Race and the Sociological Imagination

In America, we are told that it is the land where everything and anything is possible. For many years, it wasn’t like that for African American. With many hard work, strength, and courage African American manage to earn the right to an education. To the African American community education became more of a need than a want. We’ve learn that education is such a powerful asset that with it you are unstoppable. You can do so much if you put your time and energy to it. Having an education to African American is the one hope for a brighter and better

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

For my Argumentative Essay “Modern Day Re-Segregation in Today’s Schools”, I will be addressing Professor Kelly Bradford and my fellow students of Ivy Tech online English Composition 111-54H. As I chose Martin Luther King’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” as my core reading topic, I have gained an interest in not only the fight for civil rights that Mr. King lead in the 1950’s but have gotten interested in how there is still a large gap in equality in education due to the current situation of not only educational segregation but social and economic segregation. Through my research I have discovered that not only segregation in the schools is on the rise, but that socioeconomic segregation exists and is fueling the decrease in academic success by impoverished students. Through my writing I want to demonstrate that the socioeconomic isolation and segregation not only affects those that are directly bound by it, but that it affects every American in some form or other. I am submitting my writing as a formal academic manuscript.

This chapter elaborates on how racism has a negative impact on African American education, in which has been happening for many decades and is currently taking place. Furthermore, it speaks about segregation and how it currently exists in different ways. Additionally, it speaks on how segregation not only exist in one school, but it likewise exists across the school districts. It speaks on how segregation in these schools has a negative impact on students’ academic success and future success.

Many say that to avoid many Black Americans being arrested, having a wage gap, or failing in life, they should pay more attention in class . But, according to Avakian, “ Education alone is not sufficient; it will take a revolution, in which the rule of the exploiters and oppressors is broken and state power is put into the

One of the structural problems with society that have not been addressed is how differently African-Americans are treated from the Whites. Because of the modified education that the African-Americans get, they will never truly seize the opportunity to live life to their fullest. Dr. King states “the discount education given

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

According to Marian Wright Edelman, “Education is a precondition to survival in America Today. Unfortunately, a good quality education that will ensure a successful and economically stable future for our children today is not available to all children, especially young Black males. According to Jenkins (2006) in the needs assessment for African American Men of Arizona State University (AAMASU) program, the university noted that Black males experience a high level of underachievement in the higher education arena, over involvement in the criminal system, and high rates of unemployment, poverty, and dying via homicide (Arizona State University, 2004). All too often African American males have been caught in a web of stereotyped notions of race and gender that place them at considerable disadvantages in schools and ultimately society (Howard, 2008). According to Hooks (2004) more than any other group of men in our society black males are perceived as lacking intellectual skills. The 1900 census reports that 57% of black males were illiterate. Now as we move onward in the twenty-first century, black males make up a huge percentage of those who are illiterate (Hooks, 2004). Society will looks at our young black men and label them as lazy, uneducated, underachievers, and highly involved in the criminal justice system, however at the same time, it overlooks how they got there. According to Jenkins (2006) this has not always been the case. Prior to the segregation of schools, young

Although African Americans make up merely fourteen percent of the U.S. population, thirty-seven percent of people who are homeless are African Americans. Forty-two percent of African American children are educated in all high-poverty schools. In 2012, the mean critical reading SAT score for college accepted students was 428 for African Americans and 527 for whites. For mathematics, it was 428 for African Americans and 536 for whites. For writing it was 417 for African Americans and 515 for whites (National Center for Educational Statistics). These staggering data manage to encompass just a few of the issues that are prevalent among African Americans in the United States. However, people may find themselves wondering how these figures came to be; who is responsible and what can be done? Many will begin turning to stereotypes for justification of this issue: African Americans are lazy, African Americans are criminals, African Americans are indifferent towards education. Indeed, that shallow assumption can be made made based on sole observation, but further research unveils an extraordinarily different conclusion. In order to understand this, one must dig deep into the history books and study the turbulent past of African Americans. Doing so, I was able to form a deduction that shows the origin of so many issues that the African American community is pressed with. African Americans experience the ramifications of their pasts everyday through the effects of denied access to

Chapman, T. (2010). Encyclopedia of African American education (pp. 651-654). K. Lomotey (Ed.). Los Angeles, [Calif.: SAGE.

The schools’ curriculum tends to omit the value and richness of the heritage of African Americans’ culture and traditions at all times. Education is power, information is valuable, but it is very unfortunate that African Americans have been indoctrinated or falsely program to create a mentality of meritocracy in comparison to other

Many people see education as a privilege, however I see it as an opportunity. As an African American male I make it my mission to continue the work of those black men and women who worked tirelessly to make sure that have the option to obtain higher education. I realize that I stand on the shoulder of those men and women. Hearing and understanding their stories of doing whatever it took to make sure that they were educated – knowing that education brought them dignity and respect that no one could take away from them; helped me understand that education is the key that unlocks doors. Education will allow me to be a change agent in the world and fight against social injustices and on behave of those who are unable to speak for themselves. Education

Tragically, some poorly performing schools accommodate as pipelines to prison for youths. But black people in America have an opulent history of resisting the efforts to keep them uneducated, including slaves learning in secret, the elevate of ebony colleges and universities, court battles, the ebony history kinetics, Liberation Schools in the 1960s, and community-predicated academic and mentorship programs that avail our youths prosper. Once formal schooling begins, inequalities continue. More than 140,000 students were held back in kindergarten in the 2011-2012 school year. Black students are more likely to be held back, despite mounting research showing that holding back children doesn’t benefit them socially or academically and makes them more likely to drop out later. Retention rates for students hit a high in ninth grade, when 34 percent of students held back are black. While 12 percent of black students are held back in ninth grade, just 4 percent of white students are, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection. When all grade levels are combined, black students are nearly three times more likely to be held back as their white peers. There is no surer way to get a whoop of appreciation from a Negro consultation than to affirm how strong black people are, how we have survived. As the title of a popular motivational book for African American English puts

On January 26, class begun by Dr. Mullins asking the class to spend the first few minutes answering the question what is race? The term race is difficult to define as a result of the belief that it is “racist” to talk about race. Although how do we know what race is if we do not discuss it within society. After much thought I defined race as an individual’s background that may be used to describe their ancestor’s demographics as well as their religion. However, today people tend to put more emphasis on race being the color of an individual’s skin. As discussed in class society does not understand what race is, but for some reason it is important to us. Deep down race is a social construction that we make exist through our behavior. It is important to educate people about race to help break down these boundaries society has created. If we created it we can demolish it, and education is key.

Even as claims of society’s progressiveness and advancements pour in, the fires burning from racial debates have yet to be extinguished (Yudell, et al., 2016). Not only has the social