Twelve Indictments of the U.S Education System (Series)
By: Teagan King
Tags: Racism, Racial Justice, Education, Education Reform, Inclusion

Twelve Indictments of the U.S Education System (Series)

Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash

This article follows from an article I published last week, titled “Twelve Indictments of the U.S Education System: Number Ten — Magnet Schools,” where I discussed the tenth of twelve indictments. Here is the eleventh.

My graduating class consisted of 360 caucasian kids and 5 kids of different races and ethnicities. People from my hometown say affectionately that they are from “marshmallow land” because our caucasian population is overwhelming to any other race, 23,436 people in my school district, and 94% of them were white.

Alternatively, on a trip to Chicago, I visited a summer school for high-risk kids with my church, and the kids there were blown away to hear that our city had enough people that were white for my sister to be dating someone who was also white. The demographics of that facility were the exact opposite of my hometown, there were two white girls who were sisters and everyone else was black/brown. We need to start having hard discussions about the consequences that racial inequality has had on our demographics and our systems.

Redlining —

In 1933 the country was experiencing a housing shortage. The federal government’s plan to fix this was a housing bill. They wanted to increase homeowners. Sounds great, right?

Well, the bill did increase homeowners — white homeowners, that is. The banks were going crazy, handing out housing loans to white, middle-class families. Suburbia was being created right in front of our eyes, but it left minorities in the dust. Black and brown families specifically were restricted in where and how they could get a mortgage, causing an increase in the disproportionality of homeowners and barring them the right to build equity and develop long term property investments.

Banks participated in “redlining,” which is defined as “systematic denial of various services by federal government agencies, local governments, or the private sector either directly or through the selective raising of prices. This often manifested by placing strict criteria on certain goods that often disadvantaged poor and minority communities.” From 1933 to 1977, banks were denying mortgage loans to black and brown families in certain neighborhoods. It got the name “redlining” because they often used red ink to mark the areas on a map, and it has had a lasting effect on our communities. Here is an example map for Los Angeles:

Since the Fair Housing Act of 1977, this is no longer legal. However, it has created de facto segregation in our neighborhoods. Most of the time, people don’t buy a house just for a few years and then leave; they stay there for decades. And then, a community is formed, and an environment is set. Nowadays, when someone is looking for a house, the neighborhood they are looking at is strongly considered. There is a significant history of violence in white communities for black and brown people. People have called the cops on them for just existing too close for their comfort. It is no wonder we’re seeing a divide.

How Redlining Impacts Education —

This divide doesn’t just harm our children’s exposure to diverse opinions and experiences, but it also hurts school funding. It was mentioned in an earlier article, that the difference between school funding for Green Bay versus Milwaukee is staggering. Green Bay’s school district — which pulled in a whopping $547.18 more per student in 2017 — has an average of 14:1 student to teacher ratio. The Milwaukee School District has an average of 17:1 student to teacher ratio. It’s no accident that their demographics are on the extremes. Redlining, property taxes, school funding, and staffing it’s all linked. Schools with a whiter population receive more attention and better resources than schools with a more black/brown population.

We know that banks’ redlining to give out mortgage loans based on race has significantly impacted how our schools are divided, and we have yet to right that wrong.

Racism in Schools —

Our school system isn’t prejudiced just because of redlining; it was created with the foundation of an exclusionary culture. It asked outsiders to conform instead of changing our ways to include everyone.

This isn’t just exclusion for black and brown folks either. There are numerous cultures represented in schools that are not given the same attention or validity as others. For example, not every culture views respect the same way; it’s wildly subjective. When we push respect in schools, it gets our minorities in trouble, because the “acceptable” respect levels we teach in schools is often standing up when speaking, eye contact when conversing, and handshakes, handshakes, handshakes. But for some cultures, eye contact is viewed as disrespectful. Some cultures prefer bowing over handshakes. These are just a few of the vast differences. When we teach kids that one version is more important than any other, we are prioritizing our culture over theirs. Instead, we should be teaching kids to be kind, patient, and understanding.

We should be giving them the confidence to stick up for themselves without belittling others. We need to stop perpetuating a system that breeds this “if you treat me like an authority figure, I’ll treat you like a human” version of respect.

It is no wonder the minority communities don’t trust the school system. What have we done to show them we deserve their trust? We have spent decades sustaining an environment that tells them they are of a lesser value to us unless they change themselves. We speak of inclusion and progress while we allow exclusive, hostile practices and mentalities to continue.

If we were really inclusive, we would have more than just white characters in our educational books. We would have more minorities as educators. We wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of redlining because we would have already fixed it. We would have seen what we had created, and we would have reversed redlining.

We would have offered lower interest rates for minorities — especially in white communities — and the caucasian folks wouldn’t rustle their feathers over that. They would recognize their place of privilege and agree that the scales need to be evened out. That is what inclusion should look like.

What we need to do —

Our current education system was built when black and brown people didn’t have equal rights. It is inherently racist due to events that happened many years ago. We cannot go back and change those events, though many of us would like to. But it is our responsibility to change the outcomes.

The mandatory quarantining brought on by COVID-19 has given us a unique opportunity; we need to take advantage of the fact that we’ve just dismantled everything we’ve ever known about our current education system. Our system is malleable right now, and when we go back, we need to look at things differently.

We need to stop breeding compliance over critical thinking. Compliance doesn’t develop strong people. It doesn’t foster inclusion and acceptance. It doesn’t teach people to be individuals; it teaches them to be robots. And the students that don’t comply are pushed out of the picture.

We need to accept the racism of our system, and we need to dismantle it. This runs through the veins of our society, poisoning us. We need an antidote.

We need to push for programs that will encourage desegregation in our communities and create broader diversity in our lives and in our schools. Students work better when they are in a diverse environment and overall we become smarter, more creative, and harder-working when we experience diversity.

To do this we need to pull in minority educators and staff by making our schools a positive work environment where students and teachers alike feel valued and safe. We should all be able to see people that look like us in our lives. I can’t possibly know what it feels like to grow up, never seeing people like me doing all the jobs I’ve dreamed of. I never want anyone to know what that feels like.

This is on all of us. Contact your representatives, push them to help you remake the school system. Fight for true liberty and justice for all.

My Reps is an online resource that will help you locate your federal, state, local, and county representatives. Click the link to find their contact information.