I have my own highlights, among them: producing a series on D.C.’s unemployment divide; asking why the local crime and punishment museum hires black men to wear prison jumpsuits; exploring what’s behind rock bands playing D.C.’s Ethiopian restaurants; and writing about gentrification — a lot. I’m also grateful that I’ve been able to share some personal stories about identity. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my posts at least half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.
This beat has been challenging, too. Race and class can be loaded, emotionally-charged topics, and they typically come with broad declarations of what’s right and wrong. I’ve learned a lot in my time here, but above all, it’s that things aren’t usually cut and dry. I hope meaningful conversations about these issues continue to happen in D.C., and that they grow in number. Such discussions will be important as we figure out how to navigate all of the changes our city is going through.
So, many thanks to my colleagues, both here at WAMU 88.5 and elsewhere. You’ve provided me with support and feedback, and for that, I am grateful.
And finally, of course, I’d like to thank to you, the readers. I strongly believe in DCentric’s mission: to explore race and class and open up a space for elevated discourse. If I’ve had any success here, it’s in large part to the readers. Thank you for following my work, questioning it, offering insightful comments and contributing to this ongoing conversation, whether in person or over Twitter. I’m moving on, but stay in touch. Seriously!
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Zervas / Flickr
The U.S. Postal Service is planning a downsizing, which could disproportionately hurt African Americans,
The black middle class has been hit particularly hard by the recession; many of the economic gains earned over 50 years disappeared between 2007 and 2009.
The foreclosure crisis, lack of accumulated wealth and the role of a college education in boosting job prospects have all contributed to the decline of the black middle class. Another big factor: cuts to government jobs. Much of the black middle class was built upon public sector jobs, which for decades allowed African Americans to circumvent discrimination in the private sector.
African Americans are over-represented in government jobs [PDF]. So even as the economy slowly adds jobs, government job losses continue to rack up, disproportionately affecting African Americans. Reducing government has been a hot political topic since 2010, particularly with the surge of the tea party movement, which has been accused of having racist undertones. But NPR points out that 70 percent of government job cuts happened in 12 states, all with Republican-controlled legislative bodies, and suggests that such job cuts have fostered resentment among African Americans. From NPR:
What Republicans call an attack on “big government,” many blacks see as an attack on their livelihoods, given their
heavy reliance on the public sector for employment.[Steven] Pitts, the Berkeley economist, calls it “nonracial policies with racialized outcomes.”
The country has 586,000 fewer government jobs now than it did in 2008.
]]>Since 2011, the overall homeless rate grew by 6 percent, while the number of homeless families swelled by 15 percent. According to the survey, D.C. is home to 6,954 homeless people. About one in 100 District residents is homeless.
Homelessness has been on the rise since the start of the recession. Large swaths of the city have chronic, high unemployment rates. Affordable housing is disappearing in D.C., with the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment having increased from $735 to $1,100 over the past decade.
The situation is dire, advocates tell the Washington Post, particularly since the District is expected to lose $7 million in federal money that pays for homelessness programs.
- Source: Washingtonpost
Still, it’s tough.
“You know, I catch myself crying. I get really depressed . . . it’s been heartbreaking,” Walton said.
Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com
Elahe Izadi / DCentric
Teacher Bernadette DeSario works with students conducting historical research on wireless tablets.
Coolidge High School students sit in small groups as they prep for their Advanced Placement U.S. history exam. They’ll be expected to write essays on the materials they’ve learned.
“How or why did the anti-slavery movement become more radical during the period between 1815 and 1816?” teacher Bernadette DeSario asks the students during a class last week. ”We’re going to look at a couple of websites that will provide us with primary source documents.”
The students hunch over small, wireless tablets, swiping the screens as they read letters and other 19th century documents, looking for information to support their answers.
Coolidge doesn’t have many computers, principal Thelma Jarrett said. These students get to use tablets provided by Verizon Wireless, through a program running at four D.C. high schools. It’s intended to level the playing field for high school students in low-income schools, particularly as they get ready for college. The program includes tablets that students can use during class, and also a bus converted into a “learning lab,” stocked with tablets, printers and other devices. The bus, which visits the school once a week, is where students go to get help from Howard University tutors in writing college essays and applying to schools.
Coolidge is a Title 1 school, meaning a high percentage of its students come from low-income homes; 64 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunches. DeSario said many of her students don’t have access to technology, and that the using the tablets helps them develop good, online research skills.
“It’s putting them so far ahead,” she said. “When they get to college, they’re going to be expected to know how to use this technology.”
DeSario has seen increased class participation and better grades from some students after they starting using the tablets. “They’re so much more engaged,” she said.
