Letter to the Editor: New York City Specialized High School Student Distribution: Evidence of School Pathology Rather Than Blacks’ Intellectual Inferiority?

  • Rupert Green
  • The Journal of Negro Education, January 2015, Journal of Negro Education
  • DOI: 10.7709/jnegroeducation.84.2.0107

Why Blacks are Excluded from New York City Gifted and Talented (specialized) High Schools

What is it about?

The disparity in New York City schools for gifted and talented students is long standing and disturbing, suggesting Black students are intellectually inferior. The severity of the problem is seen where even in Brooklyn, the "Black capital of the world," of the 5000+ students in Brooklyn Technical gifted and talented high school, only 550 are Blacks. Its worse in the top elite school, where of the 3000 students, only 30 are Black.

Why is it important?

The composition of NYC gifted and talented schools has had negative implications on Black children and their parents, and causes some to advance long debunked eugenic theory as the cause for the disparity. As Blacks challenged and defeated the long held beliefs that NYC Fire Department was 97% Whites because of Blacks' lack of qualifications, so too they must defeat the scourge of racism inherent the present composition of those schools.

Perspectives

Dr Rupert Green
Institute for Hands-on Science, Engineering, & Technology

Coming after the integration of NYC Fire Department, this article is intended to spur actions to correct the discrepancy in the population distribution of NYC gifted and talented schools. Because those schools are responsible for producing some of the top scientists in the city, and being that Blacks will soon comprise 1/3 of the nation majority population, its imperative that we get more of them in these and other high performing schools. Having a STEM illiterate population will lead to the import of STEM qualified individuals from nations that do not share our democratic ideals and, thus, wish to do us harm

Read Publication

http://dx.doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.84.2.0107

The following have contributed to this page: Dr Rupert Green