Do Inequalities in Discipline Exist in the Education System?
Bridgette Sharp
Bridgewater State University

Abstract
There has been a great amount of research conducted to help explain the ever increasing gap in discipline that exists between African Americans and their Caucasian peers in the school system. Educators and professionals are becoming more aware of the blatant discrimination African Americans face and are beginning to reevaluate their school’s discipline policies. Action needs to be taken to redirect America’s education system into one of higher learning, understanding, and achievement for children of all races.

Do Inequalities in Discipline Exist in the Education System? If you take a look at the history of the United States, it is apparent that African Americans have always gotten the short-end of the stick. America’s successful cultivation greatly depended on the forced slavery of blacks that were imported unwillingly from Africa. They were segregated, ridiculed, and abused simply because of the pigment of their skin. In the past century, great progress has been made to enforce the concept of equality in our country. Determined Civil Rights activists fought relentlessly to achieve equal voting and citizenship rights. Racial segregation may be an obstacle of the past, but discrimination is still widely recognizable in our society, and alarmingly, our education system. Education has always been a significant determinant of future success. High paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers have to endure grueling curriculums and expend great amounts of discipline to obtain their credible degree. As adolescents, we spend half of our lives sitting behind desks, listening to the lectures of our teachers. To say the least, education is the backbone of America and for good reason. When discrimination occurs in an educational setting, as it so