The Impact of Racial Poverty on African American Students

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Unpacking the Intersection of Race and Immigration in Urban Schools

Abstract

Poverty is intense in Baltimore where the majority of African Americans reside. The legacies of racial residential segregation and political exploitation have shaped unequal spaces. This paper examines how these legacies impact children, their educational attainment and experiences, and their everyday livelihoods. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we employ the concept of racial poverty, to interrogate how blackness is devalued in Baltimore and how children are forced to wrestle with and navigate parts of the city were black spaces and poverty are jointly hyper-concentrated. Further, we discuss how collaborations with researchers, stakeholders, and educators should include initiatives that address the consequences of how the racial politics of exclusion have left Black children betrayed by the very institutions charged with their care.

Authors

• Richard Lofton, Johns Hopkins University

• Gwendolyn Purifoye, North Park University