> If they were not selected because they didn't meet the qualifications, well, that isn't the fault of the gifted program.

But it could be the fault of the government, the school administration, and an entire culture of systemic racism.

And so there could be several problems to address.

Does removing the gifted program solve any of the problems? No. Does it make some people feel as though they're doing good by equalizing everything? Yes.

> Black students are 66% less likely to be identified as gifted compared to white students _with similar test scores_. Black, Latinx, and Native American students are far less likely to attend a school that even offers a gifted program.

Emphasis mine. The likely thing going on is something subconscious or unintentionally discriminatory, or somehow related to the home family life.

Ironically, this shows that we should be focusing more on test results and less on other factors, which is the opposite of the current movement.

It took me two years to verify that I was gifted enough for the gifted program in middle school. In fact, they did so incredibly reluctantly because I achieved the highest math scores in my middle school on the state exams (two years in a row). It takes a lot of effort to be recognized as an afro-latino person that can be gifted even with higher scores.

They also only placed me in the math/science gifted sections and would only be placed in the english/social studies gifted sections after much arguing as well.

Guess what? I excelled there too. Now to get away from anecdotes:

> If they were deliberately not selected because of their race, that's wrong and should be fixed pronto. And what are the odds of that?

between 50 to 70% on an individual basis if some studies are to be believed.