'Hip-hop' students in US unfairly targeted: Study

Washington: Black and Latino "hip-hop" students in the US are disproportionately punished in urban schools, a two-year study has claimed.

Muhammad Khalifa, a Michigan State University assistant professor of education, found that students who identified with hip-hop culture were often removed from school because of their cultural behaviours and dress.

"School culture is very hostile towards hip-hop student identities," said Khalifa, a former Detroit school teacher who identified with hip-hop culture as a young man.

"Teachers possess an impulse to suspend or expel nontraditional students," said Khalifa.

On January 8, the Obama administration issued federal guidelines urging schools to abandon zero tolerance policies that critics have long said discriminate against minority students, researchers said.

"In our investigations, we have found cases where African-American students were disciplined more harshly and more frequently because of their race than similarly situated white students," the US Justice and Education departments were quoted by researchers as saying in a letter to school districts.

"In short, racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem," the department was quoted as saying.

While the study illustrated discrimination among minority hip-hop students, it also found a bright spot.

One urban school principal allowed hip-hop students to exhibit their identities, while at the same modifying what he viewed as negative behaviours.

Ultimately, the low-performing students improved their academic performance, researchers found.

"We now know that it is possible for students to achieve great success, academic or otherwise, all the while keeping their hip-hop identities intact," Khalifa said.

The study was published in the journal Multicultural Learning and Teaching.