The 21st Century Color Line: Assessing the Economic and Social Impact of Urbanization and School Discipline

Abstract

In 1903, sociologist and researcher W.E.B. DuBois noted the “color line†to be the foremost problem of the 20^th century. The term color line describes the conditions of racial segregation during post-emancipation (DuBois, 1903). During the 20^th century, racial disparities – which were based on skin color – plagued the American landscape and limited social opportunities for various racial groups, especially African Americans. The color line also stratified educational opportunities, and influenced social advancement (DuBois, 1903). As a result, the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision attempted to equalize educational opportunities through school desegregation efforts. However, sixty years after the landmark Brown v. Board case, today’s urban landscape reveals many of the same problems of 1954. Today’s high stakes testing environments, zero tolerance discipline policies, and neoliberal economic policies each negatively impact African American student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Kim, Losen, & Hewitt, 2010; Spring, 2005). Using national and state secondary data, this paper examines the social and economic evidences of the color line in the 21^st century. In addition, this paper discusses the impact of school urbanization and school discipline through the lens of culturally “mismatched†schools, specifically in North Carolina. Culturally “mismatched†schools denote incongruent relationships between teacher and student cultures. The pervasiveness of school discipline in culturally mismatched schools has cyclical economic and social consequences.