The Problem We All Live With

So far, The Problem We All Live With with Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah-jones was my favorite "reading" if you will.  While it was audio, I felt I took a lot more away from it, being so casual in conversation, and carrying so much history through various people's telling of their own stories.  I felt extremely engaged the entire time.
It is clear from the prologue and the first parts of Part I, that Nikole is very knowledgable and experienced in the subject of integration with students and why it works.  At first, I was somewhat questioning it, because sometimes, it is out of peoples' control of what school districts they live in.  However, once Nikole told her side of why it works from her own personal experiences as a child, I found myself strongly agreeing with her.
When Nikole spoke of Nedra Martin and her daughter, Mah'ria Martin, a star student from Normandy, the town and district in which Michael Brown lived, I was appalled.  It is truly sad to hear how much of a mess school systems can be, and that these children are almost set up for failure as soon as they enter them.  It is clear that such school systems need to have improved and educated teachers and administration hired immediately.  As if it is not clear enough, I think the fact that Mah'ria's case speaks loud enough in advocacy: the fact that she, at age 12, had thought ahead to bring her breakfast invitation because she was used to her school "screwing up".
I felt so happy to hear Mah'Ria talking of how welcoming the children and administration were at Francis Howell after the parents' committee meeting! Hearing her speak of her new friend Britney also was so heartwarming!  On the contrary, to hear Rihanna's story of being called a 'nigger' by a white child is heartbreaking.  The fact that these children were smart enough to walk away from such situations and speak so highly at such a young age is inspiring to me.
Listening to the exchange between Nikole and the most recent superintendent for Normandy, it gives me hope for the current and future students.  I think bringing in teachers to coach is a step, however, after hearing Nikole's multiple reasons and experiences through both her and all the students transferred to Francis Howell, I strongly agree that integration is the answer to these problems.  As I said before, this was very engaging and entertaining, and hearing it through children's perspectives and experiences was heartfelt and gave me a much better idea of situations rather than just reading about them through research or opinions.  It also gave me a better idea of the background of integration; and a little bit more knowledge to what I was questioning in my last blog post in regards to wondering if students and families in certain districts had "choices" of schools.  I would love to hear or read more from Nikole Hannah-Jones.
I have to say that it is quite ironic this is our reading for this week, following Beyonce's controversial halftime performance at the Super Bowl this past Sunday, a quiet political protest against police for a very similar situation that Nikole speaks of with Michael Brown.  As someone who was there live for the performance, I immediately thought of our discussions in this class, and have had so many thoughts on it. I thought to myself just how fitting this was for our class, and that had I not been enrolled in this class, it may have come as a more of a shock to me.  However, after this controversial performance, I have watched the rise of racism and anti-racism videos, posts, and blogs outpour from my social media networks.  I wanted to leave off my blog post with a very interesting article that a friend of mine, who is of color, posted last night on her Facebook wall.

11 Ways White America Avoids Taking Responsibility for Its Racism