Racism as a Source of Inequities and Oppression in the K-12 Education System

Social Injustice and Cultural identifiers research Draft
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Racism as a Source of Inequities and Oppression in the K-12 Education System
Education is an avenue to social equity. However, education in most countries, such as the U.S, has partly perpetuated social inequities. Controversies are bound to arise in public systems such as education and health. The increasingly diverse and heterogeneous populations and groups account for cultural variations that culminate in social injustice or inequities. The notion of social injustice in education is sophisticated owing to the interrelationship between different factors, such as the economic injustices of exploitation, marginalization, and deprivation, secondary to disadvantaged positions in sociality as determined by socio-political and economic structures of society. Socio-cultural identities such as race, ethnicity, and origins have continuously been a source of social injustice in the U.S education system, including the K-12 system (kindergarten to 12th), which comprises elementary, middle, and high schools. Cultural diversity, such as differences in ethnicity and race, accounts for social injustice in education. The notion of race in the context of diversity and ethnicity denotes many contentious issues.
An identified aspect of culture in k-12: Racism
This paper identifies racism as a source of inequities and oppression in the K-12 education system. Racism is picked as a choice because of its profound effect on millions of people. The divided opinions on racism in education create an interesting conversation regarding the notion of racism in the schooling system as source of social injustice. Social injustice is described as circumstances where the dominant population has undue influence on other less dominant or privileged groups. Social injustice happens when there is unequal treatment, such as racism and associated discrimination and oppression.
Historical Events that influence the choice of this cultural identifier
Race and ethnicity are some of the most cited cultural identifiers that account for social injustices in the K-12 education system in the U.S. Historical and recent events such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and racial-associated policies and rhetoric by some political influencers have heightened public discourse on racism, but less focus has been given on mechanisms of racist effects such as oppression in the education system (Kohli, Pizarro & Nevárez, 2017). An in-depth conceptualization of racism as a cultural identifier of social injustice in the U.S education system shows that racial differences continue to prevail in K–12 education. The emergence of racism in the U.S education system, especially K-12, has historical footprints. The U.S schooling system has a history defined thought racialization and racism, such as the emergence of Americanization schools, socialization of inferiority, Native American boarding schools and segregated schools serving African Americans in the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, to the socialization of inferiority in segregated schools serving African Americans (Kohli, Pizarro & Nevárez, 2017). The development of racism as a cultural source of social injustice has transformed understanding.
Summary of the Racism, Controversies, and Counter-arguments in the K-12 schooling System
There are many manifestations of racism in the U.S education system. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has unmasked many challenges for K-12 students where the increased anti-Asian racism predisposed Asian learners to bullying and harassment in K-12 schools (Le, Gutierrez & Teranishi, 2021). According to Le, Gutierrez & Teranishi, 2021), Asian American and Pacific Islander learners face unique challenges associated with bullying and harassment because of their racial and ethnic identity. Some learners of Color often encounter cultural disrespect within their K-12 education in even regarding their names. The racial undertones and mispronouncing of names in schools remained understated, but when analyzed in the historical and present-day racism, incidents associated with naming and mispronouncing manifest racial microaggressions which are more subtle daily insults, leading to the racism that supports a racial and cultural hierarchy of minority inferiority (Kohli & Solórzano, 2012).  
A more subtle form of racism is present in the current k-12 system. Through their findings, Kohli, Pizarro & Nevárez (2017) identified “new racism”—more subtle racism than that of the past embedded in the K12 system, which affects the lives of students of color. New racism” in K–12 system is elusive and difficult to identify because due to normalization and disguised of racism through colorblindness, multiculturalism, and promotion of personalized interpretation of policies and practices (Kohli, Pizarro & Nevárez ,2017). Chapman (2013) reinforced this view by the observation that colorblindness, racial realism, interest-convergence, racial realism, and white privilege undergird how federal responsibilities and shared schooling practices or policies, such as education tracks, curricula, teacher/classroom practices, and learne...