Copyright by Alysia Ann Childs 2014
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Copyright by Alysia Ann Childs 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Alysia Ann Childs certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: THE AFTERSCHOOL BATTLE: REPRODUCING A RACIAL BINARY IN AN URBAN SCHOOL Committee: Kevin M. Foster, Co-Supervisor John L. Hartigan, Co-Supervisor João H. Costa Vargas Maria Franklin Craig Campbell THE AFTERSCHOOL BATTLE: REPRODUCING A RACIAL BINARY IN AN URBAN SCHOOL by Alysia Ann Childs, B.A.; M.S. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2014 Dedication To the parent-warriors at Benjamin Latrobe Elementary School, in alliance of their quest for their children’s educational parity and their continued battle to secure educational equity across the great city of Washington, D.C. THE AFTERSCHOOL BATTLE: REPRODUCING A RACIAL BINARY IN AN URBAN SCHOOL Alysia Ann Childs, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Co-Supervisors: Kevin M. Foster and John L. Hartigan This dissertation project is a critical anthropological analysis of the impact of colorism on the educational attainment and academic trajectory of African-American school students in Washington, DC by examining teacher expectations. Through a historical and contemporary lens of public education in DC, I examine the ways in which a black-white racial binary has been used by those in decision-making positions – namely teachers, counselors, school administrators, Parents and Teachers Association members and other adult decision-makers -- as an indicator of a student’s academic ability and their future educational attainment. What prompts this question is the abundance of academic programs in DC that, through a variety of extensive selection criteria, chose high-achieving students for placement in the city’s college-preparatory, academic programs, who have a larger tendency to fit a particular phenotype (unless they are exceptionalized through other socioeconomic indicators). Two questions that my research addresses are: how phenotype is weighed against their actual versus perceived academic ability; and how do we explain the relative over-investment (i.e., redundancy of v enrichment programs and resources) at one school over a lack of resources and programs at many other schools. I selected Washington, DC as the site for my doctoral research for two primary reasons: (1) its historic association for being one of the most (skin) color-conscious cities in the United States (Russell et al. 1992; Golden 2006; Kerr 2006); and (2) its historic and unique position as a testing ground for reform efforts in the public school system. I volunteered at a DC-area public school for the 2011-2012 academic year and became active in the various parental/community associations (i.e. the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) and the Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) as a means of gaining first-hand knowledge of -- and experience with -- the various ways in which adults (i.e. teachers, counselors, parents and other school-based staff) place value and justify the assignment of resources to particular students and upon what basis (such as phenotype or socioeconomic background). In gaining access to and awareness of the dynamics of parental engagement at my field site, I began to analyze the role of race in the ways that such involvement is contained or policed by school officials. This dissertation project also takes into account students’ awareness of such intersectional processes and whether the students categorize themselves and/or their peers according to a hierarchical scale of valorization. vi Table of Contents List of Tables ......................................................................................................... xi List of Figures....................................................................................................... xii PART 1: THE FIELD...……………………………………………………….…1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 1 Entry to the Field .......................................................................................... 2 Colorism as a Gendered Modality through which Race Operates….….4 Colorism & its Influences on Teaching and Learning…………………8 Racial Politics & the Geography of Urban Spaces…………………...15 Locating Race in Washington, DC…………………...………………….….17 Barriers to Entry…….………………………………………………………19 The Blueprint….…….………………………………………………………22 Chapter 1: Subject Positioning ............................................................................. 25 Personal Identity and Reflexivity................................................................. 26 Positioning & Engagement with Colorism .................................................. 34 Variability in Asserted and Assigned Positioning ....................................... 36 Chapter 2: Race & Space in DC: west of the Park and east of the River ............. 40 Locating Blackness in DC ........................................................................... 43 Racial Origins of DC ................................................................................... 47 Reconstruction-Era Significance of Race in DC ......................................... 52 Power Gained & Lost: Territorial Governance in DC........................ 55 Linking the Loss of Home Rule.......................................................... 59 Race and Governance-Reorganization in DC.............................................. 61 Shedding Light on an Overshadowed Past .................................................. 64 Mt Zion United Methodist Church and Black Georgetown................ 64 Reappropriating Our Images: The Scurlock Studio and Black DC .... 67 Race in DC and the Civil Rights Movement ............................................... 70 Neither Black Nor White: DC's Latino and Chinese Communities............. 72 Race & Space in Spring Summit ................................................................. 75 vii A Historically-Diverse Spring Summit............................................... 79 Spring Summit as a Site of Whiteness................................................ 83 Chapter 3: Societal Impact of Skin Color Preferences ......................................... 84 Media Matters: The Visual Valorization of Skin Color............................... 88 Matters of the Heart: Skin Color, Dating & Mating .................................... 92 Money Matters: The Economic Commodification of Skin Color ............... 96 School Matters: Students' Skin Color & Teacher Expectations................... 98 Look at our Arms! ........................................................................... 101 So You Can See It Better ................................................................ 103 PART II: A COMPLEXION OF PROTECTION: REPRODUCING & REINFORCING A RACIAL BINARY....................................................... 105 Chapter 4: Structural Realities of Race-ing to the Top in DCPS........................ 105 The Creation of Public Education in DC ................................................... 106 Reconstruction-Era Public Education in DC ............................................. 114 Lack of Control, Loss of Control: The Start of a Trend ............................ 116 Chapter 5: The Significance of Race in DCPS ................................................... 119 What Happens Here Changes the World ................................................... 119 Being 'Obviously Black': Defining Blackness in DCPS............................ 120 Gearing Up to Tear Down: Dismantling Racialized Education in DCPS . 123 The Beginning of Integrated Public Education................................. 125 Julius Hobson and Equity in 1960s DC ............................................ 128 Hobson v. Educational Disparity ...................................................... 130 Reformative Measures through the 1990s ................................................. 131 Current Layout of the Educational Landscape........................................... 132 Race and Rhee's Contribution to an Enduring Legacy .............................. 137 Churn, Burn and the Homogenization Teaching Staff...................... 151 Rhee-form Racially Re-imbodied..................................................... 153 New Chancellor, Old Agenda.................................................................... 154 Chapter 6: Development and Evolution of Afterschool Programming .............. 158 The Role of Adults in Afterschool Programming...................................... 163 viii The Significance of Title I ......................................................................... 167 So, What is Title I? ........................................................................... 169 Not for Our Kind of Kids.................................................................. 171 Defining the 'Good' Schools ...................................................................... 173 Farewell, Welfare:Afterschooling at Latrobe Elementary School............. 176 Chapter 7: Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic & Reform: Structural Racism and Educational Disparity................................................................................... 179 Justifying Disparity: The Trope of the 'Out-of-Boundary' Student ............. 185 Disparity in Cultural Appreciation at Latrobe ES ......................................