Oakland Minority Issues
The Ebonics Debate
One issue relating to minorities in Oakland, California, is the number of black children who are not achieving at the level of their white peers. It is estimated that 53% of the students in Oakland are black, and there are about 52,000 students total. The average grade point average for white students in Oakland is 2.7, and for the black children of Oakland, it is 1.8. Most of the black children in this school district have been classified as “special needs” students. The problem with the black children’s failure to excel in school seems to have originated from the fact that the black children speak a different type of English, sometimes called Black Language, or Ebonics.
In order to help these children learn to read and write better, the school district of Oakland adopted a program in December of 1996 that changed the way schools taught. Instead of using only standard white English, a language that many of these children did not grow up with and were not exposed to much inside the home, the schools started incorporating Black language/ Ebonics into they way they teach in order for the students to better relate to what is happening in school.
This proposal to change the way schools teach has been met with a lot of criticism. While many of the educators in the Oakland area see the need to adopt some plan to help black students achieve, many are uncertain about how to speak and teach the Black Language, that many of them are not familiar with themselves. However, because they are at schools and they see first hand on a day to day basis that what is being taught is ineffective, they support changes. Most of the Oakland community met this change in policy as a positive thing. Outsiders aren't as able to clearly see the problem and have had more negative attitudes.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Reverend Jesse Jackson initially criticized the school board's decision to incorporate the Black Language and said it was "an unacceptable surrender, bordering on disgrace." After meeting again with members of the school board, Jackson had more positive things to say. "The intent is to teach these children standard American, competitive English, because if they cannot read, they cannot reason." The Oakland school board considers Ebonics as a language pattern rather than a distinct language and they are not looking to make it into a new language. The government has criticized the proposal and says it will refuse public funding.
Diversity
With at least 81 different languages and the nearly 400,000 people, there is a very diverse population in Oakland. There are several kinds of problems and disparities. For example, some of the schools in Oakland are rated the best in the nation, while in the same city there are schools that are rated as the very worst. The people who live in the "hills" of Oakland, where the good schools are, tend to be white, middle to upper middle class citizens, whereas the people who live in the "flatlands" tend to be poor and of minority groups. The gap between the rich and the poor is very pronounced in Oakland.
Voting Patterns
In a land where the majority is black, the voter turnout for Oakland is very low. In the early 1990s, there was a massive redistricting that took place and involved the members of the city to help draw the districts. The redistricting helped the Asians and Hispanics to become a coalition and a strong political force. Still, they got little political gain and the voter turnout remained low. Between 1992 and 1998, the number of minority votes in general has dropped, resulting in a return to of a more white rule in the city.
Crime Rates
In a city as large as Oakland, (nearly 400,000 people) it is not surprising that there is a lot of crime. The amount of crime and violence increased steadily through the 1980s and early 1990s, and city officials were especially concerned with the number of assaults using firearms. In 1994, the Oakland Police Department (OPD) created the Firearms Licensee Compliance Program, which enhances the OPD's ability to do complete more complete background checks, and ensures that gun dealers comply with more local, state, and federal laws concerning firearms. The goal of this program is to reduce the number of violent crimes by reducing the number of firearms made available, reducing the number of firearms sold illegally, and reducing the number of firearm dealers. From 1994 to 1996, the number of Federal Firearms licenses that were sold went from 57 to 6. The program as a whole has proved to be successful so far.
Created for Political Science 350: Group and Minority Politics @ University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Email our Professor: Rodd Freitag
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References used to create this webpage: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/gun_violence/profile12.html http://atticus.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/publications/par/May2000/Douzet.html http://www.rethinkingschools.org/SpecPub/Ebonics/ebguest.htm http://www.communityvoices.org/LL-Oakland.asp http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.html http://www.rethinkingschools.org/SpecPub/Ebonics/ebperry.html |
