For Educators Committed to Social Justice

School colors by Brooklyn Deep
September 20, 2019

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New York City has the most segregated schools in the United States. The issues surrounding desegregation started long before the desegregation movements in the southern areas of the United States. School Colors is a narrative podcast that delves deeply into the impact of race, class, and power on the schools in Brooklyn, NY. The emphasis of the first episode is on the communities of central Brooklyn, particularly the historic 19th century free black settlement called Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Many of the same conversations centered on integration and distribution of resources are discussed and have changed very little over the last 150 years. What did these early communities do to educate their children? How did they respond to the disparity of funding? How do families and children choose between schools that offer subpar education and schools where children are hated? A must listen for all educators committed to social justice, the podcast episodes examine the impact of decades of systemic discrimination on generations of black students in central Brooklyn and the efforts made by educators to fight for the students despite the ongoing obstacles.