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Let’s Unpack This
Not All Black Kids Fail at Remote School
For many, school-based microaggressions get halved when a student studies at home, while grades rise and anxiety drops
“White America gets a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.”
The phrase is a juxtaposition detailing how societal problems affecting White people frequently have a disparate impact on Black people, and it’s an apt way to describe the Black experience in America — particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Covid-19 death toll has climbed, it’s been established Black people are disproportionately impacted by the virus. Even when schools began reopening, many Black and Hispanic communities said they were keeping their kids at home because they didn’t feel safe.
Media coverage on reopening schools generally features parents and government officials fearing kids will fall behind and noting that Black schoolchildren, an already vulnerable population, will likely bear the brunt of educational setbacks because of the differences in education quality for Black and White students. What hasn’t been covered with similar zeal is how some Black parents have kept their kids home and doing remote learning not purely for fear of Covid but because their children are thriving.
