Eraced
June 14, 2016 12:14 PM Subscribe
Eraced, an 11 minute student-made documentary about race and diversity at Berkeley High School.
Berkeley High is 3,200 kids across 4 grades and, as noted in the film, is split into 5 "small schools" two of which are are largely segregated: Berkeley International (an authorized International Baccalaureate school) is predominately white, while The Academy of Medicine and Public Service (AMPS) is mostly black.
Likely prompting the creation of the video are a number of incidents at Berkeley High involving race that have happened over the last couple of years:
Berkeley High is 3,200 kids across 4 grades and, as noted in the film, is split into 5 "small schools" two of which are are largely segregated: Berkeley International (an authorized International Baccalaureate school) is predominately white, while The Academy of Medicine and Public Service (AMPS) is mostly black.
Likely prompting the creation of the video are a number of incidents at Berkeley High involving race that have happened over the last couple of years:
- In December 2014 the BHS Black Student Union organized a school-wide student walkout in support of Black Lives Matter
- Last June, the 2014-2015 yearbook was recalled after an offensive and racist phrase was used to desribe AMPS.
- In April, Stanford University published a study in which Berkeley High was found to have the highest Black/White achievement gap (PDF link) in the entire country.
- In November, Berkeley High Students staged a walkout that received national attention following the discovery of racist and violent language on a BHS library computer (links to the actual offensive message).
(oops, I see that the redesign is the last link! My link is a pretty great local news site's writeup on it, a solid overview)
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:31 PM on June 14, 2016
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:31 PM on June 14, 2016
I watched this video earlier and was very impressed with the students. I'll be passing it around to teachers and profs who could stand to hear this directly from these kids.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:47 PM on June 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:47 PM on June 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
That video was excellent. You can see the evidence of white privilege at the school in so many different things that the kids describe -- there are all these interlocking mechanisms that reinforce white privilege and the cumulative effect is to make it seem to many people (well, white people, anyway) that things must be this way, that they cannot be otherwise. It makes me alternately angry and sad.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:59 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:59 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is a really interesting film but a fairly shallow dive into what seems like a very diverse student body, not just race but class. Go deeper!
In the 2011-2012 school year Berkeley High was 37% White, 26% African American, 13% Latino, 10% Native American/Asian /Pacific Islander, and 11% Multiracial. 32.7% of the students receive Free/Reduced Lunch.
Also, BHS is the only public school for the whole city, and blends kids in the 9th grade who have been rising up through different streams in a kind of mass segregation (north side / south side) for the K-8 years. That has its own dynamic.
posted by chavenet at 2:38 PM on June 14, 2016
In the 2011-2012 school year Berkeley High was 37% White, 26% African American, 13% Latino, 10% Native American/Asian /Pacific Islander, and 11% Multiracial. 32.7% of the students receive Free/Reduced Lunch.
Also, BHS is the only public school for the whole city, and blends kids in the 9th grade who have been rising up through different streams in a kind of mass segregation (north side / south side) for the K-8 years. That has its own dynamic.
posted by chavenet at 2:38 PM on June 14, 2016
I find it amazing that the school administrators haven't found a way to address problems of inclusivity since 1994? That has to be at least a few generations of administrators that have overlooked a visible problem and let it continue to fester. I wish the kids in the documentary would have dug deeper into the administrative morass that created and fed this problem.
posted by JJ86 at 2:44 PM on June 14, 2016
posted by JJ86 at 2:44 PM on June 14, 2016
Chavnet, it's specifically kids in the IB school who are interviewed, and IB is not that diverse, not at all.
