Lau and Brown

            Lau vs Nichols (the San Francisco School Board) is as important to public education as Brown vs Topeka. Today it may be more important since immigrants who are mostly Spanish speakers have replaced Black people as the largest non-White group in the United States. By numbers today, Hispanics have the greatest need although there remains an academic achievement gap between both Black people and Hispanics and Asians, Jews, and whites.

            Black leaders accuse whites of racism when whites discuss the Replacement Theory. Only the far Alt-Right entertains the notion. There is no white replacement in the United States although the Woke Left wishes there was. Hispanics are replacing Black people not white people. Seventy-five percent of all Hispanics, mostly Mexican Hispanics, identify as white. Puerto Rican Latinos do not identify as white in such large numbers. That is due to Puerto Rico's lack of sovereignty and the ressentiment (fr.) produced by colonialism. Puerto Ricans reject Whiteness because they identify Whiteness with America. Franz Fanon wrote about this identity crisis for colonized people in his book, The Wretched of the Earth. Paolo Freire also encountered this ressentiment while teaching post-colonial students (See Pedagogy of the Oppressed).

            In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in the public schools was unequal, a violation of the 14th Amendment. In 1974 the Supreme Court ruled that based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1974, which bars discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs, non-English speaking and limited English-speaking students must be provided a remedy for their lack of language competency either through instruction in their native language or remedial instruction in English.

            Nixon supported the decision maybe because of his sympathies for California’s migrant workers and the fear of another documentary like the “Harvest of Shame.” Or maybe the Republicans saw it as another chance to dilute LBJ’s Great Society Programs, the first dilution was Women’s Rights,  by putting Black and Hispanics in competition for federal funding and set asides.  There was a great rift between Anglos and Hispanics over Bilingual education and English as a Second Language instruction. This rift spilled over into politics with the English Only Movement which did more to set back foreign language instruction in public schools than it did the education of non-English speakers.

            Why was it so difficult to secure the educational rights of students whose first language was not English? It is complicated. I experienced as a teacher in the Migrant Education Program in Southern Chester County white racism toward Hispanic students while as an ESL Coordinator in West Chester, I experienced Black resentment toward Hispanic students.

            First, as Rachel F. Moran says, “[Lau] was just never as visible as Brown" (Walsh, 2024). Moran is a professor at Texas A&M University’s law school in Fort Worth. She is a scholar of the case. It was not as visible because those who have no voice literally and as marginalized people find it difficult to get people's attention. White educators ignored Hispanic students and appeals from desperate ESL and bilingual teachers. The educational establishment also discouraged Hispanic kids from enrolling into the public schools. I encountered this in Kennett Square in the late seventies and eighties. Appeals to Black educators achieved mixed results. For whites it was, "No one asked you to come here." For Black people it was, "Why should you get special help when Black kids don't? I fought for what I got. You should too."

            Second, educators were ignorant of how language acquisition works. Most educators felt, "Just put them in the classroom. They'll learn." Those students were receiving failing grades, the teachers would say, "If they can't do the work, they should fail. It’s not fair to make accommodations for them if I can’t make accommodations for others." Once a student could speak English, educators, especially Black educators, felt that they no longer needed support. They failed to consider that the acquisition of basic interpersonal communication skills is different from the acquisition of academic language. I considered myself bilingual until I took a course in Puerto Rican Drama at Temple where the instruction was in Spanish. I struggled. I was always a day late and a dollar short listening to the professor in class. I had to translate in my mind before I could move on to what she was saying next.

            Third, the American public particularly Black Civil Rights leaders saw the struggle of Hispanics through the lens of the Black Civil Rights Movement. That was a miscalculation that often-caused tension between Black people and Hispanics. Where Black people sought assimilation, that is, they sought integration into the mainstream, Hispanics sought acculturation, that is, Hispanics wanted to maintain their culture outside of the mainstream. Identity Culture began with Hispanics not Black people. Blacks apply identity to the Race Trade.

            Fourth, Black people who were the allies of Hispanics began to feel that Puerto Rican and Mexican students were receiving special treatment. As Black educators tried to close the academic achievement gap, they began to question politicians and school administrators as to why Hispanics were receiving educational support services and not Black students. There were even efforts on the part of Blacks to declare Ebonics, Black English, a first language and standard English their second language hence making Black students eligible for English as a Second Language services.

            Fifth, white politicians, school boards, school administrators were content to see Black and Hispanic community leaders and professionals go at each other. It meant that while there was conflict between these two constituencies, they could direct funds to programs that served white students and garnered prestige for the district. A glowing example of this was the West Chester Area School District's implementation of a Japanese language and culture studies program at Henderson High School as a partnership with West Chester University. This was at the time that the district's language minority population was increasing, and I was begging for additional staffing for the ESL Program.

            I complained to Dr. Tom Kent, the Superintendent, and Bob Fithian, the Assistant to the Superintendent, my boss, that it was unwise for them to establish the Japanese language program when the district had Hispanic students in need of help. I also noted that if there was a second language the English-speaking kids in West Chester should be learning, it is Spanish. I said that I could understand if our district was on the west coast where there was more contact with Japanese people and Japanese culture but not on the east coast. Fithian told me that Tom felt that Japan was the future and that I should look at how the Japanese economy was booming and show the Puerto Ricans how it’s done. Fithian said that soon we might be speaking Japanese. The enthusiasm for Japan and the Japanese Language and Cultural Program lasted until the mid-nineties when the Japanese economy went bust.

 

Walsh, M. (2024, January 19). In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case. Education Week. http://tinyurl.com/4zknb45w