Precious Knowledge Documentary Analysis

It has become common today to dismiss the lack of education coming from our impoverished public schools. Jonathan Kozol an award winning social injustice writer, trying to bring to light how our school system talks to their students. In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal," Kozol visits many public high schools as well as public elementary schools across the country, realizing the outrageous truth about segregating in our public education system. Kozol, cross-examining children describing their feelings as being put away where no one desires your presence. Children feeling diminished for being a minority; attending a school that does not take into consideration at the least the child’s well being. Showing clear signs of segregation in the education system.

Systematic racism within education Institutions, such as the lack of adequate funding as well as subtle discrimination, continues to be the root of the problem that plagues this nation. Even though segregation was abolished in 1964, the lingering effects that remain are significant and cannot be passively mended. Although it is tempting to think that this prejudice is caused by a select few and not the many, it is clear that this problem holds more depth. Recent studies conducted by the National Education Studies (NEA) have proven that even in school’s African American students are often times targeted and punished at a significantly higher rate when compared to their white peers. The study states “Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions [in the] nation, and more than two thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic” (Blacks: Education Issues). This study conducted by the Department of Education, cabinet-level department of the United States

Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop

The Warren Court described the practice of having separate schools for black and white children as inherently unequal in the revolutionary court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) in the following ways. It allows for a significant difference to occur in educational and professional opportunities for black and white students, it leads minority children and teenagers to internalize the perception that they are inherently lesser than their Caucasian counterparts based on their race. Consequently, it also leads minority children and adolescents to have a lack of motivation in the school setting since they have internalized the thought pattern of inferiority so deeply that it affects how they think of themselves and their ability to learn.

In the article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Education Apartheid” author Jonathan Kozol informs us about inequality and segregation in today’s school systems. Kozol talks about schools were minority’s makes up the student body. For example, Kozol refers to John F. Kennedy High School where the majority of the student body is made up by African Americans and Hispanic students, only a third of the students are white. Kozol states that schools like these are typically underprivileged schools that normally have structural issues and also lack behind in technology and resources for students. Kozol also brings up the predominately white schools where on average there is more money spent on students and funding is not a problem, these

In the primarily African American cities within the United States education in school systems is absolutely terrible. Not only that but also the children in the schools wouldn’t stay in them long enough to get a high school diploma. This mixed with the preconceptions southern white plantation owners had of African Americans circa 1860 led many people to believe that African Americans were not psychologically equal to people of other races and ethnicities. This series of transitive thinking made me wonder why are these school systems so bad? The answer was simple lack of

In “Opinion of the Court in Brown v Board of Education” (1954) Chief Justice Earl Warren argues that “separate but equal” has no place in American public education. Justice Warren goes on to support his claim by saying that black and white schools can never be equal because there are intangible things that go into a child’s learning that cannot be measured; therefore, if these things cannot be measured it can never be certain that the black and white schools are equal. In order to demonstrate the intangible inequities in segregated schools, Justice Warren recounts previous court cases where black students were placed at a disadvantage because they were sent to separate schools that were inherently unequal, despite having “equal facilities.”

The film Precious Knowledge takes a deeper look into the defense and fall of the Ethnic Studies program within the Tucson Unified School District. During the standoff, as Arizona lawmakers bombarded the students and educators with threats and false claims. A major question surrounding the film is whether or not this program’s failure was preventable. Jeff Biggers approaches the situation from a politically centralized point of view, having written for The New York Times, The Nation, and The Washington Post, as well as, working with MSNBC's “All In” with Chris Hayes. Biggers writes the review “Arizona’s Precious Knowledge: Blockbuster New Film Chronicles Ethnic Studies Battle” where he looks at the bureaucracy behind the film rather than

It has become common today to dismiss the lack of education coming from impoverished schools. Jonathan Kozol an award winning social injustice writer, trying to bring to light how our school system genuinely ponders their students. In his essay “Still Separate, Still UNEQUAL," Kozol visits many public high schools as well as elementary schools across the country, realizing the outrageous truth about segregating in our public education system. Kozol, cross-examining children describing their feelings as being put away where no one desires your presence. Children feeling diminished for being a minority; attending a school that does not take into consideration at the least the child’s well being. Showing clear signs of segregation in the education system.

Many of the patriarchal euro-centric structures in place in the US, that are ultimately discriminatory and oppressive, have become increasingly harder to detect and more obscure. America’s educational system has been largely unaffected by attempts to eliminate racial discrimination and social inequity (Taylor, Gillborn, Ladson-Billings, 2009; Tate, 1997). Despite such educational reform attempts such as Brown v. Board of Education, Affirmative Action, No Child Left Behind Act, Race to the Top, and standardized curriculum and testing, many legal and political scholars of color question whether civil rights legislation shows continued movement toward social justice. Instead, it is argued that through conveyance of speech in the Brown decision, the message conveyed was that segregation as unconstitutional was the act of perpetuating the conception that Blacks are inferior, an untouchable caste, unfit to be educated with white children (Tate, 1997). These attempts at educational reform could be considered mere vernacular expressions of goodwill rather than legitimate attempts at equity. As a result of legal discourse combined with historical societal beliefs that Blacks are intellectually inferior, it is reasonable to expect little benefit of equitable social investment in education and other social services that would benefit underrepresented minorities. Critical race theorists argue that Whites continue to capture the significant

Part One of “The Problem We All Live With”, reported by Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times, begins by explaining the correlation between the racial() makeup of ‘bad schools’ versus ‘good schools’. Specifically, Hannah-Jones states that ‘bad schools’ are made up mostly of black children and ‘good schools’ are made up mostly of white children. She discusses the massive education gap between these schools, about the programs that No Child Left Behind unsuccessfully

“I say to you, quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over.” Is a statement that most people can get behind in today’s world, where news of racial injustice sprouts up seemingly every day from across the globe. The call for equality in the United States has been around since its genesis as a colony, with different eras finding various cases of success. Such examples could include: the abolition of slavery, the legalization of interracial marriage or the desegregation of public schools. Even with these cases, and many others, standing tall as marks of progress, our country could use further reform in the education department. It has become apparent, through much research, that desegregating schools by law doesn’t clean up the internal prejudice present in many of our classrooms today.

The Holding Ground documentary was powerful and highly effective in showing the struggle of the Dudley Street and the Roxbury neighborhood and their struggle to in effect take back their neighborhoods. The people in the video were passionate about their community and faced many obstacles like illegal dumping and arson for profit as well as a committee of people who had no idea about the community making decisions without having anyone in the community representing them. In the documentary, Robert Holmes, Jr a Trustee at the Riley Foundation discussed how the board was having a community meeting. He originally thought that Che Madyun was sent in as an agitator. He then realized that she was just passion about her community and had valid points.

As a victim of sexual assault, this documentary was far from easy to watch. Not only did I relive the terrors of my own personal experience, but I was also able to capture the emotions behind the experiences of each victim that told their story throughout the documentary. The Hunting Ground was a true eye opener in regards to what truly goes on behind closed doors and how relentlessly one could turn their back on the situation. The Hunting Ground follows the stories of undergraduate rape survivors and their journey to justice. The documentary also sheds light upon the victim’s Universities and Colleges and how their school’s Sexual Misconduct and Violence policies had deeply failed them.

We received several inquiries about the Champion documentary after an email went out about the RSVP screening in Sacramento, CA. There was a lot of confusion surrounding the RSVP process because it said get your “tickets”. People were under the impression that they would get an email with tickets they could print, but instead, the website said “thank you for your RSVP” without explaining there was nothing more they needed to do.