Analysis Of Unchecked Capitalism: Systemic Oppression And Its Aftermath

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Unchecked Capitalism: Systemic Oppression and its Aftermath
Throughout two centuries of slavery, a century of court sanctioned discrimination based on race, and a half century of differential access to education by race, class, language background, and geographical location, we have become accustomed in the United States to educational inequality(Darling-Hammond, 2007).
Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson initiated the institution of public education in America with the goal of creating better citizens. Jefferson began with the premise that if the citizens of the newly formed America remained uneducated, then they would not be capable of making important decisions with regards to their new government. Conversely, Jefferson and others excluded many groups from their notion of an educated citizenry such as women, slaves, Native Americans, and immigrants from less popular European origins creating a hierarchical system of “social capital” (Stanton-Salazar, 2011) where the resources were not distributed evenly, but rather only at the top of this new food chain. The consequences of this action are still apparent in America. When James Baldwin wrote his famous letter to his nephew, he stated that even 100 years post …show more content…

To begin with, they do not consider their ghetto, barrio, or reservation schools "better" because they do not have the "back home" [culture] educational situation. In-stead, they think that their schools are "worse" because they are not like white schools in the suburbs. They see no justifiable reason for the inferior education--except discrimination(Ogbu & Simons,

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