Literature Review:
Many researchers have looked at the effects of race on our education system in addition there are researchers that have looked at the way that race has impacted the content placed in United States history textbooks. Each researcher offered a new perspective and tapped into different racial identities. They explained at length how these racial minorities have been misrepresented throughout history. The researchers’ work that I analyzed will be able to support my findings from my research question in a multitude of ways.
Racial Identity in Education
The idea of race in relation to education helps to create background information for my topic. In the education system race isn’t something that is always openly spoken about. Although there are many different race stereotypes that students and teachers alike unconsciously embed into the curriculum. Many scholars look at how students come into the school system with stereotypes and misconceptions of
African American Identity in History Textbooks
The Civil Rights Movement played a huge role in the history of the United States. The leader Martin Luther King Jr. helped to secure equal freedoms and rights for African Americans after years of slavery. Derrick P. Alridge (2006) mentions that when spoken about, MLK Jr. was depicted as a very one-dimensional character which doesn’t give students a full understanding of how impactful he really was. Between the years 1990 and 1992 slavery was seen as a way to boost markets (Wasburn 1997). In a way, people looked at it as a commodity that can be sold and bought, which would help the financial economy. Multiple other scholars speak about African Americans’ identity and how it is spoken about across higher education, specifically in high schools and colleges across northern America. The events that African Americans went through can be mentioned in one reading which can make people think that these are isolated incidents, but they aren’t and there need to be more readings that show that (Brown and Brown 2010). There are so many events that deal with African Americans that are omitted altogether. Similarly, through content analysis, other authors found that black women in history textbooks were marginalized (Woyshner and Schocker 2015). These are women that helped change the course of history and they are rarely spoken about. The African American identity plays a large role in United States history and needs to be spoken about more in the future.
Ethnic Minority Portrayals in History Textbooks
When speaking about race, many people jump right to African Americans. Although, there are so many other races that have also played a prominent role in the United States history and need to be spoken about more. Many textbooks are embedded with Protestant beliefs which shape how ethnicities are portrayed (Foster 1999). It is important that all racial groups are accounted for within textbooks. Scholars state that “the scientific argument on ‘the myth of race’ from the 1940s and 1950s to the human genome project of the 1990s, demonstrates that the consensus within the scientific community is that ‘race’, like the concept of ghosts, is an empty concept” (Fuchs and Boch 2018: 227). Due to the Civil Rights Movement, minorities’ portrayals in textbooks rose and were seen to be more implemented into the curriculum being taught (Garcia 1993). Which emphasizes the fact that when Americans think about race they think about African Americans as an isolated minority. Other scholars say that “Black people are discussed using terms with lower levels of agency and power than other groups” (Lucy et al 2020). In addition, the authors noticed that Latinx people were rarely spoken about in the contents of the textbooks (Lucy et al. 2020). Masato Ogawa (2004), Yonghee Suh, Sohyun An, and Danielle Forest (2015), and Okiyoshi Takeda (2015) each look at the way that Asian-Americans are spoken about in history textbooks. Ogawa (2004) mentions how Japanese Internment camps are never really spoken about in American society because not many Americans believe that our society would do something like that. Likewise, Lawrence D. Reddick (1934) uses the example of World War II and how it is omitted that Japanese-Americans faced the idea of internment camps. Also, Native Americans and their racial identity in American society and the idea of tribal critical race theory (Padgett 2018). Minority groups are rarely represented in textbooks and how they are made to seem worthless and almost invisible (Wolf 1992). All in all, minority groups are crucial to the history of the United States and aren’t presented in school curricula or textbooks nearly enough.
Each of the researchers’ work analyzed brought a new perspective to a topic that is rarely spoken about in today’s society. Race and the United States education system have evolved and changed throughout the years and will continue to in the future. United States history textbooks help to lay the groundwork for that change. When students do not learn about race and everything that has happened they do not have the information that would aid them in stopping it from happening again. Although when racial minorities are spoken about in textbooks students are provided with racial stereotypes which are not true. The way that minority racial identities are spoken about and presented throughout my research will help to support the finding of my study.
Theory:
The New Jim Crow has become a widely known thesis across the country. Michelle Alexander (2010) looks at the way in which African Americans are placed in the prison system and continue to be discriminated against within the United States. She describes mass incarceration as, “a set of structural arrangements that
Omi and Winant (2015) also present a theory that is extremely important to race and how it has worked to shape a number of factors within the United States. Specifically how race is spoken about and viewed around the world. The authors mention that within society, “Groups continually contest the existing system of race classification” (Omi and Winant 2015:123). Although no one can define what an American looks like, somehow society still does. So in essence no one can define how others view themselves. What is taught through the contents of history textbooks is carried throughout a student’s