| For spring break, I spent a week in Newark, NJ. We worked with a church there to run an after-school program for the kids at Hawkins Street School, which was located just across the street, and just down the street from the local set of the Crips.
During the week we got a chance to go into the school and spend some
time getting to know the teachers and helping the kids with their work. I
don’t want to appear too harsh in my judgment of the teachers because
they seem to be wonderful people who are doing a good work by educating
these kids, and I could easily be dismissed as some comfortable white
kid from the suburbs just jumping up on his high horse after his first
experience in the inner city. The thing is, a few things I noticed
really disturbed me. The Ironbound neighborhood of Newark
is a very diverse area, made up of countless different ethnic groups.
None of those groups, however, are white. From what I gathered on my
trip, the area has one of the largest Portuguese-speaking communities
in the U.S.,
a product of both Portuguese and Brazilian immigration. In addition,
the majority of the people we met that week were African-American.
Almost all of the white people we met during the week were from outside
of the community we stayed in. None
of that is really surprising. What surprised me was that almost all of
the teachers and the school’s administrators were white. There were a
few Hispanic teachers, but I don’t recall any African-Americans. The
security guards and janitors were black, but none of the educators. The
other surprise was the attitude of the teachers. Most of the students
were preparing for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge
(NJASK) that they would be taking a week later. Many of the teachers we
spoke to had a very pessimistic attitude about the students’ chances of
passing the test (They also had a negative attitude about where the
money goes when schools are rewarded, but I can understand why they
think the kids’ hard work shouldn’t result in administrators lining
their pockets with the tax money given to schools for good scores). I
actually don’t think it was their attitudes that bothered me as much as
their willingness to share those attitudes in front of the kids. If
they don’t expect them to do well, there isn’t much you can do about
that; but when these kids here their teacher telling some college kid
from Michigan that their students don’t have a chance of passing the
test, they probably won’t have much faith in themselves to pass it
either. What
I saw was an absence of culturally - relevant role models in these
kids’ lives to affirm them and encourage them and help them believe
that things can be different. What
I saw was a bunch of white women who clearly loved these kids, but in
my opinion failed to affirm them as valuable and capable. (I must note,
however, that there were exceptions among them.) Personally, I think that these kids are the people that Affirmative Action
should be aimed at serving. The problem, however, is that Affirmative
Action is as effective as Band-Aid over a bullet wound – it covers the
problem by helping persons of an ethic minority (by the way, these are
the people I’m referring to in this post, so please don’t lecture me on
how AA helps women too – I realize that) get into colleges and obtain
careers, but ignores the deeper societal issues that prevent many of
them from qualifying for college entry on their own respective merits.
In order for real healing to occur, the bullet must be dug out before
it gets a chance to fester. What
bothers me is that instead of focusing on a cultural shift, Affirmative
Action encourages upward mobility. I'm not entirely discouraging upward
mobility; accumulation of wealth isn't bad or sinful in and of itself.
But the goal seems to be to escape from places like Newark
rather than to transform them. You might think it a stretch, but I
believe this actually mirrors the escape-theology of many Christians
today. Contrary to the traditional Christian belief in a new, redeemed
creation on earth, as illustrated by N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, many people in the church believe that our ultimate hope is to escape this supposedly God-forsaken place and get to Heaven.
Properly,
we believe in a redeemable creation. The way to join with God in His
work to renew the world is not to cut ourselves off from it, but to
enter into it as Jesus did.
Likewise,
the redemption of the inner city isn’t found in escape; it’s found in
its children returning, better equipped to do the work necessary to
restore it. Young,
black men, who often only get to witness their adult counterparts
succeed in sports, music or the drug trade (it’s not that there aren’t
others, but when does a kid in the inner city get to see the success
stories?), aren’t going to be motivated by being placed under the
authority of another white woman. They need to be mentored by black men
who are successful and driven and care enough to return and work toward
the transformation of these communities. They
need to believe in the possibility of change. The same is true for the
relationships between black girls and their educators. Diversity
initiatives at colleges and businesses are not enough. The change has
to start from the core of the educational system. It makes no sense for
a child to attend a sub-par primary and secondary school and then be
expected to succeed at a university. Unless
the government can develop a program that encourages and rewards a
lifestyle that mimics incarnational ministry, it will not be effectual
in transforming the inner cities of America. Please
don’t confuse this with an excuse to get out of living incarnationally
myself. I think white people need to be in the inner cities too. As
Christians, we are called to make disciples of all ethnos (people who are different than us), so I think it’s absolutely necessary that we go and serve the “least of these” no matter what our race. I just recognize that someone who comes from a suburban, all-white town in Michigan can’t possibly expect to be as relevant to a kid from Newark as another guy who grew up just down the block.
I will always believe that God’s model for transformation is better than ours. Grace and Peace, Kyle Joshua
Oh and btw, Happy belated St. Patrick's Day! 
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