The American Education System and White Supremacy
It’s August. Late August to be exact. That awkward, yet exciting, but also kind of dreadful time when families are trading in their beach towels for #2 pencils and cheesy first-day-of-school pics standing next to a chalkboard. Summer is coming to a close even though the weather is screaming “pool time” rather than “school time.”
Our recent political climate has put quite the spotlight on education. From grappling with the increase in mass school shootings to dealing with the aftermath of pandemic-learning to racist politicians banning the teaching of African-American history and representative books, the American school system has been at the forefront of almost every cultural or political discussion.
Let’s zoom in on the ferocious banning of books and history for a sec.
The banning of African-American history is nothing new. It’s just never been this publicized. I don’t think there is anyone reading this article right now who learned truthful African-American history, or any history of any other marginalized group, in school. The way history has been taught in school has always been very surface-level, Eurocentric, and apologetic of white supremacy and what our nation has done to ensure the dominion of whiteness.
The truth has always been twisted just enough to meet that primary goal. For example, I remember learning in grade school that the Indigenous were eager to hand over their land to the British and that any violence the British inflicted upon the Indigenous was just a part of that “manifest destiny” to take over land that they felt they were rightly owed. Their Puritan identities and missions justified their evils, and it was those “justified acts of evil” that gave us our country today.
This was history to celebrate! And, of course, to gloss over the brutal details as if they never happened. We never learned the magnitude of the merciless devastation of the Indigenous population, the truth about the compulsory demand of their land through forced removal, the campaign to strip the Indigenous of their culture through residential schools, and the inhumane (read: deadly) treatment of the children in those schools, and so much more. We are taught history that celebrates whiteness, establishes the racial hierarchy so that it is ingrained in every student, and hides the truth so that white supremacy is never questioned. This goes for every corner of history, from colonization to enslavement to the creation of a systemic society of intentional white supremacy, including why most children are sitting in very segregated schools as they learn this fragmented white supremacy apologist history.
Refusing to teach truthful history in school is just one of the ways our education system continues to uphold white supremacy. And when we understand the history of how our school system was built on a foundation of white supremacy, the refusal to actually teach truthful history won’t come as a surprise.
So, let’s talk about it. Let’s uncover the truth about how our education system was built on a foundation of white supremacy (just like every other institution in our nation), and how the institution continues to perpetuate white supremacy today.
The origin of public schools in America
The first public, or community, school was founded in 1647 by Puritans in Massachusetts. The Boston Latin School was for boys only and focused primarily on teaching boys to read the Bible in order to obey God. There was very little focus on free thought or critical thinking.
As public education spread throughout the country, it varied from state to state. Some states established free public education for poor children, expecting wealthy families to pay for their children's schooling. In other areas, education was reserved for only the wealthy. Your socio-economic status established what type of education you would receive and what it would prepare you for.
It was illegal for Black children, specifically enslaved Black children, to receive an education.
An educated Black populace is a liberated Black populace
By the time of emancipation, a little over 5% of the formerly enslaved had learned to read and write. The enslaved were determined to rapidly increase that percentage during Reconstruction. Before the formation of the Freedman's Bureau, the formerly enslaved had already begun forming educational collectives with Black teachers. There was an obvious concern about their education being under white control.
The determination to be educated amongst the formerly enslaved is what aided in the creation of the first state-funded public school system in the South in 1868. This allowed both formerly enslaved Black folks and poor white folks to finally get an education. It was known that education equaled liberation.
An educated Black populace is a threat to white supremacy
As the formerly enslaved began pursuing their education, among other rights such as voting, holding political office, marriage, and more, white supremacist vigilantes began terrorizing and burning down schools and businesses, as well as violently attacking voters at polling booths.
The Black Codes were established to malevolently maintain the racial order, coerce the formerly enslaved back into forced labor, and restrict education. The Freedman's Bureau was established to mitigate some of this terror with help from Northern Bureau agents, and while it did good work such as establishing some of our nation's first HBCUs and opening more public schools, it wasn't enough to eradicate the racial terror or stop the Southern white control over Black education.
Teaching the "Lost Cause" false narrative
The formerly enslaved were determined to educate their children and future generations about the legacy of their enslaved ancestors. Teaching truthful history has always been the biggest threat to white supremacy, so white Southern leaders created the "Lost Cause" false narrative and mandated its teaching in white Southern schools. The goal was to make this narrative the dominant narrative of the South and drown out the teachings that were taking place within the segregated Black schools.
They were successful. To this day, most Southern schools teach the"Lost Cause" narrative about the Civil War. This narrative teaches that the enslaved were content with being owned, their masters were friendly, and that the Civil War was about "states' rights." This is false.
Further attempts to restrict education and maintain white supremacy
White political decision-makers upheld the belief that the 'N*gro race' was a "child's race," which essentially means that the 'N*gro' had the mind of a child. They believed that "proper," advanced education should be reserved for the wealthy and that the poor were meant for menial work. Their goal was to ensure that the Black population went from the enslaved population to the poor population so that education (and other advancements) would be restricted. Education became a luxury as work was necessary for survival, cutting off access to education for Black children after just a few years.
In addition, few resources were given to Black schools. Black communities had to fund their own schools while also paying local taxes that funded white schools. Most Black families had to pass several white schools on their way to the only Black school available in their towns.
Integration and the creation of private schools
Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision that declared separate but equal amongst the Black and white races to be constitutional, was passed in 1896. This marked the beginning of 100 years of Jim Crow. As we know, the reality was separate and unequal, as Black communities experienced more run-down facilities that lacked access to funding and other advantages white facilities had. Especially schools.
In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education was passed, which ended segregation in public facilities, including schools. In order to avoid integration, white communities, especially churches, established private schools. To this day, private schools are overwhelmingly white and continue to keep schools segregated, as well as create disparities in access to funding and resources.
Segregation, Achievement Gaps, and Continued Hierarchal Perception
While segregation may have been outlawed in 1954, public schools have remained predominately segregated since the inception of the public school system.
The creation of the FHA, redlining, and other racist housing policies, in addition to the 'white flight' that aided in creating white suburban communities, our neighborhoods and school districts have mainly remained segregated. Schools are funded by local and state taxes, so school districts in wealthier communities have wealthier schools with more resources. School districts will draw boundary lines to hoard that wealth, which is typically found in white neighborhoods, keeping schools homogenous in both race and socioeconomic status. These schools are then marked as "good schools," which simultaneously drives up the cost of housing in those neighborhoods, making it even harder for lower-income families to access.
White Supremacy Continues...
Today, we have mostly segregated school districts, both in race and socioeconomic status, thus ensuring the perpetuation of white supremacy in 3 main ways:
Black and brown students disproportionately attend schools in poorer neighborhoods with fewer resources. This continues the restriction of education for Black and brown children that has been the goal since Reconstruction.
Eurocentric/white-favored/white-centric curricula are taught in most schools, much like the Lost Cause ideology, teaching a fallacy of history, lacking representation, and widening the achievement gap between Black and white children
BIPOC and white children are immediately immersed into the racial hierarchy of society just by examining the homogeneity of their schools and the correlating lack of resources, teaching them their place in society.
Sources:
Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Cost Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together