Nikole Hannah-Jones on School Segregation
Sep 21, 2026 at 9:23am
Second on recommending this piece. Hannah-Jones shows a lot of courage in writing it. It's an enraging and frustrating situation -- that dynamic, I think, encapsulated by a response she gives in the comment thread to a reader:
I still believe strongly that our individual choices do matter and that if there was broad political will to do something about the inequality in NYC's public schools, our city and state officials would be forced to do something about it. They do not act because we do not push them to act, and in fact, quite the opposite: If they did act aggressively here, they probably would not re-elected. So, that is about our individual choices.
We, broadly speaking, do not actually want integration. I feel lucky that in my own kids' schools (West Orange), the schools have been integrated while my kids have still been able to thrive academically, though when I look at which kids are actually in which classes (and as we, like many districts, struggle with severe budget cuts), I think even here we're still far short of true integration.
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This is a trenchant first-hand account of current segregation in city schools by Hannah-Jones, whose anguish is reflected in the headline. It was well worth the long read:
In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (NYT gift link)
In our Philadelphia neighborhood’s K-8 school two decades ago, a white couple (like us) whose two children would have been shoo-ins for the academic magnet starting in fifth grade committed themselves and their kids to the school for all nine years. I admired them and their choice, but when our child’s chance at the magnet came, we took it.