Blog Entry 2    Blatant racism or misbehaving students?          

On February 28, 2012 the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released a study that found that Black and Latino students across the United States were much more likely to be suspended from school than white students (Click to Read). To sum up, the data concluded that 1 in 5 Black boys and 1 in 10 Black girls were suspended during the 2009-2010 school year, and that Black students are 3.5 times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. I found an opinion article inthe Wall Street Journal by Jason Riley that did not agree with the release of this study, insinuating that it was released just to cause some drama with the Obama administration and to offer alternative education for these students. This article provided more statistics however: of the 72,000 school that were involved in the study, black students made up only 18% of students enrolled, but yet accounted for 46% suspended and 39% of all school expulsions.

I was stunned when I read this; how could it be that students were still experiencing, what I consider to be racism, in the year 2012? A school is supposed to be a safe area, where racism is completely omitted, and yet in the United States, Black and Latino students were still being discriminated against.

In Edward Morris’ article “’Tuck that shirt in!’ Race, class, gender and disciplinein an urban school,” Morris found concrete evidence of the same results this study revealed; Black and Latino students at a middle school in Texas were being disciplined more often, and harsher than their white and Asian peers. Morris started his study in 2000 and continued until 2002. We are now in the year 2012, over a decade later, and his findings still remain. This is so terrible to think about. We as human beings like to believe that one day racism will be abolished, but if anything, this is proof that not much has changed. Morris’ idea that the school reproduces the inequalities seen amongst students of minority because of how they discipline seems completely valid now with evidence that 10 years later, the same minority students are still being disciplined more than white students and Asian students who commit the same infractions.

I decided to try and find a video that might have more information on this study or perhaps give more insight to this current crisis and came across a PBSNews Hour video that discusses some of the reasons why this crisis is happening. Christopher Edley, a dean at the University Of California Law School makes a valid point in the video that if the students are simply suspended or expelled, then we are not providing them with the opportunity to better themselves, we are simply driving the students away from academic opportunities and possible achievements. Chester Finn from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute also makes a note of how the new zero-tolerance policy is being taken abused by the teachers in the schools. He says the students are being suspended or disciplined for minor infractions because the teachers are able to hide behind the policy and just dish out automatic suspensions. To me, this could give a possibly racist teacher the opportunity to exercise their hateful beliefs by giving out suspensions to minority students for actions that, if a white student did them, would have no discipline whatsoever.The previously mentioned opinion article I read seemed to feel that the Department of Civil Rights only released that study to reduce the amount of black students being suspended, but I disagree; I think it was greet that it was released because it bring to light real issues that are still happening that some people like to just sweep under the rug. I believe you can’t argue with numbers like that, so if it is stating that more black students are being suspended than white students, I think it is happening. Morris’ study only reinforces this fact. I do agree with Riley though when he says that the sympathies are with the students who are misbehaving and not with the ones who are actually trying to get an education. Perhaps not all suspensions or expulsions that were handed out to minority students were fair, but there definitely had to be some who caused problems and deserved to be punished. Why should the attention be placed on the bad students and not the ones who are actually there to learn? I am the type who cares about school and places a value on education, so I can say, I hated it when growing up, students got more attention in class if they misbehaved that I did for doing well. All in all, I think this is a very important problem that needs to be addressed immediately. The schools where minorities are doing well and are thriving with the opportunities they have been given, need to pass along what they are doing to the schools that aren’t, so that this gap between race and discipline can be closed.

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