Jamie Noh - Blog Post 5

Microaggressions and other inequalities will inevitably persist largely due to the dominant middle class culture of power. Discuss.

            Unfortunately due to not only middle class culture, but also of the internalized biases that come along with, it is hard to see a future where minorities don’t frequently face microagressions. The middle class culture values normalcy and conforming to mass ideology. Therefore, often people are forced to either conform and forget their past differences or isolate themselves from mass society. In either case it is impossible to not face inequality.

            Obviously we cannot just blame the dominant middle class society without mentioning the biases that we all hold each other to. Many are based off of personal experiences with people of a certain race, gender, religion etc. Acting out towards others who are not affiliated with the previous experiences based on your past and internalized biases is terrible. I think that the most important thing is to learn to separate older experiences/trauma and your current life. Being able to put aside what has happened to you is a very mature thing to do. You are acknowledging your awareness that not every person that identifies with a certain group of people are all the same. They all come from different experiences and backgrounds.

            In closing, theres no one reason why microagressions and inequality persist in our society. Everyone has their own excuses for the way they treat others. Perhaps, they just have not interacted enough with enough people of that specific group or have misinformation.

Chloe Golfinos - Blog Post 4

Chloë Golfinos blog post 4

Race in Schools: The Structural Divide

            The modern- day segregation that still exists in schools is perpetuating educational inequalities and limiting diversity in classrooms. For example, a zero- tolerance policy and high stakes testing create an unsupportive environment, which is an unfit environment for opportunity and learning. These policies also further emphasize stereotypes and highlight privileges. The institution of these policies is widening the education gap between white students and minority students, while creating an irreversible cycle of students who never receive the education they deserve and are trapped in a difficult life like those of their parents.

            In order to begin to alleviate this continued segregation, we first need to address the intentional and unintentional racism that is very present in schools, both public and private. A simple, hugely effective step, in my opinion, would be to have the teaching staff reflect the diversity that is desired in the student body. Teachers are often viewed as successful authority figures to many students and therefore serve as role models for them.  Teachers are incredibly important role models, especially for those students who do not have role models in education at home.  I believe that it is part of a teacher’s job to inspire his or her students to learn and want to learn.  People tend to look for role models who appear similar to them.  Because of this, a diverse teaching staff could reach a widespread variety of students. 

            A diverse teaching staff provides both minority students and white students with examples of successful adults coming from minority groups.  Minority teachers, for example, can also identify with minority students and provide an education that isn’t only centered on the majority group or the “conquerors” of history. If we diversity our teachers then a diverse student body will seem natural and necessary. 

Katrell - Blog Posts 2 & 4

Given your understanding of intentional and unintentional racism both through teacher-student interactions and curriculum development, how would you encourage diversity in the classroom?

Encouraging diversity in a classroom could be really simple. Not just sitting around and arranging seats to where students of different background’s sit with each other. But , simply just having activities in which students as well as teachers can get to know each other on a more personal level. Activities like answering questions about themselves or telling facts about themselves. Which would create bounds and relationships. Kids within the school system are always in search for friends of people to be around. For the most part a lot of the time it isn’t about what race people are. It may occur to them that they are from different ethnic groups or backgrounds but in older educational environments people take pride in where they are from or what they do differently.

Or simply again having ice breakers every beginning of class. This would also, encourage diversity because it opens minds towards new thoughts and ideas. Diversity isn’t just about ethnicity, it can be about learning style, Ethnic class, Economic status, Etc. A lot of things are in play when it comes to diversity. So just in an educational environment giving students the chance to learn about each other and communicate encourages diversity. Because of the fact it is opening the eyes of the students to be aware of new things.

In what ways has Brown vs Board of Ed achieved its goal of ensuring educational equity? And in what ways has it not?

