Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
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Related: Many of you were horrified to see that a kindergarten teacher would call ICE on her own 6 year old Hispanic student.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116010708111794832
For some reason this is more shocking for US folk than the fact that there are cops stationed *in elementary schools*, to quickly arrest Black children at teachers' requests.
30,000 kids under 7 have been arrested. Of course they are disproportionately Black. Because racism.
If I told you that a formerly straight-A student whose dad was detained by ICE at gunpoint, was now food insecure, housing insecure, traumatized, and not doing as well in school? That would make sense to you.
There are ~100K people in ICE detention.
There are ~400K people in pretrial detention.
Again, all of the people in pretrial detention are legally innocent, and most of them are actually innocent.
Being in pretrial detention usually means that you are innocent, have been accused of a crime that you didn't do, but are too poor to post bail before your trial, which can be years away.
Think of how cruel and evil it would be to wait until ICE detention warehouses reach a capacity of 400,000 people, with ICE officers stationed in elementary schools, and then started a campaign of "Where are all the immigrant dads?! They just don't want to be around! No family values!
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If I told you that a formerly straight-A student whose dad was detained by ICE at gunpoint, was now food insecure, housing insecure, traumatized, and not doing as well in school? That would make sense to you.
There are ~100K people in ICE detention.
There are ~400K people in pretrial detention.
Again, all of the people in pretrial detention are legally innocent, and most of them are actually innocent.
Being in pretrial detention usually means that you are innocent, have been accused of a crime that you didn't do, but are too poor to post bail before your trial, which can be years away.
Think of how cruel and evil it would be to wait until ICE detention warehouses reach a capacity of 400,000 people, with ICE officers stationed in elementary schools, and then started a campaign of "Where are all the immigrant dads?! They just don't want to be around! No family values!
"Without the racism, Black kids do as well in school as everyone else.
As a reminder, all Nigerian school kids can not only do algebra and basic statistics by 7th grade, they can convert numbers from decimal to binary and hexadecimal, setting a good foundation for a computer science education later.
I can improve academic performance in a school district, as measured by performance above baseline on standardized tests, just by:
1) Offering free meals to all students
2) increasing the numbers of Black men teachers
3) removing "School Resource Officers"
Because all 3 of these things focus on *reducing racism*.
If I were a white supremacist race scientist who truly believed that Black kids were not as smart as white kids? Then out of curiousity, I would want to see the playing field leveled, so that I could see the difference without confounders.
But that would be disappointing. Because as you remove the racism, the difference in academic performance fades to nothing.
️ -
Without the racism, Black kids do as well in school as everyone else.
As a reminder, all Nigerian school kids can not only do algebra and basic statistics by 7th grade, they can convert numbers from decimal to binary and hexadecimal, setting a good foundation for a computer science education later.
I can improve academic performance in a school district, as measured by performance above baseline on standardized tests, just by:
1) Offering free meals to all students
2) increasing the numbers of Black men teachers
3) removing "School Resource Officers"
Because all 3 of these things focus on *reducing racism*.
If I were a white supremacist race scientist who truly believed that Black kids were not as smart as white kids? Then out of curiousity, I would want to see the playing field leveled, so that I could see the difference without confounders.
But that would be disappointing. Because as you remove the racism, the difference in academic performance fades to nothing.
️@mekkaokereke the institutional racism is also one of the reasons that in some companies, I have seen, have more expat Africans working there, than black people from that country
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Without the racism, Black kids do as well in school as everyone else.
As a reminder, all Nigerian school kids can not only do algebra and basic statistics by 7th grade, they can convert numbers from decimal to binary and hexadecimal, setting a good foundation for a computer science education later.
I can improve academic performance in a school district, as measured by performance above baseline on standardized tests, just by:
1) Offering free meals to all students
2) increasing the numbers of Black men teachers
3) removing "School Resource Officers"
Because all 3 of these things focus on *reducing racism*.
If I were a white supremacist race scientist who truly believed that Black kids were not as smart as white kids? Then out of curiousity, I would want to see the playing field leveled, so that I could see the difference without confounders.
But that would be disappointing. Because as you remove the racism, the difference in academic performance fades to nothing.
