Bed-Stuy Podcast Examines Race In The Classroom

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A Bed-Stuy school district is "hemorrhaging kids," and a new podcast says the problem is all tied up in race.

School Colors, a new podcast set to launch later this month, will take an in-depth look at Bed-Stuy's public schools to show how race, class and power have shaped the American educational system.

Mark Winston Griffith, a journalist and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC), and Max Freedman is a teacher and self-described gentrifier, co-host the show examines what's going on in Bed-Stuy's beleaguered school district.

"Today’s crisis is just the latest chapter in a story that goes back 200 years," says Freedman in the podcast trailer.

"Black people in Central Brooklyn have been fighting for self-determination through their schools for as long as there have been Black children here," adds Griffith. "And that’s a long-a-- time."

The documentary series will dive into Community School District 16, which covers about half of Bed-Stuy, talking to parents and teachers fighting to get the neighborhood kids the education they deserve.

P.S. 25 Eubie Blake School — a school who's fate hangs in the balance after parents sued to stop the city from closing it — is the focus of at least one episode and held up by Griffith and Freedman as an exemplar of what's happening in Bed-Stuy.

The school on Lafayette Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard is supposed to hold 600 students but last year, it had just 82 students, Freedman explains as students chant "Save Our School."

"What’s really happening here?" Freedman says. "Is it all about gentrification? White and middle-class families moving in and opting out?"

"Is it competition from well-funded charter schools?" Ask Griffith.

"Are the traditional public schools just… failing?" Asks Freedman.

The answers, according to clips from interviews you can here in the trailer, coming from Bed-Stuy are an overwhelming yes.

"What's happening by default is that the district is going to disappear," says Lester Young.

"I have a big issue with people constantly saying District 16 schools suck they suck they suck," says Felicia Alexander. "No they don't."

"Oh, this is racism?" says Natasha Seaton. "Damn."

The podcast, produced by digital journalism platform Brooklyn Deep, will launch on Sept. 20, according to a Chalkbeat report.

Read an interview with the hosts here.