Education

In 2017, five black cadet candidates attending the US Air Force Academy Prep School were attacked by racial slurs written on message boards on their doors by an unidentified student. This seized the attention of the US Air Force Prep School and was addressed with gravity and concern. Lt.Gen. Jay Silveria, the superintendent of the school, delivered a moving speech about diversity and encouraged students to record and spread the message. The video was posted on YouTube and was commended by former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Joe McCain.

However, further investigation later revealed that the culprit of the offensive deeds was one of the “victims” who claimed to be targeted. The culprit, who was not identified by the news, confessed to his actions and expressed his regret. This act of faux interpersonal racism cost the student his admission at the Academy and morphed into a reflection of internalized racism. It is one of many examples of the hate crime hoaxes that have been reported within the past few years. Though it does draw attention to the presence of racism, it does so in a deceptive and uncandid  manner that creates a sense of mistrust within and outside of the various diverse communities existing in our nation. Events like these are harmful towards activists’ efforts against real racist incidents occurring in people’s everyday lives. It questions the credibility of activists’ work and tarnishes the image of the sincerity they try to maintain for the sake of civility.  Instead of bridging the gap of inferiority and resentment caused by the racial issues in our society, hate crime hoaxes enlarge and aggravate the unwanted division in our nation and prove to be an obstructive approach to achieving the harmonious, inviting atmosphere we strive to nurture our future generations in.

This article from ABC news states that African American students are four times more likely to be suspended than other students and that they also receive less experienced teachers than their white peers. This kind of institutional and structural racism connects with the classroom experience where inexperienced teachers have a more difficult time managing classrooms which usually lead to students acting out. Results show that the numbers of students who are suspended has gone down by 20 percent from 2012 to 2016 but the average of students of color being suspended is still higher than the white students. It seems from results that the problem starts early. Black preschool students already have a higher chance of being suspended and more than half of them have received out-of-school detentions while only about a quarter of white students were received that punishment.

The issue this article presents is to state that African American students are being discriminated against too often. This results in African Americans not receiving proper education and being continuously discriminated against. Their lack of education also causes the stereotypes that basically state that African Americans are less educated and more prone to violence. People should care because with this kind of institutional and structural racism there will be no stop and black students will constantly be discriminated against. I could use the information I learned to raise awareness by doing things such as writing on this blog and sharing my knowledge. We should act differently by trying to understand the types of racism and if possible,offer more experienced teachers and more fairness in school punishments for the students of color.

The author is sympathetic towards African Americans. The value of their perspective is that we get to see the statistics of the African American students that get suspended and receive less experienced teachers. However, the author’s perspective only shows that one possible reason that the African American students were suspended. Although, there may have been many other factors including struggles at home or racist comments that some of their white peers may have made that led them to get in trouble at school.

As most people already know, the suburbs is mainly where white folks live at and obviously go to school at too. There aren’t many black or latinos in the suburbs but from the few that there are, they face prejudice because of their skin color. No school is perfect and free of racism, stereotypes, and prejudice because of the history of enslaved black people. I could focus on schools in the city rather than schools out in the suburbs but the reason as to why the cases in the suburbs are more important is because there are less minorities meaning that there are less people similar to you to go to when you have personal problems. I am not saying that people should forget about the racially bias schools in the city because every case is important and should be taken in account.

According to this article, “black students in particular face serious obstacles to advancing education.” For example, black students are sometimes seen as not being capable of handling AP courses just like Leah Stewart. Stewart said that her counselor laughed at her after trying to take an AP course and that she had too much on her plate even though she had a record of being academically successful on her record. Once she was enrolled in this course, she was made part of a club at school that is the “five smart black girls.” In addition, Bethany Beru was frustrated of hearing a non-black teacher saying the N-word so she went to her counselor’s office. Nothing was done so she directly went to her teacher but still nothing was done because the teacher didn’t understand the issue. If there were more black teachers and staff, things would’ve turned out differently but it wasn’t. These issues could be prevented if there were more black teachers and staff members because they would understand and students would feel comfortable to got to them

This article focuses specifically on the story of Tyrone in the educational system. The  does not provide a last name for Tyrone but I know his story is quite accurate because it is written by a black male who is experiencing challenges of being in predominantly white academic environments. Tyrone’s story begins with him at the age of four up until his college. Through every stage in the educational system, Tyrone experiences some type of discrimination.

  From this article I learned that even though some black students experience discrimination or racism the interest among black students in obtaining a college education remains high. From Tyrone’s story I learned that black students’ behavior can lead them to a suspension because their behavior could be deemed as a danger to teacher and staffs. This was his first experience meaning that he was only four years old when he was suspended which is correlated with being referred to law enforcement and arrest. White students would also engage in this type of behavior but wouldn’t get suspended.

  Fast-forwarding to his college experiences, Tyrone likes to party just like most college students. When he partied with that of his own ethnicity, the police had to put a halt to the party and threatened to arrest everyone. Not only did he party with those of his ethnicity but he also partied with white students. Even though their parties involved drugs and reckless behavior, no police ever came. From this experience, I learned that not only are black students directly discriminated by peers or teachers in the educational system but as well as police.

