What would you say if I were to tell you that the biggest threat to America’s preeminence is not the national debt nor the emerging economic potency of China? Politicians and many Americans have been ignorant of the single most significant threat to America’s geopolitical position. It is tragically ironic that the biggest threat to America’s preeminence is the miseducation and imprisonment of black and brown children. By virtue of demographic trends, they will either become the leaders of our nation or a massive indentured servant class if we don’t address this issue with the seriousness and clarity it demands. It has never been more critical that public education be given its due as one of the cornerstones of our nation’s success.
In July 2012, the United States Census Bureau declared that the number of total births by groups identified as minorities (Hispanic – American, African – American, Asian – American, and other minority groups) outnumbered the births of non-Hispanic whites. It was the first time in our country’s history. The current percentage of minorities in the United States is estimated to be 37%. The census projects that the entire United States will be a demographic melting pot by 2042 where minorities, as a group, will outnumber non-Hispanic whites. My message to those that may be concerned about the country becoming less white should be more concerned about our country becoming less educated.
Much of the discussion and angst about our educational standing is due to our humbling place in the hierarchy of international education achievement. International student achievement exams administered in 2009 show that the United States ranked 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading. The negative impact of these exams was exacerbated by the fact that students in Shanghai outscored every school system in the world. Well, I contend that if we don’t improve the educational achievement of black and brown students, our country will have an economic ranking that rivals our academic rankings.
The numbers don’t lie. According to a statistical analysis report produced by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2009, two of the measures widely used to determine educational achievement are proficiency levels in math and reading and graduation rates. One demographic that requires the most scrutiny is the educational divide between young black males and young white males. The NAEP study shows that in the United States that 78% of white males students graduate from high school. Only 47% of black male students graduate from high school. This study also exhibits that 33% of white male students meet eighth-grade reading proficiency levels, while only 9% of black male students need that level of proficiency. Certainly, the former percentage should be of great concern, but the latter should cause our collective hair to be on fire. Inexplicably, the graduation rates for black male students are higher than those for white male students in states like New Hampshire, Vermont, North Dakota, and Maine. These are all states with white populations of 92% or above.
A review of the achievement gaps of individual states reveals some astonishing results that belied expectations. I’m a New Yorker and very proud of that, but the state with the most dismal graduation rate for black male students is the land of “stop and frisk.” According to the shop foundation for public education, New York only graduates 25% of its black male students while the corresponding graduation rate for white male students is 68%. I don’t think that’s what Frank Sinatra meant when he crooned, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.” One of the most disturbing facts about this is that you have a former Chancellor of education, Joel Klein, pontificating about what reforms are needed in our education system. This is the same man that presided over this tragedy for nine years (2002 – 2011).
There are numerous theories why the achievement gap exists between minority and non-Hispanic white students. The focus most often rests on socioeconomic, structural and institutional, cultural factors, and race. I only included race because it allows me to categorically denounce efforts by some to legitimize racism using pseudo-scientific studies. For this article, I will discuss one aspect that I believe contributes significantly to this problem. That aspect is the impact that our criminal justice system has on educational achievement.
Our current “criminal justice system” plays a significant role in destroying educational opportunities for young black males. I think it’s vital that I interject and inform the reader that this is not a “pity piece” before I go on. Instead, this article points to glaring injustices that institutional or self-inflicted contribute greatly to the educational achievement gap. Entry into the criminal justice system is the Scarlet Letter of the 21st century. As I combed through reports and statistics about the achievement gap, it became clear to me that our criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex have partnered up to form one of the most destructive alliances in the history of our country.
American Exceptionalism can be a two-sided coin. From 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated increased fourfold, from approximately 500,000 to 2.3 million people. Although the United States is only 5% of the world’s population, we have 25% of the world’s prisoners. Amazingly one out of every 31 adults is either imprisoned or under some form of correctional control. We must ask ourselves, what is the reason for this meteoric increase. Was it because of some uncontrollable rise in crime? Maybe we Americans became more violent. This was not the case. Department of Justice statistics show unequivocally that crime of almost every type decreased significantly over those 28 years.
Interestingly these decreases took place during a period when our population increased from 225.3 million to 302 million. What have they been arresting people for during this period if crime rates have been decreasing by significant amounts? Well, the answer is drug arrests. According to Department of Justice statistics, in 1980, approximately 580,000 adults and juveniles were arrested for drug abuse violations. By 2007 that number grew to 1,900,000 adults and juveniles. The FBI reports that a drug arrest is made every 19 seconds. More than half of those arrests are due to marijuana. An arrest for marijuana takes place every 42 seconds. Behind these numbers are some startling facts that, at a minimum, have a significant disparate impact on young black males. At the core of this prison, population explosion is applying drug laws in general and marijuana possession laws specifically. Marijuana alone represents 31% of all arrests.
One of the biggest threats to young black males’ pursuit of the constitutional promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is our drug laws and how the criminal justice system applies them. Of all the factors that may contribute to the achievement gap, none is more debilitating than being imprisoned or under correctional control. Both of these situations are likely to either destroy or limit educational opportunities. Placement into the criminal justice system often the trifecta of dreams crushed, no education, no employment, and in too many cases stripping of your citizenship by denying access to the ballot box. Indeed, there will be exceptions to this, but my focus remains on the large majority of people that do not recover. Of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, 1 million of them are African-American. That represents approximately 8% of the African-American population; for the sake of comparison, that would mean the incarceration of 18 million white Americans. Numbers like that would not go unnoticed by politicians and most Americans. African Americans are incarcerated at six times the rate of whites.
