Race In America

After reading a few articles from those sites, it is crazy how some people still view blacks these days. Also, there were a few articles that caught my eye. One was about a guy who talked about how white people are racist to blacks and how black people are also racist to other blacks. He talked about how black people with more brown skin and black people with darker skin are racist to each other and it is like living in three worlds. It is crazy that this guy had to face racism, not just from white people but from other black people as well. He said he didn’t have “good hair” and couldn’t pass for lighter in the winter months but it always turned his hair red.

Another article that I read was one about black people being better off enslaved again. How can somebody actually make this statement? It is absolutely absurd that somebody can say that. The guy said, “blacks are more devastated” today than when they were enslaved because of the high rate of abortion among some blacks.” He also said slavery “is a crushing mark on America's soul, yet today half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more black children, far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery." He is arguing that because black people have so many abortions, that they are better off enslaved because the community is more devastated from the abortions than slavery. This is extremely racist and somewhat doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know how this guy could come up with this.

Affirmative Action and College Admissions

After taking a look at affirmative action, I think that race should be used in the college admission process but quotas should not be used and it should not be too significant. Race should be a factor in the college admission process because it helps create a diverse student body which college campuses strive for today. Most campuses don’t want people from the same ethnicity or background.  Universities want students of all colors and religions to create a population just the outside world is today. If race was not a factor in the college admissions process, schools would not be able monitor how their diversity is at their campus. Also, schools should not be allowed to use quotas and save seats for minority groups. I totally agree with the outcome of the University of California VS Bakke case.  Because the university used quotas and reserved seats for qualified minority and disadvantaged students, he was not able to get into the school because spots were already taken from the special admissions program. The court ruled that, “the program relied solely on racial quotas and that it violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They also ruled that race could be considered in admissions process but only as a plus factor.” The last statement there I strongly agree with and that is how most universities use race in their admissions process today.

An example of how race plays a factor in the admissions process comes from the Harvard admissions program as well as the University of Michigan admissions policy. The University of Harvard’s policy is very interesting. They strive for a diverse campus in many ways, not just race. An excerpt from the process states, “the race of an applicant may tip the balance in his favor just as a geographic origin or life spent on a farm may tip the balance in other candidate’s case.” I really think that Harvard has their admissions process down right. They want students who bring something new to the table and it doesn’t just have to be race. Even though they say race is a plus factor, they want kids from different economic and social backgrounds as well. Michigan uses a point system in their admissions process. Personally, I think it is an interesting idea but it has some inconsistencies. People being given points can be arbitrary at times and doesn’t provide the best way to pick students. I think some of the things that are awarded less points than race should be weighted way higher. For example, the personal essay is only worth three points while the race and background factor is worth 20. I just don’t see how that makes sense because the personally essay can show a lot about a person.  Not just how good of a writer they are, but personal skills they have as well. Overall, race should be a slight factor in the college admissions process and reserving seats should not be allowed.

Terrill Swift

Hearing Terrill Swift speak today was absolutely amazing. His story and what he has gone through in his life is absolutely terrible. No person should have to spend 17 years of their life, not to mention some of their best years in their life, in jail for a crime they did not commit. One of the things he talked about was the amount of people who are wrongly convicted and have to serve jail time. I don’t recall the numbers that he was giving out but it just shows that many people around the country are being convicted of crime they didn’t do. When talking about the death penalty in Illinois, we learned that one of the reasons there is no death penalty in Illinois is because of wrongly convicted people. It is crazy that people spend years in jail for things that they didn’t do but it is terrible that people die for crimes that they didn’t commit. It just goes to show this terrible fault in the justice system. Because of the amount of innocent people being convicted, it is one of the reasons that I am against the death penalty.

I guess one of the reasons I was so interested in hearing Terrill speak is because Prison Break is one of my favorite TV shows. In the show, a man is set up and framed for a murder that he did not commit. His brother purposely goes to jail and has a plot. On the outside, the man framed for murder has lawyers fighting and working to get him out of prison before he is given the death penalty. In Prison Break, they talk about clemency, falsely convicted felons, and they try to get this guy on death row out of jail. This really connects to Terrill story about how he had lawyers fighting for him and how he never gave up fighting for his freedom. Even though Prison Break is just a TV show, it demonstrates the seriousness of innocent people being convicted. It was very inspirational to hear Terrill speak and here how he never gave up. His mind was set on being free and he did everything in his power to do that. Another lesson I got out of hearing him talk was always make sure you know what you are signing and don’t always trust what people say. Just one mistake like that can lead you to jail for a long time. Terrill really got me interested in finding out about more falsely convicted people and hearing more stories about people who have served time in jail for no reason.

