David Campos – Education Security Map


On an 8X11 white canvas the words Education Security Map are in large font across the top. In opaque lettering behind like a base layer there are words that repeat “Test Scores Segregation Tool, Language mastery Segregation Tool.” Above this is a rough outline of the current high school boundary map for Fresno Unified. Inside each boundary is the following text: 
In 1936, a map of Fresno was created with color-coded sections, and the legend read “Residential Security Map.” I could explain to you the deeply seeded racism behind this, but you already know this. You may already be familiar with redlining and the push for defacto segregation. 
School secession has become commonplace. In fact, so much so, that one school in Fresno Unified has tried on more than one occasion. First, the parents. Then the teachers. 
The school in this area had a racist mascot. It’s now a building.
There is even one High School left out of these boundaries because it is a magnet school; magnet schools were created to end forced bussing and to introduce “School choice.” The erasure is a choice. 
This is an outline of FUSD’s boundaries. 
This is no mention of this in the history curriculum. 
For a long time, schools had been funded by local tax dollars. A school in this area closed when integration began.

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Artist’s Statement: In the article “The Resegregation of Jefferson County,” Nikole Hannah-Jones writes that “since 2000, at least 71 communities across the country, most of them white and wealthy, have sought to break away from their public-school districts to form smaller, more exclusive ones.” This led to research into my state’s segregation and integration efforts. The rhetoric, the maps, and the data were all there—coded language, school boundaries, and even diversity statements covered the stagnant “struggle” toward integration. As an educator, this project provided context for my experience and those of the students in the classroom. Notes and citations will appear at the end of the project. 

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