The Effect of Racism in Schools on Education
I recent years there have been considerable interest in the
educational performance of ethnic minorities. A number of studies have
been carried on this issue, a common example is the government -
sponsored Swann Committee report Education for all. This report
carries out research on different aspect on educational performance,
and one aspect that stands out form all is, racism in school. Although
the precise findings of studies have varied, most have found that,
overall, ethnic minorities (blacks, Asians and other nationalities)
tend to do less well than other members in the population. The Swann
report found important differences between ethnic minorities' children
and white children. From a survey of five LEAs it was found that Asian
children did almost as well as whites or 'others'. Asians were
slightly less likely than 'others' to get five or more graded results
in GCSE exam or any other sort of important examination
qualifications. Although the Swann report did stress the importance of
the Asian community doing quite well, a certain type of Asian
community known as the Bangladeshi did particularly bad, was this, the
result of racism or the result of ignorance.
The Swann report found out that the average performance of West
Indians was considerably worse than that of whites. A shocking five
percent of West Indians passed an A Level and only one percent went
off to university. All though not is all shocking a large percent of
ethnic minorities between the age of 16 and 19 were in full time
education. This can be backed up by Jones (sociologist) suggestion.
Jones suggested that th...
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subservient social roles such as servants. Coard claims that the
people whose lives are studied and acclaimed are white. Black culture,
music and art are all conspicuous by their absence from the
curriculum, (IV) The attitudes to race conveyed in the classroom are
reinforced by the pupils outside it. In playground arguments white
children may retaliate by describing West Indians as 'black bastards'.
Research has shown that teachers expect black children to fail and
this produces a self fulfilling prophecy in which they live up to the
expectation they have been labeled with. Not only are black children
played in lower sets, they themselves believe that they are certain to
fail. Research shows that a majority of West Indian children are
portrayed by their teachers as underachievers with disciplinary
problems.
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
Many people in the United States society believe that people of all cultures, races, and ethnicities are now on an even playing field. People with this belief support their logic with the argument that since equal rights for people of color and women have been required by law for some time now, we are all inherently as equal as claimed in the Declaration of Independence. Many believe that race is no longer an issue, a viewpoint frequently referred to as color-blindness. National polling data indicated that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists. (Gallagher, 96) Color-blindness allows a white person to define himself or herself as politically and racially tolerant and then proclaim their adherence to a belief system that does not see or judge individuals by the “color of their skin.” (Gallagher, 98) Many Caucasians in particular are of the opinion that because they listen to hip-hop or cheer for their favorite black, professional sports player that they are not racist. Still others believe that because they have a black president, we see black people in the commercial of products we consume, or enjoy television shows with black people that they are actually acknowledging race. In order to examine and dismantle this series of misconceptions, we will turn to the work of various scholars of social justice and privilege, including Peggy McIntosh, Patricia Hinchey and Johnathon Kozol as well as the story of Patricia J Williams. Through a careful examination of these works with the support of some key statistics, it is the goal of this paper to demonstrate the existence of a privileged and unprivileged America, despite the color-blindness many may profess to have integrated into their p...
According to this chart, the percentage of male students who are black possess more than three times of white male students, which was recorded about 6%. Moreover, in the case of female, black girls occupy 12% approximately, which is more than the percentage including Hispanic, White and Asian. It is easy to know that students who are not white are usually suspended by officers except Asian. United States is considered as the most developed country in the world. However, a racism is still a serious assignment to solve in U.S.
Unequal funding and lack of opportunities offering are restricted minority students to compete to white students. The school system is not independently separated from race and racism as people think. Race and racism are social illness that immediately need action in order to bring the best atmosphere and energy for educational system because schools are places for teaching and learning. Schools should not allow race and racism affect their spaces’ neutralization. Withstanding race and racism in education is a long and difficult task, but it is a worthy effort because in the future, all children will able to receive a better and equal
Even though extraordinary changes have been made in the past to achieve racial equality, America is still racist, especially in schools. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is criticized for defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. During the 1930s, the time this novel took place, America was a very segregated country. At the time when Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird," America was fighting a civil rights movement. The events of racism in “To Kill a Mockingbird” reflect the time period.
Hugo García and Nancy Ramirez write about Tyrone C. Howard’s Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America’s Classrooms. The book stimulates conversations and debates in K-12 regarding the measuring of student learning outcomes and closing the achievement gap among socioeconomic groups of students. Reading, math, retention, suspensions, expulsions, and graduation rates illustrates the academic discrepancies among the different socioeconomic statuses and different racial groups. They say that Howard believed adopting a multicultural education can help the teachers understand the skills to teach diverse learners. Culture and race impact the teaching and learning and measures the student’s achievement. Howard
Firstly, ethnicity is a concept referring to a shared culture and way of life. This can be reflected in language, religion, material culture such as clothing and food, and cultural products such as music and art. Ethnicity is often a major source of social cohesion and social conflict. Secondly, racism can be defined as a system of dominance, power and privilege based on racial group designations; rooted in the historical oppression of a group defined or perceived by dominant-group members as inferior, deviant or undesirable; occurring in circumstances where members of the dominant group create or accept their societal privilege by maintaining structures, ideology, values, and behaviours that have the intent or effect of leaving non-dominant group members relatively excluded from power, esteem, status and equal access to societal resources. (Harrell, 2000, p. 43.) The importance of understanding ethnicity and by extension, racism is unequivocally important in rectifying inequality in society. Differences between racial groups and degrees of education, crime and deviance and further issues pertaining to gender as well as domestic violence are potentially avoidable with further research into racial biases. Racial inequalities are a persistent and pervasive aspect of society in general and higher education in particular (Bonilla-Silva, 2013; Jayakumar & Museus,
"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).
