Among those kneeling: Metco CEO Milly Arbaje-Thomas and Bedford School Superintendent John Sills.
Suburban school superintendents and Metco officials gathered in McGann Playground on West Street in Hyde Park this afternoon to decry the continued extrajudicial killings of black men and women and to call on educators to work even harder to ensure that black students can grow up to their full potential and that white students learn to not be racists.
Separately, Ramesh Nagarajah, who grew up in Roxbury and who attended school in Weston through Metco, writes about his life as the token black friend.
Meanwhile, up on Mission Hill staff at New England Baptist Hospital also took a knee:
Staff, including my mother, at New England Baptist Hospital taking a knee @universalhub @WCVB @wbz @boston25 @7News @NBC10Boston pic.twitter.com/caMmCfBNQQ
— cwilliamstv (@CWilliamsTV) June 5, 2020
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Comments
Ramesh's essay
By ljd
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 3:24pm
Strong recommendation (as a Dot resident and retired Weston teacher): Everyone should definitely read Ramesh's powerful essay that Adam links to above!
Agreed
By mg
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 3:57pm
Very much worth reading.
https://medium.com/@rnagarajah2/reflections-from-a-token-black-friend-2f1ea522d42d
Great read, thanks for the
By DPM
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 8:42pm
Great read, thanks for the link.
pot,kettle
By Refugee
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 4:02pm
METCO itself is racist. It relies on Mass law that labels kids as either "white" or "non-white". It means a poor white kid from Boston is ineligible to participate in METCO, but a rich Asian kid from Boston is able to go to school in Weston.
Metco
By StillFromDorchester
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 4:36pm
Is definitely unconstitutional.
O RLY?
By adamg
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 10:11pm
It's been around since 1966. You'd think one of your great legal minds would have gone to court already and won, if it were unconstitutional.
Adam, please.
By erik g
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 10:50pm
Two of our foremost constitutional scholars are solemnly discussing the impact of racism, and how MGL should try to mitigate it via educational equality measures. This discussion is totally in good faith, in the tradition of the Areopagitica, and is a a shining beacon of hope for our troubled time. A little respect.
From the Interweb....Really
By StillFromDorchester
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 11:13pm
"The size and the scope of the METCO program has changed dramatically, but the essential goals and logistics remain unchanged. However, a 2007 Supreme Court ruling has the potential to fundamentally alter the METCO program. Through the decisions Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, the Supreme Court determined that race cannot be a factor in school assignments. Should METCO be legally challenged by a white student, the program may be forced to use income instead of race to screen applicants. This would impact the program's usefulness as a desegregation tool. No lawsuits challenging the program have yet been filed, but several communities have begun to discuss whether income should be used instead of race.
Receiving school districts offer numerous tutoring, extended day, and counseling benefits exclusively to METCO students, despite constitutional issues with use of race to determine programmatic eligibility."
That was 13 years ago
By Ian
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 9:19am
So, did it affect the METCO program?
No, It hasn't been challenged.
By StillFromDorchester
Sun, 06/07/2020 - 1:36pm
It could be challenged in a few ways it just hasn't happened.
Offering tutoring, counseling and other services only to METCO Students could be challenged as discrimination by a parent not even from Boston, or a Boston parent could challenge it as discriminatory for excluding white children.
METCO itself has acknowledged the strong probability of losing if it's ever challenged in court.
the premise of metco
By schneidz
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 4:51pm
the premise of metco isnt to give poor students better opportunity.
its to give students from caucasion only school districts exposure to those that are different.
metco participants are usually students of helicopter parents which usually skews wealthier.
Yes
By StillFromDorchester
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 5:16pm
And it's still unconstitutional in my opinion.
Ramesh Nagarajah and 2 siblings got slots in Metco, is that unusual? 3 kids from the same family?
According to the Metco
By hollydollydoo
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 7:02pm
According to the Metco blueprint, Ramesh and siblings are labeled as 'black'. That is an insult to African-American children that are applying to this program.
Indians are technically Asian, not Nubian. So this family is riding the affirmative action train when they really don't belong.
It is also an insult to assume, because you are black, that you are necessarily poor or disadvantaged. Talk about condescending!
why
By Sean north shore.
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 8:19pm
Why is Metco in operation today. It's now 2020, Metco started in the 70's I belive, In the 40 + years, these towns have had plenty of time to build housing for Metco students, so the students could live and go to school in the same town, grades 1 to 12. No busing needed.
In the 60's, there was a
By brianjdamico
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 12:20am
In the 60's, there was a major civil rights movement. Why are people marching for civil rights in 2020? In the 50+ years, we have had plenty of time to fix these systemic flaws.
build
By Sean north shore.
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 2:33am
Build lots of affordable housing in these rich white suburbs. Where are these rich white towns , that have not provided housing for the low income children of the Metco program. For 54 years according to one poster.
Rich white suburbs have long
By brianjdamico
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 9:42am
Rich white suburbs have long fought large developments of any housing, including those who are attempted to be built through the aggressive affordable housing laws aimed to accomplish what you are suggesting.
