THE END OF WHITE AMERICA?

According to this CBS news article by the year 2050 it is possible that whites may no longer be the overwhelming majority in America. The article gives statistics showing minorities made up 48 percent of American children born in 2008, compared to 37 percent born in 1990  (CBS News 2010). With this trend continuing it might continue to get higher before it caps. Now this article was back in 2010 and I'm not sure how the exact numbers look today, but it is interesting to think of an America where the minorities outnumber the majority. In this possible future, do you see our government positions still being occupied by an overwhelming ratio of white people? How about our top schools being mostly all white schools? Even if the white population isn't as predominant, will the white population continue to be the most dominant race in terms of social and economical class? Or will the minorities have a big enough population increase to finally give them the strength and opportunity to fight for their equal standards of living?
In a white yet 'unracist' America, incidents such as what happened at UC San Diego back in 2010 where a student hung a noose on campus, still exist. (For more information read this article). Now I understand these are college kids, and in the presence of their friends they may act in ways they normally wouldn't. Their morals might bend in order to be liked or seem cool. However, even though this kid was probably not racist and would probably be against the hanging of an actual black person, it doesn't excuse the act. Even without racist intentions the African American students, who make up only 1.6% of the undergraduates there, still feel the impact of discrimination. Through simple acts like these, they feel as if their race's suffering is still just a joke to white people. Maybe some day when White's are not in the comfort of being such an overwhelming majority they will start to think of consequences for their unintended racist actions. I think it will be good for America if the minorities were to become greater in population than the white majority. Not only will it embrace diversity within our culture, but maybe tear away at the core problems of racism in today's society as well.

WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MAN SHOWS SURPRISING OPTIMISM

What would be going through your head if your final hearing in court for a crime you know you did not commit sentenced you to 30 years in prison? I got the privilege of hearing Terrill Swift speak, an innocent man who served 17 years in prison for the the rape and murder of a woman. After the police lied to him to get him down to the station, they then went on to lie again to get him to sign a false confession. He thought he was signing his innocence. Throughout Swift's entire presentation I was surprised with his positive outlook on the rest of his life. Instead of hating on the police, or trash talking a system that caused him this injustice, he spoke excitingly of the fact this that this tragic life experience showed him what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Locked up at the young age of 17, Swift now speaks to the youth teaching them their rights and most importantly to read the fine print. It's inspiring how someone can take something bad and see the good out of it. Swift is the perfect hope of a peaceful and progressive society. Instead of seeking revenge, he is focused on what he can do to prevent it from happening again to other people. It's nice to know he is not just stating a problem with our justice system, but actually working to stop the problem. I admire his selfless character and determination to help others even though he has been dealt a pretty bad hand himself.

Not that money is important compared to the years of life those wrongfully convicted victims have lost. No, that's priceless. But here are some interesting statistics to look at anyways. Wrongful convictions have cost Illinois taxpayers $214 Million in the past 35 years.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Within the term "affirmative action" lies the word 'action'. Action is not passive. To take action means actually doing something to make a change rather than doing nothing and waiting for a change to happen. In terms of making colleges more diverse, affirmative action means they cannot just keep admitting people based on the typical GPA and test scores and hope it will enable a diverse campus. Race needs to be considered in the admissions process. Affirmative action needs to be interpreted as colleges taking action to make sure there are admitted students of all races. Colleges bending their standards to let in a wide variety of races is what is needed because it is the most effective way for colleges to withhold diversity within their campus.

Going past the interpretation of the literal term "affirmative action", there are plenty of reasons why colleges need diversity within their students. In Tim Wise's White Like Me he talks about the inequities between whites and blacks. He says, "If you conclude that the problem is with the system, then you are compelled, as a fair-minded person, to do something about it" (p.64). He is saying it's fine if you think as a race they are culturally less inclined to excel in education, but then as a good person you should also want to change that. That's where affirmative action comes in. If blacks know that colleges want people of their race, then they might not feel hopeless when it comes to college. If they knew they weren't only being compared to the grades of all the other applicants some with better educations, but their race and background educations would also be considered in the process, then the cycle could stop. More black people could get into college, maybe less qualified then someone else with a better background, but now if they work hard they can build a quality life for themselves. Their children and the future of their race will now grow up with a better education and you will see the inequalities between the races go away. So that maybe in 20 years colleges will be able to exclude race from admissions and truly judge every applicant equally since the top students would now be from a variety of races: white, black, Hispanic, etc. This will only be the case if the cycle is broken, and as mentioned before affirmative action can be a solution.

