Black kids more likely to be suspended than white kids. And black kids with disabilities more likely to be suspended than white kids with disabilities.

When the Kid was still in public middle school, the administration was falling over themselves apologizing because they didn’t have a special study skills class for the AP (advanced placement) kids and Kid had to be put in a study kills (i/e special ed) class with the other kids. The black and brown neighborhood kids. I didn’t give a flying fuck what color the kids in his class were. I cared that none of them, Kid included, were actually getting help with study skills. They were warehoused and ignored. Kid, at the tender age of 12, could see the shittiness of the whole setup. He got that when he went to math or science or English (his AP classes) all the kids were white or Asian. But when he went to study skills, he was the only white kid in the bunch.

I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, that when you have an educational system that sets black and brown kids up to fail, that punishes them more harshly for the same infractions committed by white kids, and that gives them less of an education, then of course education is going to be seen as less valuable to those communities. Why would you torture a kid by pushing for success in a system that is programed to fail them, to harm them? No responsible parent would do that.

They call the high school that Kid was supposed to attend “The Slave Ship”, white kids in AP classes on top, brown kids in regular classes on bottom. I couldn’t subject the kid to that shit. And Kid is white but poor. How much worse would it be for him if he was black and poor?