Senior Lidya Abune said using the tablets has been useful, for both class work and in preparing for college.
“We can access research and we’re exposed to the technology,” she said. ”We didn’t have a lot of chances and opportunities to use the computers. And we have no Internet at home.”
That’s not uncommon in the District, which has a clear digital divide. Many people in low-income neighborhoods are not connected to high speed Internet.
Principal Jarrett said many students go to the library to use computers. She’d like to see the tablet program expand, which can pose an interesting alternative to standard computers. For one, they don’t require much space and they can be cheaper than desktops, she noted. The pilot program, which is at eight schools in D.C. and Maryland, is one that Verizon hopes to eventually expand.
Paying for college?
The Verizon Wireless program may provide some support in helping these students get into college. But there’s still the matter of how to pay for it. The cost of college has gone up dramatically — it’s tripled over the past three decades — and it’s increasingly becoming out-of-reach for the middle class, too.
Abune said she received help in fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and didn’t know a lot about the college application process. Her family “couldn’t afford it, but I really wanted to try and go to a good college.” She’ll be at Bucknell University in the fall on a full scholarship.
Others have applied to scholarships, but are prepared to take on student loan debt, such as senior Zenayda Berrios. She’ll be attending Bennett College, where tuition, room and board comes to about $24,000. The high cost isn’t deterring her from pursuing a degree in psychology, though.
Principal Jarrett said her approach is to not let the cost of college get in the way of students’ ambitions to attend.
“We encourage them to go for college, and then we’ll worry about paying for it,” she said.
She also noted that many students at the school qualify for federal Pell grants, given their income levels. But she acknowledged that many will have to turn to student loans, and “I know that is a last resort.”
Figuring out how to pay for post-secondary schooling will likely become a big issue in the District; a new D.C. measure requires all high school seniors to take a college entrance exam and apply to a college or trade school in order to graduate from high school.
]]>The D.C. region ranks first. But while people from around the country flock to the District for jobs, many residents are out of work, with large sections of the city facing chronic, high unemployment. The reasons behind such a disparity are complex and interwoven, ranging from many lacking the education credentials needed for jobs in D.C., to others having criminal records.
- Source: Forbes
What do you think of how the media depict gentrification in D.C.?
- Source: France24
Such comparisons may be premature but traditionally African-American areas in Washington such as Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, and U Street, have fallen like dominoes in recent decades, with whites and Hispanics moving in.
Read more at: www.france24.com
The demographics of the ward have undergone changes over the past decade, notes the Washington Examiner. The white population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010.
- Source: Washingtonexaminer
- Via: @LizFarmerDC
Here’s how the experiment worked: researchers gave a poorly-written essay to a group of 113 white teachers. Teachers who thought a black or Latino student wrote the essay gave more praise and less criticism when grading it than when teachers thought a white student wrote the essay.
Kent Harber, the lead psychologist behind the study, talks about the “positive feedback bias” from white teachers and the implications of his findings.
- Source: Rutgers
tunnelarmr / Flickr
Dancers representing the Virgin Islands participate in 2008's D.C. Caribbean Festival.
After weeks of speculation as to whether D.C. Caribbean Carnival will take place because of financial woes, the show will go on. Well, sort of.
The parade that typically marches down Georgia Avenue won’t be in D.C. this year. Organizers announced that the D.C. event will join with Baltimore’s annual Caribbean Carnival/Festival for a parade taking place July 14 at Baltimore’s Lake Clifton Park.
D.C. Caribbean Carnival usually holds a Pan Jam, with steel bands and costume judging. That will take place in Bladensburg, Md. during June 23 and 24, the original date of the festival.
The annual parade has been cited as a boost for businesses up and down Georgia Avenue, many of whom protested last year when the route was cut short (again, due to financial troubles).
]]>Getting by on $750 for housing — which includes rent and utilities – has become increasingly difficult. The number of such apartments has decreased by more than half during the past decade, going from 70,600 in 2000, to 34,500 in 2010, according to the report.
Renters are more vulnerable to the forces of gentrification than homeowners, since renters don’t have equity to leverage as housing costs rise. But buying a house in D.C. has also become much more expensive over the past decade. The median home price in D.C. more than doubled since 2000, reaching $400,000 in 2010, according to the report.
More than half of the city’s population rents, and the D.C.-area is the tenth most expensive metro region in the nation for renters. People of color are more likely to rent than whites in D.C.; about the same number of whites own homes than rent them. Meanwhile, about double the number of blacks, Latinos and Asians rent their homes than own them.
- Source: Dcfpi
