This week’s class discussed disproportionality. By giving sample statistics of Lower Merion School District that shows disproportionality, I also found statistical data to reflect the same concept. According to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Black children constitute 18 percent of students, but they account 46 percent of those suspended more than once. Dr. Slesaransky-Poe also summarized the four points from Bryan Stevenson’s guest presentation at Arcadia University. As the author of Just Mercy, he stated four points that can impact the world. • Get proximate to people. (Get close, and ask why.) • Change the narrative. • We cannot lose hope. (Be helpful about agency and change.) • Feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. …show more content…
Although I considered myself to answer the questions with neutrality, I was surprised by the results of my tests which showed that I implicitly favor Blacks over Whites for one test. For the second test, the data suggests a moderate automatic preference for Young people over Old people; which I also disagreed with. I have the upmost respect for older people and was often told I preferred elderly people during my youth, rather than my own peers. I also revere the wisdom that older people tend to have compared to the “attitudes” of younger generations; however, the test does not reflect …show more content…
So, I was disappointed to see that I prefer Blacks over Whites. On the other hand, it’s not that I support Whites over Blacks. Instead, I wanted my test to show an impartial outcome, where I am akin to Blacks and Whites. Conversely, according to David Perrett, there is a logical reason why some are favored over others. Spelled out in his book, In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction, Perrett documents the evolution of the human face and how our brain mechanism analyzes faces and attractiveness, which in turn affects how we respond to others. For instance, “The relationship between beauty and health is inconclusive; Perrett reports studies that show the influence on facial fat (less attractive) and skin colour (oxygen- and carotenoid-rich skin is more attractive) on attractiveness ratings.” Although we can’t unwire how we are programmed, if Perrett’s findings are accurate, we can expose ourselves to what’s unlike us to study and appreciate the
Blindspot, authors Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald reveal how people formulate decisions and judgments automatically based on their exposure to cultural attitudes regarding age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, disability status, and nationality. They claim a section of our brain, a“blind spot,” is responsible for storing the hidden biases that lead us to select choices and decisions in our life. Furthermore, the authors aim to unfold the scientific logic of their analysis of the effects of hidden biases so people will be “better able to achieve the alignment,” between their behavior and intentions (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) preface
Another school in the same district is located “in a former roller-skating rink” with a “lack of windows” an a scarcity of textbooks and counselors. The ratio of children to counselors is 930 to one. For 1,300 children, of which “90 percent [are] black and Hispanic” and “10 percent are Asian, white, or Middle Eastern”, the school only has 26 computers. Another school in the district, its principal relates, “‘was built to hold one thousand students’” but has “‘1,550.’” This school is also shockingly nonwhite where “’29 percent '” of students are “‘black [and] 70 percent [are]
The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson is an incredible read. In this book, Mr.
A longstanding national issue that continues to concern the public is the disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education. The fact is that the proportion of minority students in the population of school-age children has risen dramatically to over 35%, which is increasing the diversity of students in many public schools throughout the nation. This makes the phenomenon of disproportionality especially troubling. With a growing population of minority children comprising a greater percentage of public school students, we must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society. The overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been posed as an issue for more than 3 decades, but it is worth asking whether the efforts of legislative actions, educational reforms and legal challenges have really made improvements to this issue. More importantly, disproportionality should be examined as a correlation to underlying conditions that can pose a great effect upon not only the quality of a child’s education, but also ______.
Although The Brown v. Board decision allowed African American children to attend schools with their white classmates, it has failed helping with access to these schools. It has been statistically proved that white dominated schools are able to offer more and better classes, along with more after school activities. Unfortunately, though these schools do exist, they are not available in areas where the African American population are higher than the white population. These schools with the resources available to promote the best academic accomplishments are not readily available to African American students as they are to white students. The students that do not have the ability to attend
“IT IS NO ACCIDENT that the pivotal Supreme Court decision launching the modern civil rights movement was an education case -- the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. IN MANY WAYS, the drive to end segregated education and to put African American and white children in the same classrooms was the most radical and potentially far-reaching aspect of the civil rights movement” (ww.civil rights.com). And since this time the faces of the classroom have changed and been redefined. Students of all races, language backgrounds and learning abilities create a classroom of learners like never before. But, often the impact of the 1954 ruling was questioned because many wondered were all students in a better position now? It wasn’t until 2002 under NCLB that schools now mandated all schools must prove that infact all students were offered the same education. “Under the 2002 law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. All students are expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math by 2014” (www.k12.com). Unfortunately,
Growing up in a very accepting and forward home, I always found myself to be free of most bias. Having been the target of some racial prejudice in the past, I always told myself that I would make sure nobody else had to feel the same way. While this may be a great way to think, it really only covers the fact that you will not have any explicit bias. What I have realized during the course of this class is that implicit bias often has a much stronger effect on us than we might think, and even the most conscious people can be affected.
Many inequalities exist within the justice system that need to be brought to light and addressed. Statistics show that African American men are arrested more often than females and people of other races. There are some measures that can and need to be taken to reduce the racial disparity in the justice system.
In 1954 through Brown V. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decided that forced segregation denied African Americans equal protection under the law as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown mandated equal access and opportunity. This decision created a wave of effects throughout the African American community. Unequal outcomes were fueled by low expectation and cultural incompatibilities along with the drainage of resources such as the removal of the best teachers through reassignment to desegregated schools or through firing (Green et al., 2005). Black students were also bused to predominately White schools disproportionately, causing many African American schools to close (Morris, 1999). Morris further state...
Stereotyping, discrimination and prejudice are phenomena that motivate animated debate amid the scholars as well as the public. Many ponder on which acts should be deemed discriminatory, when they can come to a conclusion that a decision or a social guideline preference is actually founded on prejudice and the role played by prejudice in creating gender and racial disparities. Also of immense interest are queries regarding how the society should react to these problems and whether they have been dealt with in a pleasing manner. Social psychologists lunge into this dispute equipped with scientific method, hoping to gather evidence that can shed the much needed light on these continuing worries. In particular, this paper seeks to shed some light as to why stereotypes and prejudices occur in the mind of perceivers, as well as the manner and under which circumstances they are most likely to manipulate perceivers’ explicit behavior.
When segregation in schools was abolished in the 1950’s, the African American community surely did not anticipate any outcome that wasn’t positive. This is not to say that American schools should remain segregated, however, the sudden shift in the societal structure caused an imbalance in, what was intended to be, an equal opportunity classroom.
Segregation in public schools is a practice that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to be unconstitutional in 1954. However, since this time, schools have become segregated not by law, but with actions and policies. According to Orfield, et al (2010), the public educational system is actually moving further and further away from the integrated school systems that the Brown v. B.O.E case intended to create. There are two main areas in which segregation is discussed as being seen with in our educational systems across America. These two areas exists both within school districts, where certain schools have demographics that don’t necessarily represent the population of an entire district, and within individual schools, where students are often times
Khadaroo, Teicher. A. “School suspensions: Does racial bias feed the school-to-prison pipeline?” The Christian Science Monitor. March 31, 2013. Web.
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.
According to the most recent data from the Department of Education, preschoolers who are racially diverse are being disciplined at a rate 3 times as great as their white classmates (Rich, 2014). The Department of Education data shows 48 percent of preschool suspensions were of black students who only make up 18% of all students attending preschool (Rich, 2014). This data is deeply disturbing. What could a preschooler possibly do to warrant a suspension?