Morisseau's Pipeline Essay

Dominique Morisseau's play, Pipeline, demonstrates the reality of public schools in America, where the attendance of minorities is high. When reading the play, Morisseaus made it clear to cover many topics and themes. These consisted of racial inequality, elaboration in the education systems, family matters, and finally the school to prison aspect of it all. The word “pipeline” refers to how the American school system handles certain situations regarding people of color. Most of the time, especially in underprivileged cities, kids are treated unfairly. Police are almost always involved and they lack help from adults who treat them as if they don’t belong. Many of these kids end up getting into legal trouble and it not only affects their education,

By using the word Pipeline as the title, Morisseau is expressing that the issue needs to be settled from the ground up. Meaning the unfairness and racial inequality that these kids and families experience everyday, need the right attention and justice. Now lets focus on some of the complexities that are brought up throughout the play. I talked about racial inequality a little bit already, but allow me to elaborate. Students of color, dating back to the early days of schools in the United States, have always had some sort of different treatment. Time after time they have been discriminated against, leading to unequal opportunities, for those not of color. Not only is it hard to watch your peers get better treatment than you based on their skin color, but they also have to deal with harsher punishments. The play “Pipeline”, shows this concept in such a realistic way. It shows us how simple it is for adults to single kids out and get away with it. When these kids finally crack, their first punishment is resorting to the police. I feel the play got the point across, but there are way worse scenarios in real life. The American education system is very far from

These things should not shape people's/educators opinions. The play also talks about how this affects the kids' families. The families of these kids are taking the fall for the unfairness of these school systems as well. The way people are treated just because they don’t make a lot of money, is sorrowful. These families are just trying to get by, while also trying to give their kids the best they can. This affects how well the kids do in school. “Pipeline”, shows this as the single mom struggles to figure out what to do with her son as he was suspended from school again. In the play it was known that the son had gone to his fair share of schools and got treated the same in all of them. Family, money, and where you live plays a factor in how you will be treated and how successful you will be. Finally, the most important complexity the play brings up is the school to prison theory. The “Pipeline” shows us how kids of color, when in trouble at school, can result in them in legal trouble or in jail. It shows us how schools have strict rules for these situations and honestly, I believe they are outdated. A zero tolerance policy regarding behavior is a huge factor in this