I don’t believe that Brown vs Board of Ed achieved its goal of ensuring educational equity. I say this because even though schools are segregated and supposed to be all equal. In reality it is not. Even though this case promoted schools in a sense of blacks being able to go to school just like whites but not with them. Now the story is about public and private schools. Public schools typically have a strict protocol to follow when it comes down to curriculum and learning. The public schools also, tend to have more blacks and Latinos /Latinas statistically. Just like in old times schools for non-whites. I’m not saying there are no whites in publics but people would be less likely to find anyone white into the public school system. Furthermore Public schools are less funded and less privileged.

While on the other hand , there is the private schools. Private schools tend to be over funded and more so for the people who are privileged. Or as many would say economically privileged. And with these schools statistically tends to be more people of a white background with money. And since they are privileged , the things that are taught in privates tend to be more advanced than the things that are taught in publics. Only reason Brown vs Board of Ed can be considered to be a success because now blacks are now able to go to a structured school even though most of the time there are poor resources or material. There is still the opportunity for the same level of higher education or degrees.

Soham Ghoshal - Blog Posts 1-5

Soham Ghoshal

12th grade Stuyvesant High School

Orientation Week:

What topic in educational equity do you consider to be the most important?

I think the most important topic n educational equity to consider is the topic of the students getting an education that correlates directly to the neighborhood they’re in. Many students around the country are not getting equal public education or even the opportunity to succeed. The NYBOE will spend about $8k annually  on a the education of a third grade child in a NYC public school. But if you placed them in the white suburbs of NY, the student would be receiving as much as $18k annually — more than twice the amount(Kozol 45). Studies also show that districts with higher poverty rates have fewer highly educated and experienced teachers and the students in these same districts have little to no chance of getting into or sometimes even testing for gifted-and-talented schools. In the article titled Still Separate Still Unequal, a student writes that “we don’t have n gardens, no Music or Art, and no fun places to play. Is there a way to fix this problem?”(Kozol 44). 

I think it is unfair that the the public education system relies on wealth and which neighborhood you are in. After all is said and done, this system only helps one type of people: the rich. This system directly benefits the rich and wealthy because they are able to grow up in an equitable environment where they have relatively little competition with the majority of people who are impoverished and cannot escape from that situation. This is reflected in the pay of the teachers who work in these different situations as well—a teacher who works in an average NYC school makes about $43k, whereas teachers working in Manhasset and Scarsdale (which are places that are a half hour drive from queens) get up to $81k in their teaching. So no wonder they would put more effort into teaching, and be able to supply for more. I believe that as long as schools are paid for based off of where you live, this kind of inequitable situation will continue to exist.

Week 1:

In what ways has Brown Vs. Board of Ed achieved its goals of insuring education equity? And in what ways has it not?

America is supposed to be the land of the free and the equal—for reason which Brown v. BOE of Topeka was passed. This decision overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which stressed that the citizens of the united states remained “separate but equal”. But of course separate wasn’t equal and the warren court stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”. The passing of integration was successful in that it definitely ended a period of straight out segregation where people were forced to go to different schools. It ended the racism and the inequalities set forth by the Jim Crow Laws. But saying everyone is now equal is different from actually making them equal.




What Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka did not stress was equity. It made everyone equal, but it did not give everyone the same opportunity to rise in power. People who were in all-black schools often had terrible learning environments and just because they were allowed to go to white schools with better teachers and facilities, didn’t mean they could. People would physically stop black people from going into white schools and thus many black people remained in their oppressed zones and bad neighborhoods. This can be seen today as well: in the projects of Bronx, or the lower east side in Manhattan, or in East New York in Brooklyn—it’s everywhere. Majority of “colored” people still do not have the opportunity to move out of their homes and into better neighborhoods, and although by law everyone is equal, by practice they are not.

Week 2:

Assuming the premise that reverse racism is “a condition in which discrimination against a racial group takes place, often as an attempt at redressing past wrongs”, affirmative action creates reverse racism. Affirmative action in the United States is often seen regrading education and employment and often times it is referred to as “positive discrimination” or “positive action”. Favoring members of a disadvantaged group who have to face discrimination within a certain culture via gender or racial quotas is indeed trying to favor a group because of a past wrong. Hence, it does create reverse racism, but that’s not to say that it is inherently bad. 




