ABSTRACT
Black and Latino students, who constitute the majority of students in virtually every urban school system, are disproportionately expelled, suspended, adjudicated as criminals in zero-tolerance expulsions, and relegated to special education programs. Even though much educational research has examined race in relation to the achievement gap, differences in discipline patterns, and disparities in achievement outcomes, this work does not begin to capture the reality of race as both a product and process of schooling practices. Contrary to popular belief, there is an increasing, not a decreasing, impact of race in school practices and policy. The crisis in urban education, especially the continuing significance of race and racism in these subtle forms, is a crisis of meaning requiring a deeper interrogation of the meaning systems by which schooling is organized. The point is that there is a cultural integrity that is currently missing in the educational experience of many African Americans and other children of color in our schools.
