Text Journal #2: 3.3.09

After reading the article "Structural Racism and Youth Development Issues, Challenges, and Implications" I can see the correlation between the class session that we just had and the issues within the article. In class we are coming down hard on the realization that there is racism embedded into the structural system of the United States. Being split up into the groups of "colored" and "white" we began to discuss stereotypes and dialogue with members of our "group" what the issues of race were from our perspective, problems we have with that, and questions that we had for the opposite group. I voiced the frustration of structural racism and the helplessness I feel in combatting it. The author of the article made a claim that resonated with my remark that "those born into disadvantaged communities cannot be blamed fot the insufficient education they receive in their local public schools, and the consequent challenges they face as unskilled job seekers" (p. 13). Structural racism is a "sick cycle" that repeats itself; children, statistically, are not the authors of their success if they are born into the bottom 10% of the income scale.
The only way to stop such a cycle is to use the white privilege that I have been given, naturally, to make changes to the structural system. This takes hard work, and as Becky McIntosh mentioned in her article that it's hard to make changes to a system when you are reaping the benefits. I would agree with her because statistically that is what evidence has proven, however, I believe that it's more of a passive neglect of a situation than an active refusal to do something about the change that plagues most people of the "white" privilege group.
Also, when the author mentioned the statistics about whites being surveyed about the outcomes of affirmative action, I have to admit that my attitude would be counted towards that high percentage. I'm not proud of it, but that was my sister's attitude when applying for school, so I inherited it as well. What angers me most is that because of the way the system works, African Americans, and people of color for that matter are born into an already difficult situation. In order to make a change, a vast social justice change must take place in order for everyone to have "equal opportunity." We need to stop basing public education funding on property taxes and discontinue "No Child Left Behind" and actually start caring about the children of America, no matter where they start, that should not matter, they should all have access to an equal education. Education is the key to success and the white children from the affluent suburbs should NOT be the only ones with access to reputable education.