African American males are not in fact the "naturally naughty" people which labels have described them as, rather it is the issue with our system which has caused them to be seen in such a way. We must as a society attempt to change these misconceptions in order to grow and eventually offer the same educational opportunities to students regardless of color or creed or language, a daunting task, but none the less a necessity.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The misconceptions that drive inequality
In our current school society boys are often seen as being instigators and trouble makers due to established stereotypes. However, those who are African American tend to be treated with resentment and hostility, which has caused some to question their place in the educational system. Our practices of labeling students and tracking them has resulted in the achievement gap and has widened it in some cases based on skin color. African American Males are either seen as criminal (320) or as an endangered species (323), something which has hampered their educational abilities. The thing is that our status quo is something which needs to be reexamined as it currently is discriminatory and simply wrong in how African Americans are treated in the education system.
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I agree that societies views of black males is quite wrong. The fact that most people think of them as trouble makers only drives some toward destructive behavior. All teenagers are viewed in a certain way and all of them have a choice; they can either say, "to heck with that, I'm not like that" and strive to prove society wrong, or they can say, "I'm going to be accused of that anyway, I might as well do it." It is so unfortunate that the nature of most humans is to be judgmental.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that is frightening to me as an educator. I have seen first hand the prejudices and misconceptions within schools, especially the inner city ones where these stereotypes and labels are very dangerous. The old saying of never judge a book by its cover is a good one and an obvious one to me, yet it seems we as a society often fail to remember this.
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