Reflection Paper: Brown V. Board Of Education

I. Introduction As a person who is a United States citizen, I think a lot of our perceptions of different cultures are skewed. Doing research on a specific culture only offers you so much insight into a culture, which is why I felt this interview really took it a step further. After talking with Pempho I learned that ethnically she identifies as Chewa, which is the largest ethnic group in Malawi. More aspects of her culture include Christianity, family-oriented values, middle-class social status, and a collectivism worldview. After hearing about aspects of Pempho’s culture, yes there were some drastic differences, but I also saw a lot of similar views and values that make up my culture. Over anything else, my biggest take away was realizing

One of the popular educational Supreme Court cases, if not the most, was Brown v. Board of Education. This case ruled that the school district was violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, when racially segregating schools. The hopes of Brown v. Board of Education at the postsecondary level was to prepare students to participate in a diverse society, however the effects of Brown are still not fully in action. “ Prior to 1950, virtually all Blacks who aspired to college attended historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as there were few other options. Whereas 70% of Black students attended HBCUs in the early 1960s, that proportion dropped to 20% by 2000 with a large number of Black students electing to attend once all-White or predominantly White institutions (PWIs)” (Strayhorn & Johnson, 2014, p. 386). The goals of Brown v. Board of Education are still trying to be achieved today. One major case that did not address international students specifically but students of different cultural backgrounds in general, was Lau v. Nichols where Chinese-speaking students felt that their rights to equal educational opportunities were being violated by the school district. “In the landmark case Lau v. Nichols, the Court ruled unanimously that the civil rights of the students who did not understand the language of instruction were indeed being violated” (Nieto & Bode, 2012, p.223). The result of this case was the Lau Remedies, which are used to determine whether or not school districts are following the decision of the case. More recently and specifically one that would pertain to international students is Grutter v. Bollinger. This was a case that involved a student, a white female, who applied to The University of Michigan Law School and was denied acceptance. The University of Michigan Law School historically factors