Special Education & African American Males

Special Education & African American Males

 Special Education & African American Males

When writing The Mis-education of Black Youth in America, one element associated with the mis-education process that I found exceptionally nefarious and pernicious in its destructive intent, was the component that involved special education & African American males, with the aggregate mechanism being inextricably connected to the prescription of psychotropic drugs to young African American boys who were consistently misdiagnosed with learning and behavioral disabilities that doomed them to the separation, alienation and neglect.

When evaluating the malevolent intent of the public education system as a systematic weapon against African American students, one must have a lucid perspicacity of ideology on which the public education system was created. Public education was never intended to adequately compete as business owners and investors; the system was created to prepare the working class to be better prepared to be shaped, trained and groomed for different positions within the working class. In other words, the capitalist society in which we reside is a key component in the ability to build wealth. In fact, one of the most basic definitions of capitalism is the ownership or resources and tools, while leveraging the labor of others to enrich oneself.

In the late 1800s, corporations went to politicians and communicated the fact that there were not enough qualified workers with the literacy and skill sets to fill positions that were essential to the long-term success of the economy — and the public education system was born. The public education system has never presented curriculums that focused on ownership and investing in any of its base schools, because financial empowerment is not the primary agenda of the public school system. While capitalism offers the opportunity to gain wealth, that wealth is almost always built on the backs of the working class, which is often undercompensated.

 Special Education & African American Males

As we evolve as a nation, blacks are being replaced as the primary underclass in the work force; that role is now being allocated to the rapidly growing Hispanic community. As the need for blacks as cheap labor continues to decline, the powers that be continue to think of creative ways in which the black man can still be exploited. Where this is most evident is in the area of mass incarceration. The Private Prison Industrial Complex has proven to be a highly profitable industry that has refined its system of exploiting the less fortunate — with a profound emphasis placed on African American men.

Get your signed copy Dr. Wallace’s latest book, The Mis-education of Black Youth in America.

There is a wealth of empirical and pragmatic data that reveals the fact that African American students are disproportionately represented in special education programs. This should not come as a shock to any person who has even a limited perspicacity of the history of special education. Special education was the answer to integration laws that forced schools that were traditionally white in the South to integrate. While integration ensures that black students would be allowed in historically white schools, it could not ensure that these black students would be admitted to sit in the same classroom as the white students that attended these schools. The way that the powers that be accomplished this was through the creation of Special education programs that allow students to be diagnosed with any of a number of learning disabilities, and once they were diagnosed, they could be isolated from the rest of the students and placed in a room designated for special education students. Theoretically, the Individual with Disabilities Education Act was designed for the purpose of ensuring that students with certain disabilities a free, appropriate and effective education, despite any mental challenges that they may suffer with. The problem is that the system has been abused, and it has been used as a mechanism for discriminatory treatment as far as students of color are concerned, and this is especially true when it comes to African American males.

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One thing that stands out to me when I examined and anatomized this process is that teachers, with little to no psychology experience were pre-diagnosing young African American males with disorders, such as ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, mild mental retardation and more. The average teacher is not qualified to make these assessments, and while they are not making the final determination, they are the ones initiating the process, and when a substantial percentage of the parents in these cases are uninformed as to how the process works, or even what it means, it is likely that a substantial number of these parents will consent to their child being tested — believing that they are helping them. Some will even believe that they are required to allow their child to be tested.

While it may not be easy, any parent who is informed by the school that they want to have their child evaluated for possible learning disabilities, should have their child evaluated by a private school or child psychologist — someone that does not have a hat in the game. The psychologist that works for the school or the district is motivated to find the child to be, in some way, intellectually challenged. The school receives a minimum of double the normal funding for each special education student, so there is a certain amount of pressure to find certain students to fit the criteria for special education. Additionally, the diagnoses of these conditions are highly subjective, making misdiagnosis a far too common reality.

Why is the fact that African Americans are over represented in special education programs even matter? This overrepresentation is significant because of the fact that a child in special education is more likely to end up dropping out of school, and the statistics reveal that a student who drops out of high school increases their risk of being incarcerated substantially.

I am an advocate of African Americans homeschooling our children, but I am aware that this is not an option for every parent, and for those who simply cannot meet the challenge of homeschooling their children, they must remain aware of the components of mis-education, in order to protect their child from psychological and emotional injury. Protecting our students begins with being proactively involved in their schooling — visiting often and engaging the teachers and administrators at the school. Parents should also get together to form exploratory boards and advisory committees that allow them to remain intimately involved in the educational process.

Our children are our most valuable asset and we must do a better job of protecting them against the imminent dangers that await them in a system that is inherently hostile toward them. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

Dr. Wallace has invested more than 80,000 hours of research into understanding the scientific implications of white supremacy and how they have directly impacted African Americans in all nine areas of human activity, which include economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. He has spent a substantial amount of time attempting to answer the question of why blacks seem incapable of overcoming the barrier of racism despite the fact that the solution has been placed before them.

The preponderance of the evidence that Dr. Wallace has examined has provided him with a lucid perspicacity of the complex dynamic at play — a dynamic that includes psychological, sociological, economic and political oppression that is executed through multitudinous pernicious machinations. He has used this information to develop what he calls The Black Community Empowerment Blueprint 1.0. This blueprint is a comprehensive strategy that addresses every area of concern for the black collective in great detail. Dr. Wallace has also disseminated his findings in a number of literary works, including his latest book, The Mis-education of Black Youth in America.

Currently, Dr. Wallace is moving into the second phase of his research, transitioning from inductive research to deductive research for the purpose of advancing and introducing certain scientific theories associated with the African American experience. To this date, Dr. Wallace’s research has proven to be immensely valuable, as he develops social programs to counter external influences, lectures to African Americans across the nation and develops a comprehensive blueprint capable of facilitating the complete elevation and empowerment of African Americans, as well as the complete diaspora in time, but the cost of research can be quite exorbitant, especially when he is investing between 55-85 hours per week.

To this point, all funding has been covered by Dr. Wallace himself. He is currently seeking research funding, but due to the specific focus of his research, traditional channels, such as government, academic and private grants are not an option. While he currently has a couple interested sponsors, both of them are non-blacks, which speaks volumes. While Dr. Wallace has committed to proceeding at all cost, the support of the community and people he is fighting for will prove highly beneficial in multitudinous ways.