Recently, there has been several alarming reports about the school-to-prison pipeline that is decimating the Black community, wrecking havoc on government budgets, and enriching the pockets of private prison stock holders. Experts point to the fact that any child in a school environment and culture that relies on one size fits all strict “zero tolerance policies” has a much higher probability of being suspended or worse expelled from school. So, when you couple this reality with the continued legacy of racism and bias that still dominates our society even during this so-called “post racial” era. It is no wonder that only about 50% of Black males are graduating from high school.
Worse, as U.S. Secretary Arnie Duncan notes “we know there is a correlation between doing out of school suspensions or expulsions and eventually being locked-up.” This toxic combination feeds an ever growing Prison Industrial Complex that currently has almost 1 million Black men incarcerated. In this brief video, CNN highlights the plight of a young family whose active, but normal 3 year-old “JJ” has been suspended from pre-school a whooping 5 times, and how young JJ’s experience is all to common when it comes to young Black males!
