School Colors
44 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 635 ratingsSchool Colors is a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. Season 2 premieres May 4, 2022: only on NPR's Code Switch.
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Episodes
"We Can't Friend Our Way Out of White Supremacy" with Some of My Best Friends Are
February 08, 2023 12:00 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBHere’s a preview of another podcast, Some of My Best Friends Are, from Pushkin Industries. Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and journalist Ben Austen are friends, one Black and one white, who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago. On Some of My Best Friends Are, Khalil and Ben, along with their guests, have critical conversations that are at once personal, political, and playful, about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In this preview, Khalil and Ben talk w...
Live from Queens, Part 2: Q&A
January 13, 2023 12:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBThis is the second of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. After interviewing New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Mark and Max reflected on the Chancellor’s remarks and took questions about the making of School Colors, why they chose District 28, and what they learned. This event was co-produced with The CITY and Chalkbeat New York, and moderated by Chalkbeat’s Reema Amin.
Live from Queens, Part 1: The Chancellor
December 22, 2022 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBThis is the first of two bonus episodes recorded live at the Queens Public Library on December 15, 2022. Mark and Max interviewed New York City Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. Banks was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams and is just finishing his first year on the job. The previous leadership of the NYC DOE had supported diversity planning processes in five school districts across the city, including District 28, the subject of School Colors Season 2. Once Covid-19 hit New York, these diversi...
S2 E9: Water Under the Bridge
November 30, 2022 12:45 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MBOver the course of this season, we've explored a rich history and complicated present — but what about the future? In this episode, we catch up with parents who became activated on both sides of the debate over the diversity plan. Since the diversity plan never came to fruition, what’s to be done about the inequalities that persist in District 28? Click here for a full episode transcript. Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15! Are you using School Colors in your own teachin...
S2 Bonus: Ms. Mitchell's Pandemic Diary
November 30, 2022 12:40 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MB"I know this work can take you under if you let it, so I try not to let it take me." Pat Mitchell is the beloved longtime principal of P.S. 48, an elementary school in South Jamaica. She cares deeply about her students, many of whom struggle with poverty and unstable housing. While school was often a place of stability for her students and their families, COVID-19 changed everything. In this special episode, we follow the first pandemic school year through the eyes of Ms. Mitchell. Click ...
S2 E8: The Only Way Out
November 30, 2022 12:35 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBIn 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to replace the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT. For years, advocates had argued that the test favored white and Asian students while systematically keeping Black and Latinx kids out of the city's most elite and well-resourced high schools. But many Asian American parents felt targeted by the mayor’s plan, and they mobilized to defend the test. So when the District 28 diversity planning process was rolled out a ye...
S2 E7: The Sleeping Giant
November 30, 2022 12:30 - 1 hour - 55 MBIn some ways, this entire season was prompted by the parents who organized against diversity planning in District 28. So in this episode, we let the opposition speak for themselves. Who are these parents? What do they believe and why? And why were they ready to fight so hard against a plan that didn't exist? Click here for a full episode transcript. Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15! Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience ...
S2 E6: Below Liberty
November 30, 2022 12:25 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBQueens has changed a lot in the last few decades — and so has District 28. New immigrant communities have taken root and the district is, on the whole, pretty diverse. But most Black folks still live on the Southside, and the schools below Liberty Avenue continue to struggle. A lot of parents and educators agree that there needs to be some change in District 28. But the question remains: what kind of change? When we asked around, more diversity wasn't necessarily at the top of everybody's l...
S2 E5: The Melting Pot
November 30, 2022 12:20 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBUntil recently, District 28 was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. For more than a hundred years, we've seen how conflicts around housing, schools, and resources have played out mostly along this racial divide. So how did District 28 go from being defined by this racial binary, to a place where people brag about its diversity? In this episode, we take a deep dive into two immigrant communities — Indo-Caribbeans and Bukharian Jews — that have settled in Queens: how th...
S2 E4: The Mason-Dixon Line
November 30, 2022 12:15 - 49 minutes - 45.8 MBSo much of the present day conversation about District 28 hinges on the dynamic between the Northside and the Southside. But why were the north and the south wedged into the same school district to begin with? When we asked around, no one seemed to know. What we do know are the consequences. As soon as the district was created, white and Black folks looked over the Mason-Dixon line and saw each other not as neighbors, but as competitors for scarce resources. And the Southside always seemed ...
S2 E3: The Battle of Forest Hills
November 30, 2022 12:10 - 1 hour - 55.4 MBIn the early 1970s, Forest Hills, Queens, became a national symbol of white, middle class resistance to integration. Instead of public schools, this fight was over public housing. It was a fight that got so intense the press called it "The Battle of Forest Hills." How did a famously liberal neighborhood become a hotbed of reaction and backlash? And how did a small group of angry homeowners change housing policy for the entire country? Click here for a full episode transcript. Join us at t...
