University of West Georgia Institutionalized Racism Paper 1,7000-1,8000 words. Original midterm paper is already 1,455 words. May need some tweaking to ori

University of West Georgia Institutionalized Racism Paper 1,7000-1,8000 words. Original midterm paper is already 1,455 words. May need some tweaking to original paper in order to follow guidelines below… My paper is over institutionalized racism within our educational system. (attached below)

Option 1 (expanding on your midterm): The CJS and proposed or current race-related policy

• Begin your paper by introducing the issue (3 points)

• Describe the order or proposed order (e.g., building a wall). What is Mr. Trump’s rationale for proposing or signing the order? (3 points)

Provide relevant historical and contextual information about the topic. For example, if you are writing about banning immigration from certain countries, give a history of immigration policy banning certain groups from entering or remaining in the U.S., and the social, political, and economic circumstances under which these policies were created/imposed. (15 points)

• Discuss how this topic has been covered by the media- liberal and conservative. Provide a counter-argument to each argument. (10 points)

• How will this order impact the United States? Will it benefit the American people? Explain your answer. (5 points)

-You have incorporated a minimum of 4 scholarly journal articles that you have found through Galileo to support your argument(s) (4 points)

-Your writing is appropriate for an upper-division course (e.g., few grammatical mistakes) (5points)

-You have limited your use of quotes and used your own words; there are no more than three (3) direct quotes, which may be no longer than 2 sentences each. (5 points)

