Black girl
Black girls are more harshly disciplined in school than white girls, according to national studies. (ID 169987253 © Tommaso79 | Dreamstime.com)
A United Methodist Insight Column
Two of Insight’s regular sources, ProPublica and Anti-Racism Daily, note that a judge in Michigan has sent a 15-year-old Black girl named Grace, who has learning disabilities, back to juvenile detention for not completing her online homework while on probation. Her case won’t come up for a hearing until Sept. 8, and it has become a case study in which researchers and community activists term the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
In light of The United Methodist Church’s “Dismantling Racism” initiative, consider these excerpts from Anti-Racism Daily:
“In Michigan, Black youth are incarcerated over 4x more than their white peers (The Sentencing Project). And over the past four years, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to Oakland County Circuit Court, the same court that sentenced Grace. Of those, 42% involved Black youth even though only about 15% of the county’s youth are Black (ProPublica).
“And across the country, broader studies [show] that Black students, particularly Black girls, are more harshly disciplined. Data from the U.S. Department of Education found that from 2013–14, black girls were more than six times more likely than white girls to receive an out-of-school suspension. And although black girls made up only 16% of female students in U.S. public schools, they made up 43% of girls who were referred to law enforcement and 38% of those arrested (Teen Vogue). Read the full report here.”
ProPublica, a non-profit online news journal, notes: “Because of the confidentiality of juvenile court cases, it’s impossible to determine how unusual Grace’s situation is. But attorneys and advocates in Michigan and elsewhere say they are unaware of any other case involving the detention of a child for failing to meet academic requirements after schools closed to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Congregations seeking to fulfill the goals of Dismantling Racism might do well to check with their local school districts for racial disparities in punishments for white students compared with students of color. Participation in community organizations concerned with the school-to-prison pipeline, along with citizen advocacy with local school boards, could help to equalize discipline. Mentoring relationships with local schools, especially those close to churches, would also provide ways to reduce misconduct that leads to school discipline.
In other words, praying for reductions in the number of students sent to prison isn’t enough. We must “put feet on our prayers” to help bring about the changes for which we pray.
Being Black in America: 'Exhausting'
Here’s one more resource for white people who are open to understanding better what racism is like:
“NPR recently asked Black American listeners to tell us how racism has shaped their understanding of the world. Today’s listen is from Rochelle Williams, a 59-year-old Black woman and native Californian who describes being Black in America as “exhausting.” (Listen here)”
Climate crisis follow-up
The Climate Beat, weekly newsletter of the Covering Climate Now initiative in which United Methodist Insight participates, reports that readers and voters are very interested in news about the climate crisis and politics. I quote:
“Climate action is a leading issue for young voters, and an April poll by Yale and George Mason universities found that two-thirds of all registered voters are worried about global warming; four in ten said candidates’ positions on climate change will be ‘very important’ in how they vote this fall.”
These surveys offer good news for faith-based climate activists. They mean that audiences will be more receptive to the advocacy church folks can bring to public discussions on response to the climate crisis. This in turn can help build what environmentalist Bill McKibben says is needed, “human solidarity on an unparalleled level.”
How urgent is such advocacy, when churches are already struggling with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on top of membership declines? The Climate Beat goes on: “Grist covers a new book by renowned climate author Mark Lynas, ‘Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency,’ which breaks each degree down. We reached a 1-degree increase from pre-industrial levels in 2015, and it’s meant more frequent and more ferocious extreme weather events, for one. Two degrees will bring rampant crop failure and annual deaths from malnutrition in the hundreds of thousands. A few degrees more could mean mass extinction.”
So we’ve already passed one significant milestone and we’re suffering its effects. This reality underscores the need for us to act as well as pray.
Prayer booklet for times like these
Guided by the conference’s Discipleship Task Force, clergy and laity in the Northern Illinois Conference have produced a devotional resource, “Times Like These – Prayers of the People.” Bishop Sally Dyck says, "This collection of prayers is a way to pray for God's peace that surpasses all understanding. Use it as a guide to pray when you don’t know how or what to pray. Use it as a prayer-starter. Use it as a way to see into the hearts of others. ... Let it open your heart and mind to God’s peace!" Click here to read and/or download the book.
Media Mentions as of July 15, 2020
Are pandemic protests the newest form of science-religion conflict? – Religion & Politics
The case for religious liberty is more compelling than the case for Christian power – The Dispatch
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.