Personal Narrative: Desegregation In The United States

Before I can delve into my students’ racial and cultural backgrounds, I must first look at my own. I am a white American, born and raised in Minnesota. My ancestors moved to America from France and Norway; however, in my family, our traditions are more Norwegian than French. For example, every Christmas we make lefse and krumkake, two traditional Norwegian foods, as a family. Growing up in Minnesota I have seen many fellow students and teachers who come from similar backgrounds, meaning of European decent. It was not until college that I met people from various locations around the world who have very different cultural backgrounds. It is my belief, that in order for me to be the best teacher I can be, that I need to be open to difference and willing to expand my horizons.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

When I was young I didn’t really realize the impact of being African-American until high school. I went to a predominately white school for elementary and middle school. I was just like any other youth. I had my group of friends who were white; I was active in school activities and clubs. I was a student athlete and I got along well with my teachers. Everyone saw me as an upbeat person with a bubbly personality. Surprisingly, race was never brought up it wasn’t an issue for me during that period of my life. However, as I got older I realize there was a difference. As an adult I could really see the prejudice in others. I recall working a on a special project for the

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any

My Mother and Father relocated from Costa Rica to New York City where they met got married and where I was born. When I was just two years old, always wanting the best for us, my father moved our family from New York City to Jacksonville, FL in search of a better paying job and the American dream so he could provide us with a better quality of life. To ensure we were always clothed and feed, my father sacrificed everything for us and worked long hours to do so. Though I did have a pronounced, safe and active upbringing the North Florida school system didn’t expect much from the Hispanics that were starting to move to the then small town; unfortunately since my parents worked so much they expected the school system

My mom, Shameka Walker, was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1973. She has two sisters and one brother. Her mother moved from Virginia and her father moved from North Carolina She is mixed race. She was segregated because she was mixed. Her family left New york because there was high crime and poverty. She left New York when she was 4 years old. They moved to Los Angeles, California. They thought that it was better than New York, until they got there.

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

I enjoyed watching the Lemon Grove Incident even though it was an older movie, but it showed us the first successful, and most meaningful United States school desegregation case. The segregation of Mexican and Mexican American students was extremely unfair in my opinion. Pushing children that couldn’t speak English and Mexican children that didn’t speak Spanish to a Mexican school was a racist act without any concern for their mental wellbeing. Mexican children that didn’t speak Spanish is just the same as white American children and shouldn’t be discriminated against. There is no difference at all except for maybe one’s skin is darker, but absolutely has nothing to do with the English language. What was more shocking to me was that 95%

Making connections is a critical component for historians to help them understand the events that have taken place. In this essay, I’m going to compare the similarities between three groups and how they relate to a certain history theme. Each term within each group relates to a particular theme, however, eventually each term will connect to one theme overall.

Consider talking with other professional personnel who specialize in multiculturalism (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). Share your interpretations in a spirit of collaboration to learn from family members about their expectations and norms for behavior (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). After teachers have considered alternative explanations and developed a different interpretation of a situation, they are able to change their behavior (Dray & Wisneski, 2011, p. 33). Educators should view

On the one hand, it is clear that white citizens in the past have opposed school desegregation as a result of system justification. The reason that white citizens in the past were able to honestly proclaim their support for better educational opportunities for black students while simultaneously expressing outrage at the notion of desegregation busing can be interpreted as form of system justification. In a study conducted by John Jost, Brett Pelham and Mauricio Carvallo, they tested non-conscious forms of system justification and the implicit and behavioral preferences for higher status groups. Using the Implicit Association test, they asked members of Stanford University (high status) and San Jose University (low status) to complete three IAT sessions. In requiring them to classify ingroup or outgroup related words with words that were positive or negative, the study found that not only did students of both groups have a higher tendency toward Stanford-favoring conditions than not, but Stanford students were more likely to have implicit associations that were favorable toward themselves (Jost, Pelham & Carvallo, 2002). That is to say, high-status members expressed automatic affective preference and non-conscious favoritism towards members of their own group more than low-status group members. This finding is particularly relevant when examining the behavior of white citizens in the past. Many whites would sincerely protest that they were not prejudiced against low-status

In those days, I could never comprehend how my actions warranted my removal. I was raised by a successful Black single mother who taught me at an early age what it meant to be a Black woman in today’s American society. The daughter of sharecroppers from Mississippi, education was always important to my mother. My grandparents worked hard to make sure she could receive the education they could not and in turn, my mother stopped at nothing to make sure my brother and I had the best educational experiences possible. She always encouraged me to use my voice, to ask questions and to stand up for myself. The middle school I went to was majority minority, mostly Black and Latino, but my Gifted and Talented classes were nearly all White. Having experienced microaggressions and in some cases blatant racism throughout her career, my mother quickly figured out she had to work that much harder being Black and female. She would constantly tell me to “be quicker, be slicker, be smarter”—essentially meaning to stay on your toes and two steps ahead of

The very first court-ordered case of desegregation in school occur in New Rochelle. The Board of Education was sued for the gerrymander of the elementary schools and creating a de facto school for black children, Lincoln Elementary School. The United States Supreme Court rejected certiorari- where a higher court reviews the decision of a lower court- and let stand the adjudication of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1962. The Court of Appeals declared that the Lincoln School District boundaries were designed to segregate the New Rochelle elementary schools. In 1965, the Lincoln Elementary School was shut down and destroyed, eliminating not only building, but also an essential time in the history of New

Coming from a diverse community to a predominantly all white community has been a slow transition. I’ve experienced situations where sometimes I question my identity and who I really am. I’ve experience microaggressions within my work environment and my internship at the Boys and Girls club in Mckinleyville. Kids are extraordinary, but are a mirror image of their parents or adult figures present in the household. You can see by the way kids talk to peers or adult figures, treat one another, that there’s an unfair thinking being embedded in their cognitive development. This will affect them in how they go about their day, who they chose to interact with, what they allow to happen and the type of