Racism+-+'Taking+a+New+Course+in+Class'

Rasicm: "Taking a New Course in Class" When it comes to to things like talk about racial inequality, discrimination, and affirmative action, I completely agree with Supreme Court Justice John Roberts's words: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." On a whole, it's far better to forget about racism and treat people as individuals while continuing the, as I see it, worthless, discussion about racism further perpetuates the ideas that there are strict differences between races, when there isn't. As long as racism and the inequalities between demographics is a major topic in discussions, it distracts from the point; instead of looking at an actual human being, a person would be looking at just another "issue" in the world. Not to mention that as long the discussion is kept alive, so too are stereotypes, which stem from generalities based on demographics, and it further imbeds prejudice in people's minds. Academically, and for most affirmative-action programs, everything just becomes a mess; affirmative action is only a short-term solution. If affirmative action is to help the minorities, once whites become a minority, or the number even out, then the question of who actually gets to benefit from affirmative action? If whites would benefit, it doesn't help the situation because it just furthers white privilege; if it continued to help non-white minorities, whites would without a doubt cry foul, and who ever ends up becoming the new majority will certainly lose because they likely won't be on the same level as the previous white majority. As America approaches that scenario, it seems, at least to me, to become less of a race issue and more of an economic issue. It's economics where the most disparities between races occurs, and that should be the focus of these programs, disregarding race, because they are less-fortunate people in every skin tone.

So, foloowing the above's reasoning, I think it's a great step in the right direction for schools to look at economic status instead of race. Furthermore, as far as I see, the complaints against going to an economic-based affirmative action are just hinderances. Theodore Shaw's comment that "economic status integration ... is no substitute for racial integration" really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, the reason for academic integration programs in the first place is to give everyone the same opportunity, trying to make everyone equal is never going to work, and low-income schools don't perform as well as higher-income schools, so it only makes sense that economic integration does the job of an affirmative-action program. Despite what critics are saying, it does address racial inequality. A person's personal prejudice can not be changed, no matter how many programs are put into place; however, a person's economic limitations are easily addressable. Since a lot of racial disparity is because of economics, economic-based affirmative action is grappling a very large piece of the pie. Furthermore, economic-based integration addresses the wider academic disparities too; so what if not everyone under the poverty line is black? It honestly sounds like people are trying to continue the social racism. Besides, isn't a good thing that in a North Carolinian town that the majority of poor are white? After all, it would mean that any blacks were above the poverty line and therefore doing well. It could also mean that there are few blacks in the town, in which case, racial affirmative-action becomes worthless.

The all encompassing quote, I think, is "It was never that African-Americans do better in class sitting next to whites, it's that low-income students do better in middle-class schools." That's exactly what I think; color doesn't matter, everyone has the same capacity. What's really holding everyone back is that not everyone has access to the resources that would advance them. Not only that, but the sentence is the crux of the entire argument: that racial affirmative-action needs to shift to economic based. The results are there, students in middle-class schools do much better than low-income schools. The only problem is that we need to seriously look at what we want the school's function to be; is for cultural experience, or academics? These two cannot coincide, it really can only be one or the other. If the school is for culture, then the classes lose value, and the educational system then revolves less around classes and more about rules, regulations, and social interactions, and then racial affirmative-action might be okay. If the school's main concern is education, then the focus becomes on giving the best education, social interactions go to the backburner. If the latter, economic-based affirmative action is the way to go; it presents the most opportunities for the objective of school: teaching people, not cultivating diversity.