Summary Of And We Are Not Saved, By Derrick Bell

In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the apparent growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner-city schools (309-310). Kozol provides several supporting factors to his claim stemming from his research and observations of different school environments, its teachers and students, and personal conversations with those teachers and students.

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

Throughout the text, the author includes various facts and pieces of information in order to further convey his argument. By doing this, Younge is able to increase the credibility of his ideas and gain the trust of readers. He writes, “In a 2012 report, UCLA’s Civil Rights Project noted: ‘Nationwide, the typical black student is now in a school where almost two out of every three classmates (64%) are low-income.’” By mentioning this statistic, he is able to back up his claim that schools are resegregating across America. Since the majority of black students attend low-income schools, they are given less resources to succeed; therefore, wealthy suburban families are able to continue creating private schools that many minorities cannot afford. The author also includes, “The discrepancy between black and white unemployment is the same as it was in 1963,” adding,

The essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, discusses the actuality of intercity public school systems, and the isolation and segregation of inequality that students must be subjected to in order to receive an education. 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. Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the obvious growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner city schools. He creates logical support by providing frightening statistics to his claims stemming from his research and observations of different school environments. He also provides emotional support by sharing the stories and experiences of the teachers and students. His credibility is established by the author of Rereading America by providing us with his collegiate background. This is also created from his continual involvement with isolated and segregated educational school systems and keeps tone sincerity throughout his essay. Within the essay, Still Separate, Still Unequal, Jonathan Kozol’s argument is

The Chicago Public School system was slow to integrate even after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954. It took much protesting, federal involvement and public outrage to finally bring about more racial equality for the students of Chicago. While the Brown v. Board of Education ruling is thought of as being the reason any racial equality was brought to schools after such long hardships for the African American students, Chicago had a difficult time bringing the ruling to fruition and federal involvement was needed. The Chicago Public School’s Desegregation Consent Decree of 1980 was the order that changed the public schools for the good. Chicago’s story of integration is different than those of other big cities in the U.S, due to the federal government 's large involvement. Through the years after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, the School Superintendents changed and school desegregation was faced in different ways. This essay examines what led to the federal government 's involvement with the Chicago Public School system’s desegregation plan. As well as the effects of desegregation on all students in Chicago.

In Jonathan Kozol “Still Separate Still Unequal” the author discusses how education for inner city school kids greatly differs from white school kids. “Schools that were already deeply segregated twenty-five or thirty years ago are no less segregated now” (Kozol 143). Although in 1954 the popular court case Brown vs Board of Education should have ended segregation in schools. The author shows how “the achievement gap between black and white children continues to widen or remain unchanged,” (Kozol 164) due to society’s grouping of privileges. Kozol relies heavily on logos to show how socio-economic privileges affects the education that inner city schools kids receive, those being blacks and Hispanics, compared to white schools kids.

The essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, by Jonathan Kozol, discusses the harsh truth of public school systems, and how they have become an isolation and segregation of inequality that students are subjected to; as a result, to receive an education. Throughout the essay, Kozol proves evidence of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face in the current school systems across the country. Kozol supports his testimony by providing the reader with factual statistics and percentages, of how segregated the public school systems have become within many major cities. He exposes the details and statistic of how wealthier schools received better funding and opportunity than the low-income and poverty struck school systems throughout the major cities across the country.

Two articles, The Facts about the Achievement Gap by Diane Ravitch and From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid by Jonathan Kozol, provide facts about the crumbling education system in the inner cities of America. Schools there have shown to be segregated, poorly staffed, and underfunded. While the theme of both articles may be educational shortcomings, the content is surrounded by discussions of segregation. There are more underlying factors the authors are missing. Readers need to be rallied together in a unilateral cause to identify the issues affecting the nation’s education system, segregation is not one of them.

Ferguson, segregation in public places became an accepted normalcy in America. Segregation was an inconvenience to black families who had children attending school. Linda Brown was an 8 year old girl who lived in a mixed neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas. She was forced to walk a long distance to get to a school bus that would take her far away to a school intended for only black children, even though there was a school located in her neighborhood. Her father Mr. Brown spoke with the school to see if they would admit his daughter, but they refused to desegregate their white school because according to the current laws, they didn’t have to. Under “separate but equal,” theoretically Linda Brown was receiving an equally opportunistic education as a white child was, so she should have had no need to transfer schools, but in reality this was not the case. Document 7a shows that on average, Southern States spent substantially more on white children’s education than colored children’s. This alone proves that there were inequalities in the education system which broke “separate but equal”. Even if the facilities and supplies were exactly the same for both white and black children, there would still be inequality. That fact that there was a need for separate places for learning psychologically damaged black children because they felt inferior and therefore could not perform at the same academic level. Document 7b, a letter sent by the National Association for the

Matthew Richer’s article “Busing’s Boston Massacre” discusses the issue of the forced busing of schoolchildren to other schools in order for racial integration in the 1970s. Matthew Richer is a Boston native and was a graduate student in the 1990s when he wrote this article. Written to the generation after the busing incident, the article persuades readers to disagree with forced busing and inform them about the costly and detrimental effects that forced busing gave to Boston communities. Forced busing was utilized in order to desegregate schools and help boost black student achievement. Yet, the initial intent that Massachusetts had for Boston’s students failed and resulted in a plethora of other problems. The state intervention of busing

Throughout the history of America issues around race have brought great debate and augments. Being a nation birthed from ideals of freedom and undeniable human rights, America has failed in being truthful to its founding. The treatment of African-American is an atrocity that stains the history of our nation’s past. Steps have been made to heal the injustice, but they are just steps. In this essay, I will be discussing school desegregation focusing on the landmark and controversial Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education and the effect is had on the nation and even the world. Many people ignore the fact school segregation has not been fixed. The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education is just something people learn in their social studies class. Most think this case was the end of the story and schools were desegregated and everything was happily ever after, but this is sadly not the reality. The reality is Brown has failed us. The effects can be seen in the schools of today in many American cities but in this essay, I will use the case of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to illustrate the massive shortcomings of this ruling today.

Narrator: In the 1950s and 60s, racial segregation was still prevalent in the United States and Australia. There were many people, including government bodies, who wanted to solve this problem of racism and desegregate the American society. On the 17th of May 1954, the US Supreme Court decided that segregation in America’s public schools was ‘unconstitutional’. So, the US government decided to enrol 9 black American teenagers in the Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. 5 years later, another African American, James Meredith, decided to enrol in the University Ole Miss in Mississippi. He was twice denied admission, but he filed a law suit against them, with the case eventually settling in 1962. His enrolment received severe backlash,

In 1960 Ella Baker delivered a speech entitled “Bigger than a Hamburger” to what would come to be the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In this speech she argued to students who had been involved in the sit-ins that what they were fighting for was bigger than a hamburger and desegregating a lunch counter, but struggling for equality in all its forms. In a similar way, so too has the fight for quality education been bigger than a classroom. Ella Baker also argued that, “through the process of education, black people would be accepted in the American culture and they would be accorded their rights in proportion to the degree to which they qualified as being persons of learning and culture.” This is a testament to the over 200 year tradition within the black community of viewing education as inseparable with the concepts of freedom and citizenship. During slavery anyone found to be assembling in an effort to teach slaves to read and write received corporal punishment. Consequently, throughout Reconstruction education was pursued with a vengeance. Freedmen’s Bureau agents reported, “Colored men have paid their own money to prepare and furnish a room for a school.” The Rosenwald Fund, a charity organization headed by the president of the Sears Roebuck Company, donated funds to build black schools, but the funds had to be matched by those from the local school system. So black residents’ double taxed themselves in order to pay for these schools. Nearly every

We have come to understand public education in the United States as a core principle of one’s rights as a citizen in spite of it not explicitly guaranteed within the Constitution. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, we continue to witness the fight for complete and total integration within our public schools and thus, racial equality. The 14th Amendment forbid states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, but was unclear in terms of it’s exact intention with respect to public education. As a result, were unable to see the effective use and enforcement of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments until approximately the 1940s for a number reasons, but I believe that structural racism is the foremost cause. Today, we find ourselves struggling to achieve full integration within our public school system due to the covert intentions behind structural racism and therefore, it’s ability to overpower the law. Structural racism has the ability to impact legal authority in such a way where we end up with a lack of appropriate enforcement legislation at the Supreme Court level and a lack of acknowledgement and remedies for de jure segregation and thus, it is the primary cause of the current segregation within the American public school system.

It is now over a century and a half since President Abraham Lincoln took the courageous step of issuing the emancipation proclamation that essentially laid the foundation for the freeing of African-Americans from slavery. Since then, African-Americans have been engaged in a never-ending struggle to effectively appropriate this hard fought freedom. The election of Barack Obama into the highest office of the United States is perhaps a significant enough achievement that speaks volumes of just how far African-Americans have come. However, a closer look at Americas social, economic and political fabric reveals a grim truth – that close to two centuries after gaining their freedom, African-Americans are still discriminated based on their racial identity. Of course the amount and form of discrimination is quite different from the total oppression of the slavery years, but still, for many African-Americans, it appears as though very little has changed. From housing to education to employment, African-Americans face numerous challenges that further taint the sacred values contemplated by the founding fathers of America. This essay takes a critical view at racial discrimination in schools with respect to African-American students.