Bias In African American Education

In this paper, I will explore the aspects regarding racial inequality pertaining to education in the United States of America. It has come to my attention, based on my observations, that race is a definitive factor that plays a role in establishing socioeconomic status. In relation to socioeconomic status, variables correlating with race that I will be focusing on, is the educational and wealth aspects. An individual’s level of education is pivotal to establishing stable, consistent wealth and vice-versa; the access for quality education is inconsistent primarily among minority races/ethnicities. According to historical records ranging from the year 1980 to 2000, between Whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Native Americans, the educational attainment gap is widening (Kelly 2005). Education is seen to be a source of respect and key to gaining a higher income, which transfers over to greater wealth. Acknowledging the slow expansion of the educational attainment disparities, I argue that the society’s perceptions and actions addressing race perpetuates and produces social inequalities by limiting opportunities despite “equal” resources, privileges, and rights through social policies that have contributed towards the quality of America’s education system.

For centuries African Americans have fought for equal rights, one of them being an opportunity for the chance to get an equal education. Many people believe that African Americans have an equal or better chance at getting an education than other students. This is not the case when in fact, it is actually harder for these three reasons: African American students tend to come from harsh, poverty stricken atmospheres. Shattered family lifestyles that make it difficult to pursue a higher education because they have not received the proper information. Secondly, just because African Americans are minorities does not mean that they receive a vast amount of government assistance or financial aid to pursue a higher education. Lastly, African

Racial disparities exist in every aspect of our society. It exists in religion, socioeconomic status, life-chances, media, etc. It affects everyone even if they realize or not. Education is one of the things that are also affected by the racial stratification occurring in the United States. In this paper I will look in to whether Tennessee is better or worse for educational advancement by comparing four races and their high school graduation rates on the national and state levels. The four races used will be; Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White. I will then tie specific theories to why these disparities may exist. This will hopefully give insight in to this touchy topic and provide a starting point for correcting the gap.

African Americans have endured many trials and tribulations over the centuries. Our people have suffered from war, violence, and anguish simply because of the color of our skin. Our history has been so blatantly missing from textbooks and the K-12th grade educational atmosphere. Our educational system continues to neglect the history of our African American ancestors and fail to provide them with the educational resources to inform them of our past and allow them to learn about the true origins of our culture. We have made many significant contributions to the world but those have also been highly ignored as well.

Over the course of this semester, I was introduced to many people, ideas, writings, and discussions that sparked my interest and enlightened me on African American history. However, I feel like this was just the beginning of my journey of learning the history of my people, as there is still so much out there to be brought to the surface. Prior to taking this course, I was always ignorant on the topic of African American history and simply made the connection to slavery. Additionally, I was unaware of other black activist, movements, and struggles that I had the chance to witness for the first time in this class. I came to a realization of how deprived of this information I was, because other historic events have been deemed more important. A quote that stuck with me throughout the course that was made by Arthur Schomburg was, “... African history and negro history, are the missing pages of world history”.

African Americans are the most judged group of individuals in the U.S. and around the world. Many American and non-American citizens see African American males as threating and thugs, while others view African American females as angry and ghetto. These stereotypes have led to Blacks being least likely to date outside of their race compared to other races. In this study we will discussing the reasons why White Americans would either object or not object to a member of their family bringing home an African American for dinner, we will also look at how education, gender, and region affect these decisions. In this study we will go into detail about why these attributes can cause different responses with White American. This research is important because there has been little to no research done on how whites really feel about family members dating outside their race and to test why White Americans would either except or object this notion. While White and Black Americans have come a long way in our hatred for each other we still have so far to go. Americans (White, Black, Hispanic, and other) are all entitled to our own opinions but these opinions should not be based off of racism.

Racial inequality persists in the current U.S. education system, despite nationwide efforts to promote the acceptance of students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Minority students, most notably African American and Latino, receive lower qualities of education compared to the Caucasian majority and are, as a result, at an indisputable disadvantage after primary and secondary education. According to a 2014 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, “students of color in public schools are punished more and receive less access than white students to experienced teachers” (Abdul-Jabbar 31). Higher suspension rates and an increased frequency of corporal punishment use, allowed in 19 states as of 2014 according to Business Insider (Adwar), for minority students are two disciplinary examples of underlying racial discrimination with the current U.S. education system. Economic repercussions of racial inequality in education have been proven to include wealth gaps, higher unemployment rates, and financial instability for minorities in later life. Due to the prominence of racial segregation within schools, it remains a controversial point of debate in modern-day society, resulting in attempts such as affirmative action to establish racial equality in education. In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), the United States Supreme Court declared affirmative action to be a justified policy in the