The JFA Institute states in their publication Unlocking America if African-Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, today’s prison, and jail populations would decline by approximately 50% unless one is inclined to prescribe to the notion that black folks are six times as criminal as white folks. This represents an existential problem.
A too well-kept secret is how the situation impacts young Black male students. Much of the increase in our prison population consists of two scenarios. The first is the arrest and incarceration of young black males for drugs and marijuana possession. The second is the punishment of black male students in school. There are approximately 14 million whites and 2.6 million blacks that report using an illicit drug. Yet blacks are being sent to prison for drug offenses at ten times the rate of whites. Out of all first-time convictions for drug offenses, John Getman, Ph.D. reports that African-Americans comprise 54% of that total. Equally disturbing is that nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrest, 44% of youth detained, 46% of the youth who are traditionally waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons. A study conducted by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department (MDCR) showed that 6 % of young black males were younger than 12 when they were arrested, 56% of them were arrested between the ages of 12 and 15, and finally 27% between the ages of 16 and 24. That is an entire generation of young black males impacted by these policies. Whether you see these young men as victims or responsible for their own plight, one cannot deny that this problem of epidemic proportions must be turned around. It seems that one of the roadblocks to solving these problems has been the societal construct that young black men are dangerous, violent, and prone to be the major perpetrators of domestic drug trafficking. There is nothing further from the truth. Over 90% of arrests of young black men are for nonviolent offenses, the majority drug-related. I’m not sure how the federal government obtained this information, but a report produced by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health stated that over 2.5 million whites sold drugs compared to 700,000 blacks. Let’s take a look at the demand or users side of things. Human Rights Watch has reported that people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites but have a higher arrest rate. African-Americans comprise approximately 14% of regular drug users but represent 37% of those arrested for drug offenses. This is the case even though drug users represent the same percentage of their respective demographic.
The second threat to black male students exists in the very halls of the schools they attend; according to the Department of Education, students of color face much harsher punishments than their white peers. This often results in a higher number of black and Hispanic youth being imprisoned. There is no evidence that students of color misbehave to a greater degree than white students. They are, however, punished more severely, often for less severe behaviors. The study showed that during the 2009 – 2010 school year, 96,000 students were arrested, and 242,000 were referred to law enforcement. Black and Hispanic students represented 70% of that group. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that these punishments are being applied to an increasingly younger group of students. The sentencing project has found that even though blacks represent 16% of the youth population, 37% of the cases are moved to criminal courts, and 58% of African-American youth are sent to adult prisons. This situation has transformed our schools into a school to prisons pipeline that feeds young black students to the prison industrial complex beast.
Michelle Alexander, a law professor at Ohio State University, author, and civil rights activist, identifies quite effectively and eloquently what impact these two trends have on the lives and futures of young black boys and men. In an interview given to Mark Karlin of Truthout, she stated, in reference to young black males being placed in the criminal justice system, “the prospects in terms of jobs and economically stable future are slim to none. Once you have been branded a criminal or felon, you’re typically trapped for life.” She believes what most will find is that their educational opportunities have been destroyed or restricted; they are then destined to be un or underemployed, denied housing, and in a significant number of cases, have their citizenship debased by the stripping of their right to vote. An estimated 13% of black men are now denied the right to vote.
American Society has an incredible number of issues and challenges confronting it that need to be addressed if we are to continue to be a country viewed as one that promotes and supports the aspirations of its citizens, but none more critical and urgent than correcting the institutional barriers to educating children of color and specifically young black and Hispanic children. The Department of Justice reports that if the current trend of incarcerating young black men for nonviolent crimes continues, one of every three black men will serve time in prison. Prisons should not ever be seen as an alternative to a classroom. My concern is that over the last 25 years, our legislators, police, and courts have become very comfortable with the idea that young black and Hispanic youth are dispensable and their incarceration is more beneficial to society than their education and employment.
Part of a practical solution is to decriminalize marijuana. This, more than any other factor, has been the “pathway to prison” for too many young black males. Jon Getman, PH. D, public policy analyst and adjunct professor in criminal justice, states, “the disproportionate arrests of blacks for marijuana offenses in the United States is not in local or regional phenomenon; it is a national characteristic of marijuana law enforcement, evident in every state, most counties and most local police agencies in the country.” Many police forces are given incentives to make these types of arrests instead of concentrating on violent crime. Over half of the arrests are youth between the ages of 15 and 24. Most experts agree that the explosive growth of prisoners is directly attributable to drug arrests and mandatory sentences for those offenses.
Finally, schools and police forces must change the current policy of treating any classroom dispute or disturbance as a civil or criminal offense. With the advent of “no tolerance” policies, a study by Education Week found that students of color these harsher punishments in school than their white peers for similar infractions. This leads to more youth of color incarcerated. Black and Hispanic students represent more than 70% of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement. Currently, African-Americans make up two-fifths and Hispanics one-fifth of confined youth.
All parties have an essential role in resolving these significant problems (institutions, communities, parents, and students). Still, as a society, we must first make the conscious decision to emphasize promotions over prisons for young people of color. Our success as a nation in the future will depend on that.
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