i'm a birthright quaker who was raised in part by a black man from virginia. i was raised to be blind to the racial situation even though i lived thru the main part of the civil rights years and supported/support those legal remedies. i've had too many experiences in the black world to list and even then i did my best to avoid the conclusions reached in this essay, but know them to be real;

I can say growing up in the suburb of a small American city that I had not had much experience with blacks. The experiences that I had were relegated to the few instances of conversing in study hall with one or two of the few blacks who attended the school. They were not problematic in any way, and living in suburban America, they worked hard to adapt to the environment in order to avoid the curse of being shunned in high school.

When I got my teaching degree, I soon found it was next to impossible to find a job. I ended up filling a position at the only school where I could find a vacancy — at a majority black high school. I did not understand why people did not want to work there, nor did I understand the complexities of interracial relations. To summarize the experience, I might say that only about 15 minutes of every 90-minute period allowed for any learning. The rest of the time was spent getting students to focus.

When I gave my first evaluation, the entire class failed. Then, I allowed the students to retake the same evaluation using their notebooks. The entire class failed again. Then I allowed the students to take the same test again using their textbooks. Even still, the entire class failed. Finally, I allowed the entire class to take the test again using their smartphones . . . the entire class failed. The administration was always pressuring the teachers for results. The administration was also all black. I asked for materials that were on the reading level of the students (3rd–5th) and they refused to provide the materials. I ended up purchasing the necessary materials with my own money........more.......