Racism in America’s Public Schools
Public education in America has been in serious trouble for decades and now a new problem has arisen: racial discrimination against black kids by teachers, administrators, and entire districts.
At least that’s the conclusion drawn by some African-American educators, the mainstream media, and the Obama adminstration.
Our schools have long been plagued by declining test scores, graduates who can’t read or cipher, high dropout rates, violence, cheating and sex scandals, and little to nothing has been done to substantively address those issues.
Instead, attention has lately been focused on the scourge of bullying–which has existed for as long as there have been kids–and on the “phenomenon” of unruly and disruptive cherubs being disciplined for being black.
Wisely, the MSM generally doesn’t directly attribute that “phenomenon” to racism since there is no racist intent in disciplining students. The MSM merely implies there is.
In a WaPo article titled, “In Washington Area, African American Students Suspended and Expelled Two to Five Times as Often as Whites,” racism is never cited as the cause behind those figures. WaPo’s Donna St. George simply writes that they create “disparities in discipline that experts say reflect a growing national problem.”
Translation: Schools favor whites over blacks and, to a somewhat lesser degree, over hispanics, and apply disciplinary measures accordingly.
St. George points to one expert, Montgomery County Deputy Superintendent Frieda K. Lacey, who said her district “has trained principals and administrators in new approaches, which include involving a team of administrators in suspension decisions.”
Translation: Lacey and company will intercede on a black student’s behalf after he or she creates mayhem in a school.
Lacey also noted that ”Nearly 6 percent of black students were suspended or expelled from school last year,” comparing that percentage with the 1.2 percent of white students.
Just in case St. George’s readers missed the racial import of Lacey’s comparison, a clarification is provided: Lacey “pointed to one unsettling statistic: 71 percent of suspensions for insubordination . . . were handed out to black students. African Americans make up 21 percent of students in Montgomery’s schools.”
Translation: Black kids are being discriminated against en masse with expulsions, suspensions, and other disciplinary measures because they are black and not because they tend to be unruly and incapable of being disciplined short of getting rid of them.
WaPo’s African-American adjunct, The Root, takes a more straightforward approach to the issue.
In “Black Boys: We See Them Differently,” The Root agrees that ”there remains a huge gap in how discipline is metted [sic] out. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=11946.)
