Nice White Parents and the Phantom Public School
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2021-12
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Citation of Original Publication
Loviglio, Jason. Nice White Parents and the Phantom Public School. RadioDoc Review 7 (2021) 1. https://ro.uow.edu.au/rdr/.
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Abstract
Serial Productions’ Nice White Parents tells the story of “an utterly ordinary, squat, three-story New York
City public school building”, and the many schools it has housed over six decades; each one, it turns out,
shaped in ironic and disastrous ways by white parents’ ambivalent desire for diversity. Like some earlier
Serial efforts, this is a story on a theme: the failure of the American experiment in public, democratic
institutions. Thanks to impressive archival research, candid interviews with a wide range of stakeholders,
and a deftly delivered dose of Serial’s trademark reflexivity between the object of study and the reporter’s
investment, what could have been a depressing dirge for democracy is instead a lively dialectic
exploration of the difficulty and necessity of equitable public institutions.