Two programs offered in an Evanston, Ill. school district allow for students of color to opt in to “affinity classes” for English and math subjects. In other words, classes can be “Coloreds Only.” As expected, civil rights experts have voiced concerns about what seems like a blatant Brown v. Board of Education violation.
The AXLE (Advancing Excellence, Lifting Everyone) program for Black students and GANAS (program for Latino students are classes pitched by the Evanston Township High School allowing students to be sorted into subjects by race in an effort to close the education gap. As Superintendent Marcus Campbell put it, these classes make an effort to “relieve performance anxiety for students of color in white-dominated spaces,” per the Evanstonian.
William Trachman, a former Education Department official, told The Washington Free Beacon that the initiative appears to violate the Fourth Amendment protecting students from racial discrimination. Attorney David Bernstein echoed the argument, telling the Free Beacon that offering these “segregated” courses is “blatantly unconstitutional.”
However, some people didn’t seem to mind the option — specifically, the students. The Wall Street Journal reported 105 students enrolled in the GANAS program and 86 in the AXLE program at the moment.
Read more from the Evanstonian:
While some AP classes have historically fostered an unwelcoming atmosphere for him, graduated student Evan Berrato, who took AXLE English 2 and AP Calculus, felt the AXLE space was refreshingly inclusive.
“A lot of the time AP classes are not inclusive at all, and it was good to have a higher level of education within my community,” Berrato said. “I have been in these spaces where they’re not very welcoming or inclusive at all.”
In Berrato’s experience, there was no need to draw attention to the fact that they were in an affinity class—the sense of camaraderie was present from day one.
On the other hand, the report says there were some students who weren’t thrilled by the idea of a Blacks-only class. However, the main argument supporting these affinity programs is that some Black and brown students seem to desire to be in a class of students and taught by instructors who look like them.
Also, white students are still free to enroll (insert upside down smiley emoji).