S2 E2: Tales from the Southside
November 30, 2022 12:05 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBDistrict 28 is both diverse and segregated. There’s a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply: the Southside is Black, and the further north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, Black parents in South Jamaica staged an epic school boycott that led to the first statewide law against school segregation in New York. The Southside hosted two revolutionary experiments in racially integrated housing. So what happened between then and now? ...
S2 E1: "There Is No Plan"
November 30, 2022 12:00 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBQueens, New York is often called “the most diverse place on the planet.” So why would a school district in Queens need a diversity plan? And why would so many Queens parents be so fiercely opposed? Welcome back to School Colors — Season 2. Click here for a full episode transcript. Join us at the Queens Public Library on December 15! Are you using School Colors in your own teaching or organizing? Fill out this audience survey. School Colors is created, reported, and written by Mark Winst...
Coming soon: School Colors, Season 2
May 02, 2022 11:00 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBSchool Colors is back! Season 2 premieres this week, presented by NPR's Code Switch. To listen, hop over to the Code Switch feed. In Season 1, hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman reported from their home turf in Central Brooklyn. Season 2 is all about Queens. Queens is often touted as the most ethnically diverse place in the world. So why would a school district in the middle of Queens need a diversity plan? And why would diversity planning be met with such intense parent oppositio...
Season 2 Trailer
May 02, 2022 11:00 - 3 minutes - 3.15 MBSchool Colors is back! Season 2 premieres this week, presented by NPR's Code Switch. To listen, hop over to the Code Switch feed. In Season 1, hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman reported from their home turf in Central Brooklyn. Season 2 is all about Queens. Queens is often touted as the most ethnically diverse place in the world. So why would a school district in the middle of Queens need a diversity plan? And why would diversity planning be met with such intense parent oppositio...
Introducing Driving the Green Book
September 08, 2020 10:00 - 4 minutes - 4.12 MBIn Driving the Green Book, broadcaster Alvin Hall and activist Janée Woods Weber drive from Detroit to New Orleans collecting powerful stories about how Black Americans used The Negro Motorist Green Book to find safe havens and travel with dignity during segregation. You’ll hear heartbreaking moments of discrimination and fear, but also find inspiration in the stories of those who built support networks for each other and fought for equality. To understand the way forward, Driving ...
Introducing Unfinished: Deep South
June 29, 2020 10:00 - 5 minutes - 5.03 MBThe 1954 lynching of Isadore Banks is one of the nation’s oldest unsolved civil rights cases. Unfinished: Deep South is a new podcast opening the case back up to find answers to this fading mystery — and help us come to terms with the unresolved legacy of racism we’re still living with. Listen on @stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts: https://stitcherapp.com/unfinished.
Third Rail: The candidates for Senate District 25
June 19, 2020 21:11 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBIn advance of the New York primary election on June 23rd, BMC hosted a virtual Town Hall with the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 25th State Senate district: Tremaine Wright, Jason Salmon, and Jabari Brisport. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 56
June 19, 2020 20:27 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBIn advance of the New York primary election on June 23rd, BMC hosted a virtual Town Hall with the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 56th State Assembly district: Stefani Zinerman and Justin Cohen. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
Third Rail: The candidates for Assembly District 57
June 19, 2020 10:37 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBIn advance of the New York primary election on June 23, BMC Deputy Director Anthonine Pierre interviews the candidates for Central Brooklyn's 57th State Assembly district: Walter Mosley and Phara Souffrant Forrest. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
Third Rail: The shifting Black electorate
June 19, 2020 00:07 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBThis is the second installment of a special series from Brooklyn Deep's Third Rail podcast focused on New York's June 23rd primary elections. How is the Black electorate shifting in Central Brooklyn, generationally and politically? Anthonine Pierre talks to local political analysts Theo Moore and Sandy Nurse. For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections2020.
Third Rail: Holding elected officials accountable
June 18, 2020 15:31 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBThis is the first episode of a special series from Brooklyn Deep's Third Rail podcast focused on New York's June 23rd primary elections. Why is it important, particularly now, to hold elected officials accountable in Central Brooklyn? Mark Winston Griffith talks to three activist leaders: Esmeralda Simmons (Center for Law and Social Justice), Jawanza Williams (VOCAL-NY), and L. Joy Williams (Brooklyn NAACP). For more information, visit http://www.brooklynmovementcenter.org/elections...
