David Christopher Steele; 2011 Study Proves Long Island Racism – And It’s Hurting NYC Black Children

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David Christopher Steele; 2011 Study Proves Long Island Racism – And It’s Hurting NYC Black Children?
August 8, 2011 by Staff  
Filed under Brothers Corner, News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

(ThyBlackMan.com) In February 2011 a housing segregation study conducted by researchers from Brown University and Florida State University based on the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data concluded that two New York suburban counties on Long Island, Nassau County and Suffolk County, are jointly the seventh most racially segregated major metropolitan area in the country.  Why should I care in the middle of my summer, you might ask.  That’s no surprise considering the long history of housing discrimination on Long Island, you might be thinking.  Indeed, this sad fact might not have raised eyebrows among the glitterati of the Hamptons or the jaded urban-dwellers of Harlem had not Newsweek magazine published its annual survey of “America’s Best High Schools” this past June, and revealed that these two Long Island enclaves have once again produced several public high schools that rank among the top 100 in the nation – raising alarming questions about educational equity, racism and geography in New York.

            These educational accolades for Long Island public high schools come against the backdrop of a widening achievement gap among Black and Latino students in New York City public schools and a massive budget shortfall.  Growing criticism of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s school voucher and charter school initiatives as harmful to low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhoods (where the vast majority of school closings have occurred) led sequentially to the ouster of his hand-picked schools chief, Cathie Black, and to a lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the NAACP.  A widely publicized controversy surrounding standardized test score inflation in New York City middle schools further eroded the confidence of the public in the city education system. 
Amidst all the public outrage, for those of us who care about equity in American education, one poignant and inescapable question looms.  What factors produced the quality and achievement chasm that exists between New York City public schools and Long Island suburban school districts?

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