Author's Note: This blog is part of a two-part series about economic disparities and their disproportionate effects on communities of color. Read part one here. I hope you enjoy it.
I have talked about how the equity within our American school systems has failed the children within them for years, but it does not just end there. Communities of color are becoming a target for injustice within our education systems as well.
To gain a full grasp on this topic, we need to do a little dive into the history of the United States, more specifically the forming of communities within American cities.
White architects, throughout our history of the United States, have designed neighborhoods and districts as a way to segregate racial minorities. Because of this, communities of color were denied access to better housing, funding, and loans within their areas. As a result of that, these neighborhoods, filled with predominantly people of color, due to redlining and redistricting, had offset the economic stability within cities and states. The terms that people tend to use when describing low-income areas with heavy crime rates are words like “ghetto” or “ratchet.” These words then become associated with communities of color. This game of word associations that we play is not valid nor reasonable in any way because, in reality, the creation of “ghettos'' within the United States sprouted from the white architects in power. When we make connections of lower-income areas, filled with crime, to a racial minority, we overlook the causes of why most communities of color are this way. Because of racial tensions and plain white superiority, especially during the civil rights movement, white people and corporations would instill fear into citizens that their home value, by just being a neighbor to a racial minority, would be lowered due to their presence. These corporations and banks made it almost impossible for people of color to be seen as human or deserving of respect.
Another term, other than just redlining and redistricting, that we should add to this is blockbusting. We are not talking about a blockbuster film, rather something much worse that caused a lot of future cities major problems with their infrastructure. Blockbusting is simply when real estate workers and banks would whisper lies into the white homeowners of wealthy areas that the next group of people invading the neighborhood would be people of color. The real estate agents would make this sound almost like a plague coming in. Because of this instilled fear, white homeowners would now sell their homes at a cheaper price in order to sell faster. This would create a boom in the real estate industry while people of color were still not being given loans to move into these homes. Over the years, after these rich suburban neighborhoods became outdated and destroyed, finally, racial minorities could be granted any loans. At this point, these homes would just become abandoned and left on the sides of the streets: vacant and destroyed. Detroit, Michigan is notorious for having extremely high rates of crime, the most number of zones of abandonment, poor education systems, and overall poor city infrastructure. Filled with predominantly people of color, the city of Detroit is a direct result of what has happened throughout the years after blockbusting, redlining, and redistricting in favor of white people.
While I did just take a long while explaining some history about how cities and communities were created, it is time to tie this all back to how children within these communities are being stripped of a solid education. Because of the redistricting caused by racism and discrimination to POC (people of color), these new school districts also would not receive adequate funding compared to white communities. The banks would only supply loans and funding for higher-up estates and communities, which due to the past, is filled with all white people. Children, now, within very low-income areas get little to no educational support; their academic careers become almost obsolete.
The stigma around POC, more specifically black people, is that they barely attend college because they are not smart enough or good enough. The validity of this claim is false. If people took the time to do some digging and remember the idea of equity, we could be constantly reminded that because of poor funding within school districts, children are not offered the same chances to thrive. Money is more of a factor than most will know. Yes, there are many cases in which people break all boundaries, but sometimes when the oppressors are constantly holding you down, with no help being offered, it can be almost impossible to break free.
The issue presented here is that with the idea of equity in mind. We see that in school districts, in general, we do not supply adequate funding for those schools in need. Now, the next issue within this topic is the little to no funding to specific communities of colors, that are reaping the repercussions caused by white superiority. As people, we should want everyone around us to stand tall and strong with us, not below us or held down next to us. We should want to stand together. Funding is an issue in general that needs to be talked about, but the disproportionate funding, as well, within communities of color is an ongoing issue that people tend to overlook. As a result of ignorance, these stereotypes and stigmas are made about POC. Our education systems should be a safe space for kids to learn to grow and flourish. It should not be an institution where kids are held underwater while they are struggling to breathe. We need change, and the change needs to happen now. Try to talk to your local school boards about how we can reallocate funds in order to help support larger amounts of kids within their journeys of education.
Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c7Mfi4GYy0