Black families go the extra mile to give children an ethnic education

By Leslie Fulbright
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

	YONI BROOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Desirée and Richard Leigh, who live in Bellevue's upscale Lakemont district, are constantly seeking to ensure that their 7-year-old son is grounded in his culture.
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This duality, says Leigh, is necessary to assure that her 7-year-old develops both intellectually and culturally while living on the Eastside.

"If you are a black parent here, you have to deliberately create opportunities for your family," said Leigh. "You cannot stay solely in the community in which you live because no city in this area offers the full range of African-American experiences needed for your family."

The Leighs — one of a few black families living in Bellevue's upscale Lakemont district — say they are constantly seeking to ensure that their son is grounded in his culture, which means exposing him to other black children and families, as well as to black history.

They aren't much different from other black parents in the Puget Sound region's largely white middle-class and affluent neighborhoods who are trying to strengthen their children's identities by infusing them with black pride and history.

While not all are moving to white neighborhoods, the number of affluent blacks in Washington is on the rise. From 1990 to 2000, blacks in the state had faster growth of high-income households ($100,000 or more) than any other racial category, going from 634 to 5,157, according to the U.S. Census. In King County, 8 percent of black households met the high-

income threshold, up from 1.7 percent in 1990.

Blacks comprise just 5 percent of the county population, and 2.2 percent of its high-income households.

"We have to make a conscious effort to connect with our race," said Leigh, who grew up in a black community and moved here about 15 years ago from Los Angeles. "We have to find cultural resources and make the region work for us."

The Eastside has some of the area's largest populations of high-income blacks. On Mercer Island, 48 percent of black households make more than $100,000 a year. In Sammamish, it is 44 percent.

Making the region work for the Leigh family means going to Kwanzaa celebrations in Edmonds, to dinner with other black professionals and taking their son to swimming lessons at the YMCA on Seattle's 23rd Avenue, where there are black instructors.

It means seeing shows featuring black artists, like the Jacob Lawrence exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, and joining Jack and Jill, an organization for African-American mothers and their children. It means going to family reunions so their son understands the breadth and contributions of his ancestors.

"Self-esteem and relationship to culture have to start at home, whether you are a white or African-American parent," Leigh said.

Preparing for racism

Keith Alford, an assistant professor of social work at Syracuse University in New York, believes black parents' socialization efforts prepare kids for the racism they may experience as adults.

	ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Martin Pinckney, left, his sister Margot, center, Kaela Joyner (partially obscured by hand) and other volunteers prepare bags to hold food for the needy yesterday at a South Seattle warehouse. This was a service project of the Jack and Jill social and cultural organization.

"The importance of culture in the lives of these families often comes from concern about children navigating through race issues as they get older," Alford said. "Parents know their children will face racism, so they want to make sure the child is grounded in as much culture as possible.

"The hope is that they feel enriched and fulfilled from an identity perspective, like there is a community that speaks to who they are."

The Central District is still the symbolic heart of Seattle's African-American community, though its black population has dropped significantly in the past 30 years as residents moved to other parts of the county, primarily south.

The district saw its black population go down 20 percent from 1990 to 2000, but it still has the highest concentration of blacks in the city, almost four times the city's 8.26 percent. Affluent or not, black families still go to the Central District to dine, worship, get their hair done and shop.

Doreen Cato went to the district to find black-centric reading material when her daughter was young. The Bellevue woman picked up The Facts and The Skanner, the local newspapers serving the black community. She even went to Seattle to get Essence and Ebony until the magazines became available at Crossroads Shopping Center in East Bellevue.

"These things are not readily available for children to just pick up and learn," said Cato, who kept her now-adult daughter home from school on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday for years before it was declared a national holiday and frequently studied black history with her.

She took her to Rainier Valley to buy makeup and nylons and to get her hair done. They even crossed the lake to get black-eyed peas and collard greens on holidays.

"Apart from what I did, her whole world was about white," Cato said.

Cato's 29-year-old daughter, Christina, said she doesn't believe that simply socializing with other black kids created the sense of strength and solidarity she now feels with her culture, but she credits her mother's other efforts.

"I understand as an adult why my mom had me participate," she said.

"But as a kid, it didn't make sense. I didn't see any problem in not having black friends."

She often felt uncomfortable around other black children, because she didn't know the latest slang, the hip dances or the pop-culture references.

"I felt more like an outsider than I did with my white friends," she said. "It wasn't until I got to college and met other people of color that I felt more comfortable. I know it made a difference."

Cultural history

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Doreen Cato of Bellevue used to drive to Seattle's Central District to buy newspapers and magazines aimed at a black readership. She and her daughter would go to Rainier Valley to buy makeup and other items. Such goods are now available on the Eastside.

Some black parents see cultural history as the most important tool to children's success because it is something they do not learn in school.

"Culture is academia, not just being around other black folks," said Carl Mack, an Auburn resident and president of the Seattle chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "You have to teach your children their history. They have to know that Goldilocks exists, but also know the difference between Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.

"We live in a white neighborhood, but everything in the house is black," Mack said of his art, music, reading material, guests and subjects of discussion.

He admits there are some things you can't get from a book, like the stories that surface during family gatherings.

Some of the cultural enrichment for Mack's son will come from spending summers in Mississippi with his grandparents and perhaps attending a historically black college, he said.

Many affluent families have the money to take their children on summer trips to countries with large black populations, such as Jamaica or Kenya, so they can feel what it is like to be in the majority. Many go on annual visits to see family and friends in traditionally black cities, including Detroit, Atlanta or Washington, D.C.

"You pluck your child out, take them to other parts where African Americans live and let them spend time there," Leigh said. "All of this takes yearlong planning, but it can be done."

Justin Mayo contributed to this story. Leslie Fulbright: 206-515-5637 or lfulbright@seattletimes.com

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