Historic Racial Oppression and Corporal Punishment in Mississippi Schools

• In Event: Structural Racism and School Discipline: Replicating the Racialized Hierarchy Through Coercion and Control

Abstract

Recent scholarship demonstrates clear links between historic racial oppression and contemporary racial inequities in educational outcomes. In particular, recent work by Geoff Ward and co-authors finds that schools in counties with greater numbers of lynchings use corporal punishment more than others, particularly corporal punishment of Black students. In the current paper we extend this work by focusing our analysis on Mississippi, the state with the highest rate of corporal punishment use. Focusing in this way allows us to explore how the social and political context of the state relates to corporal punishment in both direct and indirect ways. Our analyses provide an important commentary on how the legacy of racial violence, embedded within current and historic contexts, impacts contemporary school outcomes.

Explicit links to the general focus of the session and 2023 theme: Consistent with the 2023 conference theme and session focus, our paper uses empirical analyses to illuminate racial inequity in educational outcomes. Our work helps provide researchers, educators, and advocates with a clearer understanding of the causes of racial inequities, which in turn promises to help address racial gaps in educational outcomes.

Authors

• Aaron Kupchik, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Cresean Hughes, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• James Bernard Pratt, Fisk University
  Presenting Author

• Geoff Ward, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author