Throughout different periods in history, people with various backgrounds immigrated to the United States. Beginning around 1500, African slaves were forced into slavery through the triangular trade route. Starting in the 19th century, Mexican immigrants came to America because of labor demands. European immigration began with Christopher Columbus in 1492. Immigration has contributed so much to American society that it has been named as the melting pot. If minorities have such a core role in American history, why are minorities being targeted and harassed in schools? Education is what shapes America’s future, which is why schools need to be protected as a safe space for all minorities. Segregation is detrimental to the learning students. The …show more content…
James Baldwin, author of “A Talk to Teachers,” argues that a future of equality in schools cannot be created unless past acts of racism are recognized. He writes “... as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (Baldwin 1). This statement argues that it is impossible to be American and black at the same time. Baldwin explains that the American side advertises equal opportunity, whereas being black implies that he has contributed nothing to society, and his sole purpose is to serve white people. Challenging the American view on race is what pushes society forwards. On the contrary, students who are uneducated may unknowingly perpetuate the same racism that hold back education. In a study conducted in 2016, Maureen Costello commented that students who cannot connect or comprehend important policy, they are more likely to make an uninformed decision. One teacher commented that “’The white students ... say terrible things about immigrants, while sitting next to their immigrant friends...the others[immigrants] are quiet and afraid’’’ (Costello 12). The ignorance of students perpetrates an unsafe and uncomfortable learning environment. Immigrant students are aware of this tension because they are not only being targeted, but in a way that is not legitimately supported by facts, but rather propaganda and ignorance. Because of situations like these, administrators in some school districts have created protocol for situations for extreme intolerance built on a platform of
“Brown vs. Board of Education” made it a federal crime to segregate children based on race in 1954. On the other hand, “Plessy vs. Ferguson” concluded that “separate but equal” was justified in America’s education system in 1896. Fifty years later after “Brown vs. Board of Education” according to author Jonathan Kozol, the school systems are run more like a separate but unequal system. Kozol states that today’s schools are just as segregated as they were before 1954 and funding is seriously inadequate for those in the urban areas where most attendee’s are African American and Hispanic. This inadequate funding has led to overcrowding, dilapidation of the schools, a decreasing number of on-site health officials, and lack of an enriching educational program. The effects of the funding situation has led to poor state standardized test scores, and an increasing number of students dropping out or taking more than four years to graduate. Today, strict military style programs hope to correct these poor outcomes. Are today’s schools being segregated to pay less for subordinate groups’ education, or is this just one person’s one-sided outtake on a matter that society has little control over? I aim to examine these accusations incorporating some firsthand experience from my dilapidating public school system.
I believe schools are a reflection of their communities. Our schools are no longer segregated due the US Supreme court decision handed down in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, a schools makeup is similar to the communities they serve. A majority white school belongs in a majority white community. A diverse community such in large cities like New York will have diverse student body in their schools. Schools in the United States have been desegregated for over a half-century or have they. A film called “Little Rock Central- 50 Years Later” says differently. Little Rock Central is the famous high school where the Little Rock Nine students went to school. The school was forced by the federal government to desegregate. This film now captures this same high school fifty years later and finds a new type of segregation. The new type of segregation is now about social economic class and academic class.
The students in the school are shied away and even denied opportunities for higher education by the teachers, “Many have been discouraged or prevented from pursuing academic or work goals” (Kivel 44). From not believing in the students to not wanting them to get further ahead in life, the teachers in this low budgeted, racist school are sacrificing the students future in the name of institutionalized racism. This causes the students to remain in the same social class for another generation, once again, starting the cycle of integrated racism in the schools and surrounding
Almost every person who has stepped foot in a college classroom has experienced ethnic diversity within the students in the room. This has not always been the case however. Up until 1954 blacks and whites attended different schools and weren’t allowed the same schooling opportunities. It took a young girl, Linda Brown, and her father, Oliver Brown, as well as many other courageous African American families to stand up to the old law of “separate but equal”, decided in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1892, and fight for equal educational rights for whites and blacks. Even though the Supreme Court decided in favor of the Brown family in 1954, this did not mean that everyone was so eager to accept integration so readily. In fact, right away things hardly changed at all, especially at the higher levels of education. It took a man by the name of James Meredith, the first African American student at the University of Mississippi, to further expand what the Brown’s had started and further break the racial boundaries put around education. Presently school integration has greatly improved but there is still definitely room for improvement. Baldwin was accurate in describing his present day conditions of school segregation in that it was almost a joke and that no “progress” had been made but he was wrong to say that, “the sloppy and fatuous nature of American good will can never be relied upon to deal with hard problems” (Baldwin 336). It is American good will and unity that has brought all races together to improve integration in public schools and although there is still room for improvement everyone’s attitudes have shifted to make schooling improved for all students.