I also want to clear up one more thing. I've heard people say, "What about those black colleges? They can have those but we can't be fine with our colleges being mostly white?" Maybe they're referring to Howard University or maybe they're referring to a different black college. Either way there's a difference between black colleges and the idea of white colleges. Mainly because there's one significant different between the two races. Whites are a majority and blacks are a minority. A majority race having an institution in society with bias is threatening to those minorities because in being a minority you automatically have less power than majorities just by population size alone. However a minority having an institution bias to the majority is no real threat to the majority because a minority of the population that is also a minority in government power cannot possibly ever be a threat to the majority.

White Privilege

Tim Wise's White Like Me raises questions about race in a different way than you might have seen before. He's not arguing the obvious fact that racism still exists towards colored people in today's society, but that white people inherit a certain privilege for being white. I have to say, he makes a good point. This problem has much to do with the past, but the past is not the reason it is carried on today. Despite slavery and the civil rights movement, the oppression towards blacks today is solely because of how we act today. Wise gives the example of teachers today who are "blaming poor performances by kids of color on their 'dysfunctional' families or presumably defective culture traits." This idea of accepting a black man's failure because its not his fault, but his race's, is not only a burden for black students, but a privilege for whites. White students, just because of their skin color, are often given second chances because society tends to knows of the value white people contribute to society everyday. Skin color is one thing people can and do always notice about someone. Black men do not have the privilege of being society's norm when it comes to skin color, forcing them to tolerate people's unconscious stereotypes in their everyday lives. Looking to the past, to slavery, to the Jim Crow laws, and to the rest of our countries mistakes is important in understanding racism today. However, in order to fix it, people need to stop looking for excuses from the past and start looking towards their actions today. It might take a few years, or even 20, but if people started treating everyone as individuals and not as a race these problems can go away. The burden people of color face can be lifted, but it's going to take shifts in the media and in various parts of public policy. There is a privilege white people have, and with that comes the power to change the face of racism in our country. Now as white people, we just have to admit it and then choose to do something about it.

$75 FIRE FIGHTER FEE... IS THIS AMERICAN?

In America the government is supposed to be for the people. This explains the immense amount of taxes Americans already pay to their government, which is justified because the government uses that money to provide for the people. This is why I was disgusted to learn about an incident that has been happening in Tennessee. Fire Fighters standing by with the homeowners watching the house and all of their possessions burn to the ground all because the family did not pay the $75 fire fighter fee for their county. (I guess property taxes don't count.) "In a recent incident, the owners begged to make an exception, saying they were ready to pay whatever it took to put out the blaze. But they were told it was too late." (RT NEWS, 2012).
If you go on to read the rest of this article you will see that in California police and firemen watched as a man drowned and did nothing because he didn't have the right certificates for proper water rescue.
A few days after I learned about the Tennessee incident I was watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. When Dee was hospitalized for a heart attack, she was kicked out because she did not have health insurance. Dennis (her brother) did not know you had to pay for hospitals. He said "you don't pay firefighters to save your life, why should you have to pay for hospitals?" He had a good point, when it comes to saving a life, it shouldn't even be a question. Now I can go on to make an argument for universal health care, but I'm going to go back to my original focus. The way our society is going, Dennis is almost wrong when he says "you don't pay firefighters to save your life." The United States is straying more and more from it's original beliefs of human equality and on a government by and for the people. This problem raises awareness to the fact that our society values $75 dollars over a human life or doing the right thing. We are caught up in lawyers, lawsuits, and all these ways to get away with things all so we can have more money. The tragedy is that in doing so we give up our once most cherished morals and values.

