Racism Not the Problem in School Suspensions

February 5, 2003

In the past week, I read where some parents at Broward County schools in Florida were upset.   It turns out that black students are being suspended and expelled at twice the rate of white students.   Naturally, these parents cried racism.   They demanded a quota system in which the school board would begin reducing suspensions each year until they were in line with white students.

Were this just an isolated incident, I would be prone to side with the parents.   However, just a quick look at our area shows a similar problem.

In Williamson County schools last year 3.8 percent of black students were suspended compared to only 1.5 percent of white students.   Of course, that translated into far more actual white students suspended because 92 percent of the students are white.

In Nashville, 21 percent of the black students were suspended compared to 10 percent of white students.   Rutherford County was much the same, 14 percent of black students, 6 percent of whites.

With all of the black teachers, principals and administrators in the schools, you can’t tell me that the problem is racism.   The parents in Broward County don’t want to know the truth but I’m going to tell them anyway.   The problem is the home life of too many black children.  

Did you know that more than two-thirds of black children born in America are born out-of-wedlock?   That’s right.   68.8 percent of black children born today are the product of unwed mothers and irresponsible fathers.   Is there any wonder that these kids are getting into trouble?

We have a big problem in this country.   When I say ‘we’ I mean we as a nation, as a family of Americans.   One segment among us is struggling and it’s due, in large part, to an overbearing uncle who wants to take care of people instead of making them self-reliant.   For too many black children, the government has become the father.   Uncle Sam has become the provider and the natural order of rearing a child has been totally disrupted.   Too many black children are raised by grandmothers or aunts instead of parents.

Any decent research will show you that kids who come from broken homes have more discipline problems.   Imagine what happens when the father has never been there at all.   Instead of acknowledging this problem, those responsible want to point the finger at someone else.

The parents in Broward County will protest and scream and holler and probably get the school system to cave.   As one parent said, “They send my kid home because they don’t have the patience or the time or the administration to take care of the problem.”   Ma’am, that’s exactly right.   They don’t have the time or patience or administration to fix your kid.   That’s your job.   Their job is to educate the other kids who came there to learn, not play nursemaid to your disruptive kid.

This is not a black/white thing.   I say the same thing to those white parents whose kids are disrupting class.   It’s a discipline thing and since these same parents have complained about corporal punishment until it has been abandoned, I guess there’s only one solution left.   You parents are going to have to actually raise your own kids.   If you don’t, don’t expect the parents whose kids go to school to learn to put up with the byproduct of your incompetence.