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American Schools Don’t Serve Kids of Color, Especially Not When They Have ADHD.
This article is improved and expanded from an episode of the Neurodiverging podcast. If you’d prefer to listen instead of read, you can find it here.
When you think of a child with ADHD, and you’re a white person like me, what might pop into your head is the stereotype of the hyperactive, rambunctious little white boy who can’t stop talking. But, the truth is that people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and races have ADHD at about the same rates.
About 5–10% of everybody on this planet has ADHD. And those rates don’t differ between white, Black, or Latine populations.
However, we know that ADHD is underdiagnosed and undertreated in kids of color attending American schools. Some of that is caused by racist bias from teachers. Some of it is anti-ADHD bias or lack of education about ADHD from parents.
But I would argue that the majority of the reasons ADHD students of color don’t get the support they need it structural. Let’s talk more about that.
Most White Teachers Are Racist, Because Most White People Are Racist
Let me just start with one factoid for you. Only 18% of teachers in the United States are people of color. That means…