If I Were A Poor Black Kid

I agree with the ideas expressed in this article. However, I also think it is easier said than done, and as hard as a middle aged white man tries to put himself in a poor Black kid's situation, he can never really understand what they go through. I agree with the fact that Black kids should try their best to access resources and take responsibility for making a better future for themselves. Like the article stated, even though it is way harder, the opportunity still exists. To add my own thoughts on the subject, I do not blame those kids who do not go above and beyond to give themselves a better life. It is easy to blame them for all of their failures because then we don't have to feel bad, but it is not a coincidence that particularly kids in poor black neighborhoods do not do as well academically as kids in nicer white neighborhoods. One of my classmates talked about how although there is a problem in some of the lower income school districts, it is not a matter of race. Well then I want to ask her why all the top schools in the country are white, and the worst schools are black? In Chicago, you've got white New Trier standing at the top, and the mostly Black neighborhood of North Lawndale school at the bottom. Same in New Jersey, you've got mostly white Princeton area school at the top, and all black Camden school at the bottom. New York City has Jericho at the top, and schools in black inner city  neighborhoods at the bottom. The list goes on and on and its astonishing how schools just miles apart seem like completely different worlds to the kids attending them. One things for sure, there's no way the kids attending the bad schools like their situation and there's got to be something contributing to this savage cycle. Start with segregation. These kids are not dumb, and can understand some of the obvious things around them. They have black skin, the kids in the next town have white skin, the white skinned kids want nothing to do with them, and their schools are exponentially better. These facts leave many Black kids feeling not only that white people are naturally better than them, but that by neglecting education from their lives they also think whites do not place any real value on them or think they can contribute to society in important ways, other than working the jobs that the White people don't want. Because after all, if the poor black kids got a better education they might take our white jobs someday. So not it is understood why a normal response from a black kids is, 'why try if no one wants me to succeed anyways?' For those of us who do want them to succeed, we can't blame them for thinking we don't when we don't do anything to show that.
So how do you fix the problem? While the article suggests ignorance within the poor black communities is the real problem, I have to disagree. Instead of trying to somehow convince every kid to walk long distances through bad neighborhoods to go to a Library where they can then teach themselves how to read, and to fill out numerous applications after applications in hopes of being able to get a donated used laptop, why don't we try and find easier ways to motivate these kids to do well in school. Maybe giving them teachers that express interest in their studies, textbooks in their classrooms, computers in their libraries, lab equipment in their science "labs", and offer classes that can prepare them better for college, then maybe they will start trying harder in school. Maybe if there were enough desks in the classrooms for every kid, every kid would show up. Maybe if they knew the odds of them getting into college weren't so slim, they would try harder. Think about it, dogs only do tricks because they know there's a treat waiting for them when they finish. The schools we give these poor black kids are in no way college prep. Maybe if we gave them better schools, they would feel it easier to get into college and more kids would show up and do well. Again, it's easy to blame those who do not succeed, but when such a high number within one race and economic class fail, the problem goes beyond the individual and the system has take part of the blame. Instead of saying, "well your lives are not equal and therefore you should work extra hard", we can try and make their lives a little bit more equal.
The main problem isn't that these kids were born lazy, but that they were never given the means to compete well in our society. If they don't know how to succeed, you can't blame them for failing. We (the middle class) can help others by providing them with this information. How else to show kids how to use tools like google and Wikipedia then by providing them with computers and assignments that require the use of these sites. You know, like what they do at those good white kid schools. Although the article makes an obvious point equivalent to "if all the fat people learned to stop eating crappy food and start exercising there wouldn't be fat people", it does not mean every fat person has the will power to start doing that. I hope this post gave you a realization that a bigger change in the system is what it's going to take to provide motivation for all kids, rich and poor, black and white, to succeed. Give those at the bottom the same resources as the kids who succeed, and see how that works out. Before you say you don't think it will work, you can't know because we've never tried it. Every integration attempt to bus kids from bad schools to better schools in our country's past was stopped because of complaints from rich neighborhoods. They can say they aren't racist, but when it comes down to it they ultimately don't want the black kids going to school with their kids. If it's because it might make their kids class size a little bigger than I won't call them racist, I'll call them selfish and greedy. I would ask them, well what about the poor black kids? Do you want to help them? If they are indeed good people and say yes, I would then tell to help someone means donating something of your own.
Giving a little of something you can afford to give up to those who don't have enough of it to get by. This can be money, time, or maybe even your classroom.