Race

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine today. The discussion basically boiled down to Race and its effect on opportunity. I personally believe that an individual’s master status (sex, race, class, ability and sexual orientation) in the United States predetermines the access to opportunity in life, although there are exceptions. The world that we live in is socially constructed. We are spoon fed beliefs, ranks and false information like babies that are forced to eat Gerber products. In the USA when an individual is born black he or she is automatically born disadvantaged, and underprivileged when looking at access to opportunity. So now the question is what does opportunity have to do with anything? And my answer to that is, OPPORTUNITY IS EVERYTHING!! Without equal opportunities how can we really live our lives and say that all men (and women) are created equal, or better yet treated equally. For example let’s look at education. While I was growing up all I ever heard from my parents was, education is the key, which is true by all means; but little did I know, where you live and what school you attend determines the quality education received. My public school education did me well and prepared me for the next level, but when my Public school is matched up against a private school, the winner is private school. So let’s look deeper into the matter, where are all the private schools located? In the suburbs, so what race inhabits the suburbs? White, where is all the public schools located? The inner city, who lives in the inner city? Minorities. The GI Bill helps separate and place the two groups in their current location. The military, to be more specific gave all American soldiers benefits while at the same time restricting Blacks from living in certain areas and allow Whites the opportunity to choose……. So without access to the suburbs how are minorities going to access quality education? I think it makes it more difficult but “that’s Just A Thought”

Feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear what you think about my view, or I would love to hear about your perspective on the matter.