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Effects of segregation in the united states
Effects of segregation in the united states
What are the effects of segregation
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Are black students better off in predominant black schools? Well, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, on May 17th, 1954, racial segregation in public schools was officially declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States of America. This declaration continued the efforts of racial equality among blacks and whites, but was in this change truly a step froward or one in the wrong direction. Some, like Ullin W. Leavell, would say that there is a need for redirection of eduction for young black children. Others like Du Bois would state “They are needed just so far as they are necessary for the proper education of the Negro race.” Unlike with race, this topic of discussion is not, black and white, there are gray areas that need to be discussed in order to reach any sort of clear conclusion. However, separate is …show more content…
clearly not equal and as long as segregation exists in this world, equality will not.
Kenneth Clark performed a doll test to prove the psychological damage in segregated children. "The Dolls Test was an attempt on the part of my wife and me to study the development of the sense of self-esteem in children.” In a majority of the doll cases, black child had thought that the African American doll was inferior to the white doll. These children that were tested showed signs of psychological damage, and this damage was brought upon by racial segregation. This sort of mental abuse brought upon these children are only one of downside to as to why there should not be black schools and white schools. On top of this, there will also be an uproar when creating segregated school systems. As stated early, it goes against the very definition of racial equality, something that the black community has been shedding blood over for decades. However Du Bois, in “The Journal of Negro Education” would state that the black community would
at first “fight frenziedly to prevent segregated schools”, but when given the conclusion that these segregated schools would have the same “fair share of public funds” for real teachers and adequate equipment and housing, they would eventually subdue their hatred and give in to the idea. This would be a wonderful idea if the goal was to house two different races under the same roof. However this is not the goal of equality, the goal of equality is to merge two different races into one. What would making separate schools do for teaching the white community of the struggle that African Americans had to endure throughout the years of hardcore, radical racism. Lectures and course curriculum could be put into place, but there is a saying, you can bring a horse to the watering hole but you cant make him drink from it. Like wise, you can put a child in the class room but it is up to him if he wishes to learn what is being taught. Joining the two school system, bring black and white children together is one way to passively make white children learn about the opposing community. From “The Journal of Negro Education” in Leavell' s article, "The mental and scholastic achievements of Negro children, as with white children, are, in the main, a direct function of their environ-mental and school opportunities, rather than a function of some inherent difference in mental ability.” What this is saying is that from the research done, it is proven that at a young age, elementary school being the age that was tested. A student's knowledge is heavily biased on their own personal school opportunities and their surrounding environments, with the younger children being more heavily influenced. What this means for blacks and whites is that when they are put into the same school system, especially at a younger age, they involuntarily teach each other. This is the very premise of what all public schools are built on, the idea of having a variety of children. Every child has a different up bringing, this is indisputable, and because of their upbringing, they have their own experiences that they and bring to the world. Someone like Du Bois would go against this idea, by saying “A mixed school with poor and unsympathetic teachers, with hostile public opinion, and no teaching of truth concerning black folk, is bad.” Again, Du Bois would be completely accurate in saying this. However this is no reason to scrap the idea of a mixed school system, because this mixed school system does not have to have all white teachers whom are unsympathetic and hostile to the idea of racial equality. A perfect example of this is in the Germantown Friendship School or GFS. They successfully integrated black and whites under the same roof and same education. They had both white and black teachers whom loved there job and did not care what race their students where. Another way to think of this is to not look at the idea of merging African Americans into the white world, but merging whites into the world of African Americans. There was a point brought up int the documentary video “The Prep School Negro”, when Andre was talking with two of his fellow classmates about there experiences at GFS they both had mentioned the first time they had ever read a novel or book written by a black author. They were actually shocked at how long it took before they were introduced to black literature. Bringing African American culture into the white world paves the road to equality because it opens the doors to a world unknown to them. It brings knowledge and truth. Something that Du Bois states lacks in a mixed school “But other things seldom are equal, and in that case, Sympathy, Knowledge, and the Truth, outweigh all that the mixed school can offer.” I would disagree with Du Bois, because he only seeks to bring Sympathy, Truth, and Knowledge to the black community. But what about the white community, they are ones who are lost. They blindly put down the opposing race, all because of what? There is no logical reason for the things that they did in the past. Martin Luther King Jr once said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Well in a nation where a person is judged by their character, the African American race is far superior. Having a blended school system should be looked as a way to further the African American race, by giving white people the opportunity to catch up. In conclusion, no decision in the United States should be based upon race because any time race needs to be taken into consideration racism is taking place. The road to equality will be a tough one and there will always be steps to take along the way, even in today's time. These steps need to be taken into consideration with absolute care. Choosing to create a separate school system or a mixed one was one of the harder choices, as both sides of the argument are valid. However, having a mixed school system is best. It, by definition, allows for racial equality. It not only benefits the African American race but it benefits the white communities as well by furthering their knowledge and revealing to the truth of what discrimination really does, which in turn benefit the African American race, again. Overall, when contemplating the question, are black students better off in predominant black schools? The pros and cons on both the black and the white side need to weighted equally.
