Racism In The Other Wes Moore

The other Wes Moore is a non fiction chronicling life of two African American boys whose life took a ridiculous degree of divergence. It presents story of two boys from low-income family with similar background, where one turns out to be a Rhodes scholar, while the other ends up in prison for armed robbery and murder. Writer does not pretend to know why this happened nor holds the belief that a single event was catabolic in creating this chain reaction. The story is mostly descriptive, and writer presents the story as it is, leaving the readers to draw on their own conclusion. The author Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore both grew up in Baltimore, without a father. Wes Moore(author) was leading a similar life as that of the other wes Moore …show more content…
I saw America from author’s point of view and was somewhat convinced by his thought process. The perception he had of social issues aligned with mine as well. The major issue brought up in the book, which was directly and if not directly, indirectly responsible for writing the fate of most of the characters in this story was racism. I think that solution to this problem is communication. People often talk in hushed tone about issues that they are not comfortable with. Racial prejudice are found some what rampant everywhere in the world, and the researches have shown some implicit bias even in people who wouldn’t consider themselves as racist. Not talking about it does not make it go away. People should acknowledge what racism is, and even why it exists. No matter how abhorrent a problem is, realizing what the problem is and why the problem exists is a first step in solving it. Racism and partisan politics has been at the root of a lot of problems. Proper communication is a necessity to end such divisive politics. As Irish Statesman Edmund Bruke had once stated, “The only thing necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”, we have to talk about racism and racial prejudice while explaining people why it is wrong, rather than hoping that ignoring it is some kind of panacea. Another solution to racial problem is familiarity. Most of the people fear/distrust what they are not familiar with. Facial features are the most easily visible trait, and makes it easy for the people to jump to conclusion. If people of a particular group were to be familiar with people of a different race and culture, and were to attempt to understand them. Then perhaps they would realize that racial and cultural difference is a miniscule dot compared to the large amount of similarity that they have. Another issue brought up in the book was poverty and education. It is education that most clearly separates the Author Wes