A Reflection from the executive director: Nikole Hannah-Jones Released a Call to Action: New York City Must Respond

The New York Times Magazine essay, “In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?” published last week, is a deeply personal and vulnerable account of navigating New York City Public Schools. The article explores the complex feelings and individual choices students and their families face when deciding where to go to school in New York City. While Jones opens a door to exploring the intricacies of school choice in a system where access and privilege play a major role, at its core, her essay is a condemnation of the ongoing and harmful consequences of a segregated school system. 

It is a known fact that New York City is one of the most segregated school systems in the country. It is also true that the negative school experiences described in Hannah-Jones’s essay are unsurprising and well-documented consequences of school segregation: the lack of resources available to both students and educators, the difficulty with providing differentiated learning in a classroom with vast disparities, and the struggles with school climate. 

Social-science research also documents the identity struggles and wavering self-esteem of Black children who attend racially segregated schools. I will never forget a 2019 article on Chicago’s selective admissions process where a Black eighth-grade girl was quoted after not getting into a disproportionately white and Asian selective high school. She said she “set the bar too high for herself” and wished she could “do better like them” (i.e., the “smart,” “more advanced,” “focused” kids who got in). Nor will I forget the firsthand accounts from Black and Brown students of IntegrateNYC who attended racially segregated schools (first on the lower-resourced side and then on the other). While some struggled with the racist stereotypes that follow children in under-resourced schools, others endured racist microaggressions every day in highly-resourced schools.  Several saw it as the price for a quality education.

I find that individual experiences almost always have a connection to the systemic. This article hit home for so many people because we have witnessed the false choices given in a segregated system. This country outlawed separate but equal over 70 years ago, but still lives out this reality every day. It has been woven into the fabric of most, if not all, U.S. major cities.

So what now? What do we do when people, especially people from historically marginalized groups, cannot outrun the consequences of decades of systemic inequality and segregation? 

Of all the reforms tried nationwide to close racial and socioeconomic opportunity gaps in education, few, if any, have worked better than school integration. In his book and throughout his research, scholar Rucker Johnson acknowledges that school integration, especially when paired with investments in preschool and funding, has historically resulted in undeniable academic and socioemotional benefits. Research also shows that diverse school environments increase academic achievement, graduation rates, and socioemotional learning, while decreasing stereotypes and prejudice. The solutions to school segregation are no more mysterious than its consequences. Both are well documented, researched, and peer-reviewed.

One may ask: if we know the solutions, why are we still segregated? Because the collective "we," whether a suburb, a town, New York City, or this nation, has not decided that decades of systemic racism and classism are worth disrupting. 

For others, and especially for Black communities, the push for integration can also be exhausting. Why fight for desegregated spaces when Black students and other students of color often experience some harm in such spaces, and when excellent Black schools can and do exist? There is nothing inherently wrong with majority-Black schools. The problem is that majority-Black schools exist in a reality plagued by white supremacy. A reality in which majority-Black and Brown schools that meet the academic expectations attached to "good schools" are exceptions to rules written by systemic racism. If we want excellent majority-Black schools and excellent schools for all, then we have to dismantle segregation.

Students, advocates, and nonprofit organizations like New York Appleseed have spearheaded a modern integration movement that has led to incremental change. Citywide changes to discriminatory admissions methods, successful district-wide diversity plans, and support for individual integrated schools have followed. This success largely rests on a framework New York Appleseed has used for years: the 5 Rs of Real Integration. The framework challenges policymakers and communities to move past desegregation and the act of moving bodies. We define truly integrated schools as those that are not only Racially, socioeconomically, and culturally diverse, but also those that have equitable Resources; Restorative justice practices; Relationships built across difference through culturally responsive and sustaining education; and Representation, with teachers and staff who reflect the student body.

Those of us who have been organizing, particularly over the past decade, have many examples of what has worked, along with lessons learned and challenges we have yet to overcome. There are more than enough successes to replicate and adapt this school year, if we are brave enough.

I have said this throughout my career, and I can see myself continuing to say it as long as it remains true: courageous conversations mean nothing if they are not coupled with courageous policy. Currently, our Chancellor and Mayor have been courageous in their conversations. They have articulated their support for truly integrated schools; they have spoken of past recommendations, discussed the value of integration and their connections to it, and spoken at fireside chats, on TV, and at the podium about the need for integration in the face of segregation. But I am waiting to see how their words become actions and policies that make a difference. And these actions must be courageous, because, as there has been for over 70 years, backlash will come. But if the current mayoral administration is willing to face down corrupt landlords with a face and a name, I am hopeful it will face down the faceless monster that is school segregation. 

Nikole Hannah-Jones's article has many themes, insights, and narratives to explore. Above all, I hope the conversation it sparks is seen by many, and especially by city leaders, as a call to action to dismantle school segregation for current and future New York City students.