools, housing and other public infrastructure to build a labour force and market. Liveable wages and adequate housing sponsors healthier, more resilient cities and supports local businesses and public space.

This investment in people needs to happen again, especially in the public schools, as they are the gateway builders of productive citizens. Schools should not be penalized if they underperform. If anything, schools that underperform should receive more funding to hire and recruit more competent teachers and administration. Rebuilding our schools promotes more college graduates and skilled labour. Skilled labour brings businesses and builds the middle class back in the urban core. Thus, the urban core becomes strong and centralized again.

The white-black binary is an historic relationship, and even reconciliation with the United States’ past makes it hard to not view situations and coincidences without the whiteness-blackness dichotomy. Power and authority has always been associated with white people, and subservience with black people. Understanding this, it is clear that the Help need help. They need more support, more training, more money, more in numbers, more diversity, and more empathy to ease the racial tension established in the classroom. Ironically, the Help need to be saved too.

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