Is Integration a Dream Deferred? Students of Color in Majority White Suburban Schools

Abstract

Since the Brown v. Board of Education Topeka Kansas I and II rulings (Brown, 1954, 1955) proponents of racial justice have pushed for racially integrated schools to improve the quality of education for students of color (Bell, 1975, 2005; Delgado & Stefancic, 1995). Initial support for integrated schools, where formal and informal learning and activities occur in racially mixed settings, was based on the argument, or as Derrick Bell named it, the siren song (2005), that only when students of color inhabit the same educational spaces as White students would they be able to reap the benefits of resource-rich White educational spaces. As time progresses and researchers study the outcomes of integrated spaces, a more complex, but no less problematic, view of students of color evolves. The discourse of integrated schools has morphed into conversations about the types of social and cultural capital held by White middle class students, and not held by students of color. Deficit discourses of communities of color have become further instantiated because students of color are seen as reliant upon White students to access both rigorous academic curricula and the hidden curricula of college readiness (Delgado & Stefancic, 1995).The ideological illusion (Lawrence, 1983), that integrated spaces are race neutral, prompts researchers to blame communities of color for cultivating less-academically oriented students, rather than to design research studies that explore institutional accountability for students' academic success (Diamond, 2006). Therefore, If Blacks fail under similar treatment, it must be because they are somehow inferior (Lawrence, 1983, p. 850). Yosso (2002) linked the colorblind contexts of racism and inequality in education and discourses to student achievement when she stated,It is important to address the inequality embedded in school curriculum before addressing unequal educational outcomes. Indeed, one of the first mistakes most often made by many educators and policy makers is to look at the inequalities of student outcomes and blame students without looking at the conditions, such as the curricular structures, processes and discourses that create unequal outcomes, (p. 94)Because of the prevailing discourse of racially integrated schools as a primary course of action to create equitable schooling environments for students of color, the uneven outcomes of integrated schools, as derivatives of institutional policies and adult practices, have not been fully explored. To further conversations about the merits and detractors of integration, and to call for a re- assessment of integration as a definitive solution for producing equitable education, the author analyzes the uneven adult-student relationships between teachers, counselors, and students of color in a study of majority White suburban schools.Changing Landscape of Suburban SchoolsThe racial landscape of suburban schools has drastically changed in the past decade. Suburbs are defined as districts outside the city center with a substantial population of residents commuting to the metropolitan center for employment. Suburbs most often have school districts that are independent of the larger metropolitan district. Unlike earlier decades, today's suburban schools are no longer always located in racially homogenous, high-income communities. Instead, the suburbs of the 21st Century often represent the frontier of racial change in America (Tefera, Frankenberg, Hawley, & Chirichigno, 2011, p. 1). In the past 20 years, the suburban population has grown by 20 million new residents, many of whom are families of color (Orfield & Luce, 2012). Changes in suburban racial demographic patterns vary due to neighborhood tax bases, proximity to the metropolitan area, history of racial stability, and economic and political capital (Orfield, 2002; Orfield & Luce, 2012). Across all suburbs, the changes in racial composition were most dynamic regarding the growth of Latino families. …