Here we go again…Same Ol’ Suspension Story
The permanent and lingering nature of race, and a belief in a racial hierarchy remains deeply embedded in our public institutions in the United States and in our collective consciousness.
A recent article published by the News & Observer shared a report from the Southern Coalition of Social Justice outlining the racial inequity that exists in school discipline. Specifically, the article goes on to state that Black students receive short-term suspensions at disproportionate rates.
Roughly a decade ago, folks were using the school-to-prison pipeline to draw connections between unfair discipline in public schools and the overrepresentation of Black and Brown youth in the criminal justice system. Before this, folks as early as the 1970s were discussing unfair discipline policies and the use of suspension in schools.
Since the 1970s maybe the rates of short-term suspension changed; the ratio quotient to which the suspension of Black students compared to their white peers fluctuated slightly, but in the end, it is the same thing.
Black students and, more broadly, Black, Latinx, Native American students who look a certain way, speak a certain way, express themselves in a certain way, will be punished by the public education system. They will be punished and punished severely when these behaviors and expressions do not ascribe to gender and racial norms — particularly those associated with whiteness.
We will continue to be in this cycle of no progress because to address such inequity will require courageousness and a willingness to let go and to give up something.
It is not about having conversations on why these inequities exist because conversations only provide us with an opportunity to share and listen but rarely do they require us to act — to change our beliefs, our actions.
The solution is simple but not easy — educators and school administrators must be willing to grapple with the ways they have internalized racism, its associated bias, privileges, and acknowledge their role in its continued perpetuation. Racism permeates the public education system in the United States and our collective consciousness. It is why we have people who believe that making America great involves sending the parents of Black and Brown immigrant children and even the children back to their countries. It is why Black and Brown parents fight for their children to go to “quality” schools. It is why we see backlash and resistance to racial equity.
Racial equity in the public education system is a possibility.
We need privileged parents to stop pressuring school districts to fund programs that more often privilege gifted and, to some degree, not gifted white students. We need parents to advocate for the use of our collective tax dollars and resources to go toward those students who need it the most. We need school district leaders to be courageous and to really believe in racial equity — to dismantle the implicit and sustained hierarchical relationship that exists between what it means to be a Black versus White student in the United States.
We need to let people know that if we let Black students soar and do not suspend them, then it does not mean we fail our White students or our schools. How many more times, decades will we return to this data without doing something about it? We no longer need conversations or dialogue on why these inequities exist — we need action.
