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Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and School Achievement
Effects of social economic status on education
Socioeconomic status can affect education
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African-Americans makes it easier to accept them being guilty and sequentially makes them afraid of themselves. Unintentionally, they become the label that is adhered to them. Success as adults starts with a solid foundation as a child. Unfortunately, poor performance results because of poverty. In an article discussing the African-American experience, Williams writes, “African American families when compared to other groups such as the whites and the Asians are the poorest in the country. A large proportion of poverty in the country is felt in the black community” (243). Wealth and performance in individual’s studies are directly related. This means that the more wealth one has, the higher the chance of the children excelling in school and, vice versa. “Black students perform poorly in their studies because of poverty” and lack of resources (Williams 244). Other than poverty, white racism is a reason for the poor performance of black students. In most learning institutions, teaching is done by white teachers. In some cases, …show more content…
With a lack of knowledge, African-Americans sometimes find strength confidence in the wrong things. In Native Son Bigger explains how powerful he felt after killing Mary Dalton even though it was not intentional. He felt he had more control over his life and his decisions than he ever had before. Being characterized as “a man reborn...he wanted to test and taste each new thing now to see how it went; like a man risen up from a long illness” (Wright 106). Though he had killed her by accident, not once did he feel the need to tell himself it was indeed an accident. Bigger felt he had a barrier keeping him and the white people separated “from behind which he could look at them. His crime was an anchor weighing him safely in time; it added to him a certain confidence which his gun and knife did not…” (Wright 102). The negative influences systemic racism is having of African-Americans keeps them in positions to be
Parenting alone is not to blame for poor school performance of African American children. The size of a school affects their student’s dropout rate. When school size increases the quality of education decreases. As stated by Velma Zahirovic-Herbert and Geoffrey
In her book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau argues out that the influences of social class, as well as, race result in unequal childhoods (Lareau 1). However, one could query the inequality of childhood. To understand this, it is necessary to infer from the book and assess the manner in which race and social class tend to shape the life of a family. As the scholar demonstrates, each race and social class usually has its own unique way of child upbringing based on circumstances. To affirm this, the different examples that the scholar presents in the book could be used. Foremost, citing the case of both the White and the African American families, the scholar advances that the broader economics of racial inequality has continued to hamper the educational advancement and blocks access to high-paying jobs with regard to the Blacks as opposed to the Whites. Other researchers have affirmed this where they indicate that the rate of unemployment among the African Americans is twice that of the White Americans. Research further advances that, in contrast to the Whites, for those African Americans who are employed, there is usually a greater chance that they have been underemployed, receive lower wages, as well as, inconsistent employment. This is how the case of unequal childhood based on race comes about; children from the Black families will continue residing in poverty as opposed to those from the white families.
In his speech, Obama says,” Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven 't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today 's black and white students.” Obama is saying that because of the effects of separation in the past, it still affects children. By having parents who have little interest in an education since they did not receive one. Lindsey Cook, a writer for U.S News, says “Black parents, most of whom are less educated than their white counterparts, don’t expect their children to attain as much education as white parents expect. Lower expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies, contributing to lower expectations from the student, less-positive attitudes toward school, fewer out-of-school learning opportunities and less parent-child communication about school.” This shows that because of 50 years ago, by having parents who did not receive a good education, are more likely to not provide their children a good education. The article Cook wrote continues to show how black students do poorer in all aspects than their white counterparts. With these issues since childhood, it is harder for blacks to get into a top college and a high paying job. Therefore there is a need to
‘Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed…It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.’ In this novel Bigger commits murder. An act still charged as violent/fierce/merciful now day. Wright uses Bigger your typical African American (some critics say...
African American history plays a huge role in history today. From decades of research we can see the process that this culture went through and how they were depressed and deculturalized. In school, we take the time to learn about African American History but, we fail to see the aspects that African Americans had to overcome to be where they are today. We also fail to view life in their shoes and fundamentally understand the hardships and processes that they went through. African Americans were treated so terribly and poor in the last century and, they still are today. As a subordinate race to the American White race, African Americans were not treated equal, fair, human, or right under any circumstances. Being in the subordinate position African Americans are controlled by the higher white group in everything that they do.
In Darryl Pinckney’s discerning critical essay, “Richard Wright: The Unnatural History of a Native Son,” Pinckney states that all of Wright’s books contain the themes of violence, inhumanity, rage, and fear. Wright writes about these themes because he expresses, in his books, his convictions about his own struggles with racial oppression, the “brutal realities of his early life.” Pinckney claims that Wright’s works are unique for Wright’s works did not attempt to incite whites to acknowledge blacks. Wright does not write to preach that blacks are equal to whites. The characters in Wright’s works, including Bigger Thomas from Native Son, are not all pure in heart; the characters have psychological burdens and act upon their burdens. For instance, Bigger Thomas, long under racial oppression, accidentally suffocates Mary Dalton in her room for fear that he will be discriminated against and charged with the rape of Mary Dalton. Also, according to Pinckney, although the characters of Wright’s books are under these psychological burdens, they always have “futile hopes [and] desires.” At the end of Native Son, Bigger is enlightened by the way his lawyer Max treats him, with the respect of a human being. Bigger then desires nothing but to live, but he has been sentenced to death.
