Blacks impose self segregation
The black-focused school is a go.
After a heated but civil debate, Canada’s largest school board voted 11-9 last night to open an alternative Africentric school to help fight a 40 per cent dropout rate among Toronto’s black teens.
An elated parent, Donna Harrow, said she is thrilled the proposal she and fellow parent Angela Wilson had pushed for got through, despite fierce opposition and cries of segregation.*
“I’m ecstatic, but the struggle continues and we want this school to open in 2008, not 2009,” said Harrow.
Trustees voted on a sweeping package of programs to make schools more relevant to black students, including opening an Africentric school in September 2009.
Longtime community leader Murphy Browne said she was alarmed at the high number of youth being “pushed out” of school by a European-centred system, who then get “caught up in the school-to-jail pipeline.”
“Many students say they would do better if they learned about their heritage, but who knows about Mathieu da Costa, (a navigator of African descent) who came to Canada in 1603 as a translator in Champlain’s expeditions.”
Others warned that an Africentric school would amount to a dangerous step back toward racial segregation.
*Fewer blacks in a public school system virtually gurantees a better chance for European derived students to excel in their studies, and gives them less exposure to “black culture.” We applaud this measure. — EDITOR, EAU