Fifteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This study provides a deep dive into educational disparities experienced by students of color in the United States. This study examined students enrolled in two of the largest public education systems in the South: Atlanta and Miami. With a history of racism and classism, public education has largely neglected students of color. Students of color report experiencing discrimination by peers and adults in public schools, and the commodification of education has transformed the landscape of public schools and classrooms into an assembly line practice where elements of the educational sphere are mass produced and funneled through the system, with hopes to maximize profits. Race, as a construct used to facilitate capitalism, shares a great deal with class, so that the effects of race and class are closely associated. This reality means that students of color, especially poor students of color, attend schools with noticeably lower resources and opportunities. Public education in this regard has served to maintain a docile and obedient class of workers. This study examines the experiences and narratives of forty students in public school through a phenomenological and Critical Race Theory approach to ask: What do students of color experience in public school education? To what extent do students of color feel commodified in public schools? Through forty in-depth interviews and participant observations, this study draws from themes of race, history, class, and capitalism to unravel what education looks like to students of color in the twenty first century.