The Black Experience in Education (The BEEs Project)

Taylor Verville

The Black Experience in Education (The BEEs Project) is a creative nonfiction essay that follows the academic experiences of former and current Black students, as well as Black academic professionals. Author Taylor Verville (Senior, University of Washington Bothell) conducted a series of semi-structured interviews that prompted respondents to share their experiences as Black students in a White institution. The respondents are labeled in relation to their position within the academic setting: 1) the Historical BEE who attended primary school in the deep south during the era of busing efforts; 2) the Teacher BEE who is an educator in the deep south, but attended primary school on the East Coast; and 3) the Contemporary BEE, a current student who is attending school within the interior of the United States. Through their research, Verville has identified commonalities between the experiences of the respondents, which transcend time and geography. Moving forward, Verville plans to broaden their research and conduct extensive interviews with a diverse respondent selection to develop a deeper understanding of marginalized experiences within education.

Abstract

Stakeholder Perspective

The stakeholder perspective that I will be representing is not defined by job or role, nor is it presented in a linear framework. The voices that are represented are of those who continue to persevere despite being disproportionately affected by educational inequality; this is the voice of the Black student. Many seek to address the autocratic nature of educational institutions, many more fail to incorporate the voices of those afflicted. To gain deeper insight into the impact that education inequality has on Black students, I have identified the Black Experience in Education (BEE) as a significant and primary stakeholder as it applies to educational disenfranchisement. The following research was conducted through interviews and literary review. The voices represented are of Black folks who are students, were students, or maintain a position as academic professionals. Each respondent participated in a semi-structured interview that lasted approx. 30 minutes. Disclosing the conditions in which the respondents were recruited would jeopardize participant confidentiality; their experiences remain unchanged.

The Black Experience in Education

The oppressive modality imposed on the Black community is the foundation of American cultural development. Despite efforts being made to dismantle the prejudiced structure of our educational institutions (e.g. Brown v. The Board of Education (1954), the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the busing efforts established in the 1970s to foster rapid integration), many Black Americans have endured and continue to endure a despotic academic infrastructure that refuses to foster their potential, instead enforcing a rarely said but loudly heard ideology rooted in Black inferiority. As time has progressed, we as Americans have claimed a post-racial paradigm. To focus on the current progression of the BEE, I centered the historical inquiry in the post-segregation era.

The black experience in education through a historical and contemporary lens

The BEEs: The Historical, The Professional, and The Contemporary

The stakeholder perspective that we will be representing is not defined by job or role, nor is it presented in a linear framework. The voices that are represented are of those who continue to persevere despite being disproportionately affected by education inequality; this is the voice of the Black student. Many seek to address the autocratic nature of educational institutions, many more fail to incorporate the voices of those afflicted. To gain deeper insight into the impact that education inequality has on Black students, I have identified the Black Experience in Education (BEE) as the primary stakeholder. The following research, which was conducted through interviews and literary review, includes Black individuals who are students, were students, or maintain a position as academic professionals. Each respondent participated in a semi-structured interview that lasted approx. 30 minutes. Disclosing the conditions in which the respondents were recruited would jeopardize participant confidentiality; their experiences remain unchanged.

The Black Experience in Education

The oppressive modality imposed on the Black community is multigenerational in nature, dating back to the inception of the United States. Despite efforts being made to dismantle the prejudiced structure of our educational institutions (e.g. Brown v. The Board of Education (1954),​ the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the busing efforts established in the 1970s to foster rapid integration​), many Black Americans have endured, and continue to endure, a despotic academic infrastructure that refuses to foster their potential, instead enforcing a rarely said but loudly heard ideology rooted in Black inferiority. As time has progressed, we as Americans have claimed a post-racial paradigm. In order to focus on the current progression of the BEE, I centered the historical inquiry in the post-segregation era.

The Historical BEE

The respondent, The Historical BEE, offers a story that is atypical to a narrative of Black Americans that has been filtered through, and promoted by, the agent demographic. Originally from the deep south, and entering into elementary school in the mid-1970s, The Historical BEE was no stranger to differential treatment. Prior to his birth, his parents and siblings had been the first to desegregate a previously segregated neighborhood. They were the integrators​​. His brothers and sisters were the first, and often the only, Black children in their school. This is the story we have heard, this is the story they​ have told. This was not the story (at least fully) of The Historical BEE.

