Education has never been colorblind.
The impact of race in education is historic, long-lasting, and permeates the entire education system.
Despite the magnitude of Brown v. Board, which ended “separate but equal” more than sixty years ago, school segregation still exists in America, and has even worsened in the last few decades. Residential segregation, which often drives segregation in schools, also remains pervasive in our country. We increasingly isolate poor Black and Brown students in segregated schools, whether they are public or private.
Even within their own school environments, the education of minority students—especially Black children—is undermined by inadequate funding, school closures and privatization, biased standardized testing, implicit bias from teachers and school staff, and myriad other factors that lead to school pushout and poor graduation rates.
From Schools to Prisons
The education system has become entirely enmeshed with our criminal justice system for Black and Brown students. The school-to-prison pipeline targets these students for punitive discipline, suspension, expulsion, police brutality, and school arrests at rates exponentially higher than their white counterparts.
A Marked Deck
Before Black and Brown students even have the opportunity to apply for college, the cards are already stacked against them. While class may be part of the reason, it doesn’t explain the disparities that exist throughout the education system, from pre-K to college. Race does.
Class is not a sufficient proxy for race.
Race-neutral efforts to achieve diversity fail because class is not a sufficient proxy for race. Although race can affect class, class cannot change race. Even for children raised in the same neighborhood whose parents earn similar incomes, Black boys fare worse than white boys in 99% of America. In fact, Black children raised in wealthy families are more likely to become poor than to stay wealthy.
Class is not enough to protect you from racism.
Asian Americans know this firsthand. From the so-called “bamboo ceiling” to the targeting of Chinese American scientists as “spies,” it’s clear that no amount of academic or economic achievement can immunize against racism. For some, race is the line between life and death: unarmed victims of police killings are majority Black and Latinx; Latinx, Southeast Asian, and Black immigrants are disproportionately targeted for deportation, which can be a death sentence; and in the U.S., hate crimes against people of color are on the rise, especially for Muslim and Muslim-passing communities, including Sikhs and other South Asians.
Therefore, class-based affirmative action cannot work by itself.
As the aftermath of class-based diversity initiatives in California and Texas amply demonstrate, class-based affirmative action does not effectively address educational disparities caused by race.
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