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Racism
Jul 11, 2020 14:19:33 GMT
Post by Susan Peabody on Jul 11, 2020 14:19:33 GMT
Dear John:
I agree that everybody in America has an opportunity to be successful. In this country it all depends on your access to education. Each step in the education process takes you one step further. If you do well in grammar school you do well in high school. If you do well in high school you go on to college. If you go to a school when you are a child that encourages you and helps you build your self-esteem you will do well in school and be successful.
Unfortunately poor people don't go to these kinds of schools. They go to schools where the teachers tell them not to reach too high. Where the books are outdated. Where the teachers are burned out. This makes some children feel bad about themselves and so they just stop trying.
This was proven by studies and taken to the Supreme Court in 1954. Brown versus the Board of Education which allowed children to be bused to better schools. That is why today we have so many successful people on the black community as you will see on many of the talk shows. MSNBC
Success is a complicated subject but it takes more to be successful than not to be successful. When I was a secretary my professor asked me to prioritize resumes. He told me to put the people who graduated from Harvard and Yale on top. He said they have the best education and should be considered first. Those schools cost a lot of money and most people cannot afford it. To get a scholarship you have to be on the level of Obama.
So a majority of people are held back by the fact that they started out poor. It is a known fact that poverty is more common among people of color. So I don't think we should generalize that everybody can make the success of themselves. Because this isn't really true. They need a lot of help along the way and they don't always get it.
Racism is not always apparent. It's often hidden. I went to an integrated high school. I assumed all the students were getting the same education. One semester I worked in the administration office filing. I noticed codes on the students files and I asked the counselor what the codes meant. She said codes indicated race. I asked her why it mattered what you race you were, and she said it will that will determine what class you go in. She said all the black students are put in remedial classes like home economics and typing and mechanics. And all the white students are put in classes that prepare them for college. I said shouldn't that depend on your intelligence and not your race. She just shrugged her shoulders and turned away. The system was called tracking. It was invisible for the most part like a lot of racism.
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Racism
Jul 11, 2020 14:22:12 GMT
Post by Susan Peabody on Jul 11, 2020 14:22:12 GMT
I studied Black history in college I have a whole library about the subject. My honors thesis was about slavery in California that existed even though California was a free state.
The first Blacks came to America as indentured servants. Then slaves were brought to America. In the beginning it was chattel slavery. All they wanted was labor. During this time slavery was very cruel. Eventually they outlawed the slave trade and so they began a form of slavery that we called paternalism. This is where you raise black children with the notion that they are less than human and therefore are lucky to be fed three meals a day in exchange for their labor. Any kindness shown them was only to keep them for rebelling. The only successful slave revolt was in Haiti. In America many slaves were passive because of paternalism. Especially the slaves that worked in the plantation home. This is what you see in the movies. The black Mammy raising white children. The best movie about this it's called The Help.
After the Civil War the Blacks (freedmen) were controlled by the chain gang. Once again free labor. Then sharecropping began. This kept blacks in debt to plantation owners. That was followed by Jim Crow. That kept blacks under control. Then they took away the right to vote. Another way to control blacks. After the first Civil Rights Movement the only way to control blacks was through laws that discriminate against them and putting them in prison. Inmates today are often laborers working for $0.80 a day.
Slavery it's evil. To own another human being can never be condoned no matter how well you treat them. To tell that human being that they are less than human is evil.
President Lincoln believed in reparations. He promised the freed slaves 40 acres and a mule. And they assassinated him. We still owe the ancestors of black people something.
I'm glad that people are beginning to see that Blacks are still discriminated against by police. That's progress. Anyone that condones slavery or says it's not so bad has not been touched by the Holy Spirit. In my opinion.
I believe in cause and effect. What we condoned as a country in the past has now become a reckoning. Affirmative action helped a lot. I have seen changes. But I have also seen discrimination happen right in front of me. Everything that's going on right now it's difficult to watch. It seems like chaos on the surface. But God is really moving us forward because all of this is helping us learn about each other's points of views. All we need is to stay open minded and really pay attention to what the protesters are saying.
I admit that many of them go too far. But they are young. I don't think this is going away so I'm praying for the world. Thank you for letting me express my opinion. I know this is a controversial subject. But for personal reasons it's close to my heart
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