Letters to the Editor: How useful is ‘person of color’? Look at the experiences of Black Americans in education.
Editor:
I am African-American. I am married to a Black woman. We are both professors, and both parents of two children. My family is from St. John, New York. My father was a college professor. One of my uncles has since become a prominent politician. One of my aunts taught for 30+ years in a Catholic School in New Orleans, Louisiana.
We live in Chicago. I have never lived in a city with more people of color than Chicago. Never have I lived in a city of this size with such diversity, for so long. How does my being a Black woman and a Black professor affect the learning experiences of other people in my family and within the city? Who will teach me? My children? My students? My husband? My mother? My grandmother? My aunts? What about the people of color on the streets of Chicago? What about the people in our neighborhoods?
I believe that this issue is as important as the education system itself. I am very proud of the people of Chicago. I am not proud of how they have been educated. But I am proud that I feel my children will have the same opportunities as my children. That I will be able to go to the same schools and get the same education as my children.
I do not want my child to grow up in the shadows of poverty, and without the opportunity to improve. In spite of this, I have to accept that there will be children that will not have the same opportunities I will have. I accept it. I have to live with it, and teach my children to accept it as well. In this battle I lose many of the battles, but I win many of the victory.
We have come to a point where there is no more time to make excuses. I am convinced that this generation has no more time to take for granted. That a person of color, an African-American woman, has to work twice as hard to get the
