By: Alyssa Wilson

School districts across the country are returning to the classroom after the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close and resume remotely. 

According to the Associated Press, Black students have been less likely than white students to enroll in in-person learning. This trend is attributed to factors including the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Black and Brown communities, lack of trust that schools can keep children safe, and the number of students of color in urban districts that were slower to reopen. 

Black parents are saying they can better shield their children from racism in the classroom with remote learning. 

The concerns of racial hostility and tension existed in classrooms before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Khadijah Ali-Coleman, the co-director of Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, said a large number of Black families are turning to homeschool. 

“Racism in schools plays a huge, huge role in a family’s choice to do homeschooling. That racism can manifest in a lot of different ways, from a teacher who criminalizes every behavior to not recognizing how curriculums exclude the experiences of Black people to not presenting Black children with the same opportunities such as accelerated classes as white children,” Ali-Coleman said. 

Starting in 2020, Black students at predominantly white schools and colleges began publicly speaking out about the racism they experienced using Instagram accounts titled “BlackAt.” 

 

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Although Black parents feel they can better shield their children from these incidents during remote learning, racism still occurs. 

In Oregon, a racial slur was posted under a student’s name in a virtual classroom chat window. At a school in North Texas, white students used social media to hold a mock slave auction where they pretended to sell their Black classmates. 

RELATED: Texas students in trouble after holding ‘slave auction’ on social media