Institutional Racism in Schools

I could've been a chess grandmaster. But St. Leo's in Irvington, NJ (my elementary and middle school) either fired the teacher or he left... and no one cared to get anyone else after that. So that meant Mesha lost one of her favorite pastimes.

My opportunities there were lost...

A lot of children who live in urban environments and go to inner city schools have, unfortunately, suffered the same fate. My case is no different than other children's lost or undeveloped talents.

It's just as if I wanted to learn about music, but my inner city school cut the arts program out.

Just as if I were an athlete but they had to fire the coach or didn't have enough equipment.

Just as if I wanted to learn about current events, but my school couldn't afford books after 1996 or didn't have enough books for all students to take them home to do homework.

Just as if I were just a child in class, distracted from the class topics because I'm worried about going home since mommy couldn't buy groceries this week.

Just like the child who may be going through an extremely rough home life and does not know how to express themselves verbally or is just straight up disinterested in class, and does poorly in standardized testing, so the teacher puts them into remedial or special ed classes.

Just like the child who may have been aggressive, so the teacher neglects their needs and thus the school to prison pipeline begins for that child.

Institutional racism works in many intricate ways. Our inner city schools are under funded for many reasons, but I also believe that THAT is a big factor. ‪#‎institutionalracism‬ ‪#‎schooltoprisonpipeline‬ ‪#‎giveusachance‬

http://racism.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1167:education02-3&catid=49&Itemid=172

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/05/06/institutional-racism-is-our-way-of-life