Racial Bias March 29, 2008

I found an article from 2000 in the New York Times about a study that had been conducted on racial bias within a small variety of large school districts across the United States.  The different districts include, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Durham, South Carolina, Los Angeles, Miami, Columbia, San Francisco, Missoula, and Providence. 

According to the study, “black students in pulic schools…are far more likely than whites to be suspended or expelled, and are less likely to be placed in gifted or advanced placement classes,” (Lewin, pg. 1).  The issue is often overlooked and mistaken for a personal problem among the individual student and the teacher or administrator.  In an altercation at a high school in Decatur, Ill. 6 African American students were arrested and expelled, though it was not specified if students of other races were disciplined the same (Lewin, pg. 1). 

The overall message from the article is that racial bias in public schools exists, and it does not only exist in certain places.  The study was done on a variety of school districts across the US and the results were the same for most.  Minority students are being unequally treated in comparison to their non-colored peers though we are in the era of color blindness. 

Jiggaboo vs Wannabe March 20, 2008

Discrimination and racism in public schools is not only projected towards students and faculty of color from non colored students and faculty, it is also projected from person of color to person of color resulting in what is called colorism. Colorism is a form of discrimination in which human beings are accorded different social treatment based on skin color (wikipedia.com). In most cases, colorism is projected at people of the same in group, for instance the comparisons made between lighter skinned African Americans and darker skinned African Americans.

One commonly known instance of colorism among African American students within higher education is the Brown Paper Bag test of the early 1900′s.  This test was used among groups like sororities and fraternities to weed out who was eligble to join and who was not based on the lightness or darkness of a person’s skin.  “If your skin was darker than a brown paper bag, you did not merit inclusion” (urbandictinoary.com).  Within some school systems lighter skinned students were sometimes given privalages over darker skinned students due to the idea that lighter skinned students were closer to being white.  Even in the age of slavery, lighter skin slaves were treated better than the darker skin slaves.  The lighter skin slaves were sometimes made to work inside of the slave master’s home if at all, and they were also given the provilege to become educated, while the darker skinned slaves worked in the feilds and were often mistreated. 

Stemming from this, African Americans project colorism towards eachother in a number of ways, varying to who has ”better hair” to who is prettier or more handsome.  In Spike Lee’s “School Daze” he portrays instances colorism in a historically black college between two sororitites, both who did not get along with eachother because of their differences in skin color.  In the movie the lighter skinned girls refered to the darker skinned girls as “jigaboos” or “tar babies”, and the darker skinned girls refered to the lighter skinned girls as “wannabe’s” or “Baribe dolls” all without the notion that each and everyone of them was of the same race.       

How to “Get in the Ring” (Round 1) March 20, 2008

In my last post, I shared a view of racism and discrimination from a public highschool in North Carolina. Two young women that attended the highschool were forced to leave due to the harsh environment and the lack of intervention by the school and school disticts administration.  But what should have been done for them?  How do the parents of minority children lace up their boxing gloves in preparation to defeat the well known champion Discrimination?

Many parents are sending their children off to institutions where their children have the potential to be discriminated against based on their race or ethnicity, without knowing their full rights as far as their child’s education.  Large numbers of children are passed through the education system only to be given minimal privileges and opportunities to let their minds grow.   

An important question asked by a parent to the Public School Parents Network was ”What justice was there for minority children within the settings of public education?”.  As said in the article titled “Fighting Prejudice in Public Education” (also located on the website) this was one of many questions posed by concerned parents hat paved the way for other issues to be brought to light regarding discrimination within public school systems.  For instance, ”Do educators hold different expectations of minority students?” and “Are children denied access to advanced or gifted placement classes based on their race?” (psparents.net).  The ultimate answer to questions like these is “Yes”.  There’s all kinds of discrimination agaisnt children of color that prevent them from recieving special placements in advanced and gifted student programs.  But how do parents actually fight discrimination against their children?

According to the article, the Office for Civil Rights is the way to go.  The article talks about how prejudice and discrimination are a part of American society as almost a kind of norm.  “OCR (Office for Civil Rights), enforces several Federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs or activities that recieve Federal financial assistance from the Department of Education” (psparents.net).  These laws do not vary by state, race, religion, or ethnicity.  All in all, every child is entitled to the same opportunities in getting their education.

The fight against discrimination in general is a diffucult battle in itself.  With the way that our country was built discrimination is at the heart of everything that we do which makes the issue virtually invisible at times. In all actuality students are discriminated against more often than not.  Many cases of discrimination within public education, go unheard of or they are justified by some higher authority only to be burried and forgotten. Because of these injustices many children are deprived of their very much needed education.  But, now there are options for the parents that will send them into the ring with punches of fury.

Northwest Guilford Highschool March 15, 2008

Though there a many people who would like for racism to end, there are many who would say other wise.  Racism has been an issue all over the world for many years and, as stated before, it is affecting America’s children.  Racism is seeping into our schools and affecting the way that America’s students are learning.  How is a child supposed to obtain the neccessary education in an environment that may not be safe due to racism?  In this video, WFMY News in North Carolina talks about racism at Northwest High school in the Guilford County school district and how the superintendents plan to take on racism in their schools. 

As an African American student, I have never endured such blaitant acts of racism.  I think that in the case of Northwest High school, maybe its location has a part in what is happening.  Since the southern states are not located very far from North Carolina, maybe there is more potential for open racism than in states like Washington, though I am not sure.  I think that the students in environments like the one at Northwest should be able to express how they are feeling when things like this happen to them.  They should also have somewhere where they can report the ongoings with some confidentiality so that they can feel safe.  I feel that no student is able to learn at their full potential in an evrionment that is threatening to them.