The integrators​: the first Black families to desegregate a historically segregated neighborhood. That was the reality he was born into, the climate he knew, the narrative that he heard—a narrative that was infused with a centuries-long Black inferior-white superior complex. It takes a village to raise a child, but what happens when those in your village, apart from your family, think of you as less than their equal? Another reality that came with the territory of being a Black ​​family in a white neighborhood, in a white school, in a white church, around white​ people. These are the people who would perpetuate the narrative of the inferior Black man—the same people who would openly say nigger, forgetting that the little Black kid was within earshot, but no, “I didn’t mean you​​; not you, The Historical BEE.” He was invisible, but not in the sense that one might think. His skin color was salient, he was one of the only ones​​, but they forgot he was there—they said what they had always said because they forgot that he was there. This was The Historical BEE’s story, but only in part.

Many of us know the story of Black kids being bused to white schools; the story of white kids being bused to Black schools has often gone unheeded. In the 1970s the federal government intervened at a local level as many districts had not made valiant efforts to fully integrate their schools. The busing legislation, similar to most equal rights laws, maintained the presumption that implementation would be color blind. This was not the case. To avoid federal mandates that required the integration of schools, many white families who would have otherwise been bused to Black schools chose to enroll their children in private institutions; this is why the narrative of the busing program remains centered in the extraneous conditions imposed on Black children. The Historical BEE was one of those Black children, but not in the context that the standard narrative implies. He was not bused from a Black community to a white school, he was bused from a white community to a Black school; a process of, “resegregation,” as he so eloquently put. It would take time for The Historical BEE to adjust to his predominantly Black school. 

In his developing years, The Historical BEE had been exposed to a singular narrative that vilified the Black community. This left him in a peculiar position; he was an outsider in the white community, and he sure as hell did not identify with what was being said about the Black community—until he heard what the Black community had to say about the Black community. He was captivated by his Black teachers: “I would just stay inside for recess, and read books so I could be in the presence of the teachers, listen to the teacher—listen to the Black teachers talk.” They acknowledged him and they cared for him in a way that the white teachers not only would not, but did not have the same life experiences so they could not. The Black teachers saw his potential, and they were going to make sure he saw it too. As he got older he began to dispute the narrative of Black inferiority. Much of this has to do with being exposed to Black teachers, and being able to have Black folks as positive role models. 

When The Historical BEE was reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X with his predominantly white class in his predominantly white high school, he came across a passage where Malcolm had shared a story of him watching the movie Tarzan ​as a kid. Malcom had watched the white men slaughter the Africans in the movie, and he cheered kill-em, kill-em, but with further reflection he realized that it was kill-me, kill-me​​. The Historical BEE looked down, looked up, looked around, and said, “Motherfucker,” realizing that he was surrounded by those very same white men. The Historical BEE was no longer immersed in the internalized narrative that he had been fed. 

When asked whether or not integration was the answer, The Historical BEE, on a universal level, did not believe so. On a macro level it could be a part of a solution, but the solution in totality is equity in education: the redistribution of resources in a way that is beneficial to all schools. When education is commodified, integration becomes superfluous. By allocating resources equally and fairly to all schools, regardless of their socioeconomic composition, institutions with less resources, often the ones in the Black neighborhoods, would be able to retain Black teachers, the same kind that had empowered him as a child, and the same kind that are needed to ensure that our Black children have positive role models to look up to when they are learning about the world. In our current dynamic, teaching positions in affluent schools become lucrative because they provide more capital. The Black teacher in the Black institution becomes the good Black teacher in the Black institution, and in the words of The Historical BEE, “... then​ shipping them out, and then when they get to the White side they’ve made it​,” taking them away from the students who need them the most. When we prioritize the education of affluent white children over all others, integration becomes futile, at least for the white children, because the Black children will continue to be the integrators, and as we all know, and as The Historical BEE potently expressed, “It’s good to be in a diverse environment, but not when you’re the diversity.”​ 

The Teacher BEE

The Teacher BEE’s perspective has been developed through her experience as an educator as well as a student. She is able to contrast her experiences in the south with the experiences of her hometown, where she and her family were often the only Black people; this translated to her experience in education where she had been one of the only ​​Black students throughout her elementary and secondary education. The Teacher BEE shared a recent experience that had occurred in a diversity class for her Master’s program. The class had been reading a book that repeatedly said nigger, and when reading aloud, her white peers repeatedly used the word. When she expressed her discontentment with the experience, her professor denounced her assessment, asserting that it was a necessary part of the literature.