S1 Bonus: School Colors, Behind the Scenes
January 03, 2020 11:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBEvery month on the Third Rail podcast, Brooklyn Deep deconstructs hot topics and social justice issues that impact the lives of Central Brooklynites. In November, Third Rail featured a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of School Colors, Brooklyn Deep's most ambitious project to date. Producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman sat down with Anthonine Pierre, deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center. Together, they dive into the origin story of School Colors, how identit...
Bonus: School Colors, Behind the Scenes
January 03, 2020 11:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBEvery month on the Third Rail podcast, Brooklyn Deep deconstructs hot topics and social justice issues that impact the lives of Central Brooklynites. In November, Third Rail featured a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of School Colors, Brooklyn Deep's most ambitious project to date. Producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman sat down with Anthonine Pierre, deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center. Together, they dive into the origin story of School Colors, how identit...
Bonus: A Night at the Library
December 20, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 68.5 MBIn this bonus episode, recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman talk with Christina Veiga, a reporter from Chalkbeat. They are joined by a special guest: NeQuan McLean, president of the Community Education Council for District 16. Their conversation digs deeper into some of the themes of the show, and pulls back the curtain on how Mark and Max created School Colors -- and where it's going next. CREDITS Producers: Mark Winston Griffith ...
S1 Bonus: A Night at the Library
December 20, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 68.5 MBIn this bonus episode, recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, producers Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman talk with Christina Veiga, a reporter from Chalkbeat. They are joined by a special guest: NeQuan McLean, president of the Community Education Council for District 16. Their conversation digs deeper into some of the themes of the show, and pulls back the curtain on how Mark and Max created School Colors -- and where it's going next. CREDITS Producers: Mark Winston Griffith ...
Episode 8: On the Move
December 06, 2019 10:00 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBDespite New York City's progressive self-image, our dirty secret is that we have one of the most deeply segregated school systems in the country. But with gentrification forcing the issue, school integration is back on the table for the first time in decades. How do we not totally screw it up? And what does this mean for the long struggle for Black self-determination in Central Brooklyn? We’ve spent a lot of time on the past. In this episode, we look to the future. CREDITS Producers /...
S1 E8: On the Move
December 06, 2019 10:00 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBDespite New York City's progressive self-image, our dirty secret is that we have one of the most deeply segregated school systems in the country. But with gentrification forcing the issue, school integration is back on the table for the first time in decades. How do we not totally screw it up? And what does this mean for the long struggle for Black self-determination in Central Brooklyn? We’ve spent a lot of time on the past. In this episode, we look to the future. CREDITS Producers /...
S1 E7: New Kids on the Block
November 22, 2019 08:47 - 59 minutes - 54.9 MBGentrification is reshaping cities all over the country: more affluent people, often but not always white, are moving into historically Black and brown neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant. But even as the population of Bed-Stuy has been growing in numbers and wealth, the schools of District 16 have been starved for students and resources. That’s because a lot of people moving into the neighborhood either don’t have kids, or send their kids to school outside the district. In this episode,...
Episode 7: New Kids on the Block
November 22, 2019 08:47 - 59 minutes - 54.9 MBGentrification is reshaping cities all over the country: more affluent people, often but not always white, are moving into historically Black and brown neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant. But even as the population of Bed-Stuy has been growing in numbers and wealth, the schools of District 16 have been starved for students and resources. That’s because a lot of people moving into the neighborhood either don’t have kids, or send their kids to school outside the district. In this episode,...
S1 E6: Mo' Charters Mo' Problems
November 08, 2019 17:50 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBIf you ask most people in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 why they think enrollment is falling, chances are they’ll point to charter schools: privately managed public schools, which have been on the rise in New York City for more than a decade. Charter schools were originally dreamed up to be laboratories for innovation in public education. Instead, many see them as a threat — competing with neighborhood schools for space, resources, and kids. Is this really a zero-sum game? In this episode, we tal...
Episode 6: Mo' Charters Mo' Problems
November 08, 2019 17:50 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBIf you ask most people in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 why they think enrollment is falling, chances are they’ll point to charter schools: privately managed public schools, which have been on the rise in New York City for more than a decade. Charter schools were originally dreamed up to be laboratories for innovation in public education. Instead, many see them as a threat — competing with neighborhood schools for space, resources, and kids. Is this really a zero-sum game? In this episode, we tal...
S1 E5: The Disappearing District
October 25, 2019 11:14 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBSince 2002, the number of students in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 has dropped by more than half. There’s no single reason why this is happening, but the year 2002 is a clue: that’s when Michael Bloomberg became the Mayor, abolished local school boards, and took over the New York City school system. In this episode, we’ll meet parents trying to reassert collective power and local accountability in District 16 after years of neglect from the Department of Education; parents trying to save their sc...
