48 pages • 1 hour read
Jonathan KozolSavage Inequalities
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: "The Equality of Innocence: Washington, D.C."
Chapter 5 of Savage Inequalities continues the investigation into what stops equity in public education, looking at how definitions of "equity" and "excellence" excuse inequality and permit segregation. Kozol's attention is in Maryland, beginning with a 1978 legal case on the question of equity in its schools. Kozol attests that the failure of this lawsuit speaks to a fundamental divide in how Americans think about schooling—that is, a dichotomy that separates one group into the country's "governors" and the others into the "governed." Kozol argues that race is the primary determinant in how this division is created and sustained. "Coded" racial bias, he argues, allows Americans to tolerate this injustice.
Kozol discusses how the "winners" and "losers" from this unfair competition see themselves; this reflection is heavily influenced by how individuals regard discrimination—whether they see it as part of the past, or part of the present. Separated from the dire circumstances of poverty, the "winners" see themselves as such—they have mastered their circumstances. Moreover, Kozol writes, they regard discrimination and injustice as part of the past. For the children of the "losers," this injustice is a present reality, one that they internalize to understand they are worth less than other children. The effect of this internalization, Kozol writes, is a culture that imprints these children with the idea they are "losers," and that their fortunes are irreversible. Drugs and crime shift from being a symptom to a stigma; this stigma reinforces more affluent communities’ collective desire to separate themselves, citing "values" and "culture."By this line of thought, demands to correct the inequity in schools would amount to taking away from functioning school districts, to help those that are "beyond help."
Finally, Kozol describes the chaotic patterns of administration that characterize poorer schools. Kozol argues these patterns, like the indictments of "values," justify suburban detachment and indifference toward failing school systems. Kozol's argument is that instead of pursuing policies of desegregation and redistribution of school resources, government cynically pins its hopes on a few—typically Black—administrators, who are tasked with correcting problems beyond their reach. Citing massive teacher layoffs and reshuffling in places such as Massachusetts and Michigan, Kozol highlights how this basic dysfunction in school systems is treated as less important than intangible issues of culture and values—issues, Kozol argues, stem from inequality, instead of the other way around. The conclusion of the chapter argues that this emphasis on culture obfuscates the enduring legacy of discrimination by ignoring how choices and actions taken in the past by governments and communities continue to intensify and accelerate the crisis of education today. Like the rhetoric of "competition," the rhetoric of "values" and "culture" is code for beliefs that permit and sustain racial segregation.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Chapter 5 begins with two hypothetical questions. The first asks, "How can we achieve more equity in education in America?" and the second asks, "How can we achieve both equity and excellence in education?" Kozol's argument throughout the fifth chapter of Savage Inequalities tracks the movement of the first question into the second. Of principal importance to Kozol, in this evolution, is the implication that "equity" and "excellence" are mutually exclusive, or at least antagonistic to one another. Specifically, Kozol wants to highlight how the conversation surrounding equity in education is tainted, and produces outcomes that deprive poorer, minority children from the opportunities secured by their more-affluent counterparts.
Continuing from the arguments of the previous chapters, we are led, in Chapter 5, to understand that the "system" that produces inequality in education is not merely a function of the allocation of funds, or the administration of schools, or even the underlying socioeconomic trends of communities, but also a supposed system of values. This idea of values, for Kozol, is a loaded term: in discussing the repudiation of attempts to bring more equity to school systems through more aggressive redistribution of funds, or forced desegregation, Kozol finds that defenders of the status quo use "values" as a way to distinguish their concerns from that of poorer, typically Black communities. These communities suffer and erode, the proponents of the status quo argue, because of their toxic "values." For Kozol, this is a highly peculiar and ironic take. It is peculiar insofar as it is a viewpoint informed almost entirely by purposeful ignorance, maintained through the deliberate separation of these communities and their stigmatization in popular media. Furthermore, Kozol argues it is ironic, insofar as the insistence on blocking measures to provide children with the basic means to secure opportunities is itself indicative of an equally toxic value system. However, as Kozol remarks several times throughout this chapter, these arguments only surface on occasion; the prevailing mood is one of indifference and unconcern, as wealthier suburbs and communities have found ways to insulate themselves from the negative effects of these discriminatory and isolating practices. That these prejudiced viewpoints fail, when challenged, is not the issue; instead, the ideology that supports this prejudice is typically and purposefully non-reflective. This is the privilege of distance.
However, when these issues become brought to the forefront, usually in class-action lawsuits and the like, the rhetoric intensifies, but in an indirect way. Kozol argues that measures to provide "better administration" or tougher discipline are by themselves ineffective without some kind of material investment into these schools and communities. Such material investment, however, is typically blocked, owing to fears of worsening the "excellence" of education. Implicit (and at times explicit) to this argument, Kozol writes, is the belief that the mere presence of underserved children in these facilities is detrimental to education. This belief, Kozol wishes the reader to understand, can only be contextualized among those who tacitly approve of racial segregation, for whom the crowding of Black and Hispanic Americans into ghettos may not be a pleasant solution, but nonetheless a tolerable one. Kozol believes this capacity to tolerate injustice from which we are insulated represents the biggest obstacle to equity in America's schools.
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