African Americans in Education

In America, where African Americans are not on the same playing field as others in the race for success, one can find refuge in education, a system solely based on the acquisition of knowledge and skills. The correlation lies between working hard to get good grades not being a certain race. Even with this definition, it cannot be put on the back burner for a long time in terms of the success pile African Americans have always been at the bottom. Exploring this pattern brings up the claim that the education system isn’t what its Merriam Webster definition set it out to be but instead being so plagued by racism and blinded by discrimination that there seems to be no way out from the bottom of that pile. It’s this rhetorical situation that has culminated writings to explore why this is happening. Through “Speaking Up and Speaking Out Against Dominant Discourses About African Americans In Education”, “African Americans Remain Underrepresented, Undeserved in In State’s Higher Education System”, “New Lessons for our Classrooms: Improving The Education of African American Students Will Require a Stronger Teacher Workforce. Here’s what it will take.”, “The Critical Role of Education in the History of African Americans, Part l” exploring their rhetoric can give a better understanding of a way out.

The author of “Speaking Up and Speaking Out Against Dominant Discourses About African Americans In Education” is H. Richard Milner, who is a professor of education at Vanderbilt University. The main audiences that Milner was addressing in this article was the general public but also other writers and the media. The tone of this article was very illuminating. Milner seemed like he was trying to make a revelation about a stigma that has been prevalent for a long time. The article states “Black students were portrayed as victims with little or no hope” (Milner, 4). Milner’s stance is that writers, media, and people in general need to be careful with the language that is  used to describe African Americans in the sector of education because it can affect how the public views them. It’s how the notion that African Americans were academically inferior and challenged came from, so it shows the impact of such sources and language. The genre is an opinion article. The language is very formal to make the writing more credible but also I felt Milner did this to make his point be taken more seriously. Milner continuously throughout the article references other articles to further prove his point of how language that we use can greatly impact the view of the race and reinforce stereotypes. Milner’s goal was to make it known that it’s the media’s responsibility to use their power and pens to stop how the public views African Americans in education.

The author of “African Americans Remain Underrepresented, Undeserved in In State’s Higher Education System” is Letisia Marquez who is an experienced bilingual media relations professional. The audience of this newspaper article are the residents of California and the higher educational institutions in California. The article states “Data for the study was drawn from information collected by the California Postsecondary Education Commission and the California Department of Education” (Marquez). The tone of the article was informative. Marquez consistently referred to actual data to show how African American males were underrepresented in the higher education institutions of California. Her stance is that the underrepresentation of African American males in higher educational systems goes all the way back to slavery with the unequal treatment of blacks. This racial inequality is so deeply rooted in California’s school systems that African Americans don’t even have the opportunity to graduate college at the same rate as other races. The genre is a research article. The language was very formal to be informative, however there is a sense that Marquez can relate to the situation being that she is a minority who went to UCLA and most likely faced obstacles to obtain her degree, in the end though, defeating the odds. The only high rates that can be seen in African American males is in prisons instead of college.  Marques wants Californians to know that higher education opportunities in California aren’t made available to African American males whether it be because of socioeconomic issues or never-ending discrimination towards them. California residents need to be made aware of this because any uneducated mind is a dangerous mind.

The authors of “New Lessons for our Classrooms: Improving The Education of African American Students Will Require a Stronger Teacher Workforce. Here’s what it will take.” are Marcia Wade Talbert, a freelance writer, and Robin White Goode, an education editor. The audience of the article was not only the general public but also teachers and schools. The tone of the article was honest because it felt like the author was trying to investigate behind the scenes of what goes through an educator’s mind and their motivations for teaching by getting it from their subjects. The authors’ stance is that to improve the education of an African American schools need to be looking at the teachers who they employed to actually work with these students in the first place.  The text states “Perry believes that type of achievement is missing in most public schools because teachers lack accountability” (Talbert and Goode). It is worth noting that it’s possible that the failure of a student can be directly related to bad teaching. The genre was a magazine article with formal language. From this article it’s shown that, schools need to be taking a closer look into the types of people they are employing that can potentially have a big impact on not only a child’s life but also their education. It’s revealed in this article how some teachers are just in it for the money or the benefits which isn’t the right motivation to have when educating the minds of the future. It takes a teacher who is actually passionate about their job and willing to go above and beyond for their students if there will be a change in the success rates of students including African American males.

