I still remember a Back to School Night in San Francisco, early in my teaching career, when I thought it would be a good idea, after concluding my presentation, to open the floor for questions. In a room of 40 parents, all but two Black or Brown, a white woman in the back of the room raised her hand, looked around and then at me, and asked, “What are you going to do to help my child in this classroom?”
Hosted by the outstanding
Chana Joffe-Walt, “Nice White Parents” explores how liberal white parents may mean well but ultimately wield their power toward selfish ends, taking over schools, hoarding resources for their children, and exacerbating inequities.
“When we look for what’s broken, for how our schools are failing, we focus on who they’re failing — poor kids, Black kids, and Brown kids. We ask, ‘Why aren’t they performing better? Why aren’t they achieving more?’ Those are not the right questions. There’s a powerful force that is shaping our public schools — arguably, the most powerful force. It’s there even when we pretend not to notice it. If you want to understand why our schools aren’t better, that’s where you have to look. You have to look at white parents.” (62 min)
