President Obama’s recent trip to, and speech in, Cairo has been the subject of much discussion around the world. Some have viewed the event as a move towards unifying the world and bringing about a necessary change in the volatile relationship between the Middle East and the West. Others have viewed Obama’s decision as a betrayal of the nation’s populace, and an abandonment of the wrongs that they feel have been committed against the United States. The faction within the nation that is disappointed by the President’s decision is encompassed of people who have become comfortable with having Muslims stand as an enemy of the United States. They have grown comfortable with despising a group of people because of whom they represent; despite the fact that in many instances, these representations are false ones.

The message that was delivered by President Obama in Cairo is one that is fundamentally nested in moving beyond false representations of a group of people, and working with reason and compassion in dealing with them. In his speech in Cairo, the President mentioned that he understands that all Muslims are not extremists. He made clear that extremists hide under the umbrella of Islam, and that all Muslims are not to blame for the acts of a small minority. This accurate assertion of a group of people has caused a resuscitation of critiques of the President that came just a few weeks ago in response to his decision to release documents that reveal horrific acts of violence that the Central Intelligence Agency inflicted on terror suspects.

The documents that were released led to the uncovering of the nations darkest secrets. Although pictures weren’t released, the tenets of ethics and responsibility that the United States claims to stands for, were being questioned by the documents that described the terror that suspects underwent. As a nation that touts responsibility and care for others, the practices that the government condoned in Guantanamo Bay seemed antithetical to who we claim to be as a nation. In fact, they were more reflective of the attributes we claim to abhor in others.

In response to the revelation of these documents, and President Obama’s denouncing of these practices, a large population of the nation argued that the nation’s secrets should remain secret. They believed that the nation should hide the wrongs we have committed, and still project a picture of a nation that professes equity and democracy. The counter argument, that more accurately reflects Obama’s decision, is that in order to move forward as a nation, it is necessary to confront our wrongdoings, accept responsibility for our errors, and make a concerted effort to move forward. The release of documents that reveal our national wrongdoing was a move towards transparency. It was an effort to not remain shrouded in secrecy or speculation about what was happening with detainees.

I argue that the recent speech in Cairo and the release of documents about CIA torture were both a way to carve out a new future for how the United States is positioned internationally. These decisions were a way to say that as a nation, we acknowledge our wrongs, apologize for our mistakes, and make a commitment to move past them. This message of transparency regarding the mistreatment of terror suspects, and the extension of an olive branch to Muslims, serves as a message to the world that the United States is ushering itself into a new era.

I argue that this ushering into a new era is not only necessary in the realm of international politics, but also in the realm of domestic urban education. Just as the nation is making an effort to enter a new era in internationally, it is necessary to move towards a new era in relations with youth of color in urban settings. I argue that urban youth of color have been treated like terrorists in their own neighborhoods schools. They are treated like caricatures of who they really are and blanket statements about their abilities run rampant in urban schools. Therefore, in order to begin a new era, where these students’ needs are met within urban schools, it is necessary to reveal the wrongs that have been done in the education of urban youth. This practice must be engaged in with the same fervor that President Obama revealed the wrongs of the United States in the treatment of Muslims and terror suspects.

If we were to support the argument that schools are a microcosm of society, we can certainly look at the appointment of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, as an indicator of an administration shift in the way that schools are run. In fact, his appointment can be viewed as loosely resembling the election of the President. Arne Duncan is in a sense, the president of schools within the United States. Like President Obama, Mr. Duncan inherits a system with many challenges. He has to deal with the war on underperforming schools within urban areas and the effects of ruthless practices and countless casualties in this war. I argue that this war has as much of an impact as the war on terrorism. In both cases, the long lasting effects of war will affect the intellectual and economic viability of the nation for years to come.

Duncan himself has called education the civil rights issue of our generation and "the sure path to a more equal fair and just society." If this is the case, and I agree that it is, The inequities and injustices that exist within urban schools have been maintained for years and recent efforts to address these inequities by reprimanding urban schools have only exacerbated the situation. I argue that in order to move forward as Obama has attempted to do, a revelation of the inequities in urban schools must be revealed publicly. The wrongs of the previous administration in regards to urban education must be clearly articulated, and if need be, apologies must be made to urban families for the ways that their children have been treated in their schools.

Mr. Duncan, in his past has made it clear that he understands the significance of symbolic closing. The Dodge Renaissance Academy in Chicago, which was the site of an Obama press conference welcoming Mr. Duncan to his new position as Secretary of Education had been closed and then reopened.

In order for a new era in urban education to be ushered in, the reality has to be expressed that urban youth in schools within the United States have been segregated and treated unfairly. We must publicly denounce and close the door to our past practices. The revelation that aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act have had tremendous negative effects on urban students that must be clearly articulated to the public. Arne Duncan must clearly state that existent laws and programs in education within this country have failed. He must clearly state why and how they have particularly failed students of color in urban settings and publicly speak as Obama did in Cairo about the future of the United States  about  the vision for the future of urban schools. Not doing so would be the equivalent of maintaining camps in Guantanamo Bay, promoting bias against Muslims in the nation by not addressing the bias they experience, and continuing to torture terror suspects. If we can make such ardent strides to promote our international face to the world, we must be willing to do the same for students in urban schools.