A Race War
Those who walk the freedom soil of America can often feel the temptation to frantically wave an American flag in the air or let out a high pitched scream, chanting, “U.S.A.” The temptation to say that America is the most progressive country in cultural and industrial innovations is perhaps even stronger. However, to say that America is revolutionary in changing its conservative view of race would be a plain lie.
The recent riots in Baltimore, as horrid as they were, successfully highlighted the disparities of treatment toward certain races. For once, social media has played a large part in bringing to the attention of a diverse age spectrum the raw and dark reality of the world beyond educational institutions. And for that, I can only be thankful.
The most worrisome part of publicizing such events in media is that these kind of stories, this one in particular, convey the fictitious impression that societal alienations and lives devoid of monetary comfort are unique to those who identify as black. In the past year, all media sources have been diligent in reporting accounts of blacks as the victims of, say, a police encounter or an unjust death. Every time I came across yet another newspaper article or a video reporting how a legal body had wrongfully acted against a black individual I could only sigh. This wasn’t a reaction out of disgust, but rather frustration at the repetitive pattern within our societal beliefs.
It would be ignorant for one to attempt to deny that whenever poverty is thought of in the States, the immediate association is made to African Americans. This isn’t an association that is supported purely through statistics, nor simply the American education system. No, the association of enduring through a “rough childhood” or having young, uneducated parents has been created by the writing of history itself. Because those of the living on this earth have not been alive since the Big Bang, we have not become any less different to the animals that we cage in zoos. People decide to believe the majority of the things written in history books and so we are in no position to think of ourselves as superior beings in comparison to animals, we are just as naive and vulnerable as sheep. The majority of us will never take the extra step of questioning the validity of historical accounts, either because we are lazy or just accept all of those words as the truth. Our country’s history was written by the glorious Founding Fathers, and so there couldn’t possibly have been any revisions or deceptions made, right?
What frustrates me the most is that challenges that every race faces economically and socially are not only faced by the stereotypical minorities, but also the other races who are not classified as so. And yet the image of a black individual growing from an unfortunate childhood and rising to be a successful profesional will always be perpetrated within job interviews and educational settings. On a similar note, there have been a number of reputable news sources that have taken the time to glorify the actions of high school students who have been accepted to all Ivy League universities. Said students apparently turn these universities down because of financial reasons or because they did the honorable thing of choosing a college that may not have as reputable of a name, but has a better department for their career choice. The reporters coo at the thoughtfulness of these individuals who give up the merit of attending a “name-value” university when it escapes the public that that detail is not what requires the most attention. The underlying truth behind these articles is that they are always about a student from black or Latino background, racial groups that are not immediately pictured as the most intelligent. And so when someone from one of those races is accepted into such educational institutions, they are immediately unique and considered atypical. Any educational institution publicly states that they do not regard race as a factor in the administrative process; however, it does influence a large part determining acceptance. If someone who identifies as black gets 2000 out of 2400 on the SAT, it’s because they could not afford to get a tutor to study. If a black student misses classes and fails classes, it is not because they shirked their academic responsibilities, but rather because they had to take care of their siblings or work part-time to help out with the rent. Or at least that is the way it is supposed to be, but in reality, it isn’t always the case.
However, this is an interesting thought. When an individual of Asian descent is accepted into an Ivy League, their rich grandparents must have donated every year or they got all As throughout their high school career. When a white person is accepted into such universities, it was because their family was made up of decorated alumni or because their family donated a building on that campus. Or at least that is what you would assume…correct?
People of all ages need to wake up—and fast. Times are changing, and if they haven’t changed enough to be rid of the racial stereotypes while searching for employment or acceptance into a dream college, it is the responsibility of the younger generations to spark a movement. The adults will, of course, be wiser and know the harsh realities of the real world—at least more so than a high school student—but they will never be able to say that they lived a harder life. Because for a child born in this age, it is no longer the simplistic water fight for dominance and recognition that our parents went through. It’s now a battle that will never end, with no true winner and no way for a treaty.