Discrimination and Human Rights (Term Paper Sample)

Discrimination in Education Name Institution Course Tutor Date Introduction Discrimination violates human rights, and it can have devastating effects on victims. The education system is experiencing one of the worst discrimination cases, including ethnic-based and gender-based. Students with disabilities are also likely to face discrimination at school. Discrimination entails treating someone unfairly or badly due to differences in personality, color, class, language, or appearance. It can happen anywhere, including in schools where it is rampant. Generally, the education system records significant cases related to discrimination. Ethnic-based discrimination is the most popular form whereby African-Americans miss out on important opportunities because of their race. Some scholars and researchers think that discrimination of the 1960s and ‘70s persists in America, considering that most African-Americans and Latinos still attend segregated schools. But is this the case? This paper investigates discrimination in the educational system, focusing on discrimination against the African-American community. The paper also recommends how African-Americans can fight racism in the educational system. Background Discrimination in the education system is an old practice dating back to pre-modern times. Women were the main victims of early discrimination as they were prohibited from getting an education. During industrialization, education was mainly for the affluent while the poor were left out of education opportunities. The poor were either left out due to the high cost of education or through policies barring them, especially enslaved people, from going to school. Much evidence shows how enslaved people, mostly African-Americans, were forbidden from obtaining an education. Narrations of African-American Slaves of the 1800s, including Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman. For instance, Fredrick Douglas recounts how as an enslaved person, he was denied the opportunity to read and write, only doing that secretly. Although Douglas believed in equal education opportunities, he lived at a time when only White people could learn while slaves like him toiled in the fields. Douglas believed that this denial to get an education was meant to rob African-Americans of the power and liberty to be free. In Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, he writes: I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man (Douglas, p. 99). Up until the 1900s, education was a prestigious opportunity. The formerly enslaved people also experienced difficulties in learning like their White contemporaries. That is evidenced in the works of people like WEB Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, who championed equality in education. Although free, Black people struggled to secure a seat in reputable schools. As a result of segregation, there emerged wholly White and Black Schools like Tuskegee Institute cum University. Black women and people with disabilities faced extreme discrimination in their quest to get quality education. Top schools like Harvard University were preserved for Whites only, and only a few brilliant Black folks could attend. Having opened its doors in 1636, Harvard University enrolled the first black man more than 200 hundred years later in the 1860s. Richard T. Greener was the first black man to graduate from Harvard University in 1870 while WEB Du Bois was the first Ph.D. holder in 1895. Due to the challenges freed slaves experienced entering top schools, the vocal African-Americans, including Du Bois and Booker T Washington, staged protests calling for equality. Washington, a staunch advocate for equality in education during the late 1800s and early 1900s, argued that America could not attain its economic ambitions if black people remained uneducated. In his works like Up from Slavery, Washington documents the plight of uneducated black people and how that translates to the American economy and general well-being (Washington, 2007). Washington became an educationist when he joined Hamilton Institute and later Tuskegee Institute as a lecturer. The African American scholar mainly believed that if black people could acquire technical skills, they would benefit and entire America. Later, in the mid-20th century, more African Americans enrolled in schools, and now the emerging problem was women’s struggle to get into prestigious courses and schools. The Hidden Figures film follows a true story of black women’s difficult situation in obtaining standard education (Meifi 2017). The three black women in the film represent many others who struggled to not only enroll in their dream courses but were also denied an opportunity to join segregated schools. No amount of brilliance guaranteed them the chance but luckily, they were brave enough to challenge the status quo, rising to become top NASA scientists. There is more evidence to show historical discrimination in the education system but does it exist today? In 1960, UNESCO adopted the Convention against Discrimination in Education but has it helped to reduce this problem? Well, according to the information below, it seems a lot needs to be done. Discrimination in the education system today The discrimination the Black and other minority groups faced pre-Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s was immense. Yet, the problem persists today such that minority groups including African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and people with disabilities, continue to face discrimination in schools. Nelson Mandela, a contemporary black leader, noticed this discrimination and said that education presents an opportunity for equality such that a peasant’s daughter can become a doctor (Power, 2014). Discrimination is rampant in schools found in lower-income areas. Such schools are mostly public schools offering lower-quality education than private schools in higher-income areas. That difference in learning is what the World Bank now calls “The Education Crisis”. According to the World Bank (2019), amidst increased access to education worldwide, there is a huge difference in learning caused by the widening income gap, causing discrimination in the education system of many countries. As a result, World Bank (2019) estimates that 56% of the world’s children will attain less than half of the required standard of education. For instance, while affluent schools will emphasize the use of high-end technology, public schools follow the standard quality of education, producing people who are less than half of what they should be. The World Bank developed the following chart (fig. 1) to show the difference between high- and low-income use of computers to learn. Figure 1: Population Using the Internet by Income Group World Bank (2019)   How African-Americans Can Fight Racial Discrimination in the Education System African-Americans’ fight against discrimination in education is not a new battle. Since the early 1900s in the days of WEB Du Dois and other prominent black liberators, African Americans have been fighting to end discrimi...