As the term racism denotes a contemptuous feeling towards another group—often caused by a feeling of superiority—reverse racism focuses on fixing that problem through a positive discrimination. Setting racial quotas for—let’s say, african americans—allows for the application process to be more equitable for those who would not otherwise have the opportunity. This however, does make it unfair for others who may also not have equal opportunity and are not falling under policies of affirmative action. In 2003, the supreme court ruled Affirmative action unconstitutional in the case of Gratz v. Bollinger, saying that The University of Michigan violated the Equal protection Clause of the Fourteenth amendment because it attributed a point increase in its ranking system to people of certain races rather than making individual determinations. Although affirmative action may be beneficial to some minorities and it helps bridge the gap in educational equity in some ways, it is still unfair to the rest of the world who do not fall under those minority groups. Thus, Affirmative action does indeed create reverse racism.

Week 3:

I think that diversity in the classroom is often looked over and ignored because it may not be part of a certain curriculum since there usually aren’t classes devoted to talking about social issues. One way to combat this is to encourage talking about diversity as a whole—by incorporating it into our curriculum or even by reading more books that pertain to racial issues. Personally, I’ve never read a charged book about race in school— something like To Kill a Mockingbird was never part of our curriculum, but I think it is a very important book. I think by incorporating things that already speak on the topic of racism and at least introducing the topic of microagressions, we can encourage diversity in the classroom as a whole. 

There are different races and different cultures with different beliefs, but it isn’t wrong to speak on the topic of micro aggressions and how to stop them. I don’t think it would cause any issues or stem into another Edwards V. Aguillard supreme court case by speaking on this topic but to slowly introduce it into things that are not only literature would help encourage diversity in the classroom.

note: This may be a repost because I was looking through my posts and I don't think my post from last week went through. Ignore if it is a repost!

Week 4:

I think that micro aggressions and other inequities will inevitably persist largely due to the dominant middle class culture and power because majority of the solutions to micro aggressions and other inequities are not complete solutions and there’s no way to stop them. Micro aggressions come about because of the culture that we live in in which we judge other based off stereotypes, generalizations, etc. One example of a stereotype is that black people love rap/hip-hop, drugs, and violence, which stems from the dominant middle class culture of music and entertainment. Since most rappers that are in the media are black, the media acts as a filter, making the general population believe that all rappers are black and that most black people like rap. Changing this stereotype would require a lot of time and effort because even though there are many white rappers and other race rappers, the general middle class public do not correlate rap to them. When people hear rap they usually think about Jay-Z, Drake, Meek Mill, etc, but they usually don’t correlate it directly to white rappers like Macklemore or Hoodie Allen. The hardest part about changing these microagressions is that most people do not even realize that they’re doing it and since theres no one to tell them that they’re being unintentionally racist or biased towards a group, they won’t be able to recognize that they’re in the wrong or that they should change what they’re saying.

Tommy McMahon - Blog Posts 3-5

Micro-aggressions and other inequalities will continue to persist due to the middle class to the dominant middle class culture of power. Discuss.

            Personally, I think that these inequalities, micro-aggressions in particular, have not necessarily continued to persist due to a dominant middle class culture of power. It’s come from centuries of heavy racism which has not fully dissipated. This racism goes as far back as the 1600’s, when black slaves were first imported. For centuries, this culture of white superiority formed, which at first may have been formed to protect the idea of slavery in a slowly progressing world. But it turned into an ideology, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps intentionally. Many believe that since we’ve had 60+ years to fix these micro-aggressions, it’s largely instead due to a middle class culture, which is dominated by the Caucasian race. But 60 years isn’t enough time. For centuries, it’s been persistent that white people were richer, and minorities are poorer. This had been going for centuries. Hundreds and hundreds of years. Yet some say that despite this, only a little bit more than half a century should have been enough to fix it. But it’s not. This is not a small area of the world where black people are less wealthy. This is an entire country, an entire world perhaps. Some people are going to be able, or at least choose to be able, to grasp these new opportunities, and that’s why there’s been any sort of progress at all. But some don’t choose to, some aren’t even able to. And because of this, micro-aggressions and small inequalities on the same level were created. An age of semi-tolerance mixed in with generally similar statistics from statistics 20, 30, 40 years ago. Not necessarily because of a ‘dominant middle class culture’.