Or build more dense
By anon
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 10:25am
Or build more dense affordable housing in blue collar communities with lower density AND pour more money into those neighboring school systems aimed at academic improvement. What make you think people want to relocate their families away from friends, extended family and the community they're a part of and invested in?
Is it also an insult to African-Americans...
By anon
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 10:08pm
If a Latinx Dreamer applied and got accepted? Are they less deserving of a Metco seat than the child of an African-American lawyer or doctor?
Also, as a gentle reminder, hundreds of thousands of Asian-Americans were imprisoned for years in the 1940s - and well before then, they were also enslaved in sugarcane fields in American-controlled Hawaii. Before you say Asian-Americans do not "belong", think again. Just because a group of people have been remarkably successful in American society, it doesn't mean that there isn't a history of abuse and mistreatment that desperately needs to be reconciled.
Well ...
By adamg
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 10:13pm
Metco is open to all minority children in Boston, not just blacks.
Comment was in response to...
By anon
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 11:51pm
Previous comment about Ramesh being labeled 'black' as an insult to African-Americans.
Metco is open to all minority children
By StillFromDorchester
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 10:25am
Which is why it's unconstitutional.
A white kid growing up in a single parent home while living in low income housing is not
offered the opportunity for a seat in Metco. Even if you think the program is noble and serves a purpose it is blatantly unfair unless it is offered to all Boston children.
If our schools were not so embarrassingly terrible Metco would collapse, who would put a kid on a bus at 6 in the morning to the Suburbs so a rich white kid could have a minority classmate if the school down the street was excellent? Parents want their children in Metco for a better education and everyone knows it, even if they won't admit it.
I find some people's new
By anon
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 5:23pm
I find some people's new distinction between Blacks and 'Other' minorities disconcerting. Oh, if you're Vietnamese or Mexican then you're now labeled as an Other. Just stop pigeon-holing people! Telling kids they are not the 'correct' kind of minority and are therefore excluded is gross. You're poor but 1/2 Hatian and 1/2 Polish, but look too light skinned so too bad for you! You don't qualify even though your family is lower income! Stop putting your biases on innocent children!
interment camp
By Sean north shore.
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 2:37am
Also please do not forgot that over 100,000 westerners were thrown into interment camps by the Japanese Empire, the boys and men used as slave labor. The women and girls sometimes used as sex slaves.
Weird comparison
By Ian
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 9:29am
Not to defend Imperial Japan (which was undoubtedly cruel and evil) but there’s a pretty big difference between taking POWs indiscriminately vs rounding up and imprisoning your own citizens solely based on their ethnicity.
I can’t believe this still needs to be taught
By Dot net
Sat, 06/06/2020 - 11:00am
The US held all AMERICAN citizens and residents of Japanese descent in hinterland camps, including adults who had never set eyes on the islands of Japan. About 80,000 of the approximately 110,000 who were imprisoned were US citizens.
I’ll note they were citizens by birth because citizenship via naturalization by Asian immigrants at the time was not legal.
So please DO forget about your disingenuous comparison and get it the fuck out of here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japane...
...and to call on educators
By Rob
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 8:43pm
...and to call on educators to work even harder to ensure that black students can grow up to their full potential and that white students learn to not be racists.
That is a pretty damn condescending statement on both parts. Did some speaker actually say that or somebody put it in the event promo?
Sounds about right
By StillFromDorchester
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 11:10pm
People are racists even if they don't know it, they invented this term "unconscious bias"
So even if you don't have a racist bone in your body you must be taught to think properly to rid yourself of the thoughts or actions of racism you are not even aware you are doing...It is all very Orwellian.
Cliches
By anony-mouse
Fri, 06/05/2020 - 11:54pm
Talk about 'can't win' or 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'.
I don't know a lot about Metco. I'm sure it could be improved, and I'm sure there are valid arguments to expand it, or cancel it. So let's debate.
But geesh, I assume participants value it, and that the host schools do their best to make it a good program.
People here are being so critical- what exactly would you do if you were suddenly governor, or Secretary of Ed, or a State Rep?
Don't forget, you have a budget, 239 other legislators, potential law-suits from every possible stakeholder, and competing priorities galore.
Quick. Fx it. As fast as you typed your comments. Fix it.
I would stop pretending it's a program to desegregate
By StillFromDorchester
Sun, 06/07/2020 - 1:50pm
When everyone knows at this point it is just a program for City Kids forced into shitty schools a chance to attend a better school outside of Boston.
Sending a few minority children to a school in Weston is not desegregating Weston schools, and to say it gives White kids in Weston the experience of being exposed to minority kids is both insulting and degrading to the Kids from Weston and the Kids from Boston..
So I would keep it but open it up to all and maybe make it income based, but that also could probably be challenged. The Best answer would be to Fix our own damn schools so METCO would be unnecessary. I don't think anyone would send their kid on a bus to a school far from home if our own schools were just as good.
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