School Colors

Brooklyn Deep
  • 4.9 (647)
  • POLITICS
  • DAILY SERIES
School Colors

School Colors is a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Season 2 premieres May 4, 2022: only on NPR's Code Switch.

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  1. S2 E1: "There Is No Plan"

    EPISODE 1

    S2 E1: "There Is No Plan"

    Queens, New York is often called “the most diverse place on the planet.” So why would a school district in Queens need a diversity plan? And why would so many Queens parents be so fiercely opposed? Welcome back to School Colors — Season 2.

    59 min
  2. S2 E2: Tales from the Southside

    EPISODE 2

    S2 E2: Tales from the Southside

    District 28 is both diverse and segregated. There’s a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply: the Southside is Black, and the further north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, Black parents in South Jamaica staged an epic school boycott that led to the first statewide law against school segregation in New York. The Southside hosted two revolutionary experiments in racially integrated housing. So what happened between then and now?

    52 min
  3. S2 E3: The Battle of Forest Hills

    EPISODE 3

    S2 E3: The Battle of Forest Hills

    In the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. It was a fight that got so intense the press called it "The Battle of Forest Hills." How did a famously liberal neighborhood become a hotbed of reaction and backlash? And how did a small group of angry homeowners change housing policy for the entire country?

    1 hr
  4. S2 E4: The Mason-Dixon Line

    EPISODE 4

    S2 E4: The Mason-Dixon Line

    So much of the present day conversation about District 28 hinges on the dynamic between the Northside and the Southside. But why were the north and the south wedged into the same school district to begin with? When we asked around, no one seemed to know. What we do know are the consequences. As soon as the district was created, white and Black folks looked over the Mason-Dixon line and saw each other not as neighbors, but as competitors for scarce resources. And the Southside always seemed to get the short end of the stick. On this episode: how the first three decades of District 28 baked in many of the conflicts and disparities that persist to this day.

    50 min
  5. S2 E5: The Melting Pot

    EPISODE 5

    S2 E5: The Melting Pot

    Until recently, District 28 was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. For more than a hundred years, we've seen how conflicts around housing, schools, and resources have played out mostly along this racial divide. So how did District 28 go from being defined by this racial binary, to a place where people brag about its diversity? In this episode, we take a deep dive into two immigrant communities — Indo-Caribbeans and Bukharian Jews — that have settled in Queens: how they got here, what they brought with them, and what they make of their new home's old problems.

    56 min
  6. S2 E6: Below Liberty

    EPISODE 6

    S2 E6: Below Liberty

    Queens has changed a lot in the last few decades — and so has District 28. New immigrant communities have taken root and the district is, on the whole, pretty diverse. But most Black folks still live on the Southside, and the schools below Liberty Avenue continue to struggle. A lot of parents and educators agree that there needs to be some change in District 28. But the question remains: what kind of change? When we asked around, more diversity wasn't necessarily at the top of everybody's list. In fact, from the north and south, we heard a lot of the same kind of thing: "leave our kids where they are and give all the schools what they need." So what do the schools on the Southside really need? And what’s at stake for Southside families when we "leave those kids where they are" and fail to meet their needs for generations?

    56 min
  7. S2 E7: The Sleeping Giant

    EPISODE 7

    S2 E7: The Sleeping Giant

    In some ways, this entire season was prompted by the parents who organized against diversity planning in District 28. So in this episode, we let the opposition speak for themselves. Who are these parents? What do they believe and why? And why were they ready to fight so hard against a plan that didn't exist?

    1 hr
  8. S2 E8: The Only Way Out

    EPISODE 8

    S2 E8: The Only Way Out

    In 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to replace the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT. For years, advocates had argued that the test favored white and Asian students while systematically keeping Black and Latinx kids out of the city's most elite and well-resourced high schools. But many Asian American parents felt targeted by the mayor’s plan, and they mobilized to defend the test. So when the District 28 diversity planning process was rolled out a year later, many Chinese immigrant parents in Queens saw this as “just another attack." This time, however, they were ready to fight back. The SHSAT is just one example of "merit-based" admissions to advanced or "gifted" education programs. These programs can start as early as kindergarten and they have become a third rail in New York City politics. In this episode, we ask why gifted education gets so much attention, even though it affects relatively few students. How do we even define what it means to be "gifted"? And by focusing on these programs, whose needs do we overlook?

    1h 2m
See All Season 2 (14)

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4.9
out of 5
647 Ratings

About

School Colors is a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Season 2 premieres May 4, 2022: only on NPR's Code Switch.

Information

  • Creator
    Brooklyn Deep
  • Episodes
    25
  • Seasons
    2
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Brooklyn Deep
  • Show Website
    School Colors

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