            How would you encourage diversity in the classroom?

            As much as I think that diversity is a very important asset in learning, there’s really no way to encourage it. It’s not like you can really take kids from one school, take some more kids from a different race, gender, experience, etc., and smash them together into one big school. Because that’s not how the education system works here, or in any democratic country. The lack of diversity is due to more white, middle class people being together, and more minority lower class people being in another place. How that is, or why that is, is because people in the lower class (Which tends to be minorities) have less advantages than people who are better off financially. Therefore, the people who are better off financially will get into better schools, while the people with less advantages will get into lower class schools. So the only real way to encourage it is to get everyone, no matter what race, gender, whatever, on the same level, and hopefully that level is everyone’s well off. Whether that means providing more welfare to the lower class, setting up better funded, better managed programs to provide the lower class more opportunities that the middle/richer class already have, that’s the government’s call. But what’s undisputable is that something should be done.

                                    Affirmative action causes reverse racism: Discuss.

            Well, it seriously differs on the situation. If it’s come down to two people, where one of color has a much poorer background, and one white person who has a much wealthier background, it’s not necessarily racist. But if it comes down to two people with the similar backgrounds, just that person is of color, then yes, it could be considered to be racist. Though personally, I don’t think it intentionally causes reverse racism. It’s just that people looked at the situation, they saw that statistically more minorities are poorer, and they asked themselves “How can we fix this?”. Now, if a solution can cause reverse racism, then I personally think that it’s not the right solution. We want a solution that causes little to no racism of any type, which I think can be done. Is it a solution with good intentions? Yes, of course. But can it cause reverse racism, therefore suggesting that it might not be the best solution? I believe so.

Week 4: Micro-Aggression

Masahero Masuda
Blog Post #5

  While the dominant middle class culture plays a huge role in micro-aggressions and other racial inequalities that are prevalent in our current society, even without it, racial prejudices will continue to exist. As we grow up, various racial, and even sexual, prejudices are instilled into our minds and ultimately by the time we become adults, these ideas become a part of us. For that reason, many of us fail to realize that such racial prejudices exist in our minds. Even worse, some may even make racially offensive comments without even realizing. These comments, although unintentional and without any malicious intent, may severely hurt others and encourage further racial prejudice. In order to eliminate, or at least decrease, such cases of micro-aggression, it is important to identify the source of these ideas and more importantly to raise awareness. If media changes their portrayal of certain racial groups, there will accordingly be less people who will be influenced by such ideas.

Yasmine: Blog Post 4+5

Microaggressions and other inequalities will inevitably persist largely due to the dominant middle class culture of power. Discuss.

Honestly I believe that Microagressions will continue to persist due to the fact that we judge everyone through their appearance. We judge through race, the way that one dresses, etc, and it will continue no matter what. Media also support these microagressions because without these microagressions, they wouldn't be able to make their shows or articles 'entertaining' for the public. The middle class is humongous, and therefore, we continue to make these stereotypes that persist continuously. Microagressions started in the past, and it still continues to persist today. If it can live for that long, then it can still live for a much longer time. We've integrated it into our everyday lives, and we can't take it out because we're so used to having it in our lives.

Given your understanding of intentional and unintentional racism both through teacher-student interactions and curriculum development, how would you encourage diversity in the classroom?

I believe that in order to be diverse, you need people of different cultures in the same classroom. Not only that, but also people of different races, and people who are from different countries. I would try to integrate these aspects in class by splitting up students by different cultures, so that every table has at least people who don't have the same culture as the person sitting next to them. Culture is an important aspect of diversity and I want to spread it through out my class. Also, I wouldn't let females sit with females and males sit with males because it will cause them to be more sexist towards the other gender.