Dr. Kenneth B. Clark’s legacy has lived on and will continue to inspire because, even today, in the 21st century, there are many ideas and problems that Clark addresses in the realm of prejudice and racism that are still relevant in social identity, education and the work place in America. Clark was a social psychologist who was a firm believer in equality, though he knew that racial division would be a difficult task to overcome, he still thought it was a concept that was necessary for America to progress. One of the many researchers that have continued Clark’s work is Thomas F. Pettigrew. Pettigrew (2004) suggests that America is not where it needs to in reference to equal opportunity. Pettigrew does acknowledge that there has been many steps forward since the Brown case and Clark’ s doll studies, but believes there has also, been many steps taken backwards in regards to the progress of racial equality and opportunity (Pettigrew, 2004). According to Pettigrew (2004) racial prejudices have come to be much less blatant but still have the same effect on the people exposed to the phenomena. Though racial prejudices are still prevalent, the source of the tension is much more difficulty to identify. As did Clark suggest, Pettigrew (2004) also believes that for change to consistently and proficiently occur, it must h...
The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered (in April 1968,) Jane Elliott’s third grade students were confused and upset. Growing up in a small, all-white town, they were not exposed to racism, and did not understand the meaning of it. Therefore, Jane Elliot decided to show her class what discrimination feels like. She informed the class that they were going to change the way things were done. The students were then divided by eye colour-blue eyes and brown eyes. The blue-eyed children were praised, and told that they were smarter, nicer, and better than the brown-eyed children in every way. Throughout the day, they were given special privileges that the brown-eyed children did not receive. Those privileges included extra recess time, access to the jungle gym, a second helping of food at lunch, sitting at the front of the classroom, and being allowed to participate in class discussions. In contrast, the brown-eyed children were forced to wear brown collars around their necks. They sat at the back of the classroom, and their behaviour and classroom performance was constantly criticized by the teacher. The students from the superior group (even those who were usually sweet and tolerant) became mean, and began to discriminate against the inferior group. The students from the inferior group would struggle with class assignments, and perform poorly on tests. On the second day of the experiment, the roles were reversed, making the brown-eyed children superior to the blue-eyed children. The results were similar, but the brown-eyed students didn’t treat their blue-eyed classmates quite as bad as they had treated them. When the exercise ended, the students hugged and cried with each other. Jane Elliott once said: "After you do this exercise, when the debriefing starts, when the pain is over and they're all back together, you find out how society could be if we really believed all this stuff that we
Dr. Kenneth B. Clark contributed a lot of research, ideas and many first to the world of social psychology. Dr. Clark was a social scientist that influenced the equal opportunity and self-esteem of minority children downfall of segregation of schools. Clark (1950) black children had a well developed understanding of racial difference between “white” and “colored” in reference to skin color.
The schools that had been made for black people were extremely poor, with very books throughout each school and classes ranged from 40 - 50 children per class. This was not the case with white people and their schools. The white peoples schools flourished with books, equipment and the classes were kept low with manageable sizes. Good teachers had been employed to teach each class, but on the other hand with black schools, teachers who did not have particularly good skills were taught, and all the teachers would also be black. One of the most famous cases of segregation that was brought to public attention was that of the Linda Brown case.
Kids of different ages and color were treated differently. Kids weren’t treated by their personalities, but by their skin color, the white kids got treated better than the black kids at the time. The Brown vs. Education case showed how it was unequal and unfair to the black kids. The Little Rock Nine fought for what they wanted and stayed in the school. Black kids and white kids were not different on the inside, only on the outside and people thought that mattered.
