Velazquez 1

Arturo Velazquez
Huerta
ENGL 1T Puente
05 March 2015
The Outbreaks in Our Corrupt Education Setting
There is an issue that affects students of all ethnicities however it mainly affects
minorities in an educational setting, known as stereotype threat(Steele 2). Stereotype threat is
the fear of doing something that may cause one to fall under a negative stereotype. Stereotype
threat can cause a student to perform poorly than usual due the pressure of being seen in a
negative view causes a student to begin to doubt themselves in their education. In his essay
Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students by Claude M. Steele, American social
psychologist, experimented a test to show that African American students perform surprisingly
poorly on tests do to stereotype threat. The problem that stereotype threat cause in an educational
setting is a lack of trust with other races, race isolation, and fear of inferiority; however, the way
one can eliminate stereotype threat is by the impact of finding comfort through collaboration,
and by recognizing ones self worth.
The lack of trust with other races causes a student to begin to develop excuses of ones
failure knowing that the person who designed the test was another ethnicity than themselves. The
result is shocking in which the students perform poorly than usual compared to white students.
According to Claude M. Steele describes the process in how him and his colleagues produced an
experiment in where they examined blacks students reactions toward receiving their scores from
a test and possible reasons why they did so poorly. Steele states we tried to develop procedures
that would make our black participants see the test as race-fair. It wasnt easy. African

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Americans have endured so much bad press about test scores for so long that, in our experience,
they are instinctively wary about the tests fairness.(7). This idea demonstrates in how black
students make up reasons why they did so poorly by saying the test was out to get them or the
test is designed for black students to fail. The idea ties back to how stereotype causes a student of
color to perform poorly due to the lack of trust with opposite races. The idea of how difficult it
was for Steele and his colleagues to develop an exam in which black students will not feel
targeted because black students would begin to question any reasons that may cause them to
question whether the test was fair or not. This idea of lack of trust with opposite races causes a
student to isolate themselves from any other ethnicity than their own.
Race isolation causes a student to feel negative towards an opposite race than theirs due
to the fear of being stereotyped. The importance of discussing race isolation is that it may affect
a student to do well in the classroom. According to Ines Hernandez Avila, associate professor of
Native American studies at the University of California Davis, in Para Teresa illustrates an
event that occurred to her through her education. Avila conveys, I was to be like you/ I was to
play your game of deadly defiance/ arrogance, refusal to submit. The game in which the winner
takes nothing/ Asks for nothing/ Never lets his weakness show. (1). Avila demonstrates her own
perspective in how her classmate Teresa believes that she should be rebellious toward the
oppressor by being arrogance. The idea of this shows how stereotype threat causes a student to
isolate themselves from opposite races because the mentality of the students toward the
oppressor reminds a person how poorly their ancestors were treated in the past. The idea of how
stereotype threat can affect a students success in the classroom because one may begin to think
poorly about themselves in which they are not smart enough and also can put pressure on them.
The idea of race isolation and the lack of trust with opposite races are consequences of stereotype

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threat however it can be resolved through the impact of finding comfort through collective
collaboration.
The impact of finding comfort through collaboration can eliminate any racial concerns a
student might have of being categorized. This causes a student to feel at ease by conversing
about similar problems one may have in a class. According to Steele, he describes of a support
group known as Living and Learning in which it makes its students to sit down with another
student that is an opposite ethnicity than them to reflect their problems that both may encounter
during school. The program meets occasionally at the of end day in where the students reflect on
issues that they may have came across over pizza. Steele states, Perhaps when members of one
racial group hear members of another racial group express the same concerns they have,
concerns seem less racial.(9). Steele demonstrates the idea of simply discussing a similar
problem two opposite ethnicities students may have during a class can eliminate any concerns of
being stereotype threat. The idea of discussing a similar problem can cause the student of color to
be at ease in which they see themselves at the same level of the other student and eliminates any
possibilities of whether the test was fair. The idea of how the impact of finding comfort through
collaboration resolves the lack of trust with opposite races and race isolation is by simply
reflecting common issues students may have eliminates any concerns of being viewed in a
stereotype threat.
Fear of inferiority can cause a student to feel negative toward themselves in a way in
which one begins to question their intellectual ability. Steele experimented a test in where he
predicts the outcome of a students performance when one has been stereotype threat. Steele
illustrates an ideal situation Suppose we told white male students who were strong in math that
a difficult test they were about to take was one on which Asians generally did better than white

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whites. Yet this comment would put them under a form of stereotype threat: any altering on the
test could cause them to be seen negatively from the standpoint of the positive stereotype about
Asians and ability.(5). This idea demonstrates how by simply telling a student that another
student of a different race scored successively higher in a difficult test that one will be taking in a
couple of minutes can cause a student to do poorly because it causes one to question ones
intellectual ability. Steele demonstrates how stereotype threat can cause a student to perform
poorly in an exam by simply stating that an Asian student performed excellent in the rigorous test
can cause a student to feel stressed and in result can cause them to feel inferior to oneself. The
quote demonstrates on how the white student began to question their intellectual ability after
being stereotype threat ties into the idea of how self-inferiority is a result of stereotype threat.
However the way one can eliminate future fear of inferiority by recognizing ones self worth.
Recognizing one's self worth can cause a student to accept all stereotype threats irrelevant
towards oneself. According to Gloria Anzaldua, Chicana women activist, in How to Tame A
Wild Tongue describes a past event when she was seen in between her culture of not speaking
proper Spanish while also being look down upon in school because of not knowing how to
pronounce a proper word in English. Anzaldua ignored any negative comment and recognized
her own self worth in a way that she was aware of any criticism knowing it was irrelevant
towards her. Anzaldua conveys, If you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.
Ethnic identity to twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my
language, I cannot take pride in myself.(39). This idea demonstrates on how one should take
pride in themselves before questioning ones capabilities. The idea of accepting oneself causes
any future stereotypes to be irrelevant towards himself. Anzaldua demonstrates how one is
portrayed through ones educational identity in how being aware of ones self worth eliminates

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any negativity stereotype threats due to knowing that it is simply false accusations. This idea ties
back into how stereotype threat can cause a student to feel inferior by these negative comments
however the resolution to stereotype threat is by recognizing ones self worth. The idea of
recognizing ones self worth is by reflecting ones capabilities and ones faults prevent any fear
of inferiority.
The consequences of stereotype threat in an educational setting is a lack of trust with
opposite races, race isolation and fear of inferiority. However the resolution to these
consequences are comfort through collaboration and by recognizing ones self worth. By
bringing Stereotype threat to attention to our school system can have a huge impact on students
by eliminating any fear of inferior intellect and also can prevent students from performing poorly
in classes due to the fear of whether one falling into the stereotype threat. Also can prevent a
student from feeling that teachers are purposely putting them in a position to fail and also
causing them to question whether the test is fair or not.

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Work Cited
Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.
San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.
Hernandez-Avila, Inez. Para Teresa. In Beyond Heroes and Holidays: a Practical Guide to K
-12 Anti-racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development, by Enid Lee, Deborah
Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey, 224-25, Washington, D.C., MD: Network of
Educators on the Americas, 1998.
Steele, Claude M. "Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students." The Alantic. Com
(1999): 1-9. Web. Feb.-Mar. 2015.