Several months ago, I was invited to conduct a professional development session in a school with a high proportion of students of color and those living below the poverty line. Although a review of the school’s data would reveal that the students of color and those living below the poverty line were having difficulty, the assistant principal who served as my host and most of the teachers in the professional development session stressed that, although race was not an issue in the school, poverty was their challenge.
H. Richard Milner IV
While these percentages are distressing, equally as disturbing is the fact that poverty rates are highest for Black, Latino and American Indian children—39 percent of Black children live in poverty; 32 percent of Latino children live in poverty; and 36 percent of American Indian children live in poverty. In comparison, 13 percent of White children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. While we should be concerned about all students living in poverty, it is essential not to overlook this reality: proportionally, more people of color live in poverty than White people. Yet, for a range of reasons, schools tend to underserve all students living below the poverty line, and especially students of color.
One reason educators may struggle to meet the needs of students of color living in poverty is they adopt a “colorblind” mindset and consequently practices with their students where they claim that they do not recognize their students’ race or how racism contributes to inequity in schools and beyond. They lament that race does not matter in their work with students and that it is inconsequential to what happens in schools. Such mindsets and practices are problematic because students experience racism and other forms of discrimination inside and outside of school, and educators’ inability and unwillingness to acknowledge how issues of racism disenfranchise students of color and maintain the status quo do more harm to students than good.
Structural and systemic barriers and the inability of schools to address them have perpetually underserved children of color. For instance, proportionally, Black students are:
• Over-referred and over-represented in special education—for example, Black students are 3 times more likely to receive special education services for mental retardation and 2.3 times more likely for emotional disturbances than all other ethnic/racial groups combined; further, they are more likely to be educated away from their peers than students from any other ethnic/racial groups.
• Over-referred and over-represented in serious disciplinary infractions—for example, Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate 3 times greater than White students.
