Racism has existed in America since the country’s inception. The racial achievement gap in American education is often viewed as a product of this history of racism in conjunction with modern manifestations of prejudice and discrimination. These larger structural and social issues, such as racism and socioeconomic disparities, are often displaced onto individuals: “African American students lack the motivation to achieve academically.” As the report of NY times shows, 50% of the African-American teenagers dropped out of the school because of discrimination. In the most of the schools, white teachers, who represent the majority of administration are unable to create an educational environment for the African-Americans. Most of them are ignorant of the society, the culture, the history, in which African Americans have raised. Hence, they cannot create a relationship with the black students, which will provide them an incentive to achieve. Furthermore, economic background of family, absence of educated parents, the early responsibly of earning the bread for family are the main reasons for this problem.
This trend of academic underachievement in the African American community is becoming the leading problem. The achievement gap developed because African American students have systematically been taught not to value the American education system and the knowledge that results from advancement through it. It is hard for them to value an education system that has resulted in the slavery of their society. Furthermore, most of the educational institutions are controlled by white society; hence, these systems have probably become the discrimination-oriented, which always discourage the African-American teenagers.
The other thing affecting the academic achievement of African-Americans is their negative mentality created through racism. The media and society make them to see themselves as criminal and violent. The African American students’ perception “that the majority culture sees them as less capable and expects little of them. These students may not try in school, since they believe they won't succeed anyway” The difficulty created by low expectations is compounded further by external influences, such as poverty, which over 90% of African Americans will endure for a year or more and institutional racism in establishments beyond just schools, such as health care and criminal justice organizations.
Therefore, it’s not really surprising after reading the article ‘More African American male are in jail rather than colleges’. African Americans are still facing inequalities in education, even after 60 years of civil movement; which is affecting their educational achievements negatively. This problem of displacing social and economic societal realities onto individuals’ substitutes one cause of the achievement gap with another instead of recognizing both. Recognizing that racism exists and it has a powerful impact on education is the first step to eliminating the achievement gap. Secondly, an intervention must be developed to remedy disconnection between common African American interpretations of racism and reactions that are conducive to academic success. If we work on this problem together, I hope it won’t take too long to do so.
