When I joined LAUSD in 1998 to be part of the educator team in transition from full-time regular teacher to almost full-time substitute teacher while attending Fuller Seminary as a full-time student, the headquarters for the LAUSD was still in the old building at 450 N. Grand, & that was fine with me.
However, apparently then-superintendent Roy Romer didn't like the humble setting & one of his first decisions was to move the headquarters to a new downtown L.A. skyrise, with the superintendent on the 20th floor.
On one hand it gave the LAUSD a new, more professional, or business-like appearance; but on the
other hand it perhaps made people more attracted to power & glamour want to work downtown at the office building rather than in the classrooms helping kids, which is ultimately what its all about, right ?
Thus, even people with associates degrees answering phones at 333 S. Beaudry now feel empowered & even perhaps superior to those working in old, archaic buildings throughout Los Angeles, especially south-central, or simply south Los Angeles.
Here I am, a "white" person having gone to college & having setting aside the quest for money, power, fancy suit & car, to help our youth, in particular some of our more impovershed, mostly minority, youth, & now I contend with some supercillious "minorities" at the headquarters looking down at me as a mere "sub" who works in the "ghetto" while they work in fancy pants downtown L.A.
Granted, there are ALSO some brand new school buildings, including the "most expensive school in America" that I go to occassionally as well, which were also part of Roy Romer's long-term plan, which are nicer & more modern than 333 S. Beaudry, but that's besides the point.
The problem is that when we empower minorities who have NOT earned their way "to the top" (& that includes security guards & secretaries who dropped out of college half-way, if even that much, & who work in various settings such as the LAUSD & hollywood studios, among other places) these people have the tendency to be very unequal or even unfair, to put it kindly, to others; including towards, or maybe especially towards, those who have more education than them but have no power over them.
I'm thinking most recently of the phone answerers at the sub unit at LAUSD, including Irma & Diane, both of whom show no appreciation for substitutes & even talk "down" to me (Irma is African-American, & Diane may be Latino) .
JVK
