Still Separate Still Unequal Analysis

“We've come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.” said Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 1954, Brown v. Board pushed people to integrate schools and provide all students with an equal education, but recent studies show despite the large efforts made to desegregate that public schools are almost just as segregated, and in the same conditions as they were back in 1960. Segregation has once again started to take over public schools all over the nation, and stories and statistics show that racial and residential segregation are just as a big deal as they sound. For example, test score gaps have grown, and the quality of educations at schools that are primarily white, or black, are alarming.

“Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, describes the reality of urban public schools and the isolation and segregation the students there face today. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods.

Kozol’s main argument is that public education should be free and equal to people of all economic classes. Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future by unequipped, understaffed and under funded schools in the United State’s inner cities and less affluent suburbs. The majority of these children are non-white, and living amongst poverty and crime. Kozol argues about the unfair standards we expect these underprivileged children to rise to. Children in these poor areas are being compared to children in affluent areas where the quality of their education is much higher. Kozol asks how these children will succeed in today’s world if they are not given the same opportunities as affluent schools give their children. Kozol believes that by depriving our poorer children of their basic needs we are forcing them into lives of crime, poverty and a never-ending cycle of inequalities in education. Kozol stresses that these students must be taught that “savage inequalities” do not have to exist between them and students in more affluent schools, and that all children are entitled to an equal education.

Kozol describes conditions the clearly violate the landmark court decision in "Brown vs. Board of Education" (No. 1, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 347 U.S. 483; 74 S. Ct. 686; 98 L. Ed. 873; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 2094; 53 Ohio Op. 326; 38 A.L.R.2d 1180, December 9, 1952, Argued, May 17, 1954, Decided, Reargued December 8, 1953), which supposedly mandated the desegregation of schools in America. Towns close enough to easily integrate face almost total segregation with abysmal conditions in the Black and/or Latino schools and tremendously good resources in the white schools.

In the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal” by Jonathan Kozol, the situation of racial segregation is refurbished with the author’s beliefs that minorities (i.e. African Americans or Hispanics) are being placed in poor conditions while the Caucasian majority is obtaining mi32 the funding. Given this, the author speaks out on a personal viewpoint, coupled with self-gathered statistics, to present a heartfelt argument that statistics give credibility to. Jonathan Kozol is asking for a change in this harmful isolation of students, which would incorporate more funding towards these underdeveloped schools. This calling is directed towards his audience of individuals who are interested in the topic of public education (seeing that this

This essay will be on the Segregation in Modern American Schools, how it affects the students, why it occurs, and the strides need to integrate. I picked this topic because I came from a town that was predominantly white. Therefore my school was predominantly white as well. I have always wondered if coming from this type of school has hindered my ability to interact with people of a different race, culture, or background. I also thought of how my education would have been different if I had been taught at a more diverse school. I would have learned more about other types of people not only from my teachers, but from my peers. I have always been interested in this topic and I think it affects more people than we think. Of course, it affects the students, but it also affects the teacher and the mass public. Culturally segregated schools are hindering learning environments. Black teachers teach at black schools, White teachers teach at white schools, so on and so forth with every race. The public is affected; because the schools in their area are not divers meaning their community is not diverse. Diversity is a catalyst for growth in all people. School and education is a great place to start the

This schooling occurs close to three quarters of the course of the year, for twelve years and maybe even more. He calls this routine “deadly,” and the schools in which this is occurring are “forced confinement” and “virtual factories of childishness.” Children are told when they are going to do something, they receive a schedule made for them and must go to them at the assigned time, usually at the sound of the bell. The schools themselves “all too often resemble prisons.” This abrupt truth makes people realize that getting an education would be difficult to do, considering the teachers closely resemble the boring and controlled environment, the students must learn in. These factories where children are “shaped and fashioned” into a product of society’s “specifications.” This negative tone and views really allows the reader to see that school environments are not beneficial to everyone and can be quite negative.

