To some, it’s no secret America’s public education system is less than ideal for Black students, and the United Nations has now released a preliminary report that shows the truth.
Last month, the U.N.’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent traveled around the United States in order to learn more about structural barriers presented to African-Americans regularly. What it found was something we already knew: African-Americans tend to have lower levels of income, education and food security than other Americans.
The group states these findings reflect “the level of structural discrimination that creates de facto barriers for people of African descent to fully exercise their human rights.”
Noting these gaps begin early in life for African-Americans, they’ve reported students of color are more likely to face suspension, expulsion and school-based arrests than white students.
The U.N. experts also reported their concern about mass school closures, which typically target predominantly Black neighborhoods, as we’ve seen in Chicago and Philadelphia.
The experts go on to note high levels of segregation they say “appear to be nurtured by a culture of insufficient acknowledgement of the history of enslavement and the Jim Crow Law.” This leads to their final findings that highlight insufficient and weak school curricula that does not cover slavery and colonization.
According to the group, the curriculum in some states “fails to adequately address the root causes of racial inequality and injustice, consequently, this contributes to the structural invisibility of African-Americans.”
The panel has recommended the termination of on-campus policing and an update of relevant and adequate teachings on the history of the slave trade. The group plans to release a full report in September 2016.
