Modern Vectors of Economic Oppression - Education

Modern Vectors of Economic Oppression Education

White Economic Advantage + Black Economic Suppression = Modern Vectors of Economic Racism

"For the (racial wealth) gap to be closed, America must undergo a vast social transformation produced by the adoption of bold national policies, policies that will forge a way forward by addressing, finally, the long-standing consequences of slavery, the Jim Crow years that followed, and ongoing racism and discrimination that exist in our society today."

W. Darity, D. Hamilton, M. Paul, A Aja, A. Price, A. Moore, and C. Chiopris

Learn about each modern vector of economic racism below:

Reckoning with an Unjust Past: a Spoken Word Series by Veronica Wylie

Summary

While education is seen as key to social mobility, black people have faced significant barriers to academic success. While the Boston Latin School, the first school for whites, was established in 1635, public schools for Black children were not established until the mid-1800s. Colonists and slaveholders relied on ignorance and lack of literacy among enslaved people as a means of establishing and maintaining economic, political and social advantage. Basic information, literacy training, skill-sharing, and later pre-school education was accomplished through membership in Black churches and faith organizations.

Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education

"W.E.B. DuBois was right about the problem of the 21st century. The color line divides us still. In recent years, the most visible evidence of this in the public policy arena has been the persistent attack on affirmative action in higher education and employment. From the perspective of many Americans who believe that the vestiges of discrimination have disappeared, affirmative action now provides an unfair advantage to minorities. From the perspective of others who daily experience the consequences of ongoing discrimination, affirmative action is needed to protect opportunities likely to evaporate if an affirmative obligation to act fairly does not exist. And for Americans of all backgrounds, the allocation of opportunity in a society that is becoming ever more dependent on knowledge and education is a source of great anxiety and concern.

At the center of these debates are interpretations of the gaps in educational achievement between white and non-Asian minority students as measured by standardized test scores. The presumption that guides much of the conversation is that equal opportunity now exists; therefore, continued low levels of achievement on the part of minority students must be a function of genes, culture, or a lack of effort and will (see, for example, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve and Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom’s America in Black and White).

The assumptions that undergird this debate miss an important reality: educational outcomes for minority children are much more a function of their unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teachers and quality curriculum, than they are a function of race. In fact, the U.S. educational system is one of the most unequal in the industrialized world, and students routinely receive dramatically different learning opportunities based on their social status. In contrast to European and Asian nations that fund schools centrally and equally, the wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. school districts spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10 percent, and spending ratios of 3 to 1 are common within states. Despite stark differences in funding, teacher quality, curriculum, and class sizes, the prevailing view is that if students do not achieve, it is their own fault. If we are ever to get beyond the problem of the color line, we must confront and address these inequalities."[7]

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“Children coming to school in poor health or with unstable housing are absent more frequently and cannot benefit from good instruction. Children who walk (or ride) to school through violent neighborhoods, or who return to these neighborhoods after school, are stressed and less able to focus on studies. Children with more frequently unemployed parents suffer from insecurity that affects learning[1].”

Personal Narratives

Beth Patin of New York

My name is Beth Patin. I went to a boarding school for high school in Alabama. To raise money for prom and different dances and things, our school would have slave auctions. Folks were allowed to raffle themselves off and stand up in front of everybody on an auction block. And if you bid the most money, then you got to keep that person for an entire day and make them do whatever you wanted. It really bothered me. I went to talk to the headmaster and they really weren't willing to change things, but they eventually changed the name to serf sales, I think by the time I had graduated.

I mean, it certainly makes you feel emotionally vulnerable and a little bit unsafe. When I think back to all the things my family had to endure to be able to just attend schools; my grandfather had to sue the board of education in order to desegregate schools in the state of Alabama. So access to education is something that I've learned to really appreciate and to have gotten all the way to the '90s, 30 years after my father desegregated schools, it makes you feel like you still don't belong there. We've had 30 years of participation, but it still is not a place that is safe for me.

How Racism Has Manifested Itself In Schools, As Recalled By Listeners : NPR

Methods of Discrimination

Inequality of Property Taxation for Education
School District Resistance to Desegregation
Unequal Access to Preschool Programs
Unequal learning facilities
Lack of adequate educational materials, textbooks and supplies
Lack of Black educators / dismissal of Black educators
Salary disparities among Black educators
Systemic Bias by Teachers
Lack of support for development of culturally appropriate curricula
Racial disparities in discipline
Racist acts by teachers, administrators, staff and students
Gentrification of schools
Legacy Admissions “An analysis commissioned by Students For Fair Admissions found legacy applicants were accepted at a rate of nearly 34 percent from 2009 to 2015. According to the report, that's more than five times higher than the rate for non-legacies over the same six-year period: just 5.9 percent[2].”
Unequal Access to Scholarships
Unequal Access to Student Loans

Timelines of Disparity

1865

Federal law prohibited enslaved Africans from learning to read or write [5] After emancipation, schools were established, but education was not equally funded.

