Here she is in an interview on Democracy Now. She connects her recent article with this week’s Supreme Court case, Schuette v. BAMN, which allowed Michigan voters to amend their state constitution to disallow race as a factor in college admission.
Here’s a quote that resonated with me:
I think it’s very obvious, if you just look just strictly at the facts, that we still have a racialized K-12 system, and that Black and Brown students tend to be in schools where they are receiving an inferior education. They have a less-rigorous curriculum. They’re less likely to get access to classes that will help them in college, such as Advanced Placement Physics, higher-level Math, and they are most likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers.
Later in the interview, when discussing Brown v. Board of Education, Ms. Hannah-Jones says, “Resources follow white students in this country….Today that’s still the case. We have not eliminated that connection between resources and race.”
Ms. Hannah-Jones knows what she’s talking about. Like Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, Ms. Hannah-Jones deserves to be heard.