The article “The Critical Role of Education in the History of African Americans, Part l” is written by Jennifer Gamble-Theard, a ASALH historian and has a master”s in education. The audience seems to be the general public. The tone of the article is very informative especially when discussing the timeline of how racism has affected the education of an African American. There is also a tone of optimism because the article gives examples of how African Americans have overcome challenges that they have faced. The text states “Black colleges and universities were established throughout the south as well as a few northern and mid-western Border States.” (Theard). Even though higher educational institutions don’t treat African Americans as they do other races there are HBCUs that are present to help with the educational opportunities African Americans lack. The genre of this is an opinion article with formal language. The author’s stance is that African Americans have always faced challenges in their paths of education whether it was set in stone through laws or just continued unequal treatment in terms of the quality of education African Americans receive. However, it is important to know that there are colleges and universities out there that do want to see African Americans succeed making it possible for them to overcome obstacles.

When all these sources are put next to each other it’s evident in what ways they differ from one another. One of the major differences that puts the articles against each other is where the source of problems for African Americans in the education system arise. “Speaking Up and Speaking Out Against Dominant Discourses About African Americans In Education”, “African Americans Remain Underrepresented, Undeserved in In State’s Higher Education System”, and “The Critical Role of Education in the History of African Americans, Part l” believe that racism and discrimination are historically rooted in the education system. “New Lessons for our Classrooms: Improving The Education of African American Students Will Require a Stronger Teacher Workforce. Here’s what it will take.” feels it starts within the classroom with teachers who are ill fitted for the job and not caring about the progress of students, creating a bad learning environment for African Americans. This causes a difference in purpose in ways the authors advocate for change and the solutions they propose. However, one similarity that they all share is the stance that there is a problem in education systems when it comes to African Americans. Using evidence/data to show that this does exist combined with the use of formal language to get that idea across,  shows it’s something that can’t be ignored and there are different ways that people can help.

In conclusion, through exploring the different rhetoric of these sources we get a better understanding of why African Americans have had such an unfortunate and unsuccessful experience in education. Knowing all of this information lends to a call for action for everyone involved. For the media to be more filtered on the language they use when describing African Americans. For schools and teachers to be a solution for the problem by being passionate about any students’ education no matter the cause or motive. For the general public to be aware of what’s going on in these higher educational institutions when it comes to race. Most importantly, for African Americans to be more informed of the odds they will have to face no matter what and using it as motivation for their future success stories.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Gamble-Theard, Jennifer. “The Critical Role of Education in the History of African Americans, Part l.” BlackPressUSA, 5 Oct. 2018, blackpressusa.com/the-critical-role-of-education-in-the-history-of-african-americans-part-l/.

Marquez, Letisia, “AFRICAN AMERICANS REMAIN UNDERREPRESENTED,     UNDERSERVED IN STATE’S HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM.” States News Service, 8 Mar. 2010. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A220823825/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=9d93d3bf. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

 

Milner, H. Richard. “Speaking up and speaking out against dominant discourses about African Americans in education.” Educational Foundations, vol. 26, no. 1-2, 2012, p. 3+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A308742342/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=24f0dcbd. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.

 

Talbert, Marcia Wade, and Robin White Goode. “New lessons for our classrooms: improving the education of African American students will require a stronger teacher workforce. Here’s what it will take. (EDUCATION CRISIS.” Black Enterprise, Nov. 2011, p. 68+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A274227499/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=58ce74f6. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.