Racism // Statistics // Education

The way to combat systemic racism is not the same as covert racism. To combat systemic racism, we must acknowledge the implicit racism in policies and within the sectors of our society, and then create new policies that create equality for all. I say this because the argument that people are not explicitly bigots or racists does not combat the racial inequities rampant within our society. 

So we will start with education, because it is where the American dream starts to slip away from Black Americans. From lack of faith from their elementary teachers to accumulating more debt to go to college, the racial disparities in education exist at every level of education. 

Beginning in preschool, black students comprise about half of the students suspended, despite making up about 20% of the total population (Anderson, 2017).

The APA released a study in 2016 that found while most teachers are white, most students are people of color. The same study found that white teachers and administrators are more likely to give harsh punishments students of color, and are less likely to believe that they will succeed (Weir, 2016). 

A study from Brookings University found that students of color have significantly more loan debt for college than their white counterparts (Scott-Clayton & Li, 2016).

The Preschool to Prison pipeline is a commonly accepted term for the racial disparities in education the result in a snowball of racial disparity. For information about the preschool to prison pipeline listen to this TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nkcRMZKV4

References:

Anderson, D. (2017, November 17), Disrupt the Preschool-to-Prison-Pipeline with Equitable Practices. National Women's Law Center. Retrieved from https://nwlc.org/blog/disrupt-the-preschool-to-prison-pipeline-with-equitable-practices/

Scott-Clayton, J. & Li, J. (2016, October 20). Black-white disparity in student loan debt more than triples after graduation. Brookings. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/black-white-disparity-in-student-loan-debt-more-than-triples-after-graduation/

Weir, K. (2016, November). Inequality at school. APA (47)10: 42 Retreived from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school