Racism And Oppression Of School

The people in the world that we live in are extremely diverse, in terms of the nationalities, religions, gender classifications and physical abilities. Social workers must have a clear understanding of the consequences of diversity and difference and the mechanisms of oppression and discrimination as they relate to human development. The range of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds that social workers will practice in is huge. Because of this, social workers must have an understanding of the values and attitudes of a multitude of different cultures as well as an understanding of their own attitudes and

Social workers are often on the forefront in the fight against any form of oppression as against the marginalized society. These demanding but oftentimes unappreciated efforts are often addressed through the conscious use of skills and knowledge of the problems being solved against. When such oppression is however committed against them within the organization where they work, the social worker seems to be mum about the situation, or their efforts perhaps are rendered inutile. North America social workers experience this form of oppression within the social service institution. For this reason, I examine the arguments why the social workers need to be aware of the existence of this unique form of oppression. In order to eliminate oppression in the social welfare workplace, the social workers, in their pursuit of social change, must have a competent understanding of the theory around racism and oppression.

Systematic racism within education Institutions, such as the lack of adequate funding as well as subtle discrimination, continues to be the root of the problem that plagues this nation. Even though segregation was abolished in 1964, the lingering effects that remain are significant and cannot be passively mended. Although it is tempting to think that this prejudice is caused by a select few and not the many, it is clear that this problem holds more depth. Recent studies conducted by the National Education Studies (NEA) have proven that even in school’s African American students are often times targeted and punished at a significantly higher rate when compared to their white peers. The study states “Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions [in the] nation, and more than two thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic” (Blacks: Education Issues). This study conducted by the Department of Education, cabinet-level department of the United States

Public education has faced many extreme challenges and obstacles historically. Based on the films I’ve viewed I think the top issues were segregation and poverty. Segregation in schools started in the 1800s and continued until the 1960s. I learned mostly about the problems with segregation in the film A Struggle for Education Equality. In the film, it explains facts and statistics about children and how their lives were like. From around the time period of 1950-1980 schools were very much segregated and only ⅗ of students graduated and 50% of them went to college. The fight for equality in schools began in Topeka Kansas where high schools became integrated. Elementary schools, however, were not integrated and still segregated. The NAACP tried to have 13 parents try to enroll their kids into white school but of course, it failed because of segregation. Linda Brown was one of the children in the experiment and that’s when the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka of 1954 was created which banned the inequality in schools. The southern states still had segregation problems, unfortunately, but the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gave 4 billion dollars of aid to disadvantaged children and around 9 years after that, 91% of southern black children attended integrated schools. Segregation had clearly gotten so much better but was a major problem for a long time in terms of public education. Poverty, in my opinion, is another major problem facing public education today. In

In conceptualizing diversity, a social worker needs to adopt an extensive social background that includes institutional or structural arrangements, identify the connection of multiple identities, and incorporate an unequivocal social justice course (Ortiz & Jani, 2010). Conflict theory informs advocacy efforts, policy formulations, and macro-level practice, striving to end oppression and discrimination (Hutchison, 2013). A social worker explains persistent social inequality and social conflict in the effort to help a client rise up against oppression in the critical race theory. These theories emphasize the impact of power structure, power differentials, and institutionalized inequality on individual lives versus internal

3. It is very evident that institutional racism in our education system is prominent and causes the cycle of poverty throughout the United States.

In our world today, many individuals are faced dealing with oppression, exploitation, social exclusion, and injustice. As a result, this makes it hard for those same individuals to prosper. It leaves them powerless, hopeless, and at a disadvantage. It’s said, “These individuals generate a sense of blame, distrust, alienation, vulnerability, and disenfranchisement” (Dubois, Miley, & O’Melia, 2015, p. 83). It is up to social workers to empower these individuals, give them a sense of hope and bring forth their strengths that society fails to uplift.

My study displays how people from several categories have differing opinions about racists teaching in the education system. It can help determine peoples’ attitudes toward race in the schools. However, there were some of the limitations to my study. One was that I could not interview and interact with the respondents personally. I was not able to ask in depth questions as to why people felt a certain way about racist teachers. Also, I wanted to know if the respondents surveyed ever had any interaction with a teacher that was deemed to have racist attitudes towards them or a family member. It would have been nice to study the information based on location of the respondents polled. This would further help understand the attitudes people have towards race based off of geographical location. There are some behaviors that people perceive to be racist and talking with people individually would help get all of this information. I ran multiple cross-tabulations to help me in my study on allowing racist teachers in the education system. These were using the independent variable allowing racist to teach and the dependent variables, education, race and sex.