posted by Frayed Knot at 2:44 PM on June 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Frayed Knot at 2:44 PM on June 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
reminds me of an article by The Stranger about how segregated the schools in Seattle are in spite of its predominantly left-leaning population
it's the Parable of the Paragon in action. if you don't take active anti-racist measures in a society where racism is built into the foundation, you end up with more racism. the soft, of-course-I-dislike-racism attitude that so many progressives have whereby it's #4 or #5 on their list of important issues just means that the market for homeopathy, non-GMOs, and 80k+ luxury electric cars thrive while their schools continue to become more and more demographically homogeneous and their kids grow up not knowing if their, like, dating preferences are just naturally, intrinsically non-integrated or if there's something more sinister lurking in that calculus
I wonder if it's easier, as an individual, to try to convince the moderately left of the seriousness of racism or if it's better to try to convince a white, lower-income racist that their anger about Mexicans/Indians/etc stealing their jobs is misplaced, that the real enemy are corporations. having to choose whether or not to bite the bullet fired from Bernie Bro-types or from racist family members isn't a great choice and sometimes I'd just rather not have those discussions at all, just for the sake of my own mental health
posted by runt at 3:25 PM on June 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
it's the Parable of the Paragon in action. if you don't take active anti-racist measures in a society where racism is built into the foundation, you end up with more racism. the soft, of-course-I-dislike-racism attitude that so many progressives have whereby it's #4 or #5 on their list of important issues just means that the market for homeopathy, non-GMOs, and 80k+ luxury electric cars thrive while their schools continue to become more and more demographically homogeneous and their kids grow up not knowing if their, like, dating preferences are just naturally, intrinsically non-integrated or if there's something more sinister lurking in that calculus
I wonder if it's easier, as an individual, to try to convince the moderately left of the seriousness of racism or if it's better to try to convince a white, lower-income racist that their anger about Mexicans/Indians/etc stealing their jobs is misplaced, that the real enemy are corporations. having to choose whether or not to bite the bullet fired from Bernie Bro-types or from racist family members isn't a great choice and sometimes I'd just rather not have those discussions at all, just for the sake of my own mental health
posted by runt at 3:25 PM on June 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
In the 2011-2012 school year Berkeley High was 37% White, 26% African American, 13% Latino, 10% Native American/Asian /Pacific Islander, and 11% Multiracial. 32.7% of the students receive Free/Reduced Lunch.
It's also interesting (and unsurprising) that the wiki link seems to indicate the % of white students is steadily increasing each year.
posted by picklenickle at 3:56 PM on June 14, 2016
It's also interesting (and unsurprising) that the wiki link seems to indicate the % of white students is steadily increasing each year.
posted by picklenickle at 3:56 PM on June 14, 2016
My daughter, who is white, is starting the BIHS small school this Fall. (BIHS, or Berkeley International High School, used to be known as IB, or International Baccalaureate, for those who are trying to decipher the various terms in this thread.)
I'll provide some background. As noted above, Berkeley High as a whole appears to be a model of diversity, since no one race constitutes a majority of the school. But within the separate learning communities, of which BIHS and AMPS are two, there is significant self-segregation, despite the school district's attempt to prevent it. Students are asked to rank the learning community that they would prefer to join in the year before they enter high school. There are five learning communities, three of which are designated as "small schools" with limited enrollment (AMPS is one of these, BIHS is not). The school then assigns students to the various schools, considering student preference, but attempting to mix students by geographic and socio-economic status. Note that in California state-based racial affirmative action is explicitly against the law (a deeply stupid law).
It's worth noting how the white and Asian population in Berkeley differs from the norm in other communities. First, and most obviously, these two groups are startlingly wealthy and over-educated. The median home price in Berkeley is now over one million dollars, and rents, despite rent control, are equally stratospheric. White and Asian parents in Berkeley are also among the most educated cohort in the nation, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the presence of U.C. Berkeley. Parents like me are "privileged" in the most distilled sense -- both positive and negative -- of that term.
The second difference is a bit less obvious. There's a communal ethos in Berkeley which is rarer in other locations in the United States. White and Asian parents with similar socioeconomic backgrounds in other communities are more likely to send their kids to private schools. Likewise, Berkeley citizens continue to vote for increased taxes and bond measures to add to the historically-falling California state expenditures for education. The result is that Berkeley public schools are highly desirable. There's been a continuing issue of "out-of-district" students claiming to be from Berkeley, even though they reside elsewhere. This is NOT just students from disadvantaged neighborhoods in nearby Oakland. This is also rich white kids from Kensington and the rich Claremont district in Oakland.
