Friday, December 14, 2012

A Subgroup in Risk of Extinction



In the 21st century, with all of the new advancements within American culture and society one would think that the progression of educating African Americans would be somewhere on the fore front. But, sadly we are nowhere close to progressively advancing the education of African American males. The sad song that is in being replayed over and over, district by district state by state is the “Pipeline to Prison” for our young African American men. In schools with high populations of African Americans, services provided to this subgroup are dismal to almost none.  In retrospect, these children are not adequately being prepared for their tomorrow.

According to a report written by Starla Muhammad, the Chicago Public School System has been changed into nothing more than a prison preparation industry. This way of educating African American males in particular is a growing trend across school districts within the illustrious United States. Moreover, a compliant has also been filed with the United States Department of Justice against Meridian, Mississippi, and other defendants. The lawsuits main complaint is; the schools are operating school-to-prison pipelines.  The lawyers claim that students are being denied their basic constitutional rights; they are also sent to court and incarcerated for minor school infractions. These infractions include, talking back to white teachers, being out of dress code to other minor insignificant infractions. In Shelby County, Tennessee, similar complaints were raised against the school system. According to further research their local officials are being fully cooperative with the Justice Department to alleviate this matter.

In addition to poor quality education, many educational reformers make claims that this particular subgroup is not interested in education and they are not serious in regards to their education and their educational outcomes.  Therefore, poor and lack of preparation in K-12 schools leaves many black male students without an adequate academic foundation to succeed in college and in the labor force.

What are significant ways that we can tackle this Pipeline to Prison?