How Structural Racism Works

Hyperlinks 

In the video How Structural Racism Works by Professor Tricia Rose, she discusses the five key areas where structural racism is present: housing, education, mass media, wealth/ jobs, and criminal justice.

    Housing: https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/homelessness-housing-and-racism-problem 

"Another important factor in how cities were developed and operate is the depth of structural racism that has determined where and how people live and work." I will touch upon the work aspect further in the blog, but racial discrimination in housing is a HUGE issue. This specific article is discussing homelessness and how it ties into structural racism, but Rose touches upon the points of segregation within neighborhoods/ the term "ghetto" and how it is linked to black neighborhoods. Rose also talks about the racism in applying for loans/ mortgage/ housing.

    Education:

As we saw in the Precious Knowledge video in class, graduation rates for people of color/ Hispanic students are significantly lower than those of white students. Rose discusses how funding for education is dependent on taxes. Property taxes are dependent on the value of your house, while foreclosure levels and high-risk loans are increased. The affect of property taxes takes away from the resources that could be given to the schools.

    Mass Media:

Mass media portrayals of structural racism should not come as a surprise to any of us. There is so much information on this topic I couldn't even pick an article. However, Rose mentions media briefly while discussing journalism and how people often demonize the victim or community. The specific example given was "son of an uneducated heroin addict" while discussing the murder of Freddie Gray (quote by the media, not Rose).

    Jobs: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/african-americans-face-systematic-obstacles-getting-good-jobs/

Rose briefly talks about wealth and jobs, but I feel this article did a good job explaining the wage gaps and unemployment rates/ instability, while also acknowledging the obvious racism in giving people of color "worse" jobs.

      Criminal Justice: https://naacp.org/issues/race-justice

Another very self explanatory example of racism! Watch the news! Review peaceful protests for the Black Lives Matter movement! Google incarceration rates/ differences!

Video Analysis :)

 

Teach Us All:

Precious Knowledge:

Link to Classroom Tour: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_MUXxaLsnlJVFH2an_6XZYLr6_M37vqmPutPWsNOT00/edit?usp=sharing 

Kohn + Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

 Reflection:

During my K-12 education, I always felt like I had good classrooms. My teachers were always present and engaging, the rooms were always clean and decorated with educational posters and our work, and we sometimes had choices on differing assignments we could do. One of my favorite parts of my schools was that there were always murals painted on the walls, whether it be in the hallway, library, music room, or cafeteria. It isn't until you are exposed to a different setting that you realize how good you had it, or even what could've been improved on. Even though I felt like I was always in good classrooms, there are some critiques I could think of now after reading Kahn, or even just after experiencing a variety of classrooms during my college education. 

My classes mostly always prioritized teacher led instruction. We were rarely allowed to interact with our peers during work time, unless we were doing stations or groupwork. You would have to raise your hand before you could speak. Our desks were almost always in rows facing the front of the class, in fact it was like a treat when you walked in and saw they were in pods or a fishbowl set up. For the most part everyone would be doing the same assignment. It wasn't until middle/ high school where there would occasionally be a choice for your homework or project or in class assignment. Growing up, I would go to the middle or high school for band concerts and the halls would be lined with the band/ chorus/ sports trophies. By the time I got to school there was boxes dedicated to student artwork in every hallway and community bulletin boards/ TV's by the main doors.