11
{ Mr. Joseph West Seattle 3 rd Grade Teacher

Damian Joseph

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

A presentation about Damian Joseph, third-grade teacher at West Seattle Elementary School in Seattle, and a main character in the book, "The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White."

Citation preview

Page 1: Damian Joseph

{Mr. Joseph

West Seattle 3rd Grade Teacher

Page 2: Damian Joseph

Mr. Joseph is featured in this book that lays out the history and struggles of African Americans in Seattle. It tells the story of Mr. Joseph and his fellow basketball players: “One Team and Ten lives in Black and White.”

Page 3: Damian Joseph

Editor Review (reviewed on October 1, 2010)

In his debut, journalist Merlino traces the lives of his integrated junior-high basketball

team and what happened to the players when the games stopped.

In 1986, Coach Willie McClain brought his basketball players, all black, from Seattle's

inner city to the affluent suburbs to form a team with a group of white players. For a single

season, these young boys—who couldn't have been more different—shared an initially wary

then ebullient camaraderie that transcended race and class. But what happened after the

season, asks the author, as these players made the transition from boys to men? Merlino

returned to Seattle to find his old teammates and tell their stories. In one way or another,

the white players all made their way; for the black players, however, the story was mixed.

Through connections developed as a result of the team, all had the chance to attend quality

private schools. Some adjusted, some didn't. At 19, Tyrell was murdered; 20 years on, JT

still hustled on the street; Myran was in prison. All were lured by the seemingly easy

money of drug dealing as crack devastated their Seattle neighborhood in the late '80s. Yet

there were successes.

Damian became a teacher and a preacher, Eric

an auditor for the city with a solid middle-class life. None of the black

players, however, lived without struggles in a class and racially

divided Seattle. Merlino skillfully weaves the personal biographies

with the biography of a city that relegated blacks to neighborhoods

that were segregated and poor, to the margins of economic life, to

public schools that were overcrowded and underfunded. He tells the

story of the dispersal of Central Seattle's black population, as

Microsoft and Starbucks made it ripe for gentrification. But the heart

of Merlino's story is his teammates, black and white. He misses their

youth and promise and loves and respects them all.

The book's precise focus enables troubling considerations of the role

of race and class in America.

Page 4: Damian Joseph

The Season: Mr. Joseph’s basketball team from 1986 at Lakeside School

Page 5: Damian Joseph

The Championship Team in action

Page 6: Damian Joseph

Lakeside School – where Mr. Joseph spent one year playing basketball.

Page 7: Damian Joseph

The Team Today

Page 8: Damian Joseph

Rainier Beach High School

Page 9: Damian Joseph

Seattle Prep: another of Mr. Joseph’s high schools

The players & head coach today

Page 10: Damian Joseph

College at Seattle University

Page 11: Damian Joseph

Zion Preparatory Academywhere Mr. Joseph taught

school