With the concept of authoritarian schooling beginning to make its way into the education system, more and more schools have begun to adopt zero tolerance policies. The idea of zero tolerance discipline policies basically entails "increasingly harsh punishment, even for petty infractions such as school uniform violations, and subjective violations, including disrespect and insubordination" (Chappell). Although school officials implement such policies with the intention to prevent various forms of criminal activity on campus, they actually manage to encourage the stereotype that students of color should be feared (Giroux). According to various statistics provided by Kevin Chappell, the number of expulsions and suspensions of African American students across the country has increased while the same numbers have decreased for Caucasian students. Whether it is done consciously or unconsciously, schools that adopt zero tolerance discipline policies advertise to the public that racism is okay.
In his novel Little Brother, Corey Doctorow touches slightly upon the topic of racism when portraying the character of Jolu as a young Mexican male who undergoes the sting of racism every day. Doctorow uses Jolu as an example of the hardships that citizens of color face when stereotypical views are implied of them such as the idea that one needs to be more cautious about their valuables when seeing a person of color. However, Doctorow seems to have missed the mark with his attempt at drawing sympathy from his readers. It is true that citizens of color face stereotypes that wrongly personify them as "criminals"; however Doctorow chose to present this idea with a character who actually was a criminal. What about those minorities who are wrongly accused of "crimes" they haven't even committed? This hypertext will explore the wrongly accused as a result of harsh policies implemented in the school environment.
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