Are black students better off in predominant black schools? Well, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, on May 17th, 1954, racial segregation in public schools was officially declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States of America. This declaration continued the efforts of racial equality among blacks and whites, but was in this change truly a step froward or one in the wrong direction. Some, like Ullin W. Leavell, would say that there is a need for redirection of eduction for young black children. Others like Du Bois would state “They are needed just so far as they are necessary for the proper education of the Negro race.” Unlike with race, this topic of discussion is not, black and white, there are gray areas that need to be discussed in order to reach any sort of clear conclusion. However, separate is
America demands that all youth receive an education and that its educational system is free and open to all—regardless of class, race, ethnicity, age, and gender. However, the system is failing. There is still inequality in the educational system, and minorities’ experience with education is shaped by discrimination and limited access, while white people’s experience with education is shaped by privilege and access. The educational experience for minorities is still segregated and unequal. This is because the number of white children that are withdrawn from school by their parents is higher than the number of people of color enrolling. White parents are unconsciously practicing the idea of “blockbusting,” where minorities begin to fill up a school; whites transfer their children to a school that has a small or no minority population. They unconsciously feel like once their child is in a school full of minorities that school would not get the proper funding from the federal government. Bonilla-Silvia (2001) states that “[i]nner-city minority schools, in sharp contrast to white suburban schools, lack decent buildings, are over-crowded, [and] have outdated equipment…” (97). The “No Child Left Behind” Act, which holds schools accountable for the progress of their students, measures students’ performance on standardized tests. Most white children that are in suburban schools are given the opportunity to experience education in a beneficial way; they have more access to technology, better teachers, and a safe environment for learning. Hence, white students’ experience with the education system is a positive one that provides knowledge and a path to success. Also, if their standardized testing is low, the government would give the school...
Forty-seven years ago the Civil Rights Act was passed to end racial discrimination in America. And later on the 24th Amendment to poll taxes, then the Voting Rights Act to allow every man to vote and not be discriminated against. Black Power, the Nation of Islam, and the Southern Christian Leadership conference were just some of the groups that tried to end segregation and promote the African American race. Although these groups did help end it, it still exists in today’s world and many studies have been done to prove it in the past couple of years.
In Henry Lewis Gates’ article, The Debate Has Been Miscast from the Start, he reveals the advantages to having multiculturalism in the curriculum of America’s schools. He would argue that in order to create true diversity and understanding of cultural differences, the nation must provide its students with a wide array of opportunities to understand other cultures besides their own. Peggy McIntosh takes on a similar situation when she takes into consideration how she was taught diversity in schools as a child. She claims that dominance of the white race is unconsciously supported. She also describes how she did not receive the right kind of education that would teach her how to be aware of racism and how to be aware of her privileges as a white person. McIntosh desires change in the way that students are taught racism and the best way to accomplish this is for schools to incorporate multiculturalism into curriculum. If this is accomplished, future generations have the ability to be aware of cultural differences and they would be less likely to be perpetrators of color blind racism.
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.
Topics of race and inequality are critical topics we continue to debate everyday in America. My research synthesis paper is about school segregation, and I wanted to identify how and why schools continue to be racially and socioeconomically segregated today. I will use these questions, as well as knowledge gained from scholarly articles, as a platform for my analysis of school segregation and its implications for students and communities. So I wanted to discover if integration still matters, do our schools need to be desegregated, and if not, then how can our schools become diverse and effective. Racial segregation, segregation and systemic oppression doesn’t just start in one place. There is a structure in place that makes all of the discrimination
“I have a dream!” Martin Luther King once said. He dreamed of a complete desegregated USA and the same chances for everybody where all men are created equal no matter of race or religious background (King). Schools were an immense issue in the 1960s, many black children did not finish high school to help their parents and those who did could often not afford to go to college. Compared to the white schools, the black schools had a massive lack of equipment and the teachers got paid a lot less. Even though many issues have changed since then, there is still segregation left in parts of the U.S., especially in schools.
Over the past four-hundred plus years, racism has plagued the history of American society. The idea that one person is inherently better than another because of the color of their skin has always been present from our founding to today. During the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1900’s, racism was repeatedly being dealt blows by those brave enough to stand up for the rights they felt belonged to citizens of all shapes and colors. One important event that led to progress for people of color was the desegregation of the schooling systems. From young girls walking into all-white schools to black men being selected to participate in different academies, the Civil Rights movement to desegregate schools was influential in how progress
Today we can look back and oversee the changes and development in Education. Segregation throughout the education system has shaped the system to what it is today. Discrimination is the practice of preferential treatment, or denying equal treatment to someone due to his or her demographic characteristics. Racial discrimination and segregation has impacted the education system since 1865 up until present day. Not only did schools face racial segregation, but also sex segregation and social class status segregation. Education was a privilege to have and something that had to be earned by the people. By looking back, history has shown how far we have overcame regarding segregation in the education system. Due to people showing a consistent fight
In 1950, America had come out of World War Two and was once again one
This quote is symbolic of the expressed opinions and ideology of the founding fathers of America. History, especially the history of the American educational system, paints a contradictory portrait. Idealistic visions of equity and cultural integration are constantly bantered about; however, they are rarely implemented and materialized. All men are indeed created equal, but not all men are treated equally. For years, educators and society as a whole have performed a great disservice to minorities in the public school sector. If each student is of equal value, worth, and merit, then each student should have equal access and exposure to culturally reflective learning opportunities. In the past, minorities have had a muted voice because of the attitude of the majority. Maxine Greene summarizes a scene from E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, after which she poses questions that many minorities have no doubt asked silently or loud. “Why is he unseen? Why were there no Negroes, no immigrants? More than likely because of the condition of the minds of those in power, minds that bestowed upon many others the same invisibility that Ellison’s narrator encounters” (Greene,1995, p. 159). Multicultural education is needed because it seeks to eradicate “invisibility” and give voice, power, and validation to the contributions and achievements of people with varied hues, backgrounds, and experiences.