From Inquest:
You’ve likely seen the viral video by now. A fight between two boys — one Black and one white-presenting — in a Bridgewater, New Jersey mall. What could have been a youthful scuffle soon escalated into something bigger. For me and many others, it was a clear reminder that there are two New Jerseys for our young people, as police swiftly entered the scene and tackled Z’Kye, the Black teen, to the ground. Meanwhile, the teen of lighter complexion looked on from a bench, even standing at one point to observe the officers handcuffing Z’Kye. Later, even he commented on the unequal treatment. “I don’t understand why they arrested him and not me,” he said.
The video clip is short, but the history it speaks to is long — namely, society’s refusal to view our Black kids as kids.
Though we know incidents like this happen every day, that this incident took place during Black History Month made it all the more striking to me. Every February for the past few years, I’ve reflected on the legacy of a historic New Jersey institution less than 50 miles from Bridgewater: the Bordentown School. Nestled on 400 acres in Bordentown, New Jersey, this school was an elite, state-run boarding school for New Jersey’s Black youth, with a legacy of more than 50 years. Founded by formerly enslaved Reverend Walter Rice, the Bordentown School was often called the “Tuskegee of the North” — a reference to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute — and educated generations of New Jersey’s Black youth. Visited by such luminaries as Albert Einstein, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the school eventually closed in 1955 following a state constitutional amendment outlawing segregated schools.
And what stands now on the site of the Tuskegee of the North? Hayes, New Jersey’s youth prison for girls. And across the street sits the Juvenile Medium Security Facility, or JMSF — the state’s most secure youth prison for boys. The Bordentown School, in other words, has literally become the school to prison pipeline realized in New Jersey. A powerful moment in history of investment in Black youth, replaced by a damning reminder of the current refusal to invest in these same young people today. Continue reading >>>
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