️The US education system sucks at educating Black boys, because there are armed cops in the hallways, and because teachers spend time looking at Black boys like this.
We need to get to a point where this isn't true.
-
Without the racism, Black kids do as well in school as everyone else.
As a reminder, all Nigerian school kids can not only do algebra and basic statistics by 7th grade, they can convert numbers from decimal to binary and hexadecimal, setting a good foundation for a computer science education later.
I can improve academic performance in a school district, as measured by performance above baseline on standardized tests, just by:
1) Offering free meals to all students
2) increasing the numbers of Black men teachers
3) removing "School Resource Officers"
Because all 3 of these things focus on *reducing racism*.
If I were a white supremacist race scientist who truly believed that Black kids were not as smart as white kids? Then out of curiousity, I would want to see the playing field leveled, so that I could see the difference without confounders.
But that would be disappointing. Because as you remove the racism, the difference in academic performance fades to nothing.
️In the UK (and in other European countres), black kids tend to do better than white. Nobody could claim there's no racism in the UK - but I'm sure it's less prevalent than in the US.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/628f39518fa8f5039a1bd625/Ethnicity_Schools_Note.pdf
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Without the racism, Black kids do as well in school as everyone else.
As a reminder, all Nigerian school kids can not only do algebra and basic statistics by 7th grade, they can convert numbers from decimal to binary and hexadecimal, setting a good foundation for a computer science education later.
I can improve academic performance in a school district, as measured by performance above baseline on standardized tests, just by:
1) Offering free meals to all students
2) increasing the numbers of Black men teachers
3) removing "School Resource Officers"
Because all 3 of these things focus on *reducing racism*.
If I were a white supremacist race scientist who truly believed that Black kids were not as smart as white kids? Then out of curiousity, I would want to see the playing field leveled, so that I could see the difference without confounders.
But that would be disappointing. Because as you remove the racism, the difference in academic performance fades to nothing.
️@mekkaokereke I’ve written code for 59 years. I _can_ convert between decimal, binary, and hex but I don’t do it well in my head, and if it matters I do it on a computer. That kids can do this by 7th grade is quite impressive.
Also, the racism thing is quite real. For people who struggle with understanding race issues: substitute girls or women for black and brown people. Study after study shows that girls are just as capable as boys in STEM subjects but expectations of others hold them back.
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In the UK (and in other European countres), black kids tend to do better than white. Nobody could claim there's no racism in the UK - but I'm sure it's less prevalent than in the US.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/628f39518fa8f5039a1bd625/Ethnicity_Schools_Note.pdf
@GeofCox @mekkaokereke in my limited experience teaching in Europe, black and brown kids tend to push themselves harder academically than their white peers. Given the history, I think this is about valuing education, not taking it for granted, but that's just a guess. The parents tend to be more interested in their kids' education too.
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@GeofCox @mekkaokereke in my limited experience teaching in Europe, black and brown kids tend to push themselves harder academically than their white peers. Given the history, I think this is about valuing education, not taking it for granted, but that's just a guess. The parents tend to be more interested in their kids' education too.
Yup.
That and selection bias.
There are plenty of super lazy, undisciplined Chinese, Nigerian, and Indian students, whose parents don't value education that much. They are most likely still in a village in rural Nigeria, India, and China, going to a rural school, right next to hard working, disciplined kids who do value education, but whose families don't have a need or a desire to move to Europe.
Said another way, if you see a Nigerian kid in British boarding school getting top marks
️, you're seeing one of a highly filtered subset of kids in the intersection of:* Good enough aptitude for learning (that's most kids
️)
* From a family that moved to a larger Nigerian city from a more rural one
* From a family that values education and growth mindset
* From a family with a strong desire to leave Nigeria
* From a family economically advantaged enough to get an international student visa
* That managed to minimize / dodge / mitigate racism through their early education
* But knows enough about racism to know that they need to significantly outperform British born white students, just to be given an equal chance
* And is resilient enough (stubborn enough) to be undaunted by any racism that they do faceSaid one more way:
I bet that 1st and 2nd generation white British expat kids in India or China or Nigeria as a cohort, outperform the *average* local Indian or Chinese or Nigerian students in those countries.️Said one last way:
My hypothesis is that once you control for racism, socio-economic advantage, selection bias, academic over-compensation, and educational opportunities and effectiveness, that there is no statistically significant academic difference between genders, ethnicities, religions, or races. -
If I told you that a formerly straight-A student whose dad was detained by ICE at gunpoint, was now food insecure, housing insecure, traumatized, and not doing as well in school? That would make sense to you.
