Sociology

I consider myself fortunate to have received high school education at an integrated school, a part of the Miami-Dade Public School system.  The school system has its own Diversity, Equity, and Excellence Advisory Committee, responsible for reviewing issues connected with the maintenance of a multicultural school system.  This Advisory Committee oversees the issue of recruitment of personnel and students from diverse backgrounds (Mendez-Cartaya, 2009).  Sixty percent of the students that graduate from the Miami-Dade Public School system are Hispanic by origin, twenty-eight percent are blacks, and only ten percent are white by origin (Loflin, 2002).
   
Although the Brown v. Board of Education decision was announced in the year 1954, the Miami-Dade Public School system received its school desegregation order years later in 1971, seeing that the Brown v. Board of Education decision did not require all school systems across America to follow the order on an immediate basis (Cozzens, 1995 Innovations in Education Creating Strong District School Choice Programs).  According to a report on the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit, The laws and policies struck down by this court decision were products of the human tendencies to prejudge, discriminate against, and stereotype other people by their ethnic, religious, physical, or cultural characteristics (Brown v. Board of Education About the Case, 2004).  But, the decision to desegregate schools did not put an end to all forms of racist behaviors across the Miami-Dade Public School system.  As an example, during the school year 2004-2005, most of the students that were suspended from schools of the Miami-Dade Public School system were blacks (Miami-Dade County Public Schools).
   
Since multiple suspensions translate into denial of an education, this is a problem that the Diversity, Equity, and Excellence Advisory Committee should confront (Miami-Dade County Public Schools).  During the 1950s, African Americans did not find it easy to struggle against various forms of racism.  Today it is quite easy to sue a school or an entire school district for discriminatory practices, thanks in part to the spirit of the law mandated by the Brown v. Board of Education decision.