A recent analysis was released based on 13 southern states where suspensions and expulsion rates are overwhelmingly higher for black students than they are of white students. The director of the Council of state Governments Justice Center, a nonprofit policy group, stated that “blacks are more likely to be expelled in situations where teachers or school leaders have discretion on deterring how to resound to behavior, such as when a student is deemed disrespectful or defiant or violates a dress code.” Educators are prepared for educating students but are not prepared to deal with personalities that they don’t understand. “People are doing their jobs or living their lives, and do not understand themselves as agents of oppression.”(Young pg.42) Studies have shown that students who are expelled or suspended are more likely to get into trouble and end up with criminal backgrounds, than students who are not removed from school. (New York Times)

Another problem that America faces, is a lack of education in public schools about racism that has occurred in the past. Therefore, to curtail the problem of racism and oppression in the public-school system, schools should teach children about the brutal American past that inflicted racism and oppression toward certain ethnic backgrounds and people of different races. The United States has had extensive conflicts with people that are not of white origin. From the early part of history in the United States, starting with the Native Americans, the United States government took away rights and freedom from the Native Americans, all for the sake of the land. Eventually, after the United States gained control of Native American land they soon needed individuals to exploit the lands and the government allowed slaves or indentured servants to solve the land from 1619 to 1865 (History.com). Accordingly, the United States has experienced an extended chronicle of oppression toward different ethnicity and people of color. Another case of the United States oppressing people is, during World War II the American government ordered and made Japanese people live internment camps; the regime intended that whole Japanese people posed a hazard to the country. From slavery and internment camps, the United States has inflicted many lives of many different ethnicities. Thus, teaching kids in elementary schools about American history is important as it informs a greater consciousness of

As someone who has attended public schools in low-income communities, it is now clear that there is an existence of militaristic approaches to the treatment of students. We are taught that we should be quiet at all times, to stand in line with our hands in our backs, speak when spoken to, and many more practices. By the time we would get to middle school, we knew how to behave and treat our teachers as the rulers of the classrooms and they would have no trouble with us because we had been conditioned to act a certain way. Having this approach prevents students from exploring their creativity or their own freedom. We, low-income individuals, do not think that we are being oppressed by individuals who look like us, but we are. The sense of oppression

The community I grew up in was very small. Everybody knew everybody! We were all taught to love everyone no matter what color they are. Where I grew up my grandmother was everybody grandmother. When she cooked everyone on our street was more than welcome to come and get a plate, if she had enough. As a young black African American girl I always heard about racism and what my race and other races had to go through. I went to three different elementary schools and we had kids of all race there. At Park Ridge Elementary is where I met my first friend of a different race. At Career Academy High School, in February we had a Black History Program. Our teachers tried to demonstrate what they had to go through by posting whites only on certain water

Racism is a controversy in today’s world and many people are suffering from this. Gifford, author of the book Racism says “Racism has been to human relationship what cancers been to human existence. It is a disease that eats away humanity itself.”(Gifford, p, 6). However there seems to be racism toward specific races example. Black people have faced a lot of racism in the past, but it is improving day by day, such as you will notice lots of black leader like Barack Obama (currently US President). On the other side Asians are still left behind. Talking about Asians many people tend to its only Chinese or Japanese; I mean all the ethnicity in Asia. I am mainly focusing on South Asians but I am going to touch upon most Asia. Through our history

What is racism? The definition is prejudice or discrimination to another race. Unfortunately, racism is evident almost anywhere especially in a high school. Name-calling, bullying, verbal abuse – are all forms of racism and can be seen in high schools, where all different backgrounds –teachers, pupils or staff – face with negative backlash of racism. Students of different race groups find it extremely tough to bond with their classmates from other “races circles”. How damaging is racism to schools? To society?, is it all black and white or are we blind to it? In this essay I will discuss racist incidents in schools specifically in America and Britain, who are infamous for racial incidents, and how it will affect the students and any others involved in those situations in the future

Institutional Racism in the education system can be combated by teachers and administration working together. Schools must take the initiative of incorporating different cultural perspectives in the curriculum. Only addressing the basic characteristics of culture such as dance, food, and religion is not enough. Racism affects people on many levels, and it's essential to acknowledge the history and culture of a society in all aspects. Cultural characteristics influenced by the political, social, and economic climate. To have an accurate grasp of the values that shaped the culture one must break down and analyze the bias and discrimination of the society.