Everyday many minorities suffer from the effects of segregated and underfunded schools in our country. Segregated and underfunded schools has lead to perpetual poverty in poor communities. These schools are not giving students a viable education and is leading them to a life of fail your. If these students graduate high school they are unprepared for what comes ahead. Many students struggle in college forcing them to drop out. This leads to a never ending cycle of poverty to keep minorities in poor communities. Segregated and underfunded schools has caused a huge disparity in household income based on race and has perpetually kept minorities in poor communities.
Imagine that you are walking down the street and you see an Islamic person walking the opposite direction towards you. Do you think that you are going to be killed within the next minute that it takes your two paths to cross? Do you think about 9/11 or do you think about how tragic it is that the whole Islamic race is now stereotyped and discriminated against by Americans? I find it ironic that all of the Islamic race is looked down upon just because nineteen men, who were affiliated with al-Qaeda (Staff 1), decided to harm and massacre thousands of Americans on 9/11. Now, when Americans board a plane, their eyebrows are more likely to raise if they see an Islamic person on the aircraft. Today, if you ask a teenager if they remember 9/11 in clear detail, his or her answer would most likely be no. Twelve years ago, the oldest teenager would have been seven. Kids that were alive on 9/11 may be racist towards the Islamic race even though we do not remember it clearly. Young children, like Scout, are colorblind in a sense (Alvarez 1). She is too young to recognize racial distinctions (Alvarez 1). Little children on 9/11 learned to be racist towards Islams because of America’s generalization of their race. Throughout the story, Scout has learned from the example Atticus has set forth. Atticus has taught his children to respect people regardless of what race, class, or gender they are. Atticus wants his children to do what is morally right of them and not conform to society’s prejudice ways. We are not born believing in racism. We are taught it by our surroundings.
In Nathan McCall’s “Makes Me Wanna Holler,” he describes the difficulties he must face as a young black boy experiencing the slow, never-ending process of the integration of blacks and whites. Through this process, his autobiography serves as an excellent example of my theory on the formation and definition of racial identity; a theory which is based upon a combination of the claims which Stuart Hall and George Lipsitz present in their essays regarding racial identity. Therefore the definition I have concocted is one in which racial identity consists of an unstable historical process through which one comes to know themselves in relation to an outside group. In this paper I will present Hall and Lipsitz’s arguments, describing how they confirm and support one another, leading to my theory concerning racial identity. I will then show how this theory is clearly exemplified in the story of McCall’s childhood.
One might wonder how different the world would be if everyone had the genetic mutation and were colorblind to the biological color of race. Michael Omi and Howard Winant defined race as “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to difference of human bodies. Race has had a big factor in the history of the United States and even into present day it can decide who gets educated and who gets a quality education. One should not be ignorant to race, as not many people would deny that race exists. However, the issue is whether someone’s race affects their individual life outcomes, especially in the lens of education. Simply put, citizenship in the United States was equated by minorities to have a share
Racism and ethnicity continue to affect the sector of education in most parts of the world. More often, it influences adults and children’s experiences in education at all levels and in various ways. These include professional employment, academic performance, parental involvement, social interactions, assessment issues, and curriculum development. Certainly, the terms racism and ethnicity identify as problematic and arise socially. Therefore, many people fail to recognize that racism is a perception about the color of the skin and traditions of a particular group of people. Racism and ethnicity exist in quite blatant and subtle forms. As such, racism and ethnicity usually lead to negative consequences for the group that does not belong to the dominant culture. The contemporary racism originated from various avenues, one of it being the society norms and upbringing. Indeed, as children grow, they exclusively rely on their parents or guardians to learn new things. Moreover, part of the upbringing involves teaching the children things about the society and the
Desmond and Emirbayer defined race as “a symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is misrecognized as a natural category.” Symbolic category in race refers to form to which we identify a certain person. The symbolic categorization of race is based on phenotype or ancestry, which means it is determined by perceived physical characteristics which people believe are inherited and biological. People often simplify the categorization to White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian “races”. (Golash-Boza, 2016). Race is socially and historically constructed. The idea of race was formulated during powerful historical moments and places. It is a label, given by people. In turn,
Wright, C. (1992)Early Education: Multiracial Primary School Classrooms. In Gill, D. Mayor, B. and Blair, M. (Eds) Racism and Education: Structures and Strategies. London: Sage.