Ms. Lolade Siyonbola, a Yale Graduate student, recently became a victim of racial profiling. She had been working on a paper and fell asleep when a fellow white student called the police on her after finding her sleeping in the common room of their dorm. The white student had reportedly said “You’re not supposed to be sleeping in here. I’m calling the police.” Siyonbola recorded the incident, posted it on Facebook, and received thousands of responses. The video received more than 480,000 views, 7,500 shares, and 12,000 comments.

Most comments were supportive of Siyonbola’s objections to justifying her place at Yale. The extreme extent of action the unidentified white female took was an unnecessary act of structural racism. Because Siyonbola was black, she immediately raised suspicion from the ignorant student and the police. She was required to provide the police her student ID to prove she was a student and was checked in the student database.

Ms. Siyonbola’s case is only one of many incidents caused by structural racism that have occured in America. Society creates a prejudicial perspective on black people through the use of media, which warps our perception of African Americans in our own personal lives. In response to Ms.Siyonbola’s dilemma, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Lynn Cooley emailed students, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity and invited them to share their comments about the matter. On a wider scale, police are now trained on unconscious bias, de escalation techniques, problem solving, and treating every individual with respect. It is pertinent that we do not neglect the importance of incidents like these, for the arousal of the people is the birth of change.

 

This article from the New York Times talks about the unfair opportunity the white students get over the African American students. The issue is that the white students are picked to be in the Charlottesville’s gifted program over African American students when the black students are more likely to be in suspension even though their progress shows that they are performing better than white students. This issue led the African American professionals and parents to speak up against the school district. Some African American students joined the Black Student Union, petitioning the City Council to remove the Lee statue and speaking out at school board meetings about the achievement gap.

I learned that becoming an activist really helps getting people’s voice heard and makes them feel more empowered. People should care about this because African Americans who studies harder and earned higher scores than whites gets less out of their hard work. This unfair system does not reward for hard work but rewards for the race you are born in. The school system should focus more on just grades and school performances and not so much on race itself. If the system remains the same, many great ideas would not have the chance to be known and many African American students would not try to do their best for this unfair system.

The Unjustice In Schools

This article from NBC news talks about the how the reputation that T.M. Landry College Prep had gained for sending black students to some of the nation’s most prestigious universities but it turned out to be an educational fraud. Most of Landry Prep’s students come from Breaux Bridge and Lafayette and both have a racial gap in high school graduation rates. In Lafayette, the graduation rate was 81 percent for white students and 68 percent for black students and the graduation rate in Breaux Bridge was 86 percent for white students and 75 to 79 percent for black students. The issue here is that the Landrys attracted black and low-income parents by using their reputation and claimed that they provided higher education than other schools and that poor education can limit children out of opportunity. They claimed all those while they actually operate with few teachers and relying on optional attendance and they have the least qualified teachers, the lowest-quality facilities, and less rigorous curriculum.

This impacts the black community because the schools are giving poor education to the blacks that want to succeed and it’s not giving blacks the education they deserve. What I have learned was that some schools take in students of colors not for the purpose of giving them equal education but for the purpose of simply to raise their diversity. People should care because the schools are taking away the opportunities for black children to have a higher education who could have impacted our world but could not because they did. The value of this article is that the author interviewed many people who investigated into the T.M. Landry College Prep. The limitation of this article is that no perspective from students was given and no actual stories about what happens in the schools were given.

From the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; 2002-20015) to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; 2015-present day), government efforts have assured us citizens that recognition of the educational impediments have not been overlooked. Laws similar to these have been passed to address the achievement gaps found within groups of students in poverty, students receiving special education sources, minorities, and students who speak or understand limited or no English. Despite these valiant efforts to right the intellectual imbalance reflected, African American students still seem to be at a disadvantage. According to the Nation’s Report Card, only 3% of fourth grade African American students from New York scored Advanced on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and 19% scored Proficient. Meanwhile, 13% of white students scored Advanced and 47% scored Proficient. This achievement gap is significantly narrower than the gap in 1998 by 37 points, but is still concerning enough for families, teachers, and students to fight against the pertinent struggle of where we place African Americans in our lives today.

Economist and social theorist Dr. Thomas Sowell of Stanford University compared the results of students from various schools within the state of New York and pointed out that of the 39% that scored a Proficient in math, 100% of the students from Crown Heights Success Academy -a school consisting of a 90% Black and Hispanic student population- scored Proficient. From this analysis, the Media Research Center collected that liberals believed integration was necessary for the academic success of African American students. In support of that, the National Education Association states, “There is a need to increase diversity and cultural competence in the teaching workforce. Recruiting and retaining teachers of color is important, as some children of color will go through their entire educational career without having a teacher who looks like them or who can identify with the uniqueness of their cultural heritage.”

Highlighting the influential presence of diversity, it is undeniable that African American students are more than capable of performing just as proficiently as any other race. The issue with the education of our black students lies with the environment we cultivate them in. Lack of representation in the educational community is only one of many factors that result in a poorly performing group of unempowered people. With the rise of awareness, people are actively fighting to make changes to our education system in order to close the achievement gap and help our nation collectively progress together for the academic success of all Americans.