The result of all this is that the white and Asian kids, raised with every advantage rich and educated parents can offer, break the chart for test scores. This is a huge embarrassment to Berkeley, since we like to think of ourselves as deeply equitable folk. Consider the irony. The most effective way to eliminate the black-white achievement gap would be for me and my cohort send our kids to private school.
I don't think you can ascribe the problem here -- and I don't know how anyone who has watched the eRaced video could view it as anything other than a problem -- to inaction and stupid bureaucrats. Berkeley High is an enormous school, more like a community college than a high school. If you eliminate smaller communities, then kids will get lost. And you can guess the kids who will suffer most. If you keep smaller communities, then sorting by culture is bound to happen to some extent. If the school intervenes to prevent this sorting, then the result is what we see in the video. Berkeley could do better, I have no doubt, but sometimes I feel like we're a community of 125,000 trying to fix a whole nation's racial sins.
One last thought to this too-long comment. You'll note that Menlo Park (near Stanford and Silicon Valley) has the second-highest White-Hispanic achievement gap in the nation, but isn't among the top 20 for White-Black achievement gap. Why? I'd be willing to bet that's because Menlo Park does not have a statistically significant number of Af-Am students. Berkeley's sins are on display for everyone to see, because it is a diverse school district. The sins of other districts -- the result of school district borders and white flight -- are often hidden. Since I don't have the choice of a racially equitable society, I'll choose the sins of the former over the sins of the latter.
posted by ferdydurke at 3:58 PM on June 14, 2016 [15 favorites]
I'll provide some background. As noted above, Berkeley High as a whole appears to be a model of diversity, since no one race constitutes a majority of the school. But within the separate learning communities, of which BIHS and AMPS are two, there is significant self-segregation, despite the school district's attempt to prevent it. Students are asked to rank the learning community that they would prefer to join in the year before they enter high school. There are five learning communities, three of which are designated as "small schools" with limited enrollment (AMPS is one of these, BIHS is not). The school then assigns students to the various schools, considering student preference, but attempting to mix students by geographic and socio-economic status. Note that in California state-based racial affirmative action is explicitly against the law (a deeply stupid law).
It's worth noting how the white and Asian population in Berkeley differs from the norm in other communities. First, and most obviously, these two groups are startlingly wealthy and over-educated. The median home price in Berkeley is now over one million dollars, and rents, despite rent control, are equally stratospheric. White and Asian parents in Berkeley are also among the most educated cohort in the nation, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the presence of U.C. Berkeley. Parents like me are "privileged" in the most distilled sense -- both positive and negative -- of that term.
The second difference is a bit less obvious. There's a communal ethos in Berkeley which is rarer in other locations in the United States. White and Asian parents with similar socioeconomic backgrounds in other communities are more likely to send their kids to private schools. Likewise, Berkeley citizens continue to vote for increased taxes and bond measures to add to the historically-falling California state expenditures for education. The result is that Berkeley public schools are highly desirable. There's been a continuing issue of "out-of-district" students claiming to be from Berkeley, even though they reside elsewhere. This is NOT just students from disadvantaged neighborhoods in nearby Oakland. This is also rich white kids from Kensington and the rich Claremont district in Oakland.
The result of all this is that the white and Asian kids, raised with every advantage rich and educated parents can offer, break the chart for test scores. This is a huge embarrassment to Berkeley, since we like to think of ourselves as deeply equitable folk. Consider the irony. The most effective way to eliminate the black-white achievement gap would be for me and my cohort send our kids to private school.
I don't think you can ascribe the problem here -- and I don't know how anyone who has watched the eRaced video could view it as anything other than a problem -- to inaction and stupid bureaucrats. Berkeley High is an enormous school, more like a community college than a high school. If you eliminate smaller communities, then kids will get lost. And you can guess the kids who will suffer most. If you keep smaller communities, then sorting by culture is bound to happen to some extent. If the school intervenes to prevent this sorting, then the result is what we see in the video. Berkeley could do better, I have no doubt, but sometimes I feel like we're a community of 125,000 trying to fix a whole nation's racial sins.
