Analyzing Discrimination in Education

Jamilah Evelyn’s essay, The Miseducation of Hip Hop- Discrimination in Education, shows comparison between a student’s views of hip hop, style and stereotyping, verses some professors’ views on the matter. The student Jason Hinman, a Black college student who was quoted in the test, stated that he disliked being stereotyped as a hoodlum by his professors, who were dominantly White, based on his appearance. Does he have the right to feel this way? Yes. Hinman has the right to dress how he wants.  How inappropriate would it be for a college professor to downsize a student or give them less attention because they have subconsciously put them in the file folder as a student that will not graduate with a degree, not capable of being a “good” student? Professors assume all of this from how a person looks? Just because it is more common for a student who is considered to be a hoodlum, to fail a class or drop out of school, does not mean that every student with this look will fail as well. What these teachers are doing is wrong. Every student, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, physical limitations, or any other possible discriminating factor, should be treated equally. If a teacher really cannot refrain from stereotyping a student, and decides that he or she wants to enforce a more professional dress for class then they have that right as well. But who’s to say that the boy walking down the hall, listening to the latest Lil Wayne album, “sagging” his pants, is not an intelligent man?