Minorities And Education In The United States
African-American children are now more than ever being expelled and suspended from schools. Blacks, along with Latinos, are more likely to attend a school where most teachers have not matched the state requirements and are not completely certified. Education should not be stripped away from children nor teens because they are of minorities, since all people should be able to learn the same things as everyone else, but society has made majority races, such as Caucasians, feel privileged and as if it's their “right” or “prerogative,” to have me more and essentially be more than those of another race can be. In our National Anthem, we say, “land of the free and the home of the brave.” Is the US really a place that we can consider the land of the free when people every day show that this is not the case and that people have to look, dress, work, live a certain way in order to be something or recognized in life?
Minorities are the same as everyone else, even though they may live, speak, and look differently as than the superior races, and no one should have the powers to rip away the education that they receive, preventing them from being just like anyone else. Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA, states that, “Here we are, after 60 years of the Brown vs. Board of Education, and the data altogether still show a picture of gross inequality in educational opportunity.” This has caused turmoil in many communities, and has made people want to stand up for kids in these situations to grab hold of an education they need and deserve and our ALL entitled to. For example, in 2014, President Barack Obama created a grant in which $300 million dollars were given to school districts all over, so that the programs in the schools could be put in place for the benefit of all minorities to make sure that not one group is excluded from an experience that someone else may have. If people put in effort with good intentions, things can actually change for the better and ease the tension that is out of those of different ethnic groups. Furthermore, it’s an overlooked issue that is of great importance and that no one realizes how it affects how children and teens think as well as act. When people are told they are one thing, they begin to believe it and that is not healthy for young and developing minds. The whole ultimatum or idea of racial inequality is to make a group of people think less of themselves and in the case of education, make them feel as if this is all they ever need to know and learn because they never will accomplish any good or go anywhere important in life. When data was collected in 2011-2012, it was noted that Black students are treated harshly in schools when it comes to punishment and that is 18% of the enrollment population and half of the percentage has been suspended more than on one occasion. For instance, when it comes to a young pre-schooler doing something that they have not been taught not to do yet, they are innocent if they don’t know better but then there is the fact that when African-American children are disciplined they aren't let off so easy. What does this teach children except but put them on a path that show no matter what is done by me, trouble finds me and this is the punishment they face? In high schools 70% of whites have classes like, “Algebra, biology, calculus, chemistry,” and half of the blacks in some areas are granted these opportunities.
Thankfully here at North that is not the case, we are mostly allowed the same rights as any ethnic group or race, but unfortunately this is not the case for every place in the US that is encountered. In addition, because of this many “parents (African-Americans) have had to teach their children a way to defend themselves” when it comes to this inequality and some forms of what is racism. The fact that we actually now these days have to teach children of minorities and races to defend themselves and stand up for what they want, things like education, is completely absurd. This is another thing that your society, country, and world shouldn't have to face. Today, schooling, as in higher education “has evolved into a two-tiered separate and unequal system that fuels the intergenerational of white racial privilege.
Though that may say that whites are being chased out of colleges and places of higher education, is it really them that are being oppressed or face racial inequality when they are the majority and the superior? It has been shown that “Blacks, Latinos, American Indian, and Native Alaskan students are three times as likely as white students to attend schools with higher concentrations of first year teachers.” This means that the students are being taught by those who have never really taught on their own before, and the first year they teach, the students become their guinea pigs, preparing them for later. So though some may be getting a form of an education it isn't the very best, and that is not to say that first year teachers do not accomplish what they need but that they are very new and sometimes a student needs someone who is experienced to help teach them what is necessary.
Collectively, all of this information and data leads to one thing, that students that originate from minorities or another ethnic group are not permitted the things that everyone else that is a white or majority race is allowed. Many of the students are slighted and that in itself is an issue because it can greatly affect everyone and how they will later on develop in life. When you are told that you are nothing you will believe you are nothing, and no good ever comes out of that. This is an issue that many minorities, we face on a daily basis. We struggle to attain, grow and learn just as much as the next group that may be full of Whites or a majority race. This is something that overtime, we can either bring to the light and stop, it just let it hide in a dark corner and continue to let it barrack us into people we will become alongside our families and future generations.
