racist questions on the NY Regents exams

["Leonie Haimson" <leonie@worldnet.att.net>]

Probably you know this one already - but here's some examples from just two
weeks ago:



http://www.nydailynews.com/
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/417849p-352958c.html>
news/story/417849p-352958c.html

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Testing boundaries


By ERIN EINHORN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, May 15th, 2006

Black students and educators are denouncing a series of questions on
the most recent global history Regents exam that they charge were
racially biased and insensitive.

At least one student - Chantelle Jones, a junior at Bushwick Community
High School in Brooklyn - said she was so outraged by the questions on
the January test, she complained to the exam proctor.

She then ran out of time on the test's final essay, never finished it,
and failed. She'll have to take the required test again in June.

"It makes me so upset," said Jones, 18. "It's disrespectful to me and
my people."

The questions - which asked students to describe how Africa benefited
from imperialism - were on a section of the exam that gave students
historical passages to read, then asked them to describe the arguments
made by the author.

The first was based on an 1893 passage from "The Rise of Our East
African Empire," by Frederick Lugard, who, while working for the
Imperial British East Africa Co. in the 19th century, helped colonize
Uganda and other African countries.

On the exam, students were asked to read Lugard's account of British
projects in Africa like digging wells and building irrigation systems,
then to "state two ways British imperialism would benefit Africans."

Next up was a passage from Lugard's "The Dual Mandate in British
Tropical Africa," from 1922. It described British efforts to end the
slave trade and reduce famine and disease.

"We are endeavoring ... to teach the native races to conduct their own
affairs with justice and humanity, and to educate them alike in letters
and in industry," Lugard wrote.

Students were asked to name "two ways the British improved the lives of
Africans."

"This is just beyond the pale," said Esmeralda Simmons, the executive
director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers
College.

"It's basically asking students of African descent, and all students,
to justify European or British imperialism as if Africans were either
culturally or genetically inferior," added Simmons, who sent a formal
letter of protest to the Regents.

Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the state Education Department, noted that
the test was put together by educators of "diverse backgrounds."

But he added the Lugard portion of the exam "should have been worded in
a way that clearly instructed students to respond based on the
perspective of the author."

Still, he said, "In order to teach history, we have to use passages
that reflect history's reality. ... Kids have to learn the skills of
historical analysis, which includes the ability to investigate
different and competing interpretations of the theories of history."

But that argument doesn't fly with Brian Favors, who teaches a course
on slavery and counts Jones among his students.

He called the questions, "very racist," adding: "It's the equivalent of
asking a Jewish child to state two ways the Holocaust benefited Jews."

Favors is a member of Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence,
which is sponsoring a rally to "end institutional racism" on Wednesday
- the 52nd anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision. The rally will be at the city Education
Department.

Simmons said she wants to see the Regents void students' answers on the
controversial questions.

That wouldn't help Jones, though - she said she answered those
questions correctly.

"I picked something out of all those lies and put it down," she said.
"I was kind of sarcastic with my answer. I let it be known to whoever
was grading the exam that I was upset, but I had to pass the exam."



Leonie Haimson

Class Size Matters

124 Waverly Pl.

New York, NY 10011

212-674-7320

leonie@att.net

www.classsizematters.org