By Juan Morales Váquiro

Los afroamericanos, los latinos y los anglosajones tienen una historia repleta de discordia y enemistad. Con el paso de los años, hay ciertas personas en cada grupo que han promovido el odio y rencor, mientras que otras pocas personas se hacen cada vez más amigos en esta comunidad mezclada. Las personas no han sabido cómo convivir, echándose la culpa los unos a los otros en vez de unirse y buscar una solución a sus diferencias. Estos conflictos raciales afectan a los escuelas secundarias, tanto públicas como privadas, creando fronteras invisibles y separando a los grupos raciales. Tenemos que tratar de convivir como un grupo unido, más integrados, superando cualquier odio existente en el pasado y dando una vista firme hacia el futuro. El ser humano es un ser increíble cuando trabaja en grupo, cada cual confiando en sí mismo y en las personas de su alrededor. Los logros que se pueden obtener siendo un grupo unido, sin discriminación, son casi inexplicables.

Entrevisté a la directora de New Mission High School Dr. Naia Wilson sobre su carrera como defensora de estudiantes Latinos y afroamericanos.

Juan: What do you think are some of the issues that teenage black and Latino males face in Boston Public Schools?

Naia: That’s a really loaded question. I think there are issues that black and Latino males face in their communities and there are issues that they face in their schools and I think they are very much connected to one another. So if we were to stay in the school arena I know, and I think data proves, that within Boston Public Schools many of our black and Latino males do not receive the access to the high level curriculum that they deserve. I believe that black and Latino males are often stigmatized, meaning they are stereotypes and those stereotypes are embedded in teachers and other adults and those things influence the access and equity that black and Latino males get.

Juan: How have you been involved in improving the social and academic needs of black and Latino males?

Naia: I’ve been deeply involved in this, and actually my doctoral dissertation is based in black males, much of which can be transferred to Latino males as well. I have a special program in my school called Project Ochendo. Ochendo is an African name for a protector of a community. In that program what we do is that we provide in-school mentoring. We have two black mentors that follow students to class and provide them with assistance in the classroom. They also have a specialized time their students with each day to help them get organized, give them tutoring and provide anything that they need. They also help them to be advocates for themselves and how they advocate for themselves to teachers so they can approach them in appropriate ways to get the support they need. My model is that they shouldn’t be failing and we will do whatever it takes to make sure they access the curriculum so they are achieving. We also do dual-enrollment, so they take a psychology and a sociology class in their junior year taught by a visiting college professor.

In those classes they talk about equity, racism, discrimination so that they can see it all around them and help them to understand it and figure out how they will move through life being able to deal with it. That’s just one thing that I’m doing, besides the advocacy that I do for my school. I believe that my school, just like I believe that the Margarita Muñiz [Academy] is a place where black and Latino voices can be heard. I’m an advocate for keeping schools like that alive and vibrant.

Our curriculum is about meeting black and Latino boys where they are, understanding their experience and helping them to figure out how they take their experience and everything in their environment and navigate it and work within it because we all come to the table with different things – we all have issues, everybody does, there’s no perfect people, right? But I believe that black and Latino boys and young men have special circumstances that our society has created for them and so we need to a) understand it and b) help them move through our society and be successful despite all of it. What you guys are doing, your High School Redesign capstone project, is an authentic research opportunity that is based in an issue that is going to help you better understand where you fit. Every school should be doing something like that. People of color need to talk about the issues of people of color. Schools can’t just go and teach you math and teach you science and say, “This is all you need to be successful in college.” That’s not true. You also need to understand what’s happening around the world and with you so you can feel strong and confident.

When I was growing up my father used to sit us down every Sunday and tell us about “the white man, the white man, the white man!” My father was big on, “You need to understand about the white man and the way he is.” I’m not saying we should be telling kids in school that the white man is no good, even though that’s what my parents did, but it gave me an understanding, it opened my eyes, it gave me another perspective and I used that perspective to see. The funny thing about it is in my doctoral work at UMass, the books that they gave me to read were saying the same thing my father was saying. Now that people have had the confidence and the ability to write it in a book for me to read so they’re doing that now. They’re writing about the white privilege, about the inequities that are happening in our communities, they’re speaking out through literature and our kids need to read it. It’s important.