Stereotypes Of Racial Injustice In Schools

Brent Staples in “Just Walk on by: Black Men and Public Space,” discusses stereotypes associated with Black Men and how those stereotypes put them in danger of being harmed. It is human nature to judge someone on their appearance. However, as humans we also tend to judge a whole race of people for the actions of only a few of them. Men of color are more at risk of suffering injustices because of stereotypes and there are examples of that happening everyday. Black people face a tremendous amount of injustice in the criminal justice system. White and Black people use drugs at similar rates, however Black people are jailed on drug charges ten times more often than White people are. (Hinger) In addition, Black Men sentences are on average 10% longer than those of their white peers for the same crime. (Kahn) From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining, to sentencing African Americans are treated more harshly when they are the defendants. (Death)
Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers leading to a higher number of youth incarcerated (kerby). Another fact is that although there is no evidence that students of color misbehave at a higher rate than their white peers more than 70% of students referred to law enforcement from schools are Black or Latino (Hinger). A real life example of racial injustice in schools is the court case Winston v. Salt Lake City. Police entered a high school in Salt Lake City to conduct a gang raid. Kaleb Winston who was 14 got picked out from a cafeteria table and was told that his graffiti printed backpack- a reward for his A grades- was evidence for his gang involvement. Teachers and other students from then on treated him with suspicion. So not only does racial injustice cause potential physical harm but also emotional harm because now Kaleb is treated differently in school because of a stereotype in our culture