-You have properly cited (APA format) your -sources in the text of the paper (2 point Running head: INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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Hailey Powell
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
Institutionalized racism, specifically in our educational system, is a major problem
affecting specific groups of people in society in many ways. People of color usually experience
more discrimination from law-enforcement simply because they are presumed to be more likely
to commit crimes than their white counterparts. The criminal justice system has created an image
for people of color, and it is the one of a criminal. The educational system should be a safe place
from institutionalized racism however, there are loopholes in certain policies that continue to
prove that there is still discrimination against minority students.
Institutionalized racism in the educational system starts very early. During preschool, 50
percent of suspensions are given to black students whose population in these schools only
account for 18 percent. We see a pattern when comparing this information to our incarceration
rates of African Americans today. Arday and In Mirza (2018) state that when black students and
white students commit similar infringements in school, the white students are faced with less
punishment and the black students are prone to suspensions and even get excluded at a higher
rate, approximately three times more than their white counterparts. According to the National
Center for Education Statistics (2019), black students who are enrolled in school in the United
States make up 16 percent; this population represents 27 percent of students embedded to law
enforcement and 31 percent who are exposed to arrests. This is due to the government’s creation
of a system called the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’. The ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ is a metaphor
used to represent the structural inequalities in our current school systems that lead minority
students straight to the criminal justice system.
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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A current policy that supports the school-to-prison pipeline is “The Zero Tolerance”
policy. This is a disciplinary policy enforced in U.S schools that introduced harsher punishments
for certain infractions broken by students no matter the context of the situation. This policy
began to cause minority students to face many problems, feel vulnerable, and even experience
unfair treatment. Many students of color have experienced repeated suspensions or expulsions in
result of this policy, and we have seen them referred to law enforcement in many cases.
According to Sellers and Arrigo (2017), “Under these policies, 56% of students who are expelled
are either Hispanic or African-American. Moreover, Hispanic and African-American students
make up 70% of students involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement.”
African Americans, Latinos, and Native American students are dropping out of school. This is a
result of institutionalized racism and there are three main factors that play a role in reinforcing
this racism within this policy: discretionary decisioning, the connection of minorities and the
labeling of learning disabilities and, the result of red lining.
Firstly, students of color are more likely to be criminalized with this policy in place
because of how they are already perceived as being troublemakers or being defiant. Teachers and
administrators are given the ability to use their discretionary decision making when working with
student’s behavior and often we see that African American students are handled much harsher
than their white counterparts. In a review by the American Psychological Association Zero
Tolerance Task Force, the above policy and practice has exercised too much superiority that it
has now curtailed students’ interest in schooling (Lowenstein, 2008). These discretionary
decisions are often fueled off implicit bias, a teacher who already has low expectations for
minority students will react in a more negative way to their behavior and as a result leading to
harsher punishments. These structural inequalities may even cause the student to act out more
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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due to realization of how they are being punished compared to their white counterparts. The Zero
Tolerance Policy states that there are predetermined consequences no matter the circumstance or
context, but this simply is not true. Our educational system has incorporated segregation as noted
by Thompson, (2018) the K-12 education problems run deep with present inequality in schools.
Discretionary decision making may also play a part in the quality of education each student gets,
this goes back to implicit bias and how both factors correlate to create inequality and segregation
in our educational system.
Secondly, the over labeling of minorities with learning disabilities plays a huge part in
many of the structural inequalities we see in our educational system. In the categories of learning
disability and emotional disturbance, African American males are disproportionately
represented, accounting for 12% and 21% respectively (U.S. Department of Education, 2006).
This proves there are significant educational failures towards minority students. Students of color
are failing to graduate, placed in alternative schools and referred to law enforcement more often
than their white counterparts. These minorities are often labeled with these “learning disabilities”
for excessive reasons. Disability critical race theory states that African Americans are often
characterized as less intelligent or just academically poor students, this leads to the over labeling
of minorities with learning disabilities. When we over label these individuals we often times
degrade their own self-image which leads to them seeing it as a self-fulfilling prophecy, this ties
into labeling theory because when we continuously label these children with learning disabilities
we see a decrease in motivation and as a result more dropouts. Many in the educational system
are quick to label minority students with learning disabilities without taking into consideration
the totality of their circumstances. Many minority students are already starting off at a greater
disadvantage, when it comes to learning some don’t have the resources or the means to achieve
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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the success the educational system sets up for them. These students may fall short when
compared to others and because of this they are labeled with learning disabilities instead of
receiving the extra help they need. Labeling minorities with learning disabilities is yet another
loophole in the educational system that proves that institutionalized racism remains a present
problem.
Thirdly, the government introduction of red lining has majorly affected minority students.
Redlining made it more difficult for minorities with lower income to buy homes, it is a racial and
socioeconomic way to target specific groups of people and consequently we have created more
urban neighborhoods. These urban neighborhoods are the home of low-income minorities who
have children that are enrolled in public schools and often they only have access to schools
where they can receive public transportation, as they have no other means. The result of
redlining has given these low-income neighborhoods less tax funding and as a result there are
numerous underfunded schools in these areas. Thus, redlining causes the disinvestment of
targeted areas often having disproportionate concentrations of poverty and racial and ethnic
minorities (Aalbers, 2011; Squires & Kubrin, 2005). Redlining effects the resources these
schools can provide for their students and as a result effects the quality of education that these
students receive. Instead of assisting these schools with funding the government tends to turn a
blind eye towards the matter which only makes things worst. It is worsening the education
system by incorporating inequality where certain resources and studies can be provided for white
students but, the same resources and studies would be denied for the black students. Redlining is
an underlying problem to the institutionalized racism we see in the educational system today.
All these factors play a role in the Zero Tolerance Policy and show how this policy
promotes institutionalized racism. This policy has presented many problems for minority
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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students with public education and creates yet another barrier for them to have to cross in order
to achieve the same success as their white counterparts. Discretionary decision making, the
extensive labeling of minorities with learning disabilities, and redlining all have affected the
educational system in their own way. The educational and criminal justice system should
eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline and promote zero tolerance towards institutional racism.
The Zero Tolerance Policy and the school-to-prison pipeline practices have greatly played a role
in the overrepresentation of people of color in the criminal justice system.
References
Arday, J., & In Mirza, H. S. (2018). Dismantling race in higher education: Racism, whiteness,
and decolonizing the academy.
Banks, J. (2017). “These People Are Never Going to Stop Labeling Me”: Educational
Experiences of African American Male Students Labeled with Learning Disabilities.
Retrieved March 2, 2020, from
https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=4ee7d8dd-f1ec-4c77-a86085802d5d3e07@pdc-vsessmgr03&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHNoaWImc2l0ZT1lZHMtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT
1zaXRl#AN=EJ1131043&db=eric
INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
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Lowenstein, A. (2008). Retrieved 1 March 2020,
from https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/schell/zero_tolerance.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) part of the U.S. Department of
Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2020, from https://nces.ed.gov/
Sellers, B. M., & Arrigo, B. A. (2017, March 1). Zero tolerance, social control, and marginalized
youth in U.S. schools: a critical reappraisal of neoliberalism’s theoretical foundations and
epistemological assumptions. Retrieved March 5, 2020, from
https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=4ee7d8dd-f1ec-4c77a860-85802d5d3e07@pdc-v-sessmgr03
Thompson, K. (2018). Zero-Tolerance Policies and the School to Prison Pipeline — Shared
Justice. Retrieved 1 March 2020, from http://www.sharedjustice.org/domesticjustice/2017/12/21/zero-tolerance-policies-and-the-school-to-prison-pipeline

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