One last thought to this too-long comment. You'll note that Menlo Park (near Stanford and Silicon Valley) has the second-highest White-Hispanic achievement gap in the nation, but isn't among the top 20 for White-Black achievement gap. Why? I'd be willing to bet that's because Menlo Park does not have a statistically significant number of Af-Am students. Berkeley's sins are on display for everyone to see, because it is a diverse school district. The sins of other districts -- the result of school district borders and white flight -- are often hidden. Since I don't have the choice of a racially equitable society, I'll choose the sins of the former over the sins of the latter.
posted by ferdydurke at 3:58 PM on June 14, 2016 [15 favorites]
ferdyduke's observations are so on (BHS parents represent). The schools are remarkably diverse from K-8, because kids aren't allowed to self-segregate and the school zones are intentionally drawn to cross socioeconomic lines.
Also true is that voters in Berkeley again and again approve local tax and bond measures to make the schools better than California's general malaise of Prop 13-limited funding. And then you have local PTA raising significant funds on top of that to cover not only basic supplies the district cannot fund (paper, crayons, pencils) but also things like afterschool foreign language classes.
And Berkeley raises that sort of money, I'd guess, in large part because there is a core of families that can afford for one parent to work on the PTA stuff, plus a ton of parents from surrounding cities motivated to get their kids in the district. I read somewhere an estimate of 10-15% of kids live outside Berkeley and claim a local address. Given the low level of funding in Oakland and Richmond's schools, I do not blame parents at all. But it also means they are more likely to be committed to their kids education.
So you've got very active parents, and a very wide mix of socio-economic factors: black families that moved from the South to work in shipyards in WWII, hispanic families, some first generation and undocumented working multiple jobs, others middle class business owners, and very well educated and mostly self-identifying progressive white and asian families, many who are upper middle class (most I suspect rent rather than own, the handful of parents I know who own their homes grew up here and inherited them).
posted by zippy at 4:41 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also true is that voters in Berkeley again and again approve local tax and bond measures to make the schools better than California's general malaise of Prop 13-limited funding. And then you have local PTA raising significant funds on top of that to cover not only basic supplies the district cannot fund (paper, crayons, pencils) but also things like afterschool foreign language classes.
And Berkeley raises that sort of money, I'd guess, in large part because there is a core of families that can afford for one parent to work on the PTA stuff, plus a ton of parents from surrounding cities motivated to get their kids in the district. I read somewhere an estimate of 10-15% of kids live outside Berkeley and claim a local address. Given the low level of funding in Oakland and Richmond's schools, I do not blame parents at all. But it also means they are more likely to be committed to their kids education.
So you've got very active parents, and a very wide mix of socio-economic factors: black families that moved from the South to work in shipyards in WWII, hispanic families, some first generation and undocumented working multiple jobs, others middle class business owners, and very well educated and mostly self-identifying progressive white and asian families, many who are upper middle class (most I suspect rent rather than own, the handful of parents I know who own their homes grew up here and inherited them).
posted by zippy at 4:41 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
I went to BHS, and by the time kids get to 9th grade the so called achievement gap is already so large that eliminating these problems at the high school level is impossible. "Small schools" is just the latest attempt to get around this problem, but any real solution will have to start much earlier. Like probably pre-school. If every student has genuine access to the same level of quality education from an early age and the opportunity to start high school on equal footing I think many of the issues most apparent at the high school could be resolved. But just trying to fix things starting in 9th grade will never work.
posted by 12%juicepulp at 4:59 PM on June 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by 12%juicepulp at 4:59 PM on June 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
I went to BHS, and by the time kids get to 9th grade the so called achievement gap is already so large that eliminating these problems at the high school level is impossible. "Small schools" is just the latest attempt to get around this problem, but any real solution will have to start much earlier. Like probably pre-school.
