On a brighter note about Detrroit schools, Time' Assignment Detroit blog has a powerful pair of short essays this morning.
Since the beginning of high school three years ago, I've been called white, or it's been said that I "act white," when I say or do something that doesn't fit my designated stereotype as a Detroit-bred, black male teen.

We should want to be known as a group of people who are educated, and who conduct ourselves in a proper fashion — not as people who decided that being that way is a bad thing.
- - Joshua Jamerson, Renaissance high junior, blogging here

I am an African-American, but they say I “speak white.” Since elementary school I have been teased for the way I talk.

. . . I was not accepted as black among my friends. The language I used was just “too proper” to be “black”. That's just sad. It's just hurtful to think that my generation does not believe that using proper English is the way black people should be speaking. What is strange about speaking English correctly? If I am educated, why should I speak as though I am not?
- - Taylor Trammell, Mumford High senior, blogging here