From the perspective of an educator, especially one in the deep, deep south, The Teacher BEE provides unique insight on de facto ​segregation, meaning communities are segregated, but not explicitly by law. The Teacher BEE had been hired as an instructor for the Head Start program at a prestigious tuition-based early learning center (ELC). By implementing the Head Start program in the private ELC, families who would have otherwise been unable to apply had an opportunity to do so. The ELC composition reflected that of the town, which was notoriously segregated with Black people on one side and white people on the other. The Head Start program in the private ELC served those with fewer socioeconomic resources, and was primarily composed of children of color. The students in the federal program had been placed on the opposite side of the building, separate from the affluent, typically white, students whose parents paid tuition. The students in the federal program were given limited resources because “their parents weren’t paying for those things.” 

Prior to leaving the prestigious ELC on the grounds of ethical conflict, The Teacher BEE had been exposed to the prejudiced nature of the institution. Many white parents who had qualified for the Head Start program were apprehensive when enrolling their children because they did not want their white kids to be in a setting with minority children. The Teacher BEE recalled an instance when she was speaking with a parent who was applying for the institution, and the white parent expressed her concern, saying, “Is my child going to be on the good side​ of the building, or are they going to be on the other side of the building?” In addition to the monetary and physical exclusion of resources allocated to the federal program, the institution had a legacy of harshly punishing children of color, at least four to five times more for the same acts of misbehavior as their white counterparts. In response to the differential treatment, administration chose to dispose of severe punishments such as suspension and expulsion because of the discriminatory ramifications experienced predominantly by the Black students. 

On the topic of integration, The Teacher BEE did not believe that just integration could be implemented in our current cultural climate due to educational systems being funded primarily through local and state governments. Districts that have higher economic resources are provided better education because they can afford it. She believes that the education system operates in this way to maintain segregation. However, she did provide examples of effective integration programs, such as zoning, where students, regardless of their district, are allowed to enroll in schools of their choosing. Another program that was highlighted was the Minority to Majority program, in which families are provided vouchers if they believe the school that they had been attending was segregated. Lastly, The Teacher BEE expressed the necessity for family and community activation in regard to equity in education; parents must express their dissatisfaction with the status quo in order to elicit change for their children.

The Student BEE 

The Student BEE’s educational experience differs from that of our previous BEEs, not only in regard to the timeframe in which she is attending school, but geographically as well. She is not from the deep, or the deep, deep south, instead she resides in a relatively racially homogenous (white) midwestern state. The Student BEE is currently enrolled in a competitive magnet program that is dedicated to the arts. While she is deeply engaged in the curricula, she feels isolated from her classmates. In line with the previous experiences that had been shared by our BEEs, The Student BEE struggles with being one of the only ones​​, oftentimes feeling excluded from the agent demographic. The Student BEE acknowledges that other factors may contribute, but she feels like other students fear engaging with her, as if they are intimidated. When asked why she feels people are intimidated by her, in conjunction with her being reserved as well as Black, her sobering response was, “I feel like people just don’t like my presence in general.” Not wanting to further feed the stereotypes or be labeled, she has adjusted her reactions, and believes it is a necessity to censor herself. 

Minimal effort has been made to create an inclusive environment, often requiring minority children to build their own racial solidarity networks within the academic community. Due to students of color being ostracized from the dominant demographic, a system of racial inclusion has developed. In search of commonality, minority students in upper-level grades reach out to incoming minority students. This system offers students community, yet they are still at the will of one of the only one​ discriminatory behaviors. The racial loafing occurs throughout the school, and it is not uncommon for students to segregate their friend groups based on status characteristics. Despite finding comfort through commonality with her friend group, The Student BEE expressed a desire for racial inclusivity by bringing more students of color, as well as students of lower socioeconomic status, saying, “...at the end of the day, the big population, it’s still not inclusive if you just don’t feel like you belong.” 

The Student BEE developed her analysis not only from her experiences, but the experiences of the other marginalized students in her school. In regard to race relations within her institution, she expressed that the administration was not reactive to students’ claims of racial discrimination. On two occasions she recalled students being addressed with derogatory language and administration playing a passive role. In one of the instances a Black student was repeatedly called a nigger by a white student and, when the Black student denounced the behavior, administration claimed that he was the aggressor. In addition to the administration’s haphazard handling of racial discrimination, The Student BEE has also expressed an unequal treatment of students, both prospective and current, coming from a low socioeconomic standing.

