Separated, Not Segregated

Reading yesterday in class about the possible amendments to education of ethnic studies in Arizona, I was reminded of a documentary that I recently heard about on PBS. Based on an entirely African American school in Bordentown, NJ, "A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School" reminded me a lot of the experimental learning and ethnic studies that are being considered to take place in the state of Arizona. However, rather than eliminating ethnic studies entirely from the curriculum, and teaching students of all ethnicities that they are the same, the Bordentown School took drastic steps in the opposite direction.

The Bordentown School existed from 1886 to 1955, and provided a place for people of color to learn separate from the segregation and racism of normal schools. Just to clarify: a separate school was created for black students, to avoid segregation. So really, the school was the complete polar opposite of what the Arizona school administrations are proposing. Rather than trying to get rid of segregation in schools by simply not teaching it, the Bordentown School purposely separated African American students from white ones so that they could study their own ethnic backgrounds without the influence and awkwardness of whites in class. It was structured, voluntary segregation, and it actually worked pretty well.

However, the Bordentown School, which was technically referred to as The Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth, was also institutionally racist in that its purpose laid in training African American students in low working-class occupations. When the school attempted to add more of a college preparatory curriculum, they were met with much resistance.

Referred to in a New York Times review as a "somewhat flawed experiment, " the Bordentown School certainly was a change from traditional racism, but it wasn't quite the ideal. Whether America will ever truly reach that ideal state of nonexistent racism is unknown and perhaps impossible. The cycle of racism in the United States reminds me a lot of a term that Mr. O'Connor used in class today: a cycle with accumulation. While racism in the United States will never truly return to the stages of enslavement, we do continue to cycle our beliefs about diversity and race. While the Bordentown School was a step away from racism in many ways, it also went to show that racism is an integral part of America's culture.