Privilege

After reading the chapter titled privilege by Tim Wise, I do agree with most of the things that he says but there are a few points that he makes in which I do not agree with. Early on in the chapter, Wise states, “ We love to accept things we didn’t earn, such as inheritance, but we have a problem taking responsibility for the things that have benefited us wile harming others.” I agree with this quote entirely. At first, I had a hard time figuring out where this quote was going and what it meant. Wise then compared it to racial privilege which totally made sense. White people as a whole have never taken responsibility for slavery or segregation and that is where Wise is going with this quote. White people have never paid the debt for this and have had “a problem taking responsibility for the things that have benefited us while harming others.” I think this quote is a basic outline for the rest of the passage. It sets up the chapter to show how Wise thinks white people benefit from racism.

There are times in this chapter where I feel like Wise brings up examples that say that show how whites get the benefit of the doubt, but I questioned if white people actually benefit from these things. An example is when Wise is talking about some of his high school teachers. He states,” So many of them reinforced racism and white privilege every day, punishing kids of color disproportionately even when whites break the rules just as often or blaming poor performance by kids of color on their dysfunction families or presumable defective cultural traits.” Do white people actually benefit from not getting in trouble when they should? Yeah, maybe in the short term it would be nice to get out of trouble for something that you did wrong but does that make you a better person in the long run if you never learned how to deal with your mistakes? This part of Wise’s idea I somewhat question.

There are points in the story where Wise does make good points about how white people do get advantages over black. Wise makes this point while talking about the “color line” and how when it comes to race, black people need to know how to navigate the color line every day. Wise states, “ When black mothers have to teach their sons to keep both hands on the wheel if stopped by a police officer so as not to get shot- something I have never heard a white mother speak of doing with her white son.” In these kinds of cases, yes I do feel privileged that I don’t even have to think about these types of things. White people are very privileged in this case because the racial line is a significant burden to bear.

If I Were a Poor Black Kid

The article “If I was a Poor Black Kid,” made a lot of sense had some very good contentions in it. For the most part I agree it the ideas that were expressed. I really do believe that everybody in this country has an opportunity to succeed. Even though in some situations kids have it almost impossible to succeed in life but I really agree when the author stated, “It takes brains.  It takes hard work.  It takes a little luck. And a little help from others.  It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available.” Hard work is the biggest key. If somebody wants to be successful very badly, they will put the work needed into doing that. The biggest contention that I strongly agree with is the idea of technology. The author hit it spot on because the internet these days can be its own teacher itself. The article included many websites or online programs including sparknotes, cliff notes, Google Scholar, and Backpack that can help a student out with their studies. Here at Deerfield, we have all the resources and help in the world to succeed and personally I use the internet to help me with things more than going to see a teacher. When studying for tests I might even go on youtube and look up how to do a certain math problem and there are multiple videos that can help me out. The internet is the best resource for helping a kid with little money and opportunity succeed. I also agree with the authors statements how a kid needs to use the internet to help him find schools and scholarship programs. Even though there are many American kids out there who have very little money and have parents who work two jobs, everybody has the chance to succeed. You just have to be hard-nose, learn the resources around you, and meet the right people who can help. All of these things the author enforces in his article and I really agree with his idea in the article.

                                                                                              

The first response does not change my view at all. I think “If I was a poor black kid” was solely based on the idea that if somebody doesn’t have much money and resources, that they can manage to find ways to work hard and succeed even if they have under privileged schools and classes with oversized classes.

I think both the responses aren’t really seeing the big point in the article. Of course there is going to be setbacks, racism, and inequality to a poor black kid but the main idea of the article is to work hard and use as many resources as possible. The author is merely trying to provide hope for a poor black kid who can possible follow some advice that can help him be successful. These responses are criticizing on the author for not understanding what it is like to be poor or black, but he was just trying to provide some hope and knowledge for people who might need it.