Still Invisible?. Elvin J. Dowling

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Lady Justice

      Gregory Diggs: The Fight for Equitable Education

      Who's Your Daddy?

      The iconic songwriter and heralded Black history-maker, Dr. James Weldon Johnson, writer of "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing", a soon-forgotten song he penned early on in his teaching career that would ultimately become known as the Negro National Anthem, once poignantly declared: "You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, 'There's a world waiting for you. Yours is the quest that's just begun.” As an individual who spent his entire professional career reminding both himself and the children he served as an educator in the Denver Public School System that they were capable of achieving the things that others could only imagine, Dr. Gregory Diggs has stood in the gap for vulnerable populations, namely Black children, his entire professional career.

      "I'm originally from Silver Spring, Maryland and was born the son of Dr. John W. Diggs and Claudette Barnes," Diggs says as he describes his middle-class upbringing in the suburban Washington, DC area. "I grew up in a pretty upper-middle-class African-American community that was sort of nestled in a larger white community. I was fortunate in that most of my role models were members of my family. My father, for example, was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, and was part of quite a storied chapter of members that was founded in Silver Spring back in the 1970's, and also birthed the idea of a national memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the fraternity's most revered members."

      The first Black Greek Letter Organization for college educated men, the fraternity boasts an illustrious membership of luminaries, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, former Vice President of the United States, Hubert H. Humphrey, and former United Nations Ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, Andrew Young, among many others. "We had successful Black families in my neighborhood," Diggs remembers. "In the 1980's, when the Cosby Show was on television and showcased a successful Black family, The Huxtables, many of my white colleagues thought it was a fantasy that such a family could exist, but in my day, those are the kind of families I grew up with," he recalled. "Both of my parents were working professionals and they taught their children the importance of education and doing your best, at all times, to move forward in this life." But even for Black children who grew up just as Dr. Diggs did, the obstacles many face in the American education system leaves them left further and further behind, trailing their counterparts and not being pushed to their peak potential due to what former U.S. President George W. Bush often called "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

      Even having grown up in what many Blacks would consider a "charmed existence," Diggs believed that the persistent devaluing of the Black family is a continuation of a pattern of discrimination visited upon minority communities. "Society is built on this notion that white middle-class norms and values and people are what the 'normal' American experience is, and everyone else is pretty much considered to be either 'less than' or 'less desirable', as compared to their 'normal'", he emphasized. "So, when you've got people that don't grow up around diversity, there's a fear, misconception, and ignorance about what the 'other' is. It doesn't matter what we do as 'others', our accomplishments and virtues remain invisible," Diggs continued. "We have long been victims of violence fueled by ignorance and it clearly didn't end with the Civil Rights Movement."

      As an educator that wore a variety of hats, Diggs was both a university professor and a manager of a program that promotes social and emotional learning for the more than 90,000 students throughout Denver Public Schools. "My experience in education centers around research and evaluation methods, as well as the social foundations of education, which means I also so conduct student testing and help to implement cultural equity initiatives throughout our schools." Yet, the uphill battles Diggs faced in getting his colleagues and, indeed, the entire education community to treat all children equitably remains one that lies at the heart of the foundational issues Black males encounter in a system not designed to benefit them in the most important areas of American life. "Most of the students and families that I serve in my role, are either Latino or African-American, and most of the teachers who teach our students are Caucasian", Diggs noted. "What we've been trying to do is introduce the principles of culturally relevant education to the teachers, while simultaneously exposing them to the 'whole child' perspective while, at the same time, continuing to recruit and hire more educators of color."

      According to authors Michelle Knight-Manuel and Joanne E. Marciano in their book, "Classroom Culture: Equitable Schooling for Racially Diverse Youth", implementing various learning strategies that leverage the individual learner's background and culture are critically important in meeting students where they are academically. "Culturally relevant education is an exceptional framework that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural backgrounds, interests and lived experiences in all aspects of teaching and learning within the classroom and across the school" (Knight-Manuel and Marciano, 2018). "Culturally relevant education," they continued, "is viewed as critical to improving student engagement and achievement, and college readiness and success for all youth, particularly youth of color." (Knight-Manuel and Marciano, 2018). With this realization in hand, however, leveling the playing field in early academic settings designed to serve as a pipeline for college and career, as opposed to dead-end jobs and prison, continues to remain a challenge.

      In her article, "Why Talented Black and Latino Students СКАЧАТЬ