The school is a public institution; it is an art school as well, meaning that there will be additional investments needed to maintain status in majors. The school does have programs to help alleviate the financial burden, such as scholarships, but they do not clearly publicize these programs. Furthermore, the institutions that they recruit from rarely extend beyond their affluent area, limiting exposure to children with lower socioeconomic standing. The administration has expressed a desire to “diversify” their institution, but their behaviors do not align with their desired objective.

Analysis

After reviewing the experiences that were shared, whether that be through interview or literature review, it is clear that inequality in education on the basis of race has an unprecedented impact on the educational experience of Black Americans. By catering the curricula to the agent demographic we deprive developing Black youth, especially those who are not in close proximity to dense Black communities, of the opportunity to find resonance and commonality in their academic experience. 

The issue is not solely grounded in the lack of diversity within white institutions; the issue finds deeper meaning in the distribution of resources and funding. All respondents and sourced information stressed the importance of resources being allocated equitably to institutions, regardless of socioeconomic composition, so those in less affluent districts, predominantly minority children, receive the same education as their plutocratic counterparts without depriving them of the social education needed as a marginalized group. In addition to resources being allocated equitably, the retention of Black teachers in Black educational institutions is a necessity in order to provide a well-rounded education for Black youth. 

In the past, we have addressed historical segregation on a macro-level plain, implementing policies that mandated the integration of communities. While many of these policies were drafted without ill-intent, the repercussions they have had are reverberating. In the face of nearly every desegregation mandate, Black communities faced volatile reactions when transitioning into integrated accommodations, whether that be in education or public accommodations as a whole. I am hesitant to identify the problem or solution on any given level of analysis, as the oppression of the Black community is embedded in every facet of the model. One could look at the desire for homogeneously Black institutions with lack teachers as alternative settings, but identifying as alternative to the status quo is problematic in nature, and once again defines the Black community only in relation to our oppressors. 

The problem at hand is the inequitable nature of our academic institutions in regard to Black students. Integration has been the primary solution for segregation and this occurs through every step of the level of analysis model, starting at implementation on an institutional level, and ending in the damaging nature, on an individual level, of placing Black children in environments that were not created for them. The solution can be regarded as an organizational change, although it is relevant in all aspects of the model, because it is prioritizing Black institutions being the primary source of education for Black children, as opposed to the current model which puts Black children in white-centric institutions. 

 Self Reflection

Growing up in a predominantly white town in a predominantly white family, I was one of the only ones​​. I had always felt as if I was not able to identify with the Black community because I was deprived of the right to know my own history. While doing research for this project, I had continued to notice commonalities in almost every story I had heard or read, whether they were raised in Black communities or not: being afraid to be like the Black people that you have heard about, being afraid of being labeled and stereotyped as the Black people you have heard about, being harshly punished for something that was but a minor deviation, feeling isolated and alone, feeling like you always come second to your white peers. This is not a story of the past. This is the story of the continuation of the oppression which the United States of America is built on. I had always known that racism existed, but it is humbling to know that my experiences are not exclusive to just me. There has to be change, and until that change becomes a part of the dominant narrative, we will continue to integrate Black communities into white spaces, never truly being able to create a diverse and representative nation.

In regard to respondent reactions, every single person I spoke with, many of whom I was unable to incorporate into this piece, expressed genuine gratitude that someone wanted to hear their story. This, in and of itself, is a problem far bigger than the individual interviews that I conducted. It was not blasé gratitude that was expressed—I could tell​ that they were genuinely eager to share their stories. The reaction and depth of the appreciation was bittersweet; I am happy that I was able to provide a space for the respondents to feel heard, but I am saddened that their stories are not being heard by as many people as they should. By following a story-based style of interviewing, I was able to see into a part of life that often goes unnoticed. Without being prompted to do these interviews, it is likely that I would have never thought of asking to hear the respondents’ stories, and I am sure the same can be said about many in the community. By letting these stories go unheard, not just the ones of the respondents, but the stories of every Black individual in the United States, we play a part in the deletion of our history, and a hope for any equitable solution.