It is a well-known fact the African Americans tend to have higher levels of unemployment and lower levels of education than their white counterparts. The constant debate that whether or not that happened because of the structure of laws in the United States or because black people do not have a culture of working hard. In “Revisiting the Debate on Race and Culture”, William Darity Jr. talks about how different aspects of black identity play a role in the education and wealth of an individual. Chapter five of When Affirmative Action was white the author, Ira Katznelson , talks about a bill that contributed to the disparities between the earnings and the standards of living between white Americans and Black Americans. The chapter focused on the
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The white veterans were able to get a good education and a loan for a home while black veterans were often denied the ability to get a loan. Some people at the time say it was as if the law was created accommodate the Jim Crow laws. The law might have not been created specifically to exclude black people but it definitely was not trying to help African Americans overcome the various obstacles that obviously existed. The bill was not created exclusively for white EX-soldiers but it was just a lot easier for white American Veterans to reap the benefits of it. What Katznelson is trying to point to in this chapter is that this law might be part of the reason that the racial wage gaps exist in America. By that evaluation then the current state of African Americans is no a result of their laziness and unwillingness to get up and look for higher education and better jobs but a result of the American government continuing to fail them. I agree with this argument to some extent. The American government has constantly left blacks at a disadvantage. For instance, in the education department the separate but equal was not equal. Black schools were not at the level as white schools. Therefore, black student were not as prepared as white students for the real world. Similarly, historically black colleges/Universities do not receive the same amount of funding as predominantly …show more content…
I think it is true that black people need to not but constantly play the victim but just because we stop thinking as ourselves as the victim doesn’t mean that we aren’t still the victims of discrimination. This is related to someone that is mentioned in the Darity reading, “increased educational attainment does not insulate blacks from discrimination (Darity 471).” Even if black people stop “playing victim” as some like to call it that doesn’t stop them from being black and it doesn’t stop them from facing the systemic oppressions. Black people at every socioeconomic level face discrimination and obstacles. So I think that the disparities that exist between white people and black people economically are mostly a result of the structures that are instilled by the American government. It seems like sometimes black people have to work harder to get to the same levels as their white counterpart. In the reading Darity states that culture really has no bearing on the differences that exist between whites and blacks
The white veterans were able to get a good education and a loan for a home while black veterans were often denied the ability to get a loan. Some people at the time say it was as if the law was created accommodate the Jim Crow laws. The law might have not been created specifically to exclude black people but it definitely was not trying to help African Americans overcome the various obstacles that obviously existed. The bill was not created exclusively for white EX-soldiers but it was just a lot easier for white American Veterans to reap the benefits of it. What Katznelson is trying to point to in this chapter is that this law might be part of the reason that the racial wage gaps exist in America. By that evaluation then the current state of African Americans is no a result of their laziness and unwillingness to get up and look for higher education and better jobs but a result of the American government continuing to fail them. I agree with this argument to some extent. The American government has constantly left blacks at a disadvantage. For instance, in the education department the separate but equal was not equal. Black schools were not at the level as white schools. Therefore, black student were not as prepared as white students for the real world. Similarly, historically black colleges/Universities do not receive the same amount of funding as predominantly …show more content…
I think it is true that black people need to not but constantly play the victim but just because we stop thinking as ourselves as the victim doesn’t mean that we aren’t still the victims of discrimination. This is related to someone that is mentioned in the Darity reading, “increased educational attainment does not insulate blacks from discrimination (Darity 471).” Even if black people stop “playing victim” as some like to call it that doesn’t stop them from being black and it doesn’t stop them from facing the systemic oppressions. Black people at every socioeconomic level face discrimination and obstacles. So I think that the disparities that exist between white people and black people economically are mostly a result of the structures that are instilled by the American government. It seems like sometimes black people have to work harder to get to the same levels as their white counterpart. In the reading Darity states that culture really has no bearing on the differences that exist between whites and blacks