The education gap between the north and the south has many roles in the African American community. The north has always been industrial while the south was agricultural, many of these children who was suppose to be attending school was helping on farms working and helping their parents throughout the day instead of getting an education. “The percentage of all schools with so called racial or socio-economic isolation grew from 9% to 16%” Today students still experience or has been a victim to social and racial differences. When segregation was abolished it allowed students to be in the same classroom together, be able to eat and go to the same bathrooms, also being taught by the same teacher. However many teachers failed to realized or wanted to teach these students based on the color of their skin, causing many students to drop out of school because of not being heard. The black community has a low rate of graduation rates in the south than the white community “In the last four years more than 69 percent of white louisiana males graduated making for a 16 point difference, while 59 percent of black louisiana males graduated” These school systems doesn’t care that they’re not being taught or graduation. Based on race in louisiana it’s a 10 percent difference that causing them to less likely become successful. Still causing the social differences teachers refused to teach an African American student
At the time of the African-American Civil Rights movement, segregation was abundant in all aspects of life. Separation, it seemed, was the new motto for all of America. But change was coming. In order to create a nation of true equality, segregation had to be eradicated throughout all of America. Although most people tend to think that it was only well-known, and popular figureheads such as Martin Luther King Junior or Rosa Parks, who were the sole launchers of the African-American Civil Rights movement, it is the rights and responsibilities involved in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision which have most greatly impacted the world we live in today, based upon how desegregation and busing plans have affected our public school systems and way of life, as well as the lives of countless African-Americans around America. The Brown v. Board of Education decision offered African-Americans a path away from common stereotypes and racism, by empowering many of the people of the United States to take action against conformity and discrimination throughout the movement.
In Topeka, Kansas, the school for African-American children appeared to be equal to that of the white school. However, the school was overcr...
Brown v. Board of the Education in 1954 was a landmark decision in the education arena. The decision maintained that schools that separated students by the color of their skin could no longer be maintained. The court saw this as necessary, since in their mind schools for black students would always be inferior. This inferiority would not be caused by lack of resources, although that usually was a contributing factor to the poor quality of the school, physically and performance-wise. As the Supreme Court saw it, s...
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.
Today we can look back and oversee the changes and development in Education. Segregation throughout the education system has shaped the system to what it is today. Discrimination is the practice of preferential treatment, or denying equal treatment to someone due to his or her demographic characteristics. Racial discrimination and segregation has impacted the education system since 1865 up until present day. Not only did schools face racial segregation, but also sex segregation and social class status segregation. Education was a privilege to have and something that had to be earned by the people. By looking back, history has shown how far we have overcame regarding segregation in the education system. Due to people showing a consistent fight
Segregation has occurred for many years and can be seen in today’s times. In the 1900s, segregation blew up in American education, and it has made a huge impact in education to create diversity in the classrooms. The schools were considered to be “separate but equal”. Also, the schools were effecting the American people and impacted on today’s education. Many people came forward to better education for all and end segregation. This was the start of desegregating America and America’s communities and schools. Without people standing up for what is right, America would still be a segregated country.
In conclusion, African American children face unwanted obstacles that prevent them from getting the equal education opportunities that they deserve. These children face problems everyday regarding crime, poverty and the school system not providing the right supplies for them to become effective members of their communities. When these children grow up in the high-poverty areas, they are already being set up as a failure. The time for equal education opportunities may not come due to the lack of funding, poverty levels and the way they are looked at through societies eyes. It is up to the black community to fix what they need to succeed.
The treatment if the African-Americans have, in my opinion, almost always been worse than e.g. the treatment of European people. Back in the 17th century, the white people travelled to Africa and took the Africans as slaves back to their country. In their country, they continued to treat them as slaves with, no respect, to do the hard work, i.e. picking cotton, harvesting tobacco, building railroads etc. You were basically judged based on your skin color, not by your character. Even though the slavery was set a long time ago, the segregation and discrimination has yet not completly ended.
In Charlotte, North Carolina the first year of desegregation via busing was rough. There were parents pulling their children from school, boycotts of the school and the students were assaulting each other. But after a couple of years later things changed, Tina Gouge, a white student in Charlotte, said “We learned to adjust to each other and we get along a whole lot better” (NYT). Busing worked but it did take time to see the benefits, students of color and white students stopped fighting and got along and white students were able to experience other cultural practices. There are also more academic benefits to school integration, for each year that a black student attended an integrated school their chances of graduating increased by 2%, this is due to the fact that schools that were being court supervised to not be segregated put more money into individual students than other schools. Black students that attend court ordered desegregated schools also have a 15% increase in their wages; these effects of integration had no negative impact on white students. It is important to understand the difference between desegregation and integration “Integration is creative, and is therefore more profound and far-reaching than desegregation. Integration is the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed participation of Negroes in the total range of human activities. Integration is genuine intergroup, interpersonal doing.” (Lewis, Diamond, Forman). Desegregation was placed on the students of Charlotte, North Carolina but after the first few, and somewhat rocky, years the students achieved integration. It is integration that can help students not just desegregation because desegregation is something, flat, less personal, while integration is an active attempt by individuals to come