Racism And Racism In Education

"If teachers across America would arise and make the personal commitment to do something about racism, beginning with their own selves, their eventual impact would, I believe, be tremendous" (Hacker 191).

The intersectionality of race and racism in education and how researchers’ conception of race may affect the research methods used are best understood multidimensionally (Feagin & Elias, 2013). This means that there is no one way to understand why race may affect the research method used, the way in which systemic racism may play a role in the researcher or the individuals they choose to study, the scope of the work that they select, and the way in which they report their findings. So far this term, we have read articles and text that describe race and racism through different lends on why there are discrepancies in the literature and research.

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.

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

Public education has faced many extreme challenges and obstacles historically. Based on the films I’ve viewed I think the top issues were segregation and poverty. Segregation in schools started in the 1800s and continued until the 1960s. I learned mostly about the problems with segregation in the film A Struggle for Education Equality. In the film, it explains facts and statistics about children and how their lives were like. From around the time period of 1950-1980 schools were very much segregated and only ⅗ of students graduated and 50% of them went to college. The fight for equality in schools began in Topeka Kansas where high schools became integrated. Elementary schools, however, were not integrated and still segregated. The NAACP tried to have 13 parents try to enroll their kids into white school but of course, it failed because of segregation. Linda Brown was one of the children in the experiment and that’s when the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka of 1954 was created which banned the inequality in schools. The southern states still had segregation problems, unfortunately, but the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gave 4 billion dollars of aid to disadvantaged children and around 9 years after that, 91% of southern black children attended integrated schools. Segregation had clearly gotten so much better but was a major problem for a long time in terms of public education. Poverty, in my opinion, is another major problem facing public education today. In

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.

Who we are and how we are treated as children is directly correlated to who we will become as adults. Spoken by Lyndon B. Johnson, “Until Justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” These words are echoed throughout the educational system that is put in place today. Jonathan Kozol, an award-winning writer and public lecturer who focuses on social injustice in the United States, reverberates these words in his article, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”. Kozol proves his mastery in persuasion by the facts he provides and the personal anecdotes from teachers and students.

School institutional racism is in the form of teachers, resources and harsher punishment that potentially leads to school- to- prison pipeline towards blacks and minorities starting at a young age. Low income neighborhoods have a higher population of blacks and other minorities, and since those neighboring schools are funded through property taxes these schools are extremely underfunded, understaffed, and lack the resources needed to properly provide these students with the education they need. As stated in the article by Myles Moody, “This current system is set up to fail Black Children (Moody, 2016).” Most teachers who are employed in these low income schools may employ inexperience teachers who lack the ability and experience to bond with their students and their cultural needs (Moody, 2016). This lack of bonding is developed because there is a lack of congruency between the students and the staff. The teachers also lack the experience to also build a good rapport with their students’ parents; therefore, there is a high level of mistrust towards teachers that directly impact the students’ level of education (Moody, 2016). When the teacher, student and parent develop a good relationship with one another, the teacher is more inclined and comfortable to report to the parent any possible behavioral or learning discrepancies

American society likes to believe that race relations in our country are no longer strained. We do not want to hear about the need for affirmative action or about the growing numbers of white supremacist groups. In order to appease our collective conscious, we put aside the disturbing fact that racism is alive and well in the great U.S.A. It hides in the workplace, it subtly shows its ugly face in the media, and it affects the education of minority students nationwide. In the following excerpts from an interview with a middle class African American male, the reader will find strong evidence that race plays a major role in determining the type and quality of education a student receives.

Institutional racism has solidified its position into various aspects of American society. It has installed itself into employment practices, all levels of education, healthcare, housing, politics and the criminal justice system. Institutional racism has made some subtle changes to replace the boldness of slavery and Jim Crow. However, in educational institutions the effects of racism and discrimination are so delicate they typically go unnoticed by students of color. Individual racism usually happens on the personal level where the prejudice is expressed either consciously or unconsciously while there is some form of interpersonal encounter. When it comes to institutional racism it is similar to the individual concepts, however policies and practices are associated with with the belief of racial dominance of one group over another. It is a powerful system that use race to determine power and privilege(Reynolds et al., 2010). Even after the desegregation of school, educational institution are still separated. In Shelby County where I have lived since 1999 there are schools for minorities, and there are schools for whites. The schools for minorities in the city of Memphis have police officers walking the halls and there no books for learning. There are higher numbers of Whites students enrolled in private, charter, and magnet schools in the more affluent segments of the county. They will be exposed to the advantages of a proper education because of their race and privilege

According to my class presentation about racism, teachers play a big role in how race is seen and handled in schools. It’s important that, in their classrooms especially, teachers allow all races of students feel included, and that they teach students about the world beyond their classroom. One way to do this is by making sure that their posters, pictures, books, and dolls are made up of different races. Also, everyone knows that children are curious. When a child asks a question related to racism or differences in a race, their teacher should answer the question directly and honestly, instead of pushing it the side or changing the

To understand whether or not racism is learnt, we first have to divulge into the nature of racism. It is usually assumed that racism has been a part of civilisation since civilisation started, that it is embedded into how people work and that no matter what, it will always exist. Another assumption is that racism derives from the capitalism of the slave trade by white elitist men seeking to dehumanize people for economic gain, and used racism as a way to mask their financial motives to justify enslavement as righteous. After anti-slavery movements began to happen, the capitalist motives behind slavery “took on a new form as the justification of the ideology of imperialism” [4].

What is racism? The definition is prejudice or discrimination to another race. Unfortunately, racism is evident almost anywhere especially in a high school. Name-calling, bullying, verbal abuse – are all forms of racism and can be seen in high schools, where all different backgrounds –teachers, pupils or staff – face with negative backlash of racism. Students of different race groups find it extremely tough to bond with their classmates from other “races circles”. How damaging is racism to schools? To society?, is it all black and white or are we blind to it? In this essay I will discuss racist incidents in schools specifically in America and Britain, who are infamous for racial incidents, and how it will affect the students and any others involved in those situations in the future

Institutional Racism in the education system can be combated by teachers and administration working together. Schools must take the initiative of incorporating different cultural perspectives in the curriculum. Only addressing the basic characteristics of culture such as dance, food, and religion is not enough. Racism affects people on many levels, and it's essential to acknowledge the history and culture of a society in all aspects. Cultural characteristics influenced by the political, social, and economic climate. To have an accurate grasp of the values that shaped the culture one must break down and analyze the bias and discrimination of the society.

In an Elementary/Middle/High inner-city school,it is not just the condescension and violence exhibited toward minorities that must be taken into account when looking at incidents of racism. Restrictions on minorities' opportunity to succeed are often racially determined. For example, Asian-Americans incur resentment for academic excellence and "overachieving." If racism is explicit at the street level of society, it is often implicit and equally entrenched at the highest levels. (Beswick, 2006) I hate to admit now, once doing this paper, I once have been bias towards Hispanics in my classroom without even knowing. I stated to another teacher: “Well, I have thirteen Spanish speaking students, how do you expect me to have high reading scores for Voyager? Administration is always worried about test scores, but we are