E thnic, inner city, urban. What do these terms mean in education?

I am a teacher educator who studies how people use language to talk about race.

One word that I've examined over the years is urban. A quick look in the dictio­

nary, and there is no surprise: Urban means related to the city, characteristic of a city or

city life. So what does that mean when we say urban education? What is unique about

city schools or city education? That depends on the city you're talking about. In large,

densely populated cities, such as Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, city schools are

184 I TEACHING FOR BLACK LIVES

ofi:en characterized by large, diverse populations, many poor students, budget shortfalls,

and bureaucracy. So why, then, do we use the term urban when what we really mean are

schools with majority Black and Latinx populations? Take for example my city: Portland, Oregon. Downtown th~re is a high school named

Lincoln.It is less than a mile from the Pearl District, a hip place that boasts unique food,

shops, new condos, and the best of urban renewal. It is a stone's throw from a soccer sta­

dium and surrounded by tall buildings, people biking to work in suits, panhandlers, and

the hub of the public transit system. Across the river in North Portland, there is a high school named Jefferson. It is sur­

rounded by family dwellings, mom-and-pop shops, and wide streets for biking, walking,

and playing. There is a community college across the street.

Which one of these schools is urban? Lincoln? Jefferson? Both? Before you decide, let me give you a bit more i'nformation. At Lincoln, the down­

town school, the population is more than 75 perce~t white, 4.5 percent of the students

are Black, 8.6 percent are Asian, and 6.6 percent ~re Latinx; 10.5 percent are on free/

reduced lunch; and the school does not receive Tit;le 1 funding. Ac Jefferson, the school

across the river, 59 percent of the students are Bla1k, 8 percent are Asian/Pacific Island­

ers, and 17 percent are Lacinx; 70 percent are on fr~e/reduced lunch; and the school does

receive Title 1 funding. '

Made up your mind yet? A few years ago I interviewed 17 teachers who attended an "urban education" pro­

gram. I asked chem what was the difference, if any, between urban teaching and non-ur- ban teaching.Ruth remarked: "To me, urban students

come from an environment where they can't see the

value of education. They can't see why it matters, be­[email protected] wtow9Un®li1!~ [email protected] W® cause everyone who they know, everything chat they .

l!Jl§iieUil®t~irm lUl!i'ib©Jli1l do, has nothing to do with having an education."

whe&"ilwh1S1twei rr®~Uy Thinking about the definition of urban – related meialli'[email protected]@l~ wnttu to che city- I can't help but wonder: What is it about

[email protected] ©lli1l<cl city kids chat makes this teacher chink they don't val- ..~lcal<t:k ue education? It wasn't until after three interviews of:·

l©1tnli1lii{ [email protected]~a.nR©[email protected]~? each teacher that the whole picture emerged, one in:

which urban was constructed as a code word for race

– specifically Black and Latinx – and ofi:en for poor ..

Teachers equated urban with students of color and the characteristics they perceived as_

belonging to students of color. At one point I asked these teachers what urban meant and the most ofi:en cited

response was "racially diverse students." Now taken as is, this would mean students of a multitude of races – including whites. But it was clear from these interviews that .'­

"racially diverse" excluded white students and often lefi: Asian Americans and Native'·

Americans on the side as well. As Molly noted: "My teacher education program definitely prepared me to be ~•.·

teacher. I think my school placement prepared me to be an urban teacher. Had I been i~

GENTRIFICATION,DISPLACEMENT,AND ANTI-BLACKNESS I 185

·.,the exact same university classes, but had a school placement in Lake Genesis (a majority ·o:white high school], I wouldn't have been prepared to be an urban teacher." ·,.. I wonder, which pares of good teaching translate into all types of schools and which

•apartsdon't? What's urban about urban teaching?

Some years ago I presented chis research to preservice teachers. One of them chal- • lenged me. "Bue chat is how they act. Urban kids don't want

'wlearn as much as the ocher students in class. Their parents don't care as much, they don't arrive at school on time, and [email protected] ~ee©[email protected]®1!'$

_they don't gee their homework done. So these teachers are [email protected]@J{iffiMilllil€! just responding co reality. I see it at North High School all

Un®m§e[v®~ ©1~~- the time."

Reflecting on this, I thought about how he separated his li'ifild©ll b®nrrilg§ [email protected] students – all of whom were from the local neighborhood t~ad1 @tlhler r©Jd©l[

• – into two categories: urban and normal. Then I thought, rai®ofi'ilgs filgMr~©Jfnld oh yeah, urban means less than. The kids who are doing well,

@lUlfcwh©Jtt~~y an~ the kids who know how to do school, are normal. And the

kids who don't know how to do school are urban. [email protected]'ig'Wff'Offllg©li'ild Does it matter what language we use? It only matters if wh©Jtitheyaine

you are going to use it to mask your feelings – overly posi­ dloihng li"igti!it. tive or negative – about a certain race or economic group.

This is no time for euphemisms and unexamined beliefs

about race. Our schools are deeply divided along racial and

class lines. We need teachers who will examine themselves as racial beings who reach oth­

er racial beings and figure out what they are doing wrong and what they are doing right.

What would it look like to use race words (e.g., African American, European Ameri­

can, Korea,n American) when thinking about your classroom and curriculum? You might

test yourself by starring to use "Black" when you really mean it instead oflow achieving,

underserved, at-risk, our kids, those kids, inner city – or urban.

So what do you mean when you say urban? ■

Dyan Watson, an editor for Rethinking Schools, is an associate professor in teacher educa­

tion at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling. She is also one of

the co-editors ofthe popular book for teachers, Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry

for Social Justice.

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