It's very hard to find any actual evidence of instutional racism where it's alleged, but that only shows how insidious it is. That's why any number of people throw huge amounts of money at something they can't see.

Here's an idea: charter-schools! That way there can't be "institutional racisim" because there won't be an "institution." If one thinks one's child is being treated unfairly (and handcuffing a teenager that's threatening you with bodily harm doesn't seem that unfair to me) one can take one's child out of said environment and put him/her in a more beneficial setting. But then again, that makes way too much sense.

Hey Mark, if that is the actual Mark Griswold, I wonder if you might focus group (assuming you can afford focus groups) the phrase "meaningful education" as a rhetorical device for use in campaigning on the issue of school reform. It could be a catch-all for everything from teacher accountability, to charter schools, to school choice.

My favorite line is this:

"The cash-strapped School District is now advertising to hire a "director of equity and race relations", a newly created position which will have a budget of $200,000 a year"

Just think good taxpayers of Seattle. This was probably crafted by a bunch of incompetant principals who were bumped up and out of the schools to make-work administrative jobs at higher salaries!

200 K a year? Priceless
God, the American Education System is wonderful ain't it?

Stef: At the beginning of my last school year, our school district hired a guy named Glenn Singleton to lead an all-day inservice on "white privilege" etc. I checked my past post about him at my blog, and lo and behold, the link I have for him goes to the Seattle Public Schools!!
http://www.invincibleironman.com/hube/mt/archives/000063.html

If this guy is involved in "eradicating institutional racism," good luck. I know myriad [white] teachers who were on the verge of walking out on his presentation. Like many other school districts with a substantial racially mixed pop., we have an achievement "gap" in test scores. People like Singleton -- and the Seattle Board -- will do NOTHING to eliminate this gap by focusing on some nebulous and quantum "institutional racism." But I'm sure it's putting a nice coin in some seminar-deliverer's pocket.

Just pay a visit to Rainier Beach High School in South Seattle. The picture begins to become more clear.

That guy Glenn Singleton has been spotted in Madison, Chapel Hill, and Ann Arbor. Guess he must be pretty fringe to be showing up mostly in those places. Definitely not main stream America. In Madison a congressman objected to the school system employees sending time in his training. Wisconsin is mostly white anyway. You would think if someone really wanted to make a difference in the lives of children of color, he would be spending more time in places like Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York City. Guess they don't pay as well.

Racism is the systematic institutionalized mistreatment of one group by another when the groups are differentiated by perceived or imputed skin color. The group benefiting most from this type of power is clearly white people. Those groups that are in positions to be mistreated are largely minority populations. Though I am not radical in arguing that all of white America is racist, I speak from the position that resources are needed to ensure that racist views are not implemented into the public educational system.

How can we even accurately define racism. "White activist" David Duke claims he is not racist. He claims that it is actually racist to be against white, Christian societies.

Link:
http://www.davidduke.com/index.php?p=266#more-266

Daryl,
How do you expect to be able to converse with people if you go and redefine words. Please look up racism and use the term accordingly.
http://www.answers.com/racism
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
If you want to coin a new term, go ahead. But don't go using a highly charged word for a meaning other than the one that is commonly accepted unless you want the term to lose its meaning entirely (might be too late for racism).

Now that we have that out of the way, there seems to be a couple problems with claiming "institutional racism" as the cause of white students doing better than black students. You know why? Because that happens in nearly every school and district in the country, even those that are overwhelmingly black - black superintendent, black principals, black teachers. Why on earth would all those black people be racist to black kids?

The people that seem to be benefiting from this are not black children but those who peddle this commodity to schools. People like this Singleton fellow who stand to benefit personally from receiving some of those educational resources that should be going to educating children.

i don't know about all that institutional racism stuff, but how about everyday situations? i was recently in seattle, around the capital hill area. whenever i walked down the street (usually by myself) people walking towards me would walk across the street to avoid me. especially women.(oh right, by the way, i'm an asian male, about 5'7", 130lbs, short hair, usually in jeans and t shirt, (very threatening looking.) now i know what black people feel when they walk by a car and hear people lock their doors.

A perfect example of institutional racism is the corporate and government response to the plight of the people in New Orleans, and the nation, it's been reported that over 750,000 people are stranded and without barely any resources, the government provided a symbolic band aid aid, while nationally the price of everything went up, because a majority of the financially solvent are white, thus for Afrimericans outside of New Orleans that have relatives in the ravaged city they are pitted against having to be self supporting, while also being compelled to assist said relatives, therefore creating an extended loss statistic by association, and per the magnitude of the destruction this is the time for Bush to demonstrate his concern for all Americans, not just the white elite, and the saudi oil barons, and it's time for corporate America to demonstrate a sense of humanity, and spiritual concern for the well being of their fellow men and women, but alas, what you see, and will continue to see is the tfirst rule of white supremacy, which is to blame the victim, and pick isolated and purely human reactions to scarce resourses which cause, and would cause desperate actions in anyone, they'll use such to justify the not giving, or the giving of the bare minimum, and when the fever pitch gets to be highly explosive, and blows up, they'll use that to stop assisting, and blame the victim, the victim of not just the hurricane destruction, but of American instituionalized racism that is alive and well and healthy in the highest ranks of corporate and government echelons

please can provide examples of institutional racism. it would be of great help.