Ceres Magazine Issue 4 - Fall 2016 | Page 56

56 | Ceres Magazine | Fall 2016

Americans are results of our country’s shoddy education system. Unfortunately gerrymandering in Congress has created racially homogenous districts. All-white districts receive better resources while minority districts are left with outdated textbooks and unqualified teachers. Gerrymandering isn’t the only force encouraging racism in America’s schools. In fact, a wave of re-segregation is hitting schools throughout the U.S. Almost six decades after the victorious Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, U.S. public schools are embracing a new version of apartheid. Apartheid schools, where less than 1% of the student body is white, are all the rage in the Midwest and South. In 2009 and 2010, more than 74% of African American students attended schools where, at least, half of the population consisted of only one minority (The Civil Rights Project at UCLA). The problem has only gotten worse over time.

This decade has produced the most racist school system the United States has seen in years. New York actually hosts the nation’s most segregated schools. California and Nevada were also among the 20 most segregated states for black students in 2011-2012 (USA Today). Siphoning black children off from their white peers propagates racism and prejudice. Because white students attend schools whose populations do not represent the accurate diversity of our country, these students grow up with a fundamental misunderstanding of the world. Not only is diversity lacking in white students’ environments, but it is also absent from their

textbooks. Black and white students alike learn about the same handful of African American heroes, year after year (i.e. Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X). Because white students learn very little of the contributions of African Americans to our society, many assume that African Americans contributed very little, though this is completely untrue. Our education system is unknowingly acknowledging and teaching racism.

 

Ceres: What do you want to say to women out there? Any message? Any last thoughts?

 

Sarah: Our only way out of this shit storm is to support women who speak out against men—in the workplace, at school, and at home. Victims of domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment are dismissed in the millions. Our political representatives, however, cannot ignore a united front.

Also, if you're not registered to vote, you can do it in minutes online. Remember to vote. If we as women unite to elect the first female president of the United States, rather than a racist, sexist male candidate, there may be hope for us yet!

Ceres: Thank you so much, Sarah, for sharing with us your views on a few topics of this issue of Ceres Magazine.  

 

 

"...Many assume that African Americans contributed very little, though this is completely untrue."

Artwork by Lands of Void

Al Mohymont

For Ceres Magazine