Structural racism in education.

Years ago I was working with a math major who failed a quiz in my class. I discovered she lacked even an understanding of exponents, which she should have learned in high school.

She had enough credits to graduate with a general studies degree, so she dropped the math major and took a job in a struggling urban school district … teaching math.

Middle class families (including white liberals) in the district send their kids to private schools—who wouldn’t when it can’t keep accreditation? Educated professionals of color can't afford to move to the suburbs. Thus, students from poor families, overwhelmingly kids of color, are the ones learning from teachers like my former student, who apparently didn’t get a solid education herself. The cycle continues.

Great teachers often want to work for, and live in, great school districts; my former student wouldn’t be competitive for a job in our district. All of us, parents and teachers, are simply trying to do what’s best for our own family, yet the combination of all these well-intentioned decisions ends up turning the gears of an education system that perpetuates racial inequities.

A system like this doesn’t require racial prejudice to operate; once set in motion it can run on thousands of wise decisions made by people with good motives. To me, this is a good example of structural or systemic racism (as distinct from individual racism, which is what comes to mind when many of us hear the word).