Kozol says that magnet schools (special public schools built for the most talented students) seem like a good idea, but are also unfair. The inner city disadvantaged non-white students usually don’t provide head start programs or educated parents who can help them push for admittance. Students of magnet schools are mostly white. Disadvantaged students watch television and know they are being treated like something less than human. This is savagely cruel.

Introduction: As a well accomplished writer, activist, and educator, Jonathan Kozol has devoted his life to the challenge of providing equal education to every child in our public schools.

“Poor, black and hispanic children and once again going to separate schools from their white, wealthy peers, according to a new government report. It released Tuesday, 62 years after the Supreme Court decided that segregated schools are unequal and against the constitution.” (Washington Post, 2016, N/A) This is one piece of evidence that these young colored people are discriminated against. “It is still happening today as shown by the #blacklivesmatter movement and how laws are not burying racism. Only we as people can.”(Skillen, 2003, N/A) This evidence proves that colored people are still segregated from white peers in

Along the same lines, today nothing changed much because we still have segregation everywhere; it is not as obvious anymore. We have segregated communities and schools. For instance, in Terry Gross´s article, “How the Systemic Segregation of Schools Is Maintained By 'Individual Choices '”, introduces us to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones perspective of parents’ decisions to pick an outstanding school for their child’s education. A family’s poverty also being the main issue for segregated schools. Segregation is by color and poverty. As Hannah-Jones states, “There 's never been a moment in the history of this country where black people who have been isolated from white people have gotten the same resources,” and “They often don 't have the same level of instruction. They often don 't have strong principals. They often don 't have the same technology” (Gross). Basically, Hannah-Jones is saying that separating districts from each other

This chapter is an interesting one as it describes his experiences in the city of East St. Louis, IL. Kozol states, “The city, which is 98 percent black, has no obstetric services, no regular trash collection, and few jobs. Nearly a third of its families live on less than $7,500 a year; 75 percent of its population lives on welfare of some form.” This statistic is very alarming, but not too surprising. Kozol says that the city is struggling financially and that is huge factor in why there is not much educational success in the area. Kozol mentions that the students will not have any drive to strive and succeed with his or her studies if the teachers have no passion. Majority of the teachers in these schools are under qualified or basically

     “Separate and unequal continues. More that 80 percent of Black and Latino segregated schools are in high poverty areas, compared with 5 percent of segregated white schools” (Willoughby 46). An example of segregation or classification in my city of El Paso, TX is the Westside, Northeast and Eastside. The Westside is classified as having a high percentage of whites living in that area. The schools on the Westside are much more economically advanced then those in the Northeast and Lower Valley. The Northeast is classified with a high percentage of blacks. The schools in the Northeast are associated with gangs, drugs and violence. They are not nearly as economically advanced as the Westside. The Lower Valley is classified as having a high percentage of Hispanics and like the Northeast, there are a high number of gangs, violence and drugs and the schools are not as economically advanced. Since the Brown vs. Board of Education decision it was assumed that segregation would finish. “The decision rested on an assumption that

Fremont HIgh School is not getting the funding that is needed to have a successful school with students getting a good education. The classrooms are overcrowded, courses are given to students that aren't needed, students are reading at levels that are below than expected, and they limited resources. This all plays a big part on the student’s academic success. I think Kozol’s reason for saying “the shame of this nation” is because of the low academic success coming from this school. I don’t think that apartheid schooling is as big of a problem now days than it was back then, but it could still be taking place. I am just not as aware of it.

The last of the scholarly articles is Anyon and her findings about literacy put the previous mentioned author’s ideas into a real life situation. Her argument claimed that teachers teach differently to students with different economic and social background. The researchers investigated five different schools: working class, middle class, affluent professional and exclusive elite schools. I loved everything about this article. It introduced a new idea to me and how the school systems around the country runs. I could personally connect to the middle class and elite school. Speaking to most of my peers, they to agree that they made a personal connection to a school.