According to Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholars (e.g. Delgado, & Stefancic, 2012), racial progression only occurs when whites have a shared interest in racial progression that does not fundamentally alternate the benefits of whiteness. CRT scholars argue that the imbalanced racial caste system serves the existing power structure of white supremacy and that changes to this power structure only occur when the changes benefit the interest of those the system favors (whites). For example, Bell (1980) contended that the 1954 Supreme Court decision to desegregate public schools (Brown v. Board of Education) was more the result of shared interests, domestic and abroad, that culminated to serve multiple needs of America while protecting and maintaining white supremacy. In particular, Bell argues that the court’s decision centers more on (1) changing the hearts of mostly nonwhite underdeveloped Communist countries to accept America’s form of a democracy, while providing a form of (2) pacification for Blacks who began to question the merit of America’s WWII campaign of freedom and liberation from oppression, when Blacks who fought in the war returned home to America’s generational practices of racial discrimination and second class citizenship. As well, Bell argues that the court’s decision (3) provided whites with an opportunity to transition the rural, segregated South into a financial source of profit. As such, segregation was only viewed as an obstacle when the solution served the need of maintaining whiteness and America’s white imperialism.
In the context of education reform in Indianapolis, we can see how the interests of white elites, who want to revitalize Center Township and bring a tax-base back to the urban core (reverse white flight), align with the long-standing interest of Black families who have been plagued with chronic school failure in Indianapolis since the federally mandated desegregation of IPS. For example, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and former Deputy Mayor of Education Jason Kloth both supported the NEO Plan (2012/13), which was a proposed free-market plan to increase “high-quality seats” through a competition model. Both Kloth and Ballard declared that the plan would bring people back into Indianapolis and increase the tax base. We are currently seeing this same process under the current mayor and the expansion of the innovation network under Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee.
Unfortunately this logic is both classist and racist. If the mode of thought for changing the landscape of education in Indianapolis is to bring back the tax-base that left Indianapolis (coded language for bringing back white people who left), then you already made the decision that the people living here (mostly nonwhite people) aren’t worth investing in. Through the racialized and coded language of “good neighborhoods” and “good schools,” white elites incentivize white working- and middle-class families to move back to Indianapolis through amoral public-relation-rhetoric of “revitalizing” urban cities, while dually serving their elite constituents by “making the city better,” which translates to making the city “whiter.”
The free-market education reform movement has provided a perfect example of interest convergence, where white philanthropic individuals and organizations can appear to serve the needs of Black communities, but aren’t essentially changing the aggregate performance of schools in Indianapolis (traditional and charter) and not addressing the historic truths of why white flight in Marion County occurred in the first place.
Admittedly, there are children who need an adequate and transformative education right now, and those children and their families don’t have the luxury of waiting for us to figure this out. Yet, we have to remember that “No!” is an acceptable answer. Taking any money would only temporarily serve our interests, but will generationally serve theirs. As Jessie Williams stated during the BET Awards, we must stop accepting freedom with conditions. The education of Black children should not come as a convenience for white elites to gentrify Indianapolis and urban cities across the nation.
Peace and love.
Dr. Nate Williams is a professor in the Educational Studies Department at Knox College located in Galesburg, Illinois. Williams is an Indianapolis native and graduate of IPS and former teacher at Arsenal Tech High School. He teaches courses on cognitive development, anti-racist education and education policy.
