Racism in institutions affects not only adults but children as well. Research studies, anecdotes from families, discrimination lawsuits, and many more aspects have all revealed that children of color face immense bias in schools.

They are less likely to be identified as gifted, are disciplined more harshly, do not have quality teachers at hand, etc. to name a few things that many young children of color have to deal with on a daily basis. In fact, educational institutes can serve as one of the many places that cause serious consequences for young people of color by fueling the whole school to prison pipeline and giving them immense trauma that remains continuous over the years.

According to the United States Department of Education, Black students are around three times more likely to get expelled or suspended than their white peers. And what’s worse is that in the American South, the racial disparities in a punitive discipline are much greater. In another report by the University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education in 2015 had found that about 13 Southern states – a few examples being Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina, Texas – have been responsible for 55% of more than one million suspensions involving black students from across the nation.

Moreover, even black preschool students are more likely to get suspended than the students of other races. The same report stated that while Black students make up around 18% of children within a preschool, they represent almost half of suspended preschool children.

Consequently these negative biases lead Black children to face high suspension rates that cause increased absences, plus the prevention of not have Black students from having the same quality education as their white peers – thus producing an achievement gap between the two. When Black students fall behind academically, they end up dropping out as they are deprived of all choices to continue their education. In fact, in a 2016 study that was published on children and suicide had suggested that punititve discipline can be one of the main reasons why suiide rayes among the Black boys have gradially rised over the last couple of year.

Then we also have the issue with children of color not being identified as talented and gifted by their teacher – in fact, they are more likely to be identified as children who need special education services.

There are a number of considerations that teachers need to assess to find talented or gifted students through a proper screening criteria that will allow them to be fairly evaluated and chosen for what they are best at and to get them the quality education they deserve.

Fortunately, there are a few organizations that are working to improve the situation. Consider Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy which serves as an objective to help young men of color obtain the proper tool and guidance to succeed on and off the baseball field.

The academy was established in 2004 and since then has successfully grown quite rapidly. In just a couple of years, 25 of its graduates had been drafted by major league baseball teams and one of their players even became a World Series Champion.

Naturally this led the Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy players to garner more than $14,000,000 in Baseball and Educational Scholarships – thus bringing about an opportunity for more Black people to join them for an improved nurturing lifestyle.