Do African American students have to face racism in schools?

Today, many believe that racism has eradicated throughout the corners of our modern world—this is far from the truth. The United States of America is a multicultural nation, yet its racial divide is older than the republic itself. It is a central fault line that has shaped that nation’s history. The race is not a certain ethnics issue; it is a human issue. It affects us all from the classroom to the supermarket line. Within this essay, I am going to focus on three main areas where I will prove racism still exists: school, jobs and pay inequality. These three areas are closely connected. All of my statistics and facts will be based from the United States as I feel they suffer from heavier racism in comparison to us here in the United Kingdom do.

To begin with, black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students in the United States in 2017. I looked into this thinking there would be a difference in the way that black students manage their behaviour within school premises. However, the results I found surprised me. An article from the Daily Mail published by Richard Grey states ‘ misbehaviour was seen as ‘more troubling’ when committed by a black student rather than a white one’ after they conducted out an investigation within American high schools. They claimed that this leads to teachers tending to discipline black students more harshly, as they are more likely to see the misbehaviour as part of a pattern. This is infuriating due to there being no direct reason for these actions to be taking place. Statistics show that Black students do not behave worse within school premises, only stereotypically punished for the same behavioural acts that white pupils also conduct.