RACISM IN OUR SCHOOLS: IT MUST STOP NOW

Kisha PrestonEDU363: Education & Social Justice

Barry Dotson

INTRODUCTION

• It’s 2016. As I walk down the street of my home town of Washington, DC, I see that it is a virtual melting pot, representative of so many races and cultures of people. On first sight, everyone appears accepting of the other, with no barriers of race between them. But many of these people I see already have made pre-determined thoughts of each other. This should not still be happing in 2016 but it does.

MORE SO, IT IS HAPPENING IN OUR SCHOOLS. THAT’S

RIGHT, RACISM IS STILL PRESENT IN OUR

SCHOOLS BECAUSE IT IS STILL PRESENT IN OUR HEARTS. TO ELIMINATE RACISM IN OUR SCHOOL

SYSTEM A STRONG EFFORT MUST BE

PLACED ON RETRAINING AND RE-TEACHING EDUCATORS TO BE

MORE AWARE OF THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS OF

ALL RACES AND CULTURES.

EDUCATIONAL POLICY

For years, since the start of this country, Racial

discrimination has been unfortunately present. The

education system has not been exempt from this. In fact, in the

era of segregation and “Jim Crow Laws”, the educational

setting was one of the areas in this country that displayed

racism the most. At that time, African American citizens were

not allowed to go to school with white citizens and were

subject to poor school conditions

While it had been ruled in 1896 that all citizens were allowed a spate but equal education, the spate part was more applied than the equal part. This helped to prompt the “Brown vs. Board of Education case, a landmark case that put an end to school segregation in the nation.*

SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE IN EDUCATION

• Despite this, there is still evidence of racism in schools. Some students are still treated differently because of their race. It has been found that minority students struggle more because of the added stress of dealing with racial tension form peers and educators. While it is a subject that many do not want to address, Racism plays a large role in the academic underperformance of minority students.

It is found that students of color have to spend so much energy on being discriminated against, that they cannot effectively focus on academic studies and therefore underperform in school.

RACISM IN SCHOOL IS SIMPLY NOT ALLOWED. UNDER ANY

CIRCUMSTANCES. US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TITLE 34 STATES THAT “NO

PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES SHALL; ON THE GROUND OF RACE, COLOR, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN, BE EXCLUDED FROM

PARTICIPATION IN, BE DENIED THE BENEFITS OF, OR BE OTHERWISE SUBJECTED TO DISCRIMINATION

UNDER ANY PROGRAM OR ACTIVITY RECEIVING FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.” IN OTHER WORDS,

YOU CANNOT BE DENIED FAIR EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

BECAUSE OF YOUR RACE.

• Educational policies must be put in place in order to achieve this. That starts with retraining. Retraining our teachers, staff, administrators, and parents on embracing diversity. This would start with mandatory cultural diversity training. This needs to be a training that teachers people to embrace and learn about the different facets of people and culture of the many children that educators will be responsible for.

After training, I would implement mandatory volunteering for education professional. They would be required to volunteer in low income areas with young children and teens. This will give them a real-life experience of how these children, who they teach and interact with every day live. Finally, I would have a team of support people that help teachers and monitor their behavior to make sure all policies regarding behaving in a non-discriminatory way are met.

While the aforementioned plan is a good start, there could be some complex obstacles in the way. People must be willing to change their mindset and become more concerned about the well-being of all people not just people they think should benefit.

A way to do this could start with just having a conversation about something that they can relate to. That can do so much to open the lines of communication with someone that otherwise would not listen to you.

Another way to break down these barriers would be funding for this training. How would this be able to be facilitated and when. As way to help with that is to ask those who would be doing the training to do this voluntarily or at a reduced rate. Maybe ask if they would be willing to give of their free time.

Another and maybe even bigger factor would be the mindset of the adults. How would one can convince someone that this is important and cultural diversity needs to be addressed?

I believe that it comes down to how it is presented. Discuss how it would be beneficial

to their job and ultimately how noncompliance could result in other things.

How do we change this and how do we make it better for our children and our schools? It will take the changing of minds and attitudes of administrator, teachers, staff and families. We must commit to teacher our children unity and seeing all people for themselves and not according to the color of their skin. This can be accomplished by everyone getting involved in community activities that encompass all races of people. Cultural diverse events as well as trainings and class that are designed to give everyone a new perspective on how to interact with people that do not look the same as you or me.

Racism, bigotry and the division it causes must stop now. For the best well-being of all our children. It is vital for their academic accomplishments we must come together and stop the racial discrimination going on in our schools.

Works Cited

http://www.publicschoolrenewal.org/essays/racism2.htm

http://articles.dailypress.com/2007-08-17/news/0708170037_1_black-men-black-students-black-women

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/how-race-gender-and-class-may-affect-learning-education-essay.php

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=7d55f457f2c53ad11f892e00b3d13b85&mc=true&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title34/34tab_02.tpl

Marshall, C. & Oliva, M. (2010). Leadership for social justice: Making revolutions in education (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

Wormeli, R. (2016). Let's Talk about Racism in Schools. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 16-22