The Educational Experience of Blacks

The position of blacks in America today remains an issue that is much argued. After almost four decades of the Civil Rights movement, the degree of change in the black community, while real and noticeable, also remains inadequate. Blacks have achieved positions of power, are less subject to institutional racism than in the past, and have redress in the courts and even in the court of public opinion that was once denied them. Yet, the black community remains disproportionately poor, uneducated or undereducated, and unemployed. Education is seen as the key to success in America, and every immigrant and ethnic group has eventually come to the conclusion that education for the next generation will give that generation a leg up on the ladder of success in American life. We still believe this today, even in an era of diminished expectations, but blacks seem to have been unable to make this idea work for them as well as some groups have done in the past. There are a number of reasons for this, and an analysis of what black writers have said in different literary works shows how the educational experience in America contributes to the problems of black people rather than solving them and also contributes to the crisis of black identity encountered by each generation, even in an era of supposedly improved racial relations.

The basic problems for blacks in the educational system begin with access - the schools of the inner city regions are not as good as some and are also increa

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o decades. The little boy in the story is not the focus--his parents are--but that little boy will be the one who carries the weight of all his people on his shoulders even though he does not know it. The many visits made by the churchmen and other black leaders to this house shows how important the seemingly small act of one little boy going to school will have for all the black people. Clearly, they see this act in terms not only of the importance of education itself for this boy and even for all boys and girls but also as an act of accomplishment effecting social change in American life, change far beyond the single act of this one child. The elders map out a route for the child to take to school, for this is a public act and not merely a private one. The attendance of this boy will help integrate schools that have been segregated for all their history, and this is the beginning of educational achievement for blacks. To the mother, the writings and scratchings the men make are mysterious--she apparently cannot read because she was denied the sort of access her son now has to make. She is afraid and almost stops the boy from doing this thing--why should one small boy have to carry the burden? Yet, ultimately, it is alw

Category: Psychology - T