Episode 5: The Disappearing District
October 25, 2019 11:14 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBSince 2002, the number of students in Bed-Stuy’s District 16 has dropped by more than half. There’s no single reason why this is happening, but the year 2002 is a clue: that’s when Michael Bloomberg became the Mayor, abolished local school boards, and took over the New York City school system. In this episode, we’ll meet parents trying to reassert collective power and local accountability in District 16 after years of neglect from the Department of Education; parents trying to save their sc...
S1 E4: "Agitate! Educate! Organize!"
October 11, 2019 07:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBIn the wake of the 1968 teachers’ strikes, Black people in Central Brooklyn continued to fight for self-determination in education -- both inside and outside of the public school system. Some veterans of the community control movement started an independent school called Uhuru Sasa Shule, or "Freedom Now School," part of a pan-African cultural center called The East. Other Black educators tried to work within the new system of local school boards, despite serious flaws baked into the design...
Episode 4: "Agitate! Educate! Organize!"
October 11, 2019 07:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBIn the wake of the 1968 teachers’ strikes, Black people in Central Brooklyn continued to fight for self-determination in education -- both inside and outside of the public school system. Some veterans of the community control movement started an independent school called Uhuru Sasa Shule, or "Freedom Now School," part of a pan-African cultural center called The East. Other Black educators tried to work within the new system of local school boards, despite serious flaws baked into the design...
Episode 3: Third Strike
October 04, 2019 07:00 - 1 hour - 55 MBIn the fall of 1968, New York City teachers went on strike three times, in reaction to an experiment in community control of schools in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. The third strike was the longest, and the ugliest. The movement for community control tapped into a powerful desire among Black and brown people across New York City to educate their own. But the backlash was ferocious. The confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville fractured the connection between teachers and families, betwe...
S1 E3: Third Strike
October 04, 2019 07:00 - 1 hour - 55 MBIn the fall of 1968, New York City teachers went on strike three times, in reaction to an experiment in community control of schools in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. The third strike was the longest, and the ugliest. The movement for community control tapped into a powerful desire among Black and brown people across New York City to educate their own. But the backlash was ferocious. The confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville fractured the connection between teachers and families, betwe...
Episode 2: Power to the People
September 27, 2019 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn the late 1960s, the Central Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville was at the center of a bold experiment in community control of public schools. But as Black and Puerto Rican parents in Ocean Hill-Brownsville tried to exercise power over their schools, they collided headfirst with the teachers’ union — leading to the longest teachers’ strike in American history, 51 years ago this fall. What started as a local pilot project turned into one of the most divisive racial confrontati...
S1 E2: Power to the People
September 27, 2019 07:00 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBIn the late 1960s, the Central Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville was at the center of a bold experiment in community control of public schools. But as Black and Puerto Rican parents in Ocean Hill-Brownsville tried to exercise power over their schools, they collided headfirst with the teachers’ union — leading to the longest teachers’ strike in American history, 51 years ago this fall. What started as a local pilot project turned into one of the most divisive racial confrontati...
Episode 1: Old School
September 20, 2019 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.6 MBBedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. But Bed-Stuy is changing. Fifty years ago, schools in Bed-Stuy's District 16 were so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Today, they're half-empty. Why? In trying to answer that question, we discovered that the biggest, oldest questions we have as a country about race, class, and power have been tested in the schools of Central Brooklyn for as long as there have been...
S1 E1: Old School
September 20, 2019 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.6 MBBedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. But Bed-Stuy is changing. Fifty years ago, schools in Bed-Stuy's District 16 were so overcrowded that students went to school in shifts. Today, they're half-empty. Why? In trying to answer that question, we discovered that the biggest, oldest questions we have as a country about race, class, and power have been tested in the schools of Central Brooklyn for as long as there have been...
Trailer
September 06, 2019 10:00 - 3 minutes - 3.27 MBBedford-Stuyvesant is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. Community School District 16 covers about half of Bed-Stuy. And almost every school in District 16 is hemorrhaging kids. Something is wrong. But today’s crisis is just the latest chapter in a story that goes back 200 years. Black people have been fighting for self-determination through their schools for as long as there have been Black children here in Central Brooklyn. This is School Color...
Season 1 Trailer
September 06, 2019 10:00 - 3 minutes - 3.27 MBBedford-Stuyvesant is one of the most iconic historically Black neighborhoods in the United States. Community School District 16 covers about half of Bed-Stuy. And almost every school in District 16 is hemorrhaging kids. Something is wrong. But today’s crisis is just the latest chapter in a story that goes back 200 years. Black people have been fighting for self-determination through their schools for as long as there have been Black children here in Central Brooklyn. This is School Color...