Over the past several years, increasing militarization and policing on school campuses have made African American, Latino and Native American students even more vulnerable to harsh discipline, criminalization and pushout than ever before. When youth of color come onto high school campuses they often see scenes like this:
For African American students criminalization begins as early as preschool, with black students accounting for 48% of school suspensions despite comprising only 18% of the preschool population. By contrast, white students comprise 43% of all preschoolers and 26% of those suspended. Nationwide, LGBTQ and disabled students of color have some of the highest pushout rates among all student groups. Last year Black Skeptics Los Angeles became part of the Dignity in Schools campaign, a nationwide coalition of organizations working to end school pushout and redress the institutional conditions that contribute to it. As a result of these deepening trends, our First in the Family Humanist scholarship focus has expanded to include youth who are or have been system-involved.
For the third year of Black Skeptics Los Angeles’ First in the Family Humanist scholarship fund the secular community stepped up and helped us exceed our fundraising goal for 2015. We’d like to thank the following donors for their advocacy and generosity:
Bridgette Crutchfield and Minority Atheists of Michigan
Zach Moore
August Brunsman IV
Mai Dao
Mandisa Thomas and Black Non-Believers
Roy Speckhardt and the American Humanist Association
Darlene Pineda
Kirreck Williams
Daron Scott
David Duncan
Susan Walsh
Greg Epstein
Steve Schlosnagle
Catherine Crompton
Donald Wright
Greta Christina
James Underdown
DeAngela Morant
Jennifer Taylor
Michael Lightsmith
Black Beyond Belief
Andrew Tripp
AJ Johnson
Debbie Goddard
Amelia Pergl
Ruth Seid
Chris Stedman
Bri Van Til
Stef McGraw
Sincere Kirabo
Perde Williams Jr.
Thank you especially for that, and your donors.