Institutional Racism In America

Racism in America is a recurring problem and although laws have been established to diminish it, racism persists. Ideas of white supremacy have always existed since the beginning but the forms in which they manifest themselves are sometimes pointed and unseen. Education is no exception, through education you have a way to shape a young person’s future. Institutional racism is deeply entrenched in our education system. If a person looks separately, it is hard to pin point but by connecting the dots of public policy and administration one can begin to see how racism manifests itself in our schooling. The problem is that racism targets the underprivileged, many of whom are minorities. However, since the United States has made laws banning discrimination

John Taylor Gatto was an educator for years, in his books: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling he talks about the structure of our education system and also how government sponsored schools are used to implement their policy. Although Mr. Gatto does not discuss the race and education directly he does give insight on how students are deprived of true education. In his book Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling John Taylor Gatto breaks it down for us “The world’s narcotic economy is based upon our consumption of this commodity; if we didn’t buy so many powdered dreams, the business would collapse — and schools are an important sales outlet.” (Gatto 21). This excerpt is really worth unpacking because Mr. Gatto refers to schools as a sales outlet and that the things being sold are dreams. Growing up we are told that we can be anything we want but in reality through various government sponsored policies we are just being taught how to obey orders. Mr. Gatto points out a very important part of a capitalistic society, almost everything is driven by big business and as a result people are sorted into social categories. Gatto goes on to say later on in his book “Using school as a sorting mechanism, we appear to be on the way to creating a

To fully understand how racism works in our education system we have to dissect and examine the role it plays in national policies as well as school-level administration of policies. According to the U.S. Education Department's 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection, a survey conducted every two years, minorities have less access to experienced and veteran teachers when compared to their white counterparts. Also, according to the survey, black and minority students are suspected to much more severe punishment when compared to their white counterparts. It would be naïve to assume that simply making a law to integrate actually allows it to happen. Post 1954 schools may be more integrated but for true integration to occur both sides have to have the same rights and opportunities, unfortunately research shows that it is just not the case. As a consequence of factors such as having less experienced teachers and harsher punishment leads to lower academic performances and can lead to kids dropping out of school. Lower academic performances means less funding because schools are judged based on their test scores. Schools are a fundamental part of our society and as a result they tend not to be questioned by the general public. Natural abilities are overlooked and kid’s dreams are stifled to fit everyone into a predetermined system. Almost exclusively only