Academic Apartheid: Race and the Criminalization of Failure in an American Suburb

In Academic Apartheid, sociologist Sean J. Drake addresses long-standing problems of educational inequality from a nuanced perspective, looking at how race and class intersect to affect modern school segregation. Drawing on more than two years of ethnographic observation and dozens of interviews at two distinct high schools in a racially diverse Southern California suburb, Drake unveils hidden institutional mechanisms that lead to the overt segregation and symbolic criminalization of Black, Latinx, and lower-income students who struggle academically. His work illuminates how institutional definitions of success contribute to school segregation, how institutional actors leverage those definitions to justify inequality, and the ways in which local immigrant groups use their ethnic resources to succeed. Academic Apartheid represents a new way forward for scholars whose work sits at the intersection of education, race and ethnicity, class, and immigration.

Author: Sean J. Drake
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 03/22/2022
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780520381377
ISBN10: 0520381378
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Sociology | General
- Social Science | Race & Ethnic Relations
- Social Science | Social Classes & Economic Disparity

About the Author
Sean J. Drake is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and Senior Research Associate at the Maxwell Center for Policy Research.