Well research on the effectiveness of preschool programs shows ... mixed but arguably underwhelming results. Part of this is probably just that access to "quality education" is not sustained - and presumably what you're really suggesting is that it needs to be through all grades - but also schools are only one part of the problem.
posted by atoxyl at 5:31 PM on June 14, 2016
Well research on the effectiveness of preschool programs shows ... mixed but arguably underwhelming results. Part of this is probably just that access to "quality education" is not sustained - and presumably what you're really suggesting is that it needs to be through all grades - but also schools are only one part of the problem.
posted by atoxyl at 5:31 PM on June 14, 2016
Berkeley High is an enormous school, more like a community college than a high school. If you eliminate smaller communities, then kids will get lost. And you can guess the kids who will suffer most. If you keep smaller communities, then sorting by culture is bound to happen to some extent.
that's the issue on a small scale, right? when I think about million dollar homes, the high educational attainment of parents, and self-selected stratifying (which, according to quite a few of the PoC kids, IB was their first pick but they were counseled to choose AMPS which almost necessarily kept them inside of segregated lines), I'm not talking about 'just life', I'm talking about active anti-racism on a cultural level that would push for things like choosing to live in a mixed-income area, choosing to volunteer to tutor/advise kids other than your own, or actively educating your kids so they're not choosing the IB school but see the importance of learning in a diverse background
it's not so much a bureaucratic thing as it is an active participation in your life to go above and beyond just funding a good school in a rich part of the country. and this isn't really tasking Berkeley with shouldering the 'sins of the country' alone; every school district in the US can be doing a lot more. how you have the conversation that generates enough momentum that changes things beyond just voting for progressive ballot measures if and when they do pop up in your line of sight is a much harder thing
posted by runt at 7:57 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
that's the issue on a small scale, right? when I think about million dollar homes, the high educational attainment of parents, and self-selected stratifying (which, according to quite a few of the PoC kids, IB was their first pick but they were counseled to choose AMPS which almost necessarily kept them inside of segregated lines), I'm not talking about 'just life', I'm talking about active anti-racism on a cultural level that would push for things like choosing to live in a mixed-income area, choosing to volunteer to tutor/advise kids other than your own, or actively educating your kids so they're not choosing the IB school but see the importance of learning in a diverse background
it's not so much a bureaucratic thing as it is an active participation in your life to go above and beyond just funding a good school in a rich part of the country. and this isn't really tasking Berkeley with shouldering the 'sins of the country' alone; every school district in the US can be doing a lot more. how you have the conversation that generates enough momentum that changes things beyond just voting for progressive ballot measures if and when they do pop up in your line of sight is a much harder thing
posted by runt at 7:57 PM on June 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Great video. Touches on a lot in a small space. Major love to the Berkeley High video production classes.
Also agree with ferdydurke on the causes of this. I do think Berkeley High must keep trying and I do think it can do a lot better. But concurrently we need to address the impact of generations of racist laws and social policies and one high school changing its policies is obviously not enough.
posted by latkes at 7:59 PM on June 14, 2016
Also agree with ferdydurke on the causes of this. I do think Berkeley High must keep trying and I do think it can do a lot better. But concurrently we need to address the impact of generations of racist laws and social policies and one high school changing its policies is obviously not enough.
posted by latkes at 7:59 PM on June 14, 2016
to 12%'s point: a friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher in the Berkeley system. He's asserted on numerous occasions that the developmental spread, by the time kids reach kindergarten, is roughly 6 years. That is to say, kids reach him with social and academic preparation ranging from the level we expect of a 2-year-old to that of an 8-year-old. I don't know how you bridge that gap, especially with the limited set of tools and resources we grant to our educators.
But I will say this: As a parent living in Oakland, it's encouraging to see that Berkeley is at least attempting to change and improve, as compared to the complete and utter resignation to the problem that I see/feel from the Oakland school district.
posted by turbowombat at 10:51 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
But I will say this: As a parent living in Oakland, it's encouraging to see that Berkeley is at least attempting to change and improve, as compared to the complete and utter resignation to the problem that I see/feel from the Oakland school district.
posted by turbowombat at 10:51 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
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My alma mater continues to be a fascinating and troubled and also amazing place. Here are a couple more relevant links:
They're working on restructuring the small schools system to address many of its issues:
And for some historical reference, Frontline's 1994 documentary School Colors (Trailer; Part 1; Part 2):posted by wemayfreeze at 12:29 PM on June 14, 2016 [6 favorites]