Asheville’s Reparations Plan Must Prioritize Educational Justice
The initiative is off to a great start, but we must address the educational gap to ensure success and understanding for Black children
Co-authored by Agya Boakye-Boaten
On July 14, 2020, Asheville City Council unanimously passed a reparations resolution. The resolution contained an apology for Asheville’s role in slavery and a promise to invest in Asheville’s Black communities to address inequities in housing, urban development, health, and education. But we as educators and parents of two school-age Black boys in Asheville City Schools recognize that community reparations for Black Asheville must earnestly prioritize educational justice.
We made Asheville our home 10 years ago when we accepted positions at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. When we arrived, we were told that Asheville lacked a Black middle class, that Blacks experienced multigenerational poverty. Many mentioned this without direct reference to the fact that Black Ashevillians were intentionally pushed to the margins, disenfranchised, subjugated, segregated. It is due to White racial domination, White supremacism, and inequities entangled with racism, such as Jim Crow, redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification, but…
