“Our Color System is Education, An Injustice!”

Children are labeled early in kindergarten and as late as the third grade, as potential convicts in the California prison system by principals, teachers, school counselors, liaisons, and other helping professionals. The reality of this is that most of these children are of distinct ethnic backgrounds. The number of students and the dominating race in this cycle are young African-American men.  Children are racially labeled as soon as they enter the education system.  Their cultural background may not be taken into consideration.  We belong to an education system in California that is colored. Others to follow are Xicano/ Latino/ Mexicano’s, Native American’s, Asian (particularly the Hmong community), and anyone with darker than fair pigmentation.  In most of our schools if the student body has an ethnic majority; this does not indicate that the teachers’ racial background will reflect the student body.  This is problematic in our schools because none of the organizations that are supposed to address these issues are concerned about the Achievement Gap i.e. District Advisory Committee, statewide, and federal programs. The Achievement Gap is a racial matter. The “No Child Left Behind” certainly left many of our students behind.  It is continuing to do so with larger classroom sizes, pinking slipping effective teachers for less qualified one’s, demotion, and budget cuts.

Parents and students who identify culturally rather than racially are still up against a system that has been racially defined since the inception of public schools. During the Great Depression, public schools in America were not in the business of teaching children English and transitioning them from their native tongue to the English language. The assimilation movement left many immigrants and bilingual citizens scarred. There were school officials who would come to the homes of bilingual students and tell the parents to not speak their native tongue.  Language became a racial category; people were slumped together, and treated as ignorant fools. Our schools are not in the business of keeping our children safe and practicing the “safe haven” policy that is on most school district websites. Extreme amounts of policy and rules are not culturally or racially sensitive to the needs of our children while they are in the classroom. For example, a child drops their pencil on the floor and receives a warning from the teacher for even moving to pick it up.  This happens not once, but on many occasions that is gender specific (male) and racially targeted (color of any skin type). Or a child excitedly raises their hand in class, and the non-ethnic teacher takes this action to indicate that the child is disruptive.  Or a child who is bilingual, having trouble in school, shuts down because he used his glue the wrong way and the teacher became extremely mad.  Now, that child has to repeat their grade all over again because the teacher on several occasion reacted negatively to that child. This is a civil rights violation and an injustice, especially when these children have no behavioral problems. If there are behavioral issues, the behavioral intervention is for the school to begin documenting that child’s incidences which eventually lead to the juvenile court system, foster care, and prison.  The documentation, citations, and expulsions in many instances are not to help the colored child; it is to send them on their way to the criminal system. Schools, principals, teachers, and helping professionals do know how to create behavior problems and anxiety in students. If students are to respect authority; authority must respect students and not hinder their ability to learn. There are many sides to the argument posed in this article. The problem lies on the school which has targeted these children underhandedly/ discreetly because they were in need of extra support, maybe they are a special education student, and the school will then designate a teacher to deal with the “problem students”.  Again, these are all violations of the law.  Another issue is the amount of police officers patrolling elementary schools and looking for a child to get into trouble- this is not effective. Allowing students in middle schools to get away with smoking a joint, getting high in the hallways; but picking on a student who wears a solid colored shirt with no gang affiliation- is a mix of up of priorities. Another real-life example is, a colored child comes to school with corn rolls nicely done, does not sag their pants; but, is labeled as a problem child.  This child and many like him are written up, given citations, and expulsion for events that make no logical sense.

The education system is a colored system and the professionals teaching our children do not reflect color. In the Sacramento City Unified School District with regards to the administrative leadership and officers; it lacks cultural diversity and begins within the cabinet office.  Proposition 209 ended in the late 1990’s where White women and minorities benefited the most from the federal program.  Since the program is no longer in effect there is no monitoring system of hiring and firing practices. Our education system throughout California is colored and corrupt.  Our prison system in California is colored. People can hash out data and statistics all day long. The facts have been revealed time and time again.  Our school libraries use the Athena system for checking out and cataloging books.  It is software that is used in the California prisons, as well. Our schools that get millions of dollars cannot afford to invest in effective software, but we can afford to pay for cell phones for our departments within the Board of Education! The injustice mutes us into lacking action because the colored system has created a culture of complacency.  As long as individuals are willing to sale each other out for the next position, whether paid or voluntary, then the systematic injustice continues on to the next person.  We can complain or we can act! Community members, grandparents, aunts, uncles, moms, dads, teachers, principals, counselors, and even students must realize what time it is.  Education is the key; and it begins in the home.  One must remember that no matter how much our education system may stigmatize, stereotype, label, and not care about the number of children failing in our schools.  Whatever smarts and level of intelligence a person may possess, the mind cannot be taken away.  Education is not a waste; it is simply in need of serious change. Teachers are not incompetent; they are in need of serious cultural professional development courses.  Our curriculum must encompass a mutli-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual classroom setting in every classroom, school, and in administrative offices.  Most importantly, students need to see people who look like themselves.  Where is the justice when there is no reflection of those cultures and races in the classroom, school, or administrative leadership, and offices?

Reference: The Washington Post at: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/equity/the-achievement-gap-when-progr.html?referrer=emaillink

Written By: Nekesha Bell de Castañon

“I live the truth! I speak the truth! You can catch me swinging in the haloes away from all of the diablos (devils) that I could never learn to kiss up to.”

Mother of two children

World Citizen

Email: diosadevida@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010.  All rights reserved.

Bio:  Nekesha Bell de Castañon hailed from Michigan in 2006 to California.  She is an advocate for special needs and developmentally delayed children.  A lifetime Xicana & ethnic poet with five self-published books, past assistant coach for children’s sports, bilingual in Spanish to the best of her ability, storyteller, and grew up in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, here in America.  She is a lifetime survivor of domestic and sexual violence. She knows the glue it takes to hold it together. Her many cultural bloodlines including growing up in-a then-small town-country called Turlock, California, helped her to become vibrantly colorful and cross cultural due to many different adversities.  She has been a lead organizer in different venues for over 17 years:  Political Strategist, Civil Rights, Equal Opportunity, Women Rights, Affirmative Action, Migrant/ Immigration Rights; currently, Human Rights on a global platform, and Indigenous Rights.  She is spiritual; therefore, most of what she does and who she is comes from within. She is a performing artist, entrepreneur, conference presenter, and mother of two children who attend school in Sacramento City Unified School District. She adamantly advocates for the youth, children, and performs yearly with them.  Nekesha is a graduate student, volunteers weekly to help children with literacy, a member of the local School Site Council, District Advisory Committee, Parent Engagement, and Parent Membership under DAC.  Nekesha helps families in crisis, locally and in other states, by lending a listening ear and resources that will get them results. For the last six years, she has been a voice for men in prison, gangs, and other violence that begins to affect them at a young age.  She believes that by sharing an adult male’s poetry and stories; she is able to voice the victim’s stories and raise awareness.  She lives life to the fullest and currently resides in Sacramento, California.  Nekesha can be contacted at:  diosadevida@hotmail.com or you catch her on her radio show at: www.blogtalkradio.com/diosadevida