Dear Zora: A Letter to Zora Neale Hurston 50 Years after Brown

Abstract

This article reports on the extensive qualitative and quantitative findings of a multi-method participatory study designed to assess urban and suburban youths’ experiences of racial/class justice or injustice in their schools and throughout the nation. Constructed as a letter to Zora Neale Hurston, who was immediately critical of the Brown decision in 1955, the article lays out the victories of Brown and the ongoing struggles, what we call “six degrees of segregation” that identify systematic policies that ensure an opportunity gap. The article theorizes the academic, social and psychological consequences of persistent inequity on youth of color and White American youth—all adversely affected by systematic educational inequities that persist 50 years after Brown.

The False Paths, the Endless Labors, the Turns Now This Way and Now That: Participatory Action Research, Mutual Vulnerability, and the Politics of Inquiry

“…Between the constant cross talking, the simultaneous English to Spanish translation, the sounds of ringing phones, and children playing in the next room, I had only managed to make random scribbles. After Serena and Silky introduced me, I asked Christine to take notes, and I tried to explain where we were in the project, what I thought some of the preliminary findings were, and why I asked to be part of this meeting…After presenting this brief snapshot of where we were in the project I asked members the same question the Rockefeller research group (Fine et al 2004) asked 9,000 teenagers in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area-how do you explain the ''academic achievement gap'' between minority students and their Asian and Caucasian peers/what factors do you think contribute to the achievement gap? After a brief silence, I explained what I meant by the achievement gap, I also drew a chart of the board (this chart also accompanied the aforementioned questions on the survey), capturing who gets a college degree by age 24 by race and then by social class.…”

Only the Names Have Been Changed: Ability Grouping Revisited

“…Past and recent research suggests that many parents of students in lowerlevel classes have less education and less knowledge of school systems than parents of children in higher-level classes, as well as less access to informal networks that help them obtain information about school placements, including how to override normal placement channels (Apple 2001;Auerbach 2002;LeTendre et al 2003;Rosenbaum 1976). Parents who do not speak English, who do not feel comfortable in schools, whose skin color differs from those in charge, and who take class labels at face value have more limited chances of successfully advocating for their children (Auerbach;Fine et al 2005).…”

Writing the Divide: High School Students Crossing Urban-Suburban Contexts

“…Examples include: The Study Circles Resource Center (Nagda, McCoy, & Barrett, 2006), Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity in Detroit (Checkoway, 2009), Echoes of Brown in New York City's tri-state area (Fine et al, 2005;Torre & Fine, 2006), and Syracuse's Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism (Pincock, 2008). Each of these projects is summarized below to describe the structure and important outcomes of this work with youth and how these results frame and inform continued, publicly engaged (Ellison & Eatman, 2008) scholarship that directly addresses urban-suburban school divides.…”