Classes for the Second Class?

Education is a right in the United States, enough to the point where grade school attendance is compulsory. However, similar to the right to vote, it is a right that has historically be taken away from certain groups of people, and one that still continues to be taken away. At one point in the history of the United States, black people and others of color, could not got to school with white students. We would like to believe that this was all over in 1954 at the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, where the United States Supreme Court ruled that the decision by states to segregate student in “separate but equal” institutions was not constitutional. But unfortunately there are still ways to suppress people, even in the educational system. Time and time again, the lower performing schools across the country seems to be those that have more students of minority backgrounds and lower family income. While there is no laws that explicitly allow for this discrimination, there are plenty of ways that people will skirt around existing laws to meet their goals.

Just like gerrymandering with voting, there are other laws and actions that negatively affect the ability for people in inner cities to succeed in receiving an education. Take current immigration laws when it comes to college education. While undocumented people can apply, they are prevented from receiving federal and institutional aid in their pursuit of a college education. This makes the dream of education very difficult for many to achieve since many are unable to pay for their education.

New York Immigration Coalition – Can I apply for college?

The argument could be made that these people are still allowed to go to college, since they are not specifically prohibited from doing so, but when so many are so close to the poverty line, it becomes apparent that even if they get admitted to a university, they will still not have any aid that they may have had to rely on.

Even now there are rumours stirring in the political area of the Department of Justice, headed by Jeff Sessions, are poised to take a stance against Affirmative Action, something that was originally proposed to make it easier for minorities to be able to go to schools of higher education. Starting with an investigation at Harvard, there is now a belief that the Department of Justice may seek to ban Affirmative Action, potentially making it harder for people of color to get into college.

When segregation was abolished, everyone knew that there was still a long way to go before true equality could be achieved in the United States. It has been over 60 years since the ruling on Brown v. Board of Education, and it seems that the struggle for something as simple as education is still there. Harder still for people who may have come to this country in search of a better life, and the opportunity to succeed. When people talk about systematic oppression, it is examples such as this one, that continue to treat some people as second class citizens, or not even as citizens at all, that they speak about and demand change for.

7 Responses to "Classes for the Second Class?"

Omar Ibrahim says:

November 29, 2017 at 9:16 pm

You bring up a very interesting point about segregation in schools and how we are still fighting for true equality. We don’t have to look much farther than the city of Richmond to see that segregation, and especially segregation in schools, still exists. For example, lets look at schools high school students attend in the East End vs the West End. I volunteer at John Marshall High School, a school in the East End. It currently has a minority enrollment of 95% and 96% of the students are economically advantaged. While Godwin High School located in the West End has 27% minorities in it’s entire student body and only 13% of all students are disadvantaged. This isn’t where the discrepancies stop. John Marshall High School is not ranked in Virginia, while Godwin Highschool is the #27 school in the state and top 900 in the country. As you said there continues to be problems for minorities to get an education, or in this case a high quality education.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/districts/richmond-city-public-schools/john-marshall-high-20599

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/districts/henrico-county-pubilc-schools/godwin-high-school-20503
Kendall Crispin says:

November 30, 2017 at 10:41 am

As you said, in America education is highly valued and important. Someone with a college degree is likely to make 1 million dollars more throughout a lifetime than someone who does not attend a university. Shouldn’t that be offered to everyone across America? Thankfully, Brown v. Board of Education repealed Plessy v. Ferguson, but there still was, and continues to be, a long way until we reach equality in our education.
Overall, Affirmative Action is an important step towards equality, even if it does disadvantage the white men. White men will not be hurt, because with White Privilege, they have endless chances for success. Affirmative Action has a con of creating interracial tensions, which I personally think would affect group consciousness. African Americans all want to work together and do what would personally advance the group, so it has the chance to improve the group as a whole, which makes that con interesting. I really wish that it helped out the poor African Americans, as well as the middle class, because in order for true equality to be achieved all people need to have the same opportunities. This is contradicted when you look at the senate because, as we learned, it is so disproportionate to the population as a whole. Affirmative Action will continue to help integrate our politics and provide minority groups the experiences, jobs, and education they deserve.
If Affirmative Action is banned, we would be taking one more step into the past. With all the advance we have made with civil rights ranging from women with Planned Parenthood and legalized marriage for LGBTQ, we have come along way. It doesn’t surprise me that our current government might be removing this idea though, because Trump is very anti-immigration and wants America to be less diverse.

https://www.cornerstone.edu/blogs/lifelong-learning-matters/post/do-college-grads-really-earn-more-than-high-school-grads
Alyssa Holt says:

December 2, 2017 at 4:28 pm

One of the things I find most striking about the U.S. education system comes when it is compared to other countries. The PISA exams reveal that while the U.S. is one of the most economically successful countries in the world, we seriously fall short when it comes to education. Poland has their students testing so well on the test that they can be ruled an education powerhouse, and as a country they have much more poverty than in the U.S. This leads me to think that the U.S. simply does not care enough about educating everyone in the country equally. Even within each school, resources are focused on the “advanced” or “gifted” kids at an extremely early age and those who need extra help are forgotten. These kids that get labeled as “below average” are the ones who truly need extra help and attention to keep up but we let them fall even further behind. Our education system is designed to support the advantaged students while ignoring the others and it can be seen on the large scale of district to district and the smaller scale of class to class.
Christopher Barry says:

December 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm

You bring up a very interesting point concerning civil rights and how measures other than laws can be used to hinder and detriment them. Civil rights continue to be indirectly violated through other non-legal means that continue to hurt groups that have previously had little to no civil rights. Usually, these actions are done specifically for the purpose of giving those in power the ability to keep it and keep ‘others’ in their low, weak position. This could be seen after the major achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s like the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In order to maintain influence and control, those in power, white Americans, took steps to limit the growing power of African Americans. For example, roads and highways were placed in areas with a high population of African Americans in order to continue to dilute the voting and political power of African Americans. By devaluing the area where African Americans lived, the economic and political power, easily seen through votes and donations, were greatly diminished. The War on Drugs which targeted a majority of the African American population continued the trend of harming the civil rights of African Americans. States where those incarcerated are not allowed to vote had a disenfranchised African American population, continuing to diminish the voting power and civil rights of African Americans. While their civil rights were technically preserved, those in power found ways to continue to dilute and harm the civil rights of African Americans like voting.
The lack of recognition and understanding in how actions can harm a person or a group’s civil rights perpetuates the problem as actions are supported and continue to pass. In addition, they aid the tension between groups of generally higher privilege that are used to civil rights and groups of generally lesser privilege that have had their civil rights violated. As a result, discourse has become more toxic and played a role in the increased polarization within American politics.
Brittney Morris says:

December 3, 2017 at 3:26 pm

Diego, I really enjoyed your post, it touched on a very important topic that is often overlooked. Looking at our education system from the eyes of an undocumented citizen is something I have never really thought about, but is a real issue that people face everyday. While I understand your concerns about undocumented students not being able to receive financial aid, I have a hard time agreeing it should be the main focus of our education crisis. For a very long time the US has been the leader internationally, we take charge in almost every area and promote the rights of all people. However, we have been failing domestically. There are so many students who do not receive an adequate K-12 education let alone an education that will allow them to advance onto college. We are failing our students miserably in K-12 and this is also affecting illegal children as well. Our system allows for groups of students to fail, I do not know if it is intentionally raced base, but when looking at it socioeconomically it is primarily minority students who are negatively impacted by “poor” public education. Schools that are failing to meet the education standards at both the state and federal level are not view as schools in need of help but are instead punished and lose funding due to bad performance. It blows my mind that people believe this type of punishment will help increase students test scores. The system is so broke and fails so many, unfortunately undocumented students have become a part of the group it fails. However, I do think it is great that we allow undocumented people to apply to colleges and it is even better than schools are not required to report them for attending.
Lauren Rothenberg says:

December 3, 2017 at 8:30 pm

You bring up a lot of very fair, compelling, and unfortunately, accurate points in your blog post. It does seem somewhat ludicrous that decades later, racism, discrimination, and systematic oppression are still at the forefront of many political conversations, and inevitably, arguments. Although there have been various changes, movements, amendments, etc. to minimize the presence of these issues, as a whole, these ideals and beliefs are still prominent. Even more so, the discrimination seemingly grows to encompass more groups then our nation once did. With the rise of more vocal minority groups, such as the LGBTQ community, immigrants, etc., came a rise of racism and discrimination to match them.
Grant Golden says:

December 6, 2017 at 10:14 am

This post is very accurate and something that needs to be focused on more in society today. I believe that education is the great equalizer and that all people should have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a high-level education. Unfortunately, a lot of the things you mentioned are preventing this from happening. Even though you made a lot of great points about things that need to change, I also think there needs to be a focus on funding for schools. As someone who went to both a public and boarding school in high school I saw first hand the differences in the two. Even though my boarding school had an extreme amount of resources and supplies a their disposal compared to the public school, one thing that was not different were the teachers. Teachers have become teachers for a reason and all of them want to help kids grow and learn. My public school was in a low income area and because of that we did not have much to work with. But, I think the base for a great education is present in all schools, they just need more money to acquire the things they need. If our country put more of an emphasis on funding schools as a whole, I think it would be a great first step in helping this problem and letting everyone get a great education regardless of circumstances.

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