Digging Deeper: The Relationship between School Segregation and Unconscious Racism

ABSTRACT

Although over 60 years have passed since federal policy was developed to create a more integrated school system, Black and Brown children in the US are still learning in schools where they are almost completely segregated from their White peers. The impact of segregation in schools is well documented, and outcome data continues to demonstrate significant racial disparities in educational achievement among our children. While structural racism accounts for much of the lack of progress in this area, unconscious beliefs may also play a role in the intractability of segregation, and segregation may lead to greater implicit bias. The current study examined the relationship between levels of diversity in school and community, beliefs about segregation, and implicit racial bias. Findings suggest that implicit racial bias was significantly higher for those who were educated in communities with lower levels of integration. In order to truly impact segregation, social workers must consider the complex interplay between societal factors and unconscious factors which both serve to perpetuate the staggering lack of equity in educational opportunities in this country.

KEYWORDS:

• School segregation
• implicit bias
• unconscious racism
• education
• inequity
• racism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa McCardle

Melissa McCardle, Ph.D. is a Professor of Social Work at Molloy College. Dr. McCardle teaches both Clinical Practice for the Fordham-Molloy MSW Graduate Program and Social Welfare Policy at the undergraduate level. She has been working for several years on a multi-method study of the relationship between segregation and implicit and explicit racial bias among college students on Long Island. She has both published and presented this work at the local, state, and national level. Her most recent focus has been the development of an Interfaith/Interracial Dialogue program to address education inequity which has been considered as a potential campus-wide model. She is also a Faculty Content Expert on racism and education for the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Grant that Molloy College was awarded titled: ‘Long Island: How did we get here?” As a partner in the Education Equity Initiative of ERASERacism, a premier community advocacy organization, Dr. McCardle is deeply committed to addressing inequity in this region.

Susan Bliss

Susan Bliss, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Instructor at Fordham University Graduate School for Social Services. She also teaches in the Smith College Advanced Clinical Supervision Certificate Program and is a Student Support Coordinator in New Canaan Public Schools.