“It’s Like I’m in a Stereotype”

Abstract

When thinking about discrimination in American schools, a common historical reference is to September 1957, when Little Rock Nine, a group of young, African American high school students, walked through a jeering crowd of white students and parents in Alabama. The powerful images of army troops enforcing the court order for desegregation conjure the ongoing struggles of African Americans to integrate the public schools and the fierce rejection by some whites. A more current image of discrimination in schools, however, requires a different conceptual framework. In Higher Learning, John Singleton’s 1995 movie, set at the fictional Columbus University in California, the narrator describes the places on campus where the various racial and ethnic groups congregate.

You take a trip around the world. Look there, by the statue, you see them people, that’s Disneyland and there’s Chinatown, and over there, that’s south of the boarder and this right here, is called the Blackhole, cause we black folks.²

Co-authored with Niobe Way

Parts of this chapter were previously published by Susan Rakosi Rosenbloom and Niobe Way. 2004. “Experiences of Discrimination among African American, Asian American, and Latino Adolescents in an Urban High School Students.” Youth and Society 35:420–451.