by Anonymous AES 340 Student
This month’s post comes from a student of Dr. Castro-Gill’s American Ethnic Studies course at the University of Washington. It is written by a student who requested anonymity to protect them from hateful retaliation from white supremacists.
The American Dream
In this class, some of the topics and takeaways we talked about were how racism is real and systemic, anti-Blackness is real and perpetuated by all non-Black people, people of the global majority can perpetuate Whiteness, the institution of education is a racist system, all education is political, cultural wealth and personal narratives are valuable data resources, misandry isn’t a thing, and white fragility is violence. We learned all of this through a critical race theory lens.
Critical race theory aims to uncover and challenge the ways in which racism is entrenched in society, and to promote social justice and equality for all people, regardless of their race. Critical race theory challenges the idea that racism is an individual prejudice. It instead centers around how racism is embedded systemically into law, education, and the economy. In order to stop or reduce the perpetuation of Whiteness, racism, and white supremacy, we must first directly address the issues of racism.
As an adolescent growing up in America, I experienced many racial prejudices simply for the way I looked. One of the biggest issues that I’ve faced, yet am only now realizing is an issue, is hidden curriculum. While I was aware of the racial disparities in education, I never truly understood how deeply embedded it was into our society. In schools, they drill this ideology into our heads having us believe that this is the land of the free. The land where anyone can succeed as long as they work hard, where anyone can have their very own house on a hill with a picket white fence. And me being the naive fool that I am, as many other children also were, believed that my identity didn’t matter as long as I worked hard, got into a good college, graduated, and got a good job. Because of our young age, we were very impressionable, so I believed education would magically fix all the problems in my life without any consideration for why I had any issues in the first place. I always chalked it up to the fact that my parents and I were immigrants. I was oblivious to how they used education as a tool to “educate” us to believe we were free, all while shackling us with a system created for the oppression of people of color, those whom they deemed were less than themselves and didn’t fit their standards formed through social Darwinism.
I was oblivious to how they used education as a tool to “educate” us to believe we were free, all while shackling us with a system created for the oppression of people of color . . .
Historically, pseudoscientific theories emerged categorizing humans based on inherent racial traits, and these theories claimed that white Europeans were biologically superior. And through colonialism, slavery, and the Jim Crow era racial segregation was enforced, and laws, discriminatory policies, and practices that advantaged whites were created to disadvantage people of color in education, housing, employment, and in the criminal justice system. I now understand that white supremacy was socially structured and perpetuated by historical and societal forces. I previously believed that it was more of an individual problem rather than a systemic one even though I knew that by definition racism meant, “a process by which system and policies, actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race.” I never fully understood the “systemic” part of it. In the media and even in school it was always taught to me as an individualistic problem or story of the past. And now that I think about it, I wonder why I never questioned why racism still existed if the slave owners and white supremacists of the 1900s were the only reason racism existed.
Standardized Testing
Another topic we covered that has shaped my understanding of racism today is standardized testing. In class, we discussed how they reinforce existing racial inequalities. In education, they used standardized tests to measure intelligence and determine the amount of funding and resources a school received. And those schools with low scores would receive little to no funding and would sometimes even get shut down. These schools were typically majority people of color. So they are pushed out of schools and forced into the streets to fend for themselves. There is no such thing as equality here. The moment you came into this world you had an ascribed status that predetermined your fate. Born a person of color? Born a man or woman? Born into a rich, middle-class, or poor family? Any combination of these different identity groups is how they determine the limits of your life. Many folks are marginalized and oppressed into believing they aren’t good enough due to systemic oppression and discrimination based on intersectional identities. And standardized tests often cater to the experiences, knowledge, and values of students who come from more privileged backgrounds, typically whites. These exams are culturally biased and often disadvantage those of different cultural backgrounds who have limited experience due to their socioeconomic status. And the limitations of different socioeconomic factors are often reflected and amplified in these tests, as those students have fewer resources to support them in their preparation for their tests.
An additional issue with standardized tests that we discussed was how education is narrowed in order to focus almost solely on the topics on the tests. So, students don’t have much opportunity to truly test their knowledge since the test focuses on specific topics and academic skills and the measurement of intelligence and abilities is limited to those topics. These tests don’t really reflect the student’s abilities as they cannot be limited to just a few topics. Intelligence comes in many forms and is often shaped by experiences and cultures which are different for everyone. And since standardized tests are often used in college applications and such, many students limit themselves in the range of knowledge they can obtain to meet these standards.
I know for myself this was a big deal and it definitely took a toll on my confidence, especially since at my school, the student’s ranks for these tests were displayed. It made me feel as though I wasn’t as good as everyone else without taking into consideration my own background and limitations. As a low-income, Black, African American Muslim woman, pursuing a career in the STEM field has been a great challenge for me. And for so long I believed I was simply incompetent and a fool for even believing I could become something great. When compared to my predominantly white peers, I was taught to believe I was unquestionably incapable of success. We were all learning together in the same classes and environment, or so I thought, yet I always felt like I was racing to catch up with them. At the time I did not understand why these other students performed better. Now I know it’s because they had resources outside of the classroom that I couldn’t afford or wasn’t even aware of. Living in a Eurocentric society being born white was the golden ticket to their lives. They didn’t have to struggle with racism which was embedded systemically into law, education, and the economy to benefit them, to give them all the opportunities to succeed and to give them a sense of superiority.
Representation
At the time I didn’t know how to identify these issues nor how to address them. I believed they were better than me not only because they were born into richer or wealthier white families giving them privileges and advantages in both education and the outside world, but also fact that I had little to no representation in my schools. In all my years of education, I had 2 black teachers, one in 8th grade and the other in my junior year of high school, one of which left our school halfway through the year (the high school one). At the time I didn’t realize the importance of having these role models in my life, but looking back now, after learning the importance of having them, I am eternally grateful for my 8th-grade teacher. She was the one teacher that always pushed me to do better, though at the time it only felt like she was giving me a hard time compared to my peers. She constantly reminded me that I needed to work harder and be more vocal, as I was an extremely shy and quiet kid back then. This class made me realize how important having someone like her in my life was. Someone who actually pushed me to do better. Someone who understood just how much more work I needed to put in compared to my peers who were already far ahead of me.
STEM is a field made up of predominantly white males—the very group education is catered to and for. So, having to compete with them for opportunities and for recognition is hard, especially when you don’t know how to navigate through the system and have someone trustworthy you feel safe with and can rely on. This begs the question, “How do you win a fight you were set to lose, where every rule set and law made is disadvantageous to you, where you’re not even considered a competent person based on the color of your skin?”
As we saw in the film Agents of Change, action is required, and taking risks is inevitable. I’ve seen how the things that we may take for granted now were once something our predecessors had to fight for, and it’s just the bare minimum. We must continue to fight for our rights as humans and always look back and be grateful for the work our predecessors put in to get us everything we have now. And we must continue to do so if we are to be fully incorporated into society and have true equality, not just the sugar-coated lies we are told to make us amend our ways to follow their rules and ideals. While we may not feel significant or powerful enough to make a change we must stand up and be agents of our own change.
References
Identity and Schooling: Some Lessons for the Economics of Education
The Effects of School Context, Structure, and Experiences on African American Males in Middle and High School
The Long-Lasting Effects of Schooling: Estimating the Effects of Science and Math
Identity in High School on College and Career Outcomes in STEM
Au, W. (2015). Meritocracy 2.0. Educational Policy. Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism
Lecture slide!