The video “Tale of Two Schools: Race and Education on Long Island” presents David and Owen, two African-American students with similar backgrounds and grades who attend two different high schools in separate districts that have drastically different access to resources, community support, income, etc. Wyandanch Memorial High School is located in a poor district, while South Side High School is located in Rockville Center which is a more affluent and diverse district. The effects of the districts having varying levels of access to quality resources and diversity is exemplified throughout the video with regards to the way the students interact with each other, their grades, and their careers after high school. The lack of resources of Wyandanch
On September 25th, 1957, in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine courageous African American students entered not only through the doors of Central High, but the doors leading to change. They were strong enough to do this and knew what they were doing and understood it’s worth. The integration of Little Rock Central High was a milestone in the civil rights movement, and it was known across the country and through the world. Though there were likely many different reasons battling in the nine’s head about why or why not to go, they chose to go to the school.
In the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals details her and the rest of the Little Rock Nines’ struggles against segregationists in their attempt to integrate Central High School. They fought through constant harassment and death threats on their journey to become the first black students to successfully complete a school year at a previously all-white school. The book highlights the effects of racial segregation while emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resilience when facing adversity. One of the major themes of the book is the effects of racial discrimination and segregation. Everything from bathrooms to water fountains were separate and black people were treated as second-class citizens.
In a time in which mainstream society classified them as secondary citizens, students were encouraged to be prideful of who they were and where they came from. They were unashamed of their blackness or their Creole background and took pride in their Fifth Ward neighborhood. Wheatley High School not only gave the students a valuable education, but its extracurricular activities were instrumental in sharpening the skills they would need to bolster their black autonomy and economic
Beverly Tatum is an expert on minority social identity and the experiences of kids growing up searching for their identity. In Tatum’s work titled “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” she breaks down the barriers and views of black kids growing up in a white dominated society. Tatum claims that black adolescents are labeled, grouped, and stereotyped because of their culture and race in society. She says that these kids grow up differently because of the barriers they face in schools as just young kids.
I am a 9th grade student at the Central East High School. Our English class recently read and watched your article on “High School Tanning Grounds”, and as a class discussed how we felt about it, and rather we agree or not. I agree with you, there are many labels that exist in high school, and after reading this article I have a better perspective on how someone can be labeled. What really stuck with me was when you said, “No wondered so many of my people spit bars because the truth is too hard to handle.” This stood out to me because it is so true.
The students also felt the school district was ignoring their culture and their history and wanted more ethnically diverse faculty and ethnic studies. (Valadez,
I looked different, and was treated differently. I was often bullied for who I was and thought the best way to make it stop, was to fit in. I started wearing similar clothing, walking, talking and acting like the kids around me. I had lost whom I was, was no better assimilated, and was still picked on. I had enough.
It is common for white, Latino or Asian kids are sitting separately with their own race of friends in the Cafeteria. Although CSM is already a school with a great racial diversity, approximately 30% of whites, Latinos and Asians, it is implausibly hard for people from different cultures integrate with others harmoniously. Steele also discovered various examples of racialized social network, “the survey revealed that among their six closest friends, neither white nor black students averaged even one friend from the other racial group (23)” and “the 2000 census shows that the average white American lives in a neighborhood that is 80 percent white and 7% percent black, while the average black American lives in a neighborhood that is 33 percent white and 51 percent black
Going to school is the blessing that I have had my whole life. I attended school from the kinder garden up to my sophomore year in high school in Vietnam-a country occupied by communism. Nearly every subject in school that I learned in Vietnam had been modified and censored if the material was considered objectionable, sensitive, or politically incorrect as determined by the government. Luckily, my family came to the United States and it was a big shock for me in terms of freedom of speech.
It was my first day at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). I entered the building and silence rippled through the hall and hung in the air like heavy fog until a sharp whisper cut through. “It’s a black guy.” Those were the first four words I heard in high school and those four words have stuck with me for the past three and a half years. TJ is no stranger to the issue of race; race has been a dark stain on the history of my high school, most notably when it came under investigation by the NAACP in 2012 for disparities in admissions.
Psychology today can tell us that the environment in which we grow up in can have an important impact on a youth’s identity and future. Growing up in not only a state of poverty, but with additional social and economic disadvantages can have an overwhelming negative influence on student’s performance. In major cities across the United States schools that poverty stricken African American students attend are segregated, not in a legal sense, but because of location. Neighborhoods with soaring levels of poverty are limited to the oftentimes overpopulated, underfunded, and understaffed local schools. Creating a culture of multigenerational families isolated in their own poverty.
My parents moved to Jericho, and they were hoping to find a safer and better environment to live. I went to Robert Seaman Elementary, and they were great years because I made a lot of friends, and no one bothered me. However, soon after I graduate from Robert Seaman, I went to Jericho Middle School where I would face discrimination students. There was one particular boy who I would never forget. He would bully me because I was Muslim, and call me a terrorist
People see segregation as a long forgotten practice where people are separated by the color of their skin. But on the other hand, it is still a common situation that can be seen in schools even nowadays. In the story “The Black Table is Still Here”, Lawrence Otis Graham writes about how his middle school has varying racial tables despite the fact that the school is integrated. This social segregation is actually a really common occurrence in various schools across the country. Even today groups of minorities remain separated from their peers in order to seek acceptance from people who are just like them.
Being different was always hard for me cause I was different from a majority of the 5 different schools I’ve been to. This affects my life due to the fact that being biracial in this society because of the stereotypes that people would be judged upon, people including myself, this would also be added onto bullying. But I don't have to