There are ~100K people in ICE detention.
There are ~400K people in pretrial detention.
Again, all of the people in pretrial detention are legally innocent, and most of them are actually innocent.
Being in pretrial detention usually means that you are innocent, have been accused of a crime that you didn't do, but are too poor to post bail before your trial, which can be years away.
Think of how cruel and evil it would be to wait until ICE detention warehouses reach a capacity of 400,000 people, with ICE officers stationed in elementary schools, and then started a campaign of "Where are all the immigrant dads?! They just don't want to be around! No family values!
"@mekkaokereke @plsik This *is* America
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In the UK (and in other European countres), black kids tend to do better than white. Nobody could claim there's no racism in the UK - but I'm sure it's less prevalent than in the US.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/628f39518fa8f5039a1bd625/Ethnicity_Schools_Note.pdf
@GeofCox Unfortunately, the picture is a bit more nuanced than that. "Black African" kids do better than white kids. "Black Caribbean" and "Black Other" don't - and it gets worse as they get older (especially for boys). Why? @mekkaokereke hit the nail on the head. What "Black African" usually means is first-gen immigrant, which is a self-selecting group of motivated people. By the time they're 2 gens in and become "Black Other", racism drags them down.
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The US education system sucks at educating Black boys, because there are armed cops in the hallways, and because teachers spend time looking at Black boys like this.
We need to get to a point where this isn't true.
-
Related: Many of you were horrified to see that a kindergarten teacher would call ICE on her own 6 year old Hispanic student.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116010708111794832
For some reason this is more shocking for US folk than the fact that there are cops stationed *in elementary schools*, to quickly arrest Black children at teachers' requests.
30,000 kids under 7 have been arrested. Of course they are disproportionately Black. Because racism.
@mekkaokereke Shout out to the teachers that deal with disruptive students but refuse to get them arrested. One might think that such a low bar isn't worthy of praise, but anyone enduring personal effort/frustration in the name of simple basic decency is a model to follow, particularly when so many others are unwilling to.
I'm sure schools using such agents likely aren't providing any better alternatives, making the effort harder.
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@GeofCox Unfortunately, the picture is a bit more nuanced than that. "Black African" kids do better than white kids. "Black Caribbean" and "Black Other" don't - and it gets worse as they get older (especially for boys). Why? @mekkaokereke hit the nail on the head. What "Black African" usually means is first-gen immigrant, which is a self-selecting group of motivated people. By the time they're 2 gens in and become "Black Other", racism drags them down.
@davidnjoku @GeofCox @mekkaokereke Yes. A mom taking classes at the college says the newer immigrants try to keep their kids away from the "black other."
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RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109835072262577869
Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
Feb 9: Education
Q: Why do Black kids not do well in school, or in subjects like Math and Science?
A: This is only true in extremely racist countries. A racist person cannot teach a Black child effectively. It's not race. It's racism.
Read the whole thread.
@mekkaokereke
From personal expecrience: it doesn't seem to be black kids (or other minority) who do poorly in school per se.
Rather it is those from poorer families who struggle the most.There is a rather disproportional number of poor black families compared to white.
So we are unfortunately back to the vicous cycle of racism.
For reference: my upbringin is in southerm Brazil, which does not have that a high black population WHEN compared to the other regions.
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Related: Many of you were horrified to see that a kindergarten teacher would call ICE on her own 6 year old Hispanic student.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116010708111794832
For some reason this is more shocking for US folk than the fact that there are cops stationed *in elementary schools*, to quickly arrest Black children at teachers' requests.
30,000 kids under 7 have been arrested. Of course they are disproportionately Black. Because racism.
@mekkaokereke meanwhile, in other countries, what you are likely to find stationned in elementary schools are *school nurses and social workers*, not cops.
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