School Desegregation: Impact on Native Americans, African Americans, Chicanos and Asian
Inequality and unfairness are considered as the most talked about issue or subject in the entire history of mankind, and until now, there are still different debates regarding racial discrimination that can be observed or related in different aspects. The field of education is considered as one of the most important institutions that are directly connected in racial discrimination. If we are going to look back at the history of any nation, poor people are not allowed to go to the same school, with the rich people, or worse, they are not allowed to have proper education. In the American regions, due to extreme racial gap between colors, there are separate schools that cater to the needs of Blacks, Whites, Natives and Asian; the said process is called school segregation.
As time goes by, people started to realize the negative impact of racial war or discrimination in their nation, the result, there have been different laws, regulations and policies that have been implemented in order to stop and prevent racial discrimination in all institutions, authorities considered the significance of desegregation. Desegregation is considered as the legal process of ending racial segregation in different public facilities and institutions (Rucker and Upton, 151). In 1954, the Supreme Court responded to the said cruel history of discrimination in the 17 states that authorized segregation in an eloquent ruling. The Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision strongly declared that the denial of access to equal public education have violated one of the basic rights of students, thus segregation must end. The decision can be considered as the most important action of the Supreme Court during the 20th century, which helped to bring back to life the anti-discrimination amendments to the Constitution that was enacted for the duration of Reconstruction. It had helped to create a new sense of opportunities to end the apartheid that had shaped the existence of most blacks (Boger and Orfield, 8).
Although White Americans are directly connected with the issue or actions regarding school desegregation, most of the studies or researches focus on its impact on the four minorities or ethnic groups in the U.S. that are Native Americans or American Indian, African Americans, Chicanos or Latinos and Asian.
By 1970s, it had become clear that school desegregation had created a vital gains for the minority students, however, the said significant gains were not measured by means of increased in test scores and achievement examination but on how it changes the students’ life chances (Boger and Orfield, 8).
School desegregation plays an important role in the development of American schools, particularly for the benefits of the said minority groups. The said changes is due to the different factors including immigration of the non-European in the country since 1965 law that ended the discriminatory immigration, the low birth rate among the native whites as well as the higher rates among the Latinos. Statistics shows that for the period of 1940 to 1960, the number of non-white students gained only 11 to 12% out of the total enrollment rate. On the other hand, as a result of the desegregation, by 1996, the non-white enrollment rate had increased to 36%, thus the Census Bureau predicted that in 2050, the total school age population of non-white will increase up to 58%. Thus, according to the national statistics, the average white student is in a school with 8.6% black, 6.6% Latinos, 2.8% Asians and 1% American Indians (Boger and Orfield, 8).
There are different studies that focuses on the impact of desegregation of school in the said four important minority groups, it focuses on the performance of each and every group, compare to the past performance and ranking, as well as the growing number of the enrollees in different schools. However, non of the said studies produced and presented a strong conclusion that desegregation has a negative or positive impact in the entire performance and situation of the minority students in the educational environment (Weinberg, 150). The primary problem is that none of the researchers focuses on the atmosphere inside the schools and classrooms, that will make them feel equal or not, or if the children were really placed in the integrated classes in the desegregated school (qtd. in Weinberg, 150).
African Americans or black Americans are considered as the primary beneficiaries of the Brown decision of the desegregation of school. This is due to the fact that it has been believed that the segregated schooling created psychological damage to the black children, thus it is unconstitutional due to the fat that it shows inequality (Jaynes & Williams, 80). One of the positive influences of the Brown decision is that it helped to increase or improve the self-esteem as well as educational aspirations of the black children, thus help to improve the black and white relations in early age (qtd. in Jaynes & Williams, 80). However, just like other minority groups, African Americans are prone to discrimination from whites. For majority of Black American student, it is always hard to determine the influence of desegregation to the progress of their educational aspect. However, Black students are more expected to be expelled, suspended or even pushed out of school, compare to their White counterparts. According to the study of Garabaldi and Bartley in 1989, in one school district, there are about 41% of Black students; however, 65% of the said numbers were suspended. Thus, they are commonly positioned in the lower track course or special education and not participating in any extracurricular activities. As a result, they are often unprepared to go to four-year course in college or university (Harris and Graham, 88).
There are about 324,000 American Indian students in the US K-12 system in 2005. More or less 90% of the students attend the regular public schools, while 7% attend the schools that were administered by the government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. According to the report of the US Commission on Civil Rights in 2003, American Indian frequently experience difficulty in starting relationship with the teacher and other students, and subject to racist threats and frequent suspension (“American Indian and Alaska Native Students”, 1 – 2). That’s the reason why many of the Indian students gave up and quit during the first years of implementation of desegregation of school. It can be observed that the rates for Native teenagers extremely increased (Oakley, 85).
One of the major aspects that relates or connects Chicanos in the educational system of the US, is their growing birth rate, compare to other minority groups, and even compare to white Americans. Latinos, like Black American and American Indian were also victim of discrimination, not only from White but also from other minority groups. That’s why Latinos recorded 30% or total of 1.5 million students, considered as highest drop-out rates in high school during 1998, compare to Whites (8%) and African Americans (14%). On the other hand, the number of the Chicanos that are continuing to college had increased radically over the past 20 years, it is still lower proportions compare to the Whites and African Americans (Bowman, 1751).
In terms of education perspective, Asian Americans are considered as the most educated ethnic or majority groups in the mainstream society. Thus, their success in continuing from high school to college is higher compare to whites, African American and even Latinos. The said position changed during 1980 and 1990, due to the 10.2% increase in the number of white high school graduates. During 1994, 41.2% of the entire Asian Americans students had completed four or more years in college. On the other hand, the said figures hide the fact that there is discrimination that leads to limitations for the Asian American to obtain educational success (Schultz, 246).
Based on the past conditions and situations of the four important minority groups in the US. It can be said that the school desegregation offers advantages and disadvantages for the said groups. In terms of advantages, it had helped to create an environment that is open and “equal” for every race, thus according to different studies, it helped to boast self-confidence by the process of socialization. In addition to that, it also helps the student to learn about the differences in the culture that can help them to understand each other at young age that will help to stop or prevent racial war in the long run.
However, the number of the students that are backing out can be considered as evidence that in some points, school desegregation helped to enhance discrimination in school, thus play an important role in the motivation of the students to perform well.
References
American Indian and Alaska Native Students. Alliance for Excellent Education. 2007. 18 Nov. 2008, <http://www.all4ed.org/files/AmerIndianAKNative_FactSheet.pdf>
Boger, John Charles and Orfield, Gary. School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? UNC Press, 2005
Bowman, Kristi. “The New Face of School Dessegregation.” Duke Law Journal. 50.6 (2007), 1751 – 1753
Harris, Yvette and Graham, James. The African American Child: Development and Challenges. Springer Publishing Company, 2007.
Jaynes, Gerald David and Williams, Robin Murphy. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. National Committee on the Status of Black Americans, 1989.
Oakley, Christopher Arris. Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina. U of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Orfield, Gary. “The Resegregation of Our Nation’s Schools: A Troubling Trend.” Civil Rights Journal. 4.1 (1999): 8 – 12.
Rucker, Walter and Upton, James. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots: Greenwood Milestones in African American History. Greenwood Press, 2007.
Schultz, Jeffrey. African Americans and Asian Americans. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000
Weinberg, Meyer. The Search for Quality Integrated Education: Policy and Research on Minority Students in School and College. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983.
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