Rac(e)ing to Class

"In reading Milner's book, I was immediately struck by the similarities between the experiences he shares, and the educational situation of Indigenous people here in Australia. Notwithstanding the need for context and locational sensitivity, there are nevertheless salient lessons within Milner's book for Australian educators and policy makers….Milner's book is not the first of its kind, and is unlikely to be the last if present inequities, prejudices and poor quality outcomes persist. While Milner looks through a ‘race-based’ prism to explain and counter social disadvantage, fellow African-American leading academic Sheryll Cashin adopts a ‘place-based’ approach to the same issues in her seminal work called ‘Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America’. Whether one chooses to look through Milner's window of ‘race’ or through Cashin's window of ‘place’, chances are we are looking at the same children. All young people – in the United States, Australia and elsewhere – deserve a high-quality education, which means greater equity in places and between races. Now there's a place worth racing to."  Australian Journal of Education, February 2016