Education in America

It is funny how the government cries up and down that America is behind, yet they refuse to look forward. America needs to wake up and realize that is we, as the American people, who are putting ourselves behind. We are the only ones who can choose to put down the weight that will keep us back. We are so focused on winning “the race” that we cannot see why we are so behind. One of those races the government is concerned about is regarding education. We’ve heard comments such as, ‘China will take over’ and ‘America will be number two.’ Such lines are dreadful and should not be said out the mouth of an American.

While some think education is the main goal in this country,  it is not being focused on. How dare you tell people to  go to pre-school, then go to elementary school, then go to middle school, then go to high school, and you better go to college when we don’t make that path accessible to everyone? Let us all be realistic, everyone is not going to college.  What will you do, America, with these people who are not going to college? Will you keep them in the shadows and gloat to the rest of the world that we are on top? Or are you willing to work with these people to take them from the bottom to the top?

Photo: Archives.gov

America is not only a democracy, but has a government full of hypocrites.  I do not believe these people that received the short end of the stick voted to be placed in that class of society. On the Statue of Liberty, it advertises to other parts of the world, ‘Give me your hungry, and give me your poor.’ How will you tell someone to give their hungry and poor whereas you are here with your hungry and your poor? What about your uneducated and unprepared, your unmotivated and scared, your hopeless and at risk?

Our young people are in need of help and are crying out for it. And yet, we do know that everyone is not going to college. Because of this, we must give these young people an option after school. We must prepare them in high school for the real world and give them hands-on experience so they are sure of what they really want to do for the rest of their lives.

The day America can take the step to move our young people forward is the day that we can move our country forward for eternity. That will be the day our country will remain on top and never have our placement taken away.

Written by Olayemi Olugbuyi

What We Call Stereotypes

It is almost a fact that America has a ton of problems and so little solutions. One of these problems is of course, stereotypes. Stereotypes are statements judged upon a group of people because of a variety of reasons. It is technically ok to say something about a person because we have freedom of speech in this country, but stereotypes have evolved from that to something that is manipulating people’s lives and changing them. The consequences of stereotypes can range from losing a job to another person because they are white to being arrested because you are black or African.

Stereotypes have many causes, but generally in America, it stems from slavery, segregation, and of course politics. Politics, how has that caused stereotypes? Well, throughout history there have usually been a dominant group that has in a lot cases accepted another group they have conquered. It would be stupid to just accept them because of the possibility of betrayal, so they are usually treated as lower class citizens and that’s where things start. The lower class citizens are typically degraded through the use of stereotypes and not allowed to get certain advantages that are available to others. After a century or two of this, stereotypes have just evolved to plain insults. We find today so many prevalent stereotypes between the races in our country, because slavery and segregation are advanced forms of this degrading and so important in American history.

With causes come effects, and stereotypes have a lot of them. The most common effect would be plain disrespect towards one’s race. The ironic thing about this is that most of television actually broadcasts these stereotypes, and the government allows this disrespect to constantly occur. What kind of government allows a small yet popular percentage of their shows to broadcast stereotypes daily? The answer is America. We even have people who are turned away from jobs or fired because of their race in America. If you look at our history, America was the biggest source of Islamic stereotypes after 9/11, just because the person who was responsible for it may have been Islamic, even though proof still doesn’t exist of that. Oh, Christians and Catholics have a history of war and conflicts much greater than that of the Muslims and Arabs, yet Muslims and Arabs get discriminated more in this country.

One of the worst forms of these stereotypes would be suspicion because of race. A common example is that of a black person being arrested because he’s black, which is related to infamous topic of Police Brutality. Another common example would be someone being accused of being an immigrant, because they’re a Latino or Hispanic. With this, I have presented enough evidence that stereotypes are a serious problem in America. The real question now is if America is man enough to deal with it.

Written by Tariq Broadnax