Racism in the 21st Century
America is unique in many ways compared to other “first-world” nations. Our brand of democracy is unique, as is our (over)reliance on capitalism. We are the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of our planet. We literally have the power to destroy the Earth or to save it. We are a brave and valiant country and have done tremendous good in the world. But we are not perfect. Sometimes we insert ourselves where we are not needed or wanted, and sometimes we are a little late in our response. But once the United States of America commits all her muster into a problem, more often than not, we come out on top.
Two quick examples.
The space race of the mid-20th century. U.S. Officials were mortified and humbled when Sputnik was launched. We all know what happened next. President Kennedy came out a few days later and gave a speech for the ages. Before we knew it America had accomplished its goal to the first citizens of the Earth to set foot on alien soil were from the good old USA.
World War II. US leaders were reluctant to enter another great war, especially with an economy that was shameless the likes of which no one could have ever imagined. It was called the (Republican) Great Depression for a reason. But after the Japanese Fleet bombed us at Pearl Harbor, FDR, whom many historians consider being the greatest president in the history of this great nation, brought a splintered, divided, and bitter nation together to stop the NAZI’s from world domination. Just like the space program, bold and innovative ideas came out of this time of crisis, the New Deal, the Social Security Administration, and of course The Manhattan Project. But once America was all-in, we turned the tide fighting a war on two fronts on two different hemispheres. That would not be a major accomplishment with the technology we have today, let alone what they had back then.
So now here we are in the 21 Century, and again America is coming late to the party. What ‘party’ am I talking about? Racial justice and reconciliation. To find examples of terrible racial injustices, one needs to look no further than our public schools. The statistics are incontrovertible. We are sending a generation of poor, disabled, black, and brown kids to our schools with little chance of success, and most of them serve serious jail time. And this is not the first generation we have done this to. This problem is becoming generational. We have a name for this. We call it the School to Prison Pipeline. I call it America’s black eye.
After a decade of conducting research and working with schools all over this great nation, we now have a plan to end racial injustice in our public schools, and to take the “school” part out of the STPP. America has been slow in this area. We are behind Europe in this area. So what is this plan to end systemic racism in the US Public Schools? I mean, that is a tall order, right?
Yes, it is, but the answer to the question is a tall order as well. Racism is so embedded into our schools, especially when it comes to ‘discipline’ codes of conduct, equity of funding, and equity of access to quality instruction. We can quell out racism with the application of two sciences: behavior analysis, and restorative justice.
In the coming weeks I will tell you what this intervention is designed and the story of how we came up with it. We don’t have an ‘official name for it yet, but in higher academia, it has been called “The Good Samaritan Model.” In future blog posts, I will tell you how this came to be.
