It should not come as a revelation that Toronto’s black students face challenges that other young people do not. It is estimated that at 16 years old, more than half of this city’s young black males have fallen behind in school, and as a result, they are much more likely to drop out.
In one way or another, our education system is failing these kids. The situation is so dire that the Toronto District School Board is seriously considering creating “black-focused” schools to cater specifically to the needs of the city’s black students. This would be a huge mistake.
Creating “afrocentric” schools will only entrench the cultural barriers that the TDSB is looking to address. A separate school system will divide students into artificial categories that do not reflect the realities of their identities or backgrounds.
The idea that all Toronto’s black people share a common heritage and therefore should share the same education is ludicrous. The term “African- Canadian” is completely inadequate because it ignores the incredibly diverse backgrounds of black people in this city. Are we to believe that people from Jamaica, Zimbabwe, France, or Halifax share the same culture simply because they have the same skin colour? To lump together all black people would be to accept the fundamental basis of all racist ideologies—that culture is essentially biological. That what someone believes, or how someone acts or learns, is basically ingrained in their genetic lineage.
The TDSB has already begun piloting “afrocentric” social studies courses to teach students in grades six, seven, and eight about African culture. Considering Africa is a continent made up of dozens of countries, thousands of language groups, and millions of people, it is difficult to understand what is meant by “African culture.” Students who go to existing black-focused schools in the U.S. are taught Swahili rituals. This seems ridiculous when one considers that most black Americans trace their lineage to West or Central Africa, not East Africa, where Swahili is spoken. In creating an “afrocentric” curriculum, the TDSB seems to imply that the 900 million people of the African continent share a common culture.
The belief that vague, artificial categories like “African” can define an individual are precisely the misconceptions that put black students at a disadvantage. Our school board should not reinforce these ideas.
Proponents of black-focused schools say it is vital to teach black students that black people in this country can and have been successful, that they can contribute to society and to history just as anyone else can. But isn’t it equally important that students of all backgrounds learn this lesson? Maybe if the history of the world’s numerous black and African societies were better understood by everyone in Canada, our teachers wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss black students as incapable. Our schools need to change. They desperately need to address the high dropout rates of black students, but this should be done through specialized, community-sepcific curricula, not ones based solely on race and a vague idea of “African culture.”
All members of society contribute to the ideas and attitudes that hold these students back, and accordingly changes should come to every school in the city. We all need to learn that “black” or “white” or “African” doesn’t adequately describe the culture, needs, or abilities of anyone.
