Racism And Inequality : An Adult Homework Helper For The Sumner Library

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.

In the mid 1800s, the question of whether slavery was ethical or not was a particularly contentious matter. Slaves struggled to withstand the harsh treatments from their master’s, along with getting an education, until 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment formally abolished slavery. Although slavery was no longer tolerated, the racial bigotry did not end. Fast forward to the 1950s, and racial inequality is still prevalent in society. Segregation existed in almost every aspect of life ranging from miniscule topics such as where one can sit on the bus, to more serious topics such as quality of education one child receives. This discrimination was fought through protests in the civil rights movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s. As an American high school student in a country still plagued with racial discrimination today, it is imperative to remember the true value of a quality education. While James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” and Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write” both emphasize the need for racial equality in education, Baldwin’s forceful and angry tone ultimately make his speech the more rhetorically effective of the two.

With landmark Supreme Court decisions in regards to education such as Brown v Board of Education, which made segregation within schools illegal, one would be inclined to believe that modern schools are void of any inequality. However, at a deeper glance, it is apparent that there is a glaring inequality within public school systems at the national, statewide, and even district-wide level. Such an inequality has drastic results as the education one receives has a high correlation to the college they will attend, and the job they will work. It is in society's best interest that public school systems be improved to equally supplement students with the tools necessary to succeed. While the public school system aims to reduce the inequality within it, they have proven ineffective in guaranteeing children of all races and economic classes an equal education.

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.

Reynolds illustrates how there are a variety of different ways social justice can be taught, and explains how each teacher has a different way of implementing the same ideas. She provides examples of lessons a child might learn and the biases behind it teaching social justice. Reynolds is concerned with the age range of teaching social justice and when is considered the appropriate time. New teachers are now getting taught how to teach social justice within the class room, and the curriculum is changing to include aspects of social justice. Reynolds states how social justice is a branch off the bigger question of “who gets to decide the best

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol documents the troubling inequalities within American public school systems and their various districts. Thus focusing on the “savage inequalities” between highly privileged districts and poor districts within these public school systems. From the time period of 1988 to 1990, Jonathan Kozol visited various public schools in multiple neighborhoods, including East St. Louis, the Bronx, Chicago, Harlem, Jersey City, and San Antonio. Throughout the chapters, Kozol describes horrendous conditions within these schools and questions the students, faculty, and staff members regarding their reflection of the current school’s maintenance, teachers’ salary and availability, and student’s deteriorating curriculum.

The disparity facing African-Americans in education is cyclic in nature in that if a parent lacks the proper education required to possess a high earning power and as a result become another statistic of the lower class of the economy, hence being unable to provide their children with resources such as tutoring and other services that would help provide educational equity for them, these children are stuck lagging behind their upper-class peers that have access to these resources, leaving them with a lesser quality of education and limiting both their future earning power and their future children’s exposure to better educational resources, hence the cycle of educational disparity that plagues the African-Americans as a race.

Until quite recently, education in the United States has been more of a privilege than a human right. Slaves were deprived of reading and writing, and schools were not integrated until the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century. Even then, African-American students continued to face the harsh realities of discrimination and inferior opportunities to white students. Still today, while education has become mandatory for all children through law, many students are not provided with the proper information and resources to become successful adults. We often take education for granted, but for many young students, the idea of lifelong knowledge is somewhat of a liberating factor. Through often difficult yet inevitable situations, however,

Way before my time there has been many organizations that stepped forwarded to help in the fight of racism and equality. I could sit here and give you a list that could possibly go for miles, but in today’s history, there are only a few that stood out. Back in the early 60s, Mississippi was one of the most known locations, that dealt with racism at a low cost. Individuals took matter into their own hands and decided to fight against the system and fight for what they thought was right. Although these organizations had different purposes, they stood together, because they all had the same belief, but the real question is who was more beneficial?

I have grown up in a lower class house hold, and through schooling I have been given the opportunity to lucubrate social inequalities within our society. Through such studious efforts I have gained a desire to further not just my own knowledge, but the knowledge others too. I have been working on a sociological presentation that uses strain theory, labeling theory, Thomas Nagel's theory of moral luck, and various research on the development and upkeep of drug laws and institutional racism to elucidate the disparity of wealth, education, and opportunity for personal success seen in this country. I plan to complete this presentation and, as a guest speaker, use it to educate middle school students of this incongruity had within our society in

Racism is one of the biggest issues that haunts today’s human society, as it corrupts politics, sparks conflict, takes lives and pollutes humanity. Racism has left horrible tragedies and darkened the history of all countries, yet is still in today’s society, disturbing peace around the world. Since ethnocentrism is common within society, it results in prejudice, which can lead to racism. There are many causes for racism. However, when stripped off all of its guises, it is nothing but fear - the fear of unfamiliarity, being unworthy and the fear of being guilty. Racism may be solved by understanding people’s cultures, block the fear inside their hearts and acknowledge that people’s obsession to be superior as the root to racism.

Over the last eight weeks, we have visited and deeply discussed many topics that surround social justice in the classroom. These topics have ranged from social justice in the world to how to create a socially just classroom and everything in between. In class, there has been a few times where it has been uncomfortable because the topics can bring out many opinions in the room. Many people in the room shared their opinions, including me, which brought up many other discussions. In this essay, I will be discussing our navigations through the social justice issues that classrooms face by talking about the key points of our class throughout the last eight weeks.

Education is a privilege given to people in a free society so they can gain knowledge and have a broad awareness of the world they live in. However, this privilege has unequally been stripped from people of color throughout history. People of color currently experience education at a disadvantage because they are taught with the understanding that they should naturally recognize the culture, when they do not. There are many steps educators can take to help students of color gain the education they deserve, but they are stuck in their self-proclaimed, righteous methods and believe change is unnecessary. In Lisa D. Delpit’s essay, “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children,” she argues that there are