The article “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education” was written by Professor Linda Darling-Hammond who holds an Ed. D., in urban education. Throughout the reading of the article, it is clear that the main point is on inequality within educational systems. Darling-Hammond opens the article with a reference to W.E.B. DuBois that quickly shapes into her main focus of how race and education interact. Darling-Hammond mainly states her points through historical evidence and looking at the root of the problem of education inequality.
Throughout Jonathan Kozol’s essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” (347) and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” (374) by Beverly Tatum, both Kozol and Tatum discuss racial issues in the educational system. Kozol and Tatum explain racial issues by presenting two different instances that racial issues have played a roles. These two instances being visiting different public schools by Kozol and noticing the cafeteria segregation by Tatum. Using their own personal experiences, their arguments essentially come to similar conclusions, so by comparing their essays, the most significant problems are brought to the table.
The assumptions when first seeing the essay would be that the essay was boring and the assumptions are not fair. The strengths of this argument was the speaker found a lot of evidence to support all of his reasons and the common ground of this essay is that the government still finds a way to hold race against people and the segregation needs to stop. The writer makes very good concessions on how the issue can be resolved like when he told what the making schools equal would do “The achievement gap between black and white children, which narrowed for three decades up until the late years of the 1980s—the period in which school segregation steadily decreased.” This was saying that if we made this change that finally black and whites would be on the same academic scale. In part of the essay he called out the media which shows a refutation that they failed to understand that being positive is merely temporary.
Yet, it could be argued that the college no longer needs to highlight these issues, because racism is no longer a problem in modern American society, and educational opportunities are equally available to any individual who works hard enough for them. However, it can be proven that these arguments are not valid simply by utilizing current scientific data. By analyzing this concrete evidence, one can conclude that systemic racism still directly impacts minorities, and that quality education is often not available to marginalized
Louis alone are certainly alarming, I am most dismayed by the responses of the children from Morris High. It is evident that the children at Morris High do not fully understand the implications of racial inequality, nor do they regard the immense suffering of children in schools like those in East St. Louis. However, if I were a young white girl from a high class family attending Morris high, I too might have the same outlook. I likely would have been taught to acknowledge the inequalities faced by the minority, but would not have been taught the privileges I have experience for being white. If I were suddenly to start attending East St. Louis schools, however, the inequalities faced by my new peers would become much more apparent.
Still Separate, Still Unequal by Jonathan Kozol I found this article to be very interesting and extremely heartbreaking. Jonathan Kozol paints a vivid and grim picture of predominantly black or Hispanic schools in and around some the largest cities in America. Even in areas where the distribution of races is somewhat equal, Kozol tells us that most white families would rather send their kids by bus to a school where more than half of the students are white. Some schools, like Martin Luther King Jr. high school in New York City, are located purposefully in upper middle class white neighborhoods in hopes to draw in a more diverse selection of children, i.e. more white kids. It seems however, according to Kozol, that this plan not only did not work, but has made it a prime and obvious example of modern segregation in our schools.
Racism was highly shown. For example, “Public schools for black children received less funding, less maintenance, and less teacher training” (source C). This shows that these students didn’t receive the best quality of stuff just because whites didn’t feel the need to help them out since they were “better” than them. Furthermore, this reveals racial discrimination towards these kids that just wanted to get an education, but were not
A study that surveyed juniors and seniors in public and private high schools around America found troubling details about the state of America's education system. 77 percent of students surveyed stated they feel there is racism in their school. On top of that, 42 percent of students surveyed indicated they have been discriminated against based on their race. 44 percent of the students recorded they felt administrators and teachers discriminate students because of their race, and 32 percent believe racism has an effect on the education system (Schroeder). This study demonstrates how far the education system is from racial equality.
Brown v. Board of Education was the most influential and important case of the twentieth century in the way it shaped American society by ending de jure segregation in schools. The case promised to end segregation schools with “deliberate speed” and to give African Americans public school students equal opportunity. Yet today, even Supreme Court Justices recognize “it remains the current reality that many minority public school students encounter remarkably inadequate an unequal educational opportunities”. African American students continue to lack equal access to a high quality education and continue to lag far behind their white peers in reading and math proficiency, high school graduation rates, and college completion. Indeed.
Racial inequality is not a new challenge that we face as a country today. Throughout history, African Americans have faced social suppression and unequal opportunities that have limited their education, housing situations, and social freedom. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial Answer the ‘Unheard’ with an Investment in Their Education is a call to take a step forward in providing equal opportunities for African American students in order to pave the path for equal opportunities, beginning with education. Nationwide riots protesting against racial inequality in cities such as St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri, where eighteen year-old Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, has sparked a new burning revival of
Board of Education bill has been decided, there are still contemporary issues dealing with racism in the schools. An article from the Huffington Post, written by Joy Resmovits, goes into great detail in comparing school children of color and school children that are white. The article was published March, 21, 2014, proving how schools were still dealing with racism currently. The articles starts off by openly saying that “Public school students of color get more punishment and less access to veteran teachers than their white peers.” This evidence given is according to surveys released Friday by the U.S. Education Department that include data from every U.S. school district.
Racial inequality is still a problem in our schools but there are ways to fight and act against it. Words and actions both prove that Racial inequality still exists in some of the American schools. According to the article on school segregation poor hispanic kids are going to different schools than white kids even though it was changed 62 years ago in the supreme court. And they don't get the same things such as the same
This lead to black adults being less educated than the majority of white adults. “A white student who completed the eighth grade was almost certainly far ahead of the black child at the same grade level,” (Peter Irons). White students were taught more. The learning
Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of
Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings. RACE INEQUALITY IN U.S. EDUCATION Considered the “melting pot” of the world due to its high diversity, the United States has been renowned for the varying cultures and races populating the country.
