Introduction Racism against African Americans has a long and complicated history, all stemming from a need for power and privilege. While race is continually changing in society, the concepts of racism are not. And racism, as a means to inhibit a minority, has long been at play within the education system towards African American youth. Education maintains a heavy hand in the ways that people are treated after school and without certain degrees of education, students are left with little to no options after graduation. More often that not, these under-educated or under-valued youth are African Americans and the crimes committed by the education system towards them are nothing short of heinous. Racism against African Americans negatively impacts
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Racism, while learned in the home and through interpersonal relationships, also stems from stereotyping which can often be found running rampant in the public school system. The stereotypes that black people were unintelligent began with the use of the intelligent quotient, or IQ test. These tests were used “to test native intelligence, and then used to demonstrate the intellectual inferiority of Blacks” (Hurst, 2013: 174). Now these stereotypes follow Black youth around and make it almost impossible for them to succeed when they believe that their teachers are against them and their success. After the integration of schools in the 1960s, many Americans believed that racism had been “[taken] care of;” however colleges in the United States enrolled “fewer black undergraduates in 1985 than in 1960” (Molnar, 1989: 71). These statistics alone show that higher education, or an education in general, is a priority for White adults but not Black adults. While White people seeking higher degrees can rely on the set of “institutional machinery” to carry them along their way, Black students must rely solely on their on “self-reliance and ambition” (Hurst, 2013: 347). White students remain a priority in the school systems and on into higher education systems, while Black students are forced to pick up …show more content…
The difficulty to obtain higher education affects them in every aspect of life after school. Most African American students note that after completing a degree there is a “lack of decent available jobs for which they are qualified,” which leaves them to find lower paying jobs using only some of the education that they earned at a university (Hurst, 2013: 347). The availability of a good education makes such a large impact on African American youth and without that education, they are left to settle into low-paying jobs with no hope for promotion. Without a job that pays more than minimum wage, African Americans find themselves in impoverished neighborhoods. Without access to education, good jobs, or nice neighborhoods, “a significant share of black America is condemned to experience a social environment where poverty and joblessness are the norm, where a majority of children are born out of wedlock, where more families are on welfare, where educational failure prevails” (Hurst, 2013:
Racism, while learned in the home and through interpersonal relationships, also stems from stereotyping which can often be found running rampant in the public school system. The stereotypes that black people were unintelligent began with the use of the intelligent quotient, or IQ test. These tests were used “to test native intelligence, and then used to demonstrate the intellectual inferiority of Blacks” (Hurst, 2013: 174). Now these stereotypes follow Black youth around and make it almost impossible for them to succeed when they believe that their teachers are against them and their success. After the integration of schools in the 1960s, many Americans believed that racism had been “[taken] care of;” however colleges in the United States enrolled “fewer black undergraduates in 1985 than in 1960” (Molnar, 1989: 71). These statistics alone show that higher education, or an education in general, is a priority for White adults but not Black adults. While White people seeking higher degrees can rely on the set of “institutional machinery” to carry them along their way, Black students must rely solely on their on “self-reliance and ambition” (Hurst, 2013: 347). White students remain a priority in the school systems and on into higher education systems, while Black students are forced to pick up …show more content…
The difficulty to obtain higher education affects them in every aspect of life after school. Most African American students note that after completing a degree there is a “lack of decent available jobs for which they are qualified,” which leaves them to find lower paying jobs using only some of the education that they earned at a university (Hurst, 2013: 347). The availability of a good education makes such a large impact on African American youth and without that education, they are left to settle into low-paying jobs with no hope for promotion. Without a job that pays more than minimum wage, African Americans find themselves in impoverished neighborhoods. Without access to education, good jobs, or nice neighborhoods, “a significant share of black America is condemned to experience a social environment where poverty and joblessness are the norm, where a majority of children are born out of wedlock, where more families are on welfare, where educational failure prevails” (Hurst, 2013: