* "How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million: An Idealistic New Yale Grad Learns Up Close and Personal Just How Bad Inner-City Schools Can Be – And Why." Joshua Kaplowitz, City Journal
His ancestors' suffering in pogroms inspired Joshua Kaplowitz to decline a job with Al Gore and to join Teach for America. "I didn't want to devote my life to helping the rich get richer … My doctor parents had drummed into me … a strong sense of social justice. I couldn't help feeling guilty dismay when I thought of the millions of kids who'd never even tasted the great teaching … I had seen signs of inner-city blight … the bulletproof glass at the Kentucky Fried Chicken." He saw himself "as a white knight coming in and rescuing these kids."
Teach for America trained novice Kaplowitz, not through classroom-ready pedagogic techniques, but through indoctrination in white guilt. Kaplowitz had to spend "hours" in "The Privilege Walk." Participants line up and then step out of line, in front of others, for every privilege group they belonged to. White? Take that step of shame. Heterosexual? Publicly emphasize your "cis-gender" stigma. Any volunteer in the Teach for American training who expressed conservative views was "threatened with expulsion."
Once Kaplowitz arrived at his assigned school, one teacher's aide, in front of Kaplowitz's class, threatened to "kick your white ass." Kaplowitz's principal did not reprimand this aide. Principal Savoy explicitly ordered Kaplowitz to pass failing students. When he refused to do so, Savoy formally cited him for "insubordination." One student, Raynard Ware, disrupted class by punching others and throwing things. Ware made a false assault accusation, and his mother sued. She would eventually receive $90,000. Kaplowitz was arrested and had to spend 9-11 in jail. He left teaching with a potentially life-destroying cloud over his head: named child abuser in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Kaplowitz believed his life was "ruined." Friends rejected him. He lost jobs. When he met the woman who would become his wife, she had the "awkward duty" of informing her parents of the accusation. In the age of Google, they also had to inform prospective professional contacts. It took Kaplowitz "four or five years" to get over the "funk."
Yes, there are plenty of better-off white people, mindful of the persecution their own ancestors faced, who are willing to put their careers on the line to contribute to a better America for all. These would-be "knights" confront barbed wire that injures them and those they want to help, and that barbed wire is woven from liberal attitudes and polices. Kaplowitz was undone by an administration that refused to hold black students to the same behavioral or academic standards that white or Asian students must meet. When he attempted to guide his students to achievement, his "white ass" was threatened and he was told to falsify records. Barbed wire nicked and scarred Kaplowitz, but it has come close to destroying far too many black lives.
In 2015, Kaplowitz published an update in the Washington Post. Raynard Ware, now a college student, sent him a Facebook friend request. In their subsequent exchange, Kaplowitz learned more. Ware's father, Joseph Ware, was "never really around." He was a drug user and dealer who choked to death on pepper spray during a robbery. Ware's mother had other children by other men. Ware had been labeled "special needs." A neighbor called him "retarded." His mother, in her own words, "used to have to punch him in the chest when he was little because he was off the chain."
In 2019, Ware composed a poignant piece for Medium. Ware reports that he sometimes sits "unproductively, reminiscing about growing up as a special education student … I was not completely prepared for college … I noticed holes in my education … such as, not knowing the correct grammatical usage for 'effect' and 'affect' … Identifying my weaknesses and shortcomings" was a necessary trait.
Ware's Medium piece is excellent. Before I upvoted it, it had received no votes, and no comments. If Ware had posted a rap song calling for riots, I'm sure he would have received upvotes. You can read, below, Orlando Patterson's thoughts on what behaviors liberal whites reward African Americans for exhibiting. Hint: liberal whites may be slow to reward African Americans for keeping their nose to the grindstone and following rules.
What about the teachers who, unlike Kaplowitz, manage to stick it out till retirement?
This is a long article with explanations and descriptions of each source. I include the first source’s description as an example. Here are the other recommendations:
* "Teacher Describes an American High School: 'Chaos'" - Choice Media YouTube video.
* "Explaining the Black Education Gap." John H. McWhorter Wilson Quarterly.
* No Excuses. Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. Stephan Thernstrom and Abigail Thernstrom 2004.
* "A Poverty of the Mind" - Orlando Patterson New York Times.
* "Speech to NAACP" - Jeremiah Wright.
* "The Affirmative Action Myth" - Marie Gryphon. Cato Institute.
* "Black Fathers Matter" - Larry Elder, Prager University.
"The Fracking Boom, a Baby Boom, and the Retreat From Marriage" - Freakonomics Radio.
"How Not to Be Poor" - Walter E. Williams.
* Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed and False Black Power Jason L. Riley
* "An Open Letter to Ta-Nahesi Coates" - Freedom Center Shillman Fellow, Dr. Jason D. Hill
* The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele.
* "Are the Police Racist?" - Heather Mac Donald, Prager University.
"An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force" - Roland G. Fryer, Jr.
"Officer Characteristics and Racial Disparities in Fatal Officer-Involved Shootings" by David J. Johnson, Trevor Tress, Nicole Burkel, Carley Taylor, and Joseph Cesario, summarized here "Our Database of Police Officers in Fatal Shootings Reveals Who Shot Citizens: White Officers Are Not More Likely to Fatally Shoot Minority Civilians Compared to Black or Hispanic Officers."
"Racist Police Violence Reconsidered." - John McWhorter.
