Ethicalego Opinion

Racial stereotype as offensive as hanging of noose.   

 Someone hung a noose from a freeway overpass in Vallejo, California. Then, Vacaville residents found flyers promoting white supremacy spread in their neighborhoods. My response is, “So what?” This only means that some powerless people are trying to cause a reaction from society to feel a momentary sense of importance.

The noose hanging and flyer distribution remind me of how young children attract attention. They will do or say something mischievous just to get a reaction from adults. They lose interests if nobody responds. However, they will repeat it continuously no matter the punishment as long as adults react to it.

In the past, the noose was such a symbol of intimidation, because the Klan and other groups organized around racial hatred had the power to murder black-labeled Americans with impunity. It lacks that symbolism today, because the people who hang it do not have this power or government backing. They may assault and kill from racial hatred. Nevertheless, this is an act of murder subject to prosecution and not one celebrated throughout the community as it once was in many parts of America.

Government support for racism empowers the racists and their symbols of intimidation. Federal and state governments continue support for this type racism when they separate Americans in files under racial labels.

Americans refuse to admit the conscious and subconscious actions by institutions and individuals that support ideas of racism. They recognize how a hanging noose or the distribution of white supremacist flyers may offend people. However, they ignore how government and school officials offend students by labeling them black or African-American underachievers.  Students endure this stigmatizing label whether they score proficient and above on standardized tests or they do not achieve proficient.

People would take offense to a white supremacist flyer that said this:  “African-American students fail because they are members of the black race. White students sometimes score less than passing grades because of a personal problem not related to race.”  However, elected officials and educators express this same idea when they label some students’ low-test scores as “black underachievement”.

Test result for English Language skills in the Vallejo Calif. School District do show 41 percent white and 21 percent black students pass at proficient and above. However, this does not mean that all white-labeled students mastered 20 percent more subject material than all black-labeled students did.  It does mean that 21 percent of black-labeled students achieved tests scores at proficient or above while 59 percent of white-labeled students did not.

Notice that government and school authorities do not label the white-labeled students underachievers although more than half of them scored below proficient. Why do they use a double standard?  They do this, because they intend white-labeled students’ achievement to serve as America’s academic standard. Therefore, they cannot label widespread underachievement in this group without contradicting this presumption.

Educators create more emotional harm to children by stereotyping them Latin or black academic underachievers than people do who hang nooses. The stigma this degrading label causes for students in those groups is constant. They cannot escape from it even if they are honor students, because they cannot wear signs around their necks showing their grade-point-average. 

This group stereotype creates a disincentive for Latino and black-labeled students in school. Why should students study if they believe educators’ conclusion that their problems in school stem from racial group traits they cannot change? On the other hand, they may see though this effort to stereotype them. Then, they will mistrust the educators who created this lie to exclude them or “to make us look dumb” as some students say in protest. Many of them will act out in school, skip school or drop out without saying why if even they know why at a conscious level.

No responsible school administrator would allow teachers publicly to label children from a particular family academic underachievers only because they were members of this family. They would know the practice emotionally abused the children besides being an unsound educational activity. Public officials and educators create this same emotionally abusive environment for students when they publicly brand them Latino and black academic underachievers. This also is an unsound educational activity.

Why is it so easy for Americans not to see this abuse?