What do you hate the most? I’m sure you’ve answered this question during some type of icebreaker conversation for a club or those Buzzfeed quizzes that tell you what type of bread you are. It’s a very common question, and it seems to inform others about you and your personality, which I guess is why it’s so popular in these get-to-know-you type situations. What do you consider important enough to hate with every fiber of your being? There are usually two common ways to answer: something little, such as a person chewing too loudly, or something somber, such as the institutionalized racism in our country. But aside from those two ways of going about responding, there is one reply that seems to be a combination of both. It comes across as a little thing in conversations, almost like a joke, but as you dwell more on it and look at the multi-layered reasoning for your detestation, it turns into something less light-hearted. And that $1,000 answer is school. For many people, school is the bane of their existence; it contracts their self-worth and intelligence to a set of letters at the end of the year. The list of reasons that causes this loathing is endless. However, along with the obvious issues, school is also a cause of contempt because it targets many black, indigenous, people of color through what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
The school-to prison pipeline is when the criminalization of youth, excessive use of exclusionary school discipline policies, and juvenile justice involvement pushes children deeper into the criminal justice system; simply put, it is when children are funneled out of public schools and into juvenile and criminal justice systems. This cycle targets those in lower income areas, specifically those in lower income areas that are BIPOC. A student normally finishes their schooling after the 12th grade year, and after this several students either go to college or start careers. However for many students of color, their negative experiences in school create a bleak future within criminal justice systems. Negative school discipline has a disastrous effect on students: one suspension doubles the chance that student drops out and students who are expelled have 3x the chance of ending up in the juvenile justice system. This starts as early as kindergarten, which is almost unbelievable until you realize that black students are disproportionately suspended from school starting when they are as young at 3 years old.
There are considerable gaps in educational scenarios between black and white students in the United States. Researchers studied differences between students who were disciplined during school and uncovered that black students are more likely to be punished then white students for the same offenses. There are fewer black children enrolled in schools, but even when that is taken into account, they are 3.6x more likely to be suspended from school than white students. A lot of these black students are black females, and their suspensions are often motivated by bias from teachers and other faculty. Another reason for black females being targeted is the absence of mental health resources and the implication of inherently racist school rules, such as the dress code banning braided hairstyles distinct to their hair type. Implicit bias plays a huge role in perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline as well.
The pipeline begins with inadequate resources in public schools, which includes overcrowded classrooms and lack of funding for other facilities such as mental health counselors and special education services. I’m sure some of you are familiar with this, as many see this in their schools every single day. These factors, along with others, combine to create an environment that encourages disinterest and dropouts. Once ensnared in the juvenile or criminal justice systems, it is hard to break out of that cycle. Those incarcerated are 70% more likely to return to jail by the age of 25. And on top of that, the psychological and economic consequences have lasting impacts on those affected and decrease financial and educational opportunities. As you can tell, it’s an endless pattern that goes on and on unless we do our parts to break it.
The main thing you can do as a young person is speak up against racism in school settings. By pointing out racial biases to teachers and faculty, it may cause them to examine the rules and make their own changes. It is our job to reeducate ourselves to be better allies for those around us. It’s disheartening to feed into a system that was designed to fail students of color, specifically black students, but if we fight and advocate for them, maybe we can make a change. The next thing someone asks you what you hate the most, I hope that you give them an answer that makes them reevaluate their experiences in the public education system.
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