Naughty By Nature.....

I was a bit shocked and disheartened by what I read in this weeks readings. I suppose I have taken for granted the "white privilege". I had not really ever paid attention to the disparities in the classroom. I was very surprised by one of the examples listed early on, that a black student was written up for given the teacher a look that said "you bitch". I can see the kid being in trouble if they actually said it, but for a look?!?! come on now.

I was a bit surprised that the article didn't go more into the disproportionate number of black students that receive suspensions or expulsions as a way to deal with behavior problems. In Milwaukee, this is a huge problem. In other districts as well. Usually it is a small percentage of students who receive a majority of the suspensions / expulsions, and the majority of those students are black.

I also found the discussion about black males used to intimidate children to behave interesting. It got me thinking about my own placement. The school has three security guards. Two of them are black. All are male. All are pretty large. There is a very visible lack of minority males in other positions in the school.