Talking straight

At long last I have discovered someone who is willing to speak directly to the cultural issues of performance gaps.

"Ronald F. Ferguson, a black scholar and Harvard lecturer, has long studied racial achievement gaps in public schools. Complicated as those issues are, Ferguson boils them down to one: 'The real issue is historical differences in parenting. that is hard to talk about, but that is the root of the skill gap.' According to Ferguson, black households traditionally see schooling as a job for teachers, while white families are more involved in schooling the child or paying for special services." (The Read Aloud Handbook p xv)

I'm convinced that he is right that the skills gap has everything to do with parenting, and that there are current cultural differences in understandings of parenting that often fall along racial lines. However, while I am no historian, I think that I would differ with Ferguson slightly. I would say that in the past forty or so years dependence on 'the system' to educate children has emerged. My understanding is that in the pre-civil rights era, the African American family was much stronger, and much more active in parenting, and produced the likes of Ruby Bridges.

So as a parent and an educator (having taught almost exclusively in an African American environment), I want to learn how to encourage, and inspire (with their own history!) my neighbors to express their love to their children by reading great books to them day after day after day.

Augustine on slavery and bondage

And thus there are many wicked masters who have religious men as their slaves, and who are yet themselves in bondage; "for of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought into bondage." And beyond question it is a happier thing to be the slave of a man than of a lust; for even this very lust of ruling, to mention no others, lays waste men's hearts with the most ruthless dominion. Moreover, when men are subjected to one another in a peaceful order, the lowly position does as much good to the servant as the proud position does harm to the master. (Augustine City of God p694)

When I read this passage, I couldn't help but see how clearly Augustine described the future situation of racism and slavery in the United States. Many wicked masters had righteous slaves, and the masters were in a more harmful bondage than their slaves. That lust of ruling did, and does, lay waste men's hearts with ruthless dominion, such as devastated the morality of the white culture. Where humility and righteousness flourished among black slaves, their grace and power manifested the glory of the gospel and its omnipotent power to subvert the powers of this age.

If I am not mistaken, this is precisely where the abolition and civil rights movements accomplished only partial success. They brought black Americans out of one kind of bondage (which was evil and oppressive), but did not with all their might fight to avoid the bondage which had enslaved their masters. That beauty and humility that was in so many places evident through the gospel in black communities was not treasured above power and freedom.

O how I long and pray for that day when homes like that of Ruby Bridges would again adorn the Gospel and display true freedom and the mercy of Christ!

Talking to children about race

I think a lot about race and culture. I grew up in a dominantly white environment, and went to a dominantly white college. Then I lived in Uganda, where I was a distinct minority. I returned to the States to move to an urban black neighborhood where I lived for five years, for three of which I taught in the local public school. Now I live on a cusp, between a rich white neighborhood and a much less wealthy Hispanic neighborhood (and likely will move back into a predominantly black neighborhood). Race and culture are not things that I think about in the abstract, but part of my daily life.

For that reason, I think much about how to teach our children about race and culture. For most of my answers, I look to a handful of articulate, black Christian men. I highly recommend Thabiti Anyabwile on talking to your children about race and tips for talking about race. He is wise, insightful, and relentless in focusing on the Gospel. I've found Lance Lewis to have some keen insight on issues of race and culture, and I think that Anthony Carter's book On Being Black and Reformed is an outstanding book for an outsider to get a better understanding of race and the Gospel.

If you know of other wise voices for helping kids to understand race through the Gospel, please share!

Doing Justice to Dr. King's Dream

I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places shall be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

These words hung on a banner at the front of the auditorium in the public school where I taught for three years. They are taken from Dr. King's famous I have a Dream speech. What struck me in those days was the hollowing out of Dr. King's dream. He dreamed of what Isaiah saw: the revelation of the glory of God. Yet though these words hung in my public school, Dr. King's vision of civil rights had been extracted from the context in which he saw it.

If we are to honor Dr. King, we must honor that which he believed. If at some point we disagree, we must critique him, but not pretend that he stood for something other than what he did.

May the vision of the glory of God make us as courageous for justice and righteousness as it did Dr. King.