The effects of racism can cause an individual to be subjected to unfair treatment and can cause one to suffer psychological damage and harbor anger and resentment towards the oppressor. Bigger is a twenty year old man that lives in a cramped rat infested apartment with his mother and 2 younger siblings. Due to the racist real estate market, Bigger's family has only beat down dilapidated projects of south side Chicago to live in. poor and uneducated, bigger has little options to make a better life for him and his families. having been brought up in 1930's the racially prejudice America, bigger is burdened with the reality that he has no control over his life and that he cannot aspire to anything more than menial labor as an servant. Or his other option which are petty crimes with his gang.
“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” -Harriet Tubman. There are many African Americans today that are suffering from internalized racism. However they may be oblivious to the fact that they possess self hatred. Deep down inside they do not love who they are. Some African Americans can adopt a white supremacist mindset that can be a reason for their self hatred. Primarily African American women perform actions needed to minimize and invalidate the black features in which they were born with. They feel the need to alter their physical appearance to be accepted in society. They loathe the distinct physical characteristics of blacks such as hair texture or skin color. Others may refuse to associate with those of the same race, negatively stereotype their own or simply identify as white. Internalized racism amongst African Americans effects an individual both physically and mentally.
Although education can be an escape from poverty, the people of color rarely have access to good schools or education systems.
In Native Son, Richard Wright introduces Bigger Thomas, a liar and a thief. Wright evokes sympathy for this man despite the fact that he commits two murders. Through the reactions of others to his actions and through his own reactions to what he has done, the author creates compassion in the reader towards Bigger to help convey the desperate state of Black Americans in the 1930’s.
Prejudice against African Americans can lead to many horrible occurrences, even death. According to the article "Trayvon Martin," an African American with the same name was shot just because a person named George Zimmerman thought he was "dangerous; because he was dark-skinned and wearing a hoodie," in other words, "the uniform of a dangerous person". This shooting likely would not have occurred if Zimmerman were not prejudiced and believing stereotypes. Prejudice can really mess up someone's thought process; according to the article, "it was the skin color that was going through Zimmerman's mind when he saw the kid." Skin color is no reason for prejudice because it does not show who you really are, as a person. Furthermore, African Americans
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2004) reported that Black students continue to trail White students with respect to educational access, achievement and attainment. Research on the effectiveness of teachers of Black students emphasizes that the teachers’ belief about the Black students’ potential greatly impacts their learning. Teachers tend to teach black students from a deficit perspective (King, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Mitchell, 1998). White teachers often aim at compensating for what they assume is missing from a Black student’s background (Foorman, Francis & Fletcher, 1998). The deficit model of instruction attempts to force students into the existing system of teaching and learning and doesn’t build on strengths of cultural characteristics or preferences in learning (Lewis, Hancock...
In every society there is a upper, middle and lower class. Every child in America, regardless of class, is given an education from a public, private, or charter school. Children in the lower class or in poverty may not get the education they deserve because of their financial situation. Poverty plays a huge role in that child’s education. They might be distracted in class because of their family situation, they might not want to go to school out of embarrassment, or they might even drop out. Parents lose confidence in themselves because they feel that they cannot help their children. An analysis of education in connection with poverty shows that we as a country have to do so much more to help children in poverty and minority races, because
In Native Son, racism is unavoidable. Bigger is burdened by his black skin, and clearly states his frustrations when he says, “Every time I get to thinking about me being black and they being white, me being here and they being there, I feel like something awful’s going to happen to me.”(20). Wright genuinely describes how Bigger is racially oppressed within the law enforcement systems of Chicago, and how “black people, even though they cannot get good jobs, pay twice as much rent as whites for the same kinds of flats” (248).
Growing up, parents and teachers always told me hard work pays off. I believed that if I did well in school I would go to college and be rewarded with opportunities. Unfortunately my education didn’t follow this path. Good grades and motivation fell short of expectations on college applications. I realize now, my parents and teachers didn’t have the resources to back up their claims. Anyon’s research exposed that socio-economic classes have a direct effect on how children are taught and prepared for their futures. I experienced this first hand. The lack of college savings and poor guidance left me with limited options for higher education. Then and now, there are limitations impeding children’s paths to a good education.