Re “Housing called key to lifting low-income students” (Metro, Feb. 23): Keri Rodrigues, president of Massachusetts Parents United, says that instead of creating more affordable housing in the suburbs to address inequity in education, the state should send more aid to schools with low-income students. I wish life could be so simple, that Black and brown communities could get the resources they need for children to be successful without having to ask. That’s just not how it works. The government can’t and won’t hand out resources like that because of a racist property tax system in which white neighborhoods benefit and Black and brown ones suffer.
But we’re missing something here: The stigma surrounding low-income housing can negatively affect the mental health of children of color, especially if they’re placed in “high-performing school districts.”
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As a Black woman who grew up in the predominantly white city of Newton, I witnessed how Black and brown students bused in through Metco were perceived and subsequently treated. I was belittled and assumed to be low-income and less intelligent because of my skin color. I was called an “Oreo,” “high yellow,” and “the whitest Black girl they’d ever seen” for proving people wrong. I’m still unlearning internalized uncertainty to this day.
I want kids to be able to receive the education they deserve without the microaggressions and self-doubt that can come with it.
Arianna Blakely
Newton