Segregation in Modern America
Review of Shame of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol's book describes the disgrace of America's modern apartheid
As citizens living in an advanced society, most Americans believe segregation in schools ended, for the most part, during the Civil Rights movement. According to Jonothan Kozol, however, such an assertion is misleading and even blatantly untruthful. In his 2005 non-fiction book, Shame of a Nation, Kozol shows first-hand that segregation continues to thrive under the guise of diversity.
The Existence of Segregation
Kozol’s book combats the idea that segregation is over. Laws enforcing segregation have been abolished, true, but Kozol visited numerous urban schools nationwide to illustrate the presence of segregation and the harmful effect it has on education.
Kozol’s book, while provocative, is not unnecessarily aggressive in its tactics. Written in unpretentious prose, the book functions as an alert to what Kozol considers an unjust tragedy. Throughout the book, he visits numerous schools that deal with the daily reality of, essentially, a modern apartheid.
The most striking disparities occur in very populous urban areas. The segregation that occurs within such schools, mostly due to districting, leads to a disparity in the quality of education for students, as well. Schools that have almost no diversity are euphemistically labeled “diverse” because the student body is mostly made up of minority students.
Dealing with Unfair Schooling Conditions
Different schools have different ways of with the “inequalities in funding [and] in infrastructure” between well-to-do and poorer districts (240), the latter of which Kozol describes in his book. No Child Left Behind, he adds, did nothing to amend racial inequality within the school system— in fact, it did not even mention the existence of it at all (240).
Students who deal with unfair schooling conditions are still expected to live up to the stipulations demanded by No Child Left Behind. This leads to a rigorous teaching-for-test-scores mentality, which, as Kozol posits, does not amount to an acceptable education. He talks about schools that operate under Skinnerian conditions, focusing on the principles of pleasure and pain. Most Skinnerian schools require silent lunches, no recess, and use of silent hand signals that have echoes of totalitarianism.
Students within this Skinnerian system are separated according to ability and labeled from Level One through Level Four. Instead of seeing themselves as earning As or Bs or Cs, students take on the identity of their level, saying such things as “I’m just a Level Two” (74).
Students in Segregated Conditions
In his book, Kozol goes to the students themselves to discuss their lives and education. “There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education,” he says. “There ought to be; we measure almost every other aspect of the lives they lead in school” (163).
Kozol says that getting the whole picture requires being in the students’ positions— sitting in their chairs, working in their classrooms. Keeping them at a distance, he maintains, is what perpetuates such tragic injustice.
Above all, Kozol forces a spotlight on a situation that doesn’t get enough passionate attention. His hopeful desire to bring change is well-represented in this straightforwardly shocking book— a necessary read for those who want to remain informed about the welfare of America’s school systems.
Kozol, Jonathan. Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling In America. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2005.