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

Abstract: Since the Transatlantic Slave Trade, African Americans have been dependent upon those of fairer complexions to educate them about the culture and history of their own people. Unfortunately, the trip over to the Americas caused them to lose touch with several parts of their being; native tongues, culture/heritage and most of all their self-righteous. Somewhere along the way they forgot that they are creators of every major practice; from metallurgy to agriculture; practices that essentially influenced the entire world. The Transatlantic Slave Trade essentially and effectively brainwashed a group of people. It caused people of the African diaspora to lose sight of who they really are; installing negative and inferior perception of their ancestry, while also installing white superiority through their mindsets. African Americans innately depended on white people for every part of their life, even later slavery. In regards to education, African Americans depended on white Americans to build infrastructures for the education of black people. This unfortunately continued the cycle of white dependency. While African Americans thought they were enhancing their knowledge, all they were doing was becoming more equipped servants to their white

“When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions”.(Woodson ix) After the hand of slavery, some African Americans felt that it is necessary to be educated, so they can add value to themselves and to their community through the help of education, But it was quiet unfortunate that the education they acquired was bias in multiple ways and areas. “Negros are taught to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton and to despise the African” ( Woodson Chapter1). Many African Americans’ today believe that they were being sold-out by their own people in back in Africa, the motherland, perhaps in actuality, most of the people that were taken away from the continent of Africa were not sold-out but forcefully taken away by the Europeans. African Americans have been miseducated in various ways such as history, literature, religion, philosophy, are all propaganda just to misdirect the African American make them look bad or seem pretty much worthless.

One of the biggest problems Africans Americans faced in America is Segregation, discrimination, racism, prejudice, rebellion, religion, resistance, and protest. These problems have helped shape the Black struggle for justice. Their fight for justice marks a long sequence of events towards their freedom. Provisions of the Constitution affect the operation of government agencies and/or the latitude chief executives and legislatures in the creation and implementation of policies today. The rights and passage of Amendments granted to African Americans in the Constitution serve as a source of “first principles” governing the actions and policies of elected and appointed public servants across the United States. The 15th Amendment Equal Rights: Rights

As years continue to proceed, African Americans has became indolent when it came to the exhibits of black history. Nobody every takes the time to encounter more data about the wealthy black ancestors that came from the ancient kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in Central and West Africa. It seems as if African Americans only want to show people the negative aspects of being colored. Many that are against a wider variety of information on black history believes that discussing the adversity that blacks endured during and after the seventeenth century is more important than teaching about how blacks were superior people before the slave trade. If people are only taught the defective materials, that can play a major role in how they view the other ethnic group and how they view their self.

The article I chose to analyze and pick out the bias is “Teaching Tolerance in America” by Dudley Erskine Devlin. Devlin begins by talking about the current state of high schools in America. He talks about the many ways that the schools are falling short and how it is a significant problem. Devlin says the three main problems are racial differences, gender differences, and social differences. Devlin states that certain solutions are not helping out, or that nothing is being done to help, and gives his own solutions he thinks would help.

Bias is a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned according to Dictionary.com in America a black American is judge by his or her appearance and behavior also known as social stratification, but according to the popularity of Caucasian they are consider to be normal to society compared to an individual who is colored is to be treated as an alienation meaning something that does not exist sociologically. According to President Donald Trump states that “African Americans are lazy fools only good at eating, lovemaking and thuggish” fake news sites have tended to bolster their stories with comments Mr. Trump did actually make. So some stories are quite plausible. (Odonel) Scientist and African American philosophers legitimate believed that if all truth is subjective, then there is no need for its jurisdiction.

It is now over a century and a half since President Abraham Lincoln took the courageous step of issuing the emancipation proclamation that essentially laid the foundation for the freeing of African-Americans from slavery. Since then, African-Americans have been engaged in a never-ending struggle to effectively appropriate this hard fought freedom. The election of Barack Obama into the highest office of the United States is perhaps a significant enough achievement that speaks volumes of just how far African-Americans have come. However, a closer look at Americas social, economic and political fabric reveals a grim truth – that close to two centuries after gaining their freedom, African-Americans are still discriminated based on their racial identity. Of course the amount and form of discrimination is quite different from the total oppression of the slavery years, but still, for many African-Americans, it appears as though very little has changed. From housing to education to employment, African-Americans face numerous challenges that further taint the sacred values contemplated by the founding fathers of America. This essay takes a critical view at racial discrimination in schools with respect to African-American students.