As the new principal of a Christian School, I was told to make sure that the enrollment remained balanced between white and black. I did not give heed to this bit of advice as that obviously would be very discriminatory. I interviewed and accepted students without regard to race. Some of the classes became slightly black in majority. At that time most of the families of one church quietly withdrew from the school. Being ALL white students, the balance then became even more lop sided. This past year another church did the same thing. The school is known for its excellence academically and spiritually and that has not changed. The white flight has affected the racial balance and our overall enrollment has declined significantly.
The question is: "Should I address this and how?"
Racism in "Christian" Education
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Loren B, Aug 24, 2005.
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Academic and spiritual excellence, Loren, is a goal. But culturally, people must feel comfortable with the school too.
This includes rules, ethnicity, and atmosphere that are more "intangible" than the staff, curriculum, et al.
It should NOT be your job to "profile" students. This should be a church/board decision and then you have to decide whether to stay and obey it or not.
Most Southern christian schools from the 60's on have been "white flight". They will not tolerate their children being a minority, influenced by what they perceive as "black" culture (language, attitude, music, heroes, etc).
I know personally a hundred families that would not be comfortable with my children with such influences. They would home school or form another school rather than send them to a place like yours is now.
It takes a rare student/family to send a white child to Grambling or FSU or Temple. -
I might sound racist to say this (truely I am not), but these parents decisions to withdraw their children may not entirely be based on the color of ones skin (although that too is a possibility).
There are cultural differences between races, this is for sure. Perhaps the parents were not willing to send their students because of this simple reason.
In any event, I don't think it's the role of the principal to take any action regarding this. You can certainly address the issue to your superiors as a reason why enrollement is down... but you should take a very unbiased stand, since this can be a very touchy subject.
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Thanks for the input. I recognize the cultural argument as real but totally illegitimate. How and when will "Christian" white people finally wake up and realize that "Christian" black people are not that different. The cultural issue is bogus. They are racist to the core and use the culture as an excuse to segregate their children just as their racist forbears did.
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When I hear of these things, I'm glad to live in a very racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse part of the US, where no one's race or culture sticks out any more or less than another.
If you feel the need to address this, perhaps having a discussion on cultures in a history class setting might be appropriate. But I'm willing to bet that the persons who need to hear the message most are not the kids, but their parents. -
Loren, I think you're doing fine. You can't be blamed for the White Flight. I guess what to do depends on the situation. Is the school independent of either of these churches? Is there anything in your contract about race as an admission criterion? What I would worry about is what would happen to the school if these churches had the ability to dismiss you and attempt to rectify the "race imbalance" in some fashion.
If you have the ability to thumb your nose at them with impunity--well, I still wouldn't advise it. But then there might be an opportunity to make advances to these churches and get them to come around.
And if they won't send their kids back, I guess you have another demographic to target for enrollment purposes! -
My county was under court-orderd busing to achieve racial balance for 30 years, before a local association of parents finally sued to have it discontined. Guess what? The parents who sued were black, and wanted their children to attend a majority black school in their own neighborhood. Are they also racist to the core? -
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As I recall, the issue there was not that they wanted a majority black school, they were just objecting to the busing. They wanted to remain in their own neighborhoods and the fact that it was a black majority did not bother them. Racism was not the issue.
The issue here is that 'white" churches are pulling their children out of our school just because they don't like the racial mix. That is racism. -
It's not the fault of most of today's members of "almost entirely black" churches that there is little or no racial diversity in their churches. It's the historical biases & discrimination of whites that resulted in these circumstances. Study history: there has been a lengthy period of time in many areas of this country during which most blacks were simply unwelcome in most "white" churches. The solution became to band together to form their own congregations. Happily there have always been some notable exceptions, and the historical biases that resulted in the situation are continuing to cease to be a factor.
In blaming the current existance of "black" churches on racism amongst their members, you are attempting to pin the fault on the victimized; rather than the victimizers. -
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Sounds like the article at http://bpnews.org/bpnews.asp?ID=21464
[ August 27, 2005, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: gb93433 ]