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality,^[2] a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal." The decision legitimated the many state laws re-establishing racial segregation that had been passed in the American South after the end of the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877).[6]

1945

The G.I. Bill created educational opportunities for veterans returning from WWII. Black veterans were excluded from many of the benefits white veterans enjoyed. (4)

1980

African American students are more isolated than they were 40 years ago[1]

Metrics

K-12 Disparity Facts and Statistics - UNCF

STATISTIC #1:

African American students are less likely than white students to have access to college-ready courses. In fact, in 2011-12, only 57 percent of black students have access to a full range of math and science courses necessary for college readiness, compared to with 81 percent of Asian American students and 71 percent of white students.

Learn more in these sources:

STATISTIC #2:

Even when black students do have access to honors or advanced placement courses, they are vastly underrepresented in these courses. Black and Latino students represent 38 percent of students in schools that offer AP courses, but only 29 percent of students enrolled in at least one AP course. Black and Latino students also have less access to gifted and talented education programs than white students.

Learn more:

STATISTIC #3:

African American students are often located in schools with less qualified teachers, teachers with lower salaries and novice teachers.

Learn more:

STATISTIC #4:

Research has shown evidence of systematic bias in teacher expectations for African American students and non-black teachers were found to have lower expectations of black students than black teachers.

Learn more:

Who Believes in Me? The Effect of Student-Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations

STATISTIC #5:

African American students are less likely to be college-ready. In fact, 61 percent of ACT-tested black students in the 2015 high school graduating class met none of the four ACT college readiness benchmarks, nearly twice the 31 percent rate for all students.

Learn more:

The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2015: African American Students (a joint ACT-UNCF report)

STATISTIC #6:

Black students spend less time in the classroom due to discipline, which further hinders their access to a quality education. Black students are nearly two times as likely to be suspended without educational services as white students. Black students are also 3.8 times as likely to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions as white students. In addition, black children represent 19 percent of the nation’s pre-school population, yet 47 percent of those receiving more than one out-of-school suspension. In comparison, white students represent 41 percent of pre-school enrollment but only 28 percent of those receiving more than one out-of-school suspension. Even more troubling, black students are 2.3 times as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be subject to a school-related arrest as white students.

Learn more:

U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Data Snapshot: School Discipline

STATISTIC #7:

Students of color are often concentrated in schools with fewer resources. Schools with 90 percent or more students of color spend $733 less per student per year than schools with 90 percent or more white students.

Learn more:

Unequal Education: Federal Loophole Enables Lower Spending on Students of Color

STATISTIC #8:

According to the Office for Civil Rights, 1.6 million students attend a school with a sworn law enforcement officers (SLEO), but not a school counselor. In fact, the national student-to-counselor ratio is 491-to-1, however the American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250-to-1.

Learn More:

STATISTIC #9:

In 2015, the average reading score for white students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 4th and 8th grade exam was 26 points higher than black students. Similar gaps are apparent in math. The 12th grade assessment also show alarming disparities as well, with only seven percent of black students performing at or above proficient on the math exam in 2015, compared to 32 percent white students.

Learn More:

The Nation’s Report Card: 2015 NAEP Mathematics & Reading Assessments

There is a clear lack of black representation in school personnel. According to a 2016 Department of Education report, in 2011-12, only 10 percent of public school principals were black, compared to 80 percent white. Eighty-two percent of public school educators are white, compared to 18 percent teachers of color. In addition, black male teachers only constitute two percent of the teaching workforce.

Learn More:

U.S. Department of Education: The State of Racial Diversity in the Workforce

Questions for Research and Reflection:

Which myths based in white supremacy culture did you grow up with?

white children are naturally more intelligent than Black children
Each student has an equal chance at success
What’s good for my child is good for all children
That neighborhood's school is no good because the residents don't care about education
Taking my child out of public school does not affect students of color in our area.

Ask older relatives or research on your own:

How did integration affect the quality of education Black students received? White students?
How many family members attended private schools versus public? When did they start going to private school? Why?
How did your parents’/guardians’ work schedules affect your ability to have assistance with your homework and school projects after school?
Were you pushed/encouraged to go to community college instead of a four year university?
Who carried/carries the financial burden of your higher education? Did multiple members of your family contribute to the cost?
Did returning WWII veterans in your family take advantage of the GI Bill’s education benefits?
What colleges did they attend?
How did attending college funded by the GI Bill affect your family’s financial prospects?
Where did you attend grade school? Were you bussed?
Where did you attend college? How has it affected your net worth? How much college debt did you take on?
Ask a Black colleague about their family’s experience with education: GI Bill, college attendance, student debt levels, bussing, affect on net worth.
To what do you attribute the differences?