Perception is a matter of life or death.
Now, a new study from Yale University delivers the news that even black babies suffer the burdens racial stereotyping inflicts.
Preschool educators’ implicit biases contribute to uneven rates of suspension and expulsion disfavoring black children. Meanwhile, black teachers tend to dish out longer punishments.
Related: “They only kill us because of our skin color and our race.”
The Yale study connects the established phenomenon of educators doling our harsher punishments to the research on unconscious biases – ingrained stereotypes and automatic associations of a particular group – and how they lead to discrimination.
Ingrained stereotypes may influence teachers’ treatment of students in school and/or how teachers perceive their role in preventing an imagined baby monster from becoming another “bad dude.”
Ingrained stereotypes may influence teachers’ treatment of students in school and/or how teachers perceive their role in preventing an imagined baby monster from becoming another “bad dude.”
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, moments before black, unarmed Terence Crutcher was shot and killed by then-officer Betty Shelby, another officer from a circling helicopter hundreds of feet away is heard from an audio recording saying, “That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something.”
Shelby has since been booked with first-degree manslaughter. Similarly in Ferguson, Missouri, Darren Wilson told a grand jury in the case of the shooting death of Michael Brown that Brown “looked like a demon.” Experts claimed unconscious racism was involved in both cases.
Teachers aren’t immune to societal influences that install fear of black men into our psyches. Teachers aren’t shooting children, but the consequences of suspension and expulsion in preschool are related to numerous negative educational and life outcomes, which take away a quality life.
The Yale study, which is titled, “Do Early Educators’ Implicit Biases Regarding Sex and Race Relate to Behavior Expectations and Recommendations of Preschool Expulsions and Suspensions?” provides greater insight as to why suspension and expulsion rates are higher for black students. For instance, the U.S. Department of Education has previously reported that black children represented 18 percent of preschool enrollment in 2012, but 48 percent of preschoolers receiving more than one out-of-school suspension. Now, the Yale study reports that black preschoolers are 3.6 times as likely to receive one or more suspensions as their white peers.
Related: Bullied by the badge?
Educators will say that black children exhibit more challenging behaviors. But the research suggests teachers are on the look out for trouble before children of color ever make a wrong move.
Researchers gave the selected educators two tasks. In the first task, participants were told to watch a video in which they’d see students of varying races and both genders exhibit challenging behaviors (but none ever appeared).
For the second task, researchers had participants read a vignette of a challenging preschooler that had a randomized name that suggested the student was a white or black boy or girl. Randomly assigned family background were included on some but not all of the vignettes. The findings revealed the not so hidden biases that are negatively assigned to black children.
On the first task when participants expected negative behaviors, their eyes focused more on black children, and black boys more so. Findings suggest possible differences in biases along racial lines. The presence of the children’s background information lowered perceived severity ratings when the child’s race matched the participants’. However, the severity ratings increased when races did not match.
Related: Set to stun
Black and white teachers were equally likely to suspend or expel a child – apparently it’s universally okay to punish black children. However, “[b]lack participants recommended expelling or suspending children more days than white participants.”
This finding was discouraging but not surprising. I felt reverberations of “it all starts at home” rhetoric, which is prevalent in the black community. By sending a child back home, teachers essentially demand that a parent to do a better job.
Knowing the family background of the child impacted how severe teachers perceived challenging behaviors. White educators who read vignettes that didn’t include family background rated white children’s behavior more severe than black children’s, but when they did have background information black and white children were rated equally. When black teachers didn’t have family background information they rated black children’s behavior as more severe than white children’s behavior, but when black participants had family background information they rated white children’s behavior more severe.
Related: How to talk to black students about the Tulsa shooting
The researchers assert that the differing impacts of background knowledge show that our racial attitudes are absorbed differently according to race. Without family background information researchers theorize that white teachers “hold black preschoolers to a lower behavioral standard, whereas Black teachers hold these Black preschoolers to very high standards,” which explains the dispensing of longer disciplinary periods out of school. Consequently, black students are burdened by both low and high expectations.
The study has its own inherent biases. Participants were recruited from one large annual conference. Education conferences often mirror social arrangements, which may increase the likelihood of selection bias.
The demographics of the teachers selected were representational, but generalizing off of one conference on its face is asking for trouble. In addition, we know from recent killings of unarmed black men at the hands of police, video evidence are interpreted very differently.
Nonetheless, this study confirms what we see being played out in the life courses of black people like unarmed Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the cradle to the grave, black people aren’t given a fair chance at simply being human.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover. Please read our guidelines for more information. We will not consider letters that do not contain a full name and valid email address. You may submit news tips or ideas here without a full name, but not letters.
By submitting your name, you grant us permission to publish it with your letter. We will never publish your email address. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter.