The Poor Black Kid Summary
“If I Was a Poor Black Kid,” By Gene Marks (published in Forbes magazine December 12, 2011) presents the argument that “…the opportunity is still there in this country for those who are smart enough to go for it.” (Marks) Mr. Marks makes this argument about education based on a speech given by President Obama. The President spoke about our economy and how the middle class is working to be able to afford families, homes, and a retirement. “The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder.”
Bettina Love supports her thesis that the education system is broken and unsupportive of dark children through history. The reason we learn history is to learn from the mistakes and successes of others; Dr. Love points out that the negative aspects of American history are still prevalent today. After the Civil War, former slaves worked as sharecroppers for plantation owners in hopes of repaying debt. The debt was impossible to pay, and the plantation owners continued to put the former slaves to work without fair pay. Love analogizes the situation to the broken education system, saying that, “black students are sharecroppers, never able to make up the cost or close the gap because they are learning in a state of perpetual debt with no relief in sight” ((Love, 2019, p. 92).
Obama continues her historical account as she describes the travail and bravery that a few people possessed that led them to afford educational opportunities for black people even when “Teachers received death threats.” (289). She evokes these historical events, not only to show the stark difference between the past and present with regards to educational opportunities for African Americans, but also demonstrate how the people who fought tirelessly so that they could gain an education did so because of they were aware of the value of education as it brings freedom and opportunity to those who have it. To bolster this assertion, Obama quotes Fredrick Douglas, “Freedom is Emancipation” (289) Obama details even further as she
As a piece of the unequal education area this is a perfect representation of blacks channeled thought the pipeline and not being able to gain their freedom and liberty from their wrongdoings. People send their children to school to learn and to improve themselves and also their communities. However, the desks that these students sit in are now counted by the state prison to determine what percentage will make up their inmates. There are various factories centriole to inequities in the black education field, for instance unequal punishment, more stagnation with the juvenile justice system, and other circumstances create the ideal circumstance that leaves blacks without the same educational opportunities as whites. In the US News
Our America started when a radio station (NPR) wanted people from the ghetto to go around and record their daily life, this was known as Ghetto Life 101. The radio station had choose two boy (LeAlan and LLoyd) to take on the job. They lived in Chicago, one in the Ida B. Wells and the other in a house just a block away. Life was tough for these two young men. Lloyd (lived in the Ida B. Wells) was raised by his sister because his mother passed away and his father was an alcoholic.
Growing up in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, I have been surrounded by ‘black success’ instead of just ‘success’ for the duration of my life. The blacks in my area are equally as successful, if not more accomplished than, the non-blacks, but we are always titled separately and put into a captive box. The box we are held in told young girls that they should aspire to be athletes, cosmetologists, or plain unemployed. The same box told young men that they could only be considered “somebody” if they were able to catch a ball well. These are occupations we would ‘best be suited for’; these are occupations that perpetuate the box.
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reach the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few
Based upon the Discovery Education video, entitled “A Segregated America,” it is clear that even African American children were affected during this time. They did not get
There are many open wounds in the African-American community that have not healed what so ever. Disintegration of family structures in the African-American community has been a persistent problem for far too long. High out of wedlock birth rates, absent fathers, and the lack of a family support network for many young African-Americans have led to serious problems in America's urban areas. The persistence of serious social problems in inner-city areas has led to a tragic perpetuation of racial prejudice as well. African Americans still face a litany of problems in the 21st century today.
Vonnie McLoyd discusses in the book Child Development that black families are more likely to face poverty in America and the effects that poverty has on those children. McLoyd states that children that have faced poverty in their lives can have “impaired socioemotional functioning” (McLoyd 311). As a result from job loss creating parental stress, parents often become
Black children, especially males, are not afforded the same privilege of going through the period of making mistakes and growing that their white
While we have made a little progress towards Martin Luther King’s dream, there is still much work to be done. By economic standards, black people in America are still being handed a check “marked ‘insufficient funds’”. “Middle-Class Black Families, in Low-Income Neighborhoods”, an article published in The New York Times, reports that “[even] among white and black families with similar incomes, white families are much more likely to live in good neighborhoods — with high-quality schools, day-care options, parks, playgrounds and transportation options.” Research shows that children in better neighborhoods are much more successful than children from poorer neighborhoods.
The source of the difference is no secret. African Americans have been subject to a long history of social and economic oppression and disadvantage; they have experienced higher levels of poverty and lower levels of education than white Americans. After the Brown decision in 1954, the federal government and many states adopted policies to redress the past inequities, but those systems were insufficient to overcome generations of racism, which limited access to jobs and education. Despite significant progress in expanding educational access, education attainment, and economic opportunities for black citizens in the past half century, blacks continue to agonize. African Americans face many trials such as being disproportionately poor and attending racially isolated communities, where children are likely to be exposed to violence, gangs, and drug
Growing up my parents instilled in me that I was beautiful and my skin was beautiful. It was clear to me that everyone else didn’t feel the same way. I went to a couple different schools throughout my life starting with a predominantly black school then a predominantly white school then a very diverse school and at each one I still experienced colorism. At the black school I was not liked because I was darkskin and my hair was kinky and I was just not as pretty as the light skinned girls.
The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves.
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