Fox 1
Jessica Fox
Professor Metherd
Sem 144
November 25, 2013
Racial Oppression within Our Schools
Even though school is supposed to be an environment where everyone is treated
the same regardless of race, gender or class, the truth is that minorities are victims of
systemic racism in our country. Education is assumed to be guaranteed equally to all, but
that is not true. Racial oppression exists in our world today and according to Tomas
Rivera in his book, “…And the Earth Did not Devour Him” and Paulo Freire in his book
“Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, it perpetuates in our education system. School systems are
oppressive whether it is intentional or not and is especially true to the lower class
minorities. Students are exposed to prejudices and stereotypes at young ages and they
grow up with these differences engrained within them. The education system is broken
and there is a cycle of racist oppression that has been created that is hard to escape
without communication between the oppressed and their oppressors.
One of the oppressive social constructs is a system that is designed by the wealthy
and elite in order to separate the social classes and maintain the status quo, also known as
the banking concept that is within our school systems. According to Paulo Freire,
education can be oppressive through the banking educational system that has been in
place for decades. Freire shapes his idea in writing,
In their political activity, the dominant elites utilize the banking concept to
encourage passivity in the oppressed, corresponding with the latter’s ‘submerged’
state of consciousness, and take advantage of that passivity to ‘fill’ that
consciousness with slogans which create even more fear of freedom (95).
Fox 2
This oppressive “depositing” of information by teachers to their students makes their
voices not be heard and in turn they are conforming to the social norm because there is no
dialogue or communication between the student and the teacher. There is no room for
growth of students in classrooms as long as this banking system is in place. A teacher is
socialized to teach the students and not have the students give any input into what they
are learning. By having this banking system in place, students are becoming passive and
do not question what they are taught which puts them directly into the category of being
oppressed. This initial struggle for liberation is ingrained in society and it is hard for the
oppressed to break free.
A teacher has the ultimate power in a classroom, meaning, the students in this
system are “receptacles” and the teachers fill them with their one sided knowledge. There
is no room for students to think, Freire expands,
The teacher’s task is to organize a process, which already occurs spontaneously,
to ‘fill’ the students by making deposits of information, which he or she considers
to constitute true knowledge…The educated individual is the adapted person,
because she or he is better ‘fit’ for the world (76).
Teachers can be seen as oppressors because they have a powerful role in the education
society while the students are oppressed. It is up to teachers to have the classroom be a
safe place for students to come and learn and become individuals in their thinking. Freire
argues, and I agree that “mutual humanization” must occur. Students and teachers must
become partners in critical thinking. Freire argues that banking educational goals must be
forgotten, and teachers should, “replace it with the posing of the problems of human
beings in their relations with the world” (5). In Rivera's short story about the ethnic
student who gets expelled from school, the teacher did not use their ultimate power for
Fox 3
good. Instead, the teacher made the child embarrassed and put the student down. This
banking concept of education attempts to transform the minds of individuals so that they
will adapt better to actual situations and be dominated by them with greater ease. Freire
discusses the need for critical thinking classrooms in order to overcome this oppression
that happens within classrooms. Education should be the practice of freedom, not the
practice of domination. Tomas Rivera directly discusses this idea in his short story, “It’s
That It Hurts” in his book, “…And the Earth Did not Devour Him”.
The child in the story by Rivera is marginalized and swept under the rug in the
school system and further is oppressed by his teacher. The child aches to just be able to
blend in with his classmates, but his teacher and peers make that impossible for him. He
feels angry and embarrassed when his teacher checks him for lice and everyone in the
class knows it. The character goes into detail explaining his feelings when he says, “and
then they make fun of you and the teacher with the popsicle stick, poking your head with
lice. It’s embarrassing. And then when they turn up their noses. It makes you angry” (92).
The nurse made him take off his clothes as they examined him, even his behind. The
nurse did not seem to care about his embarrassment or feelings because she just sent him
off after making him strip in front of her and not consoling him at all. In addition, he feels
disconnected and confused because he was put in the corner apart from everyone and
other students would point and laugh. He describes, “I was sitting away from everyone
where they could see me better. Then when it was my turn to read, I couldn’t” (93). His
classmates make fun of him and he obviously feels very out of place. Children pick on
him and this makes him angry because all he wants to do is fit in. His teachers and peers
refer to him as the “Mexican” which makes him feel like he fits in better with the gringos
Fox 4
who work out on the fields, he explains “its not all that bad” (92). He would rather be
working in a field than learning in a classroom. This is not the correct way for a student
to be feeling towards school and this disconnect from his school system is directly in
correlation with how the school system is set up. This concept that Freire discusses of the
banking system affects the student in a negative way because his teacher is socialized to
think one way and to not change her teaching methods around in order to appeal to all of
her students. The child feels so out of place and because he is different than the other
students, he is judged and oppressed by the teacher and his peers.
The school system gives up on the student when the principle expels him after
him and another student get into a fight, which he says was caused from all of the
confusion and not feeling like he belongs. He is not even sure if he is expelled at first,
“but maybe they didn’t expel me, sure they did, maybe not, sure they did” (95). This
confusion really affects him on his walk home after being expelled. He reflects on his life
and what it means for him to be in school and is most worried about how his parents are
going to react. He doesn’t know what to tell them and doesn’t know anything but “it’s
that it hurts and it’s embarrassing at the same time” (96). This school environment is not
a positive experience for this minority child. He is overall a misunderstood student in the
school and feels disconnected because of the way he is treated by his peers and elders at
school. This child is affected by the oppression and racism at a young age within his
education system so much so that he feels like he belongs out in the fields instead of
inside a classroom. The student feels embarrassed and hurt by the way he is treated in his
school by his peers and his teacher. He is constantly being reminded that he is different
and unwanted, which is a horrible feeling that no child should have to endure. He
Fox 5
becomes angry that no one is treating him with acceptance and in the end his rage hurts
him even more because he is expelled from school from being in a fight that he did not
even start. This racial oppression exists within our world today and it starts at the grade
school level and is the reason why many students feel out of place in a classroom and do
not want to take part in educational activities that can prepare them for having successful
lives. Freire discusses this idea of children not being able to learn in this kind of
environment and how that negatively affects students.
Freire concludes that in order to move past this constant racial oppression that is
plagued in our society, we need to dialogue and communicate. To break this perpetuating
cycle, many different ideas need to take place. The current way that society works needs
to be rethought and replaced with ideas of autonomy and equal responsibility. Individuals
need to stick up for themselves and communicate with their oppressors. And the
oppressors need to listen to the oppressed and make changes within their lives. This all
ties back to the type of learning that is instilled within the students of America. Schools
should be focusing on creating individuality and not encouraging students to adapt to
their reality, as the oppressors themselves do. Of course, teachers are artists with their
work, but they cannot decide what and how to teach without fully shaping their students.
The educators should make it possible for students to become themselves, not fit the
molding of what the elite are. People are willing to become controlled and therefore
oppressed but that is something that needs to be overcome. The roles of students and
teachers become less structured, and both engage in acts of dialogic enrichment to
effectively ascertain knowledge from each other. This is shown through Tomas Rivera’s
short stories and is constantly a reminded within our society today. If the student in
Fox 6
Rivera’s short story had been treated like a person rather than an object, he would have
been liberated and looked at education differently. Instead, the school system gave up on
him and he was expelled and his future looks bleak. School systems should create a
setting where students feel empowered, not put down and confused. This racial
oppression that is within schools is something very real and needs to be changed through
dialogue.
Works Cited:
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder, 1970.
Rivera, Tomas. “And the Earth Did Not Devour Him”. Arte Publico, 1995.