Debra Dickerson's Essay 'The Great White Way'

Education should be a journey towards someone’s life. It should not be based upon race. Don’t look around and let race put you in your place. Although, race and criticizing still remains today. Depending on someone’s race, culture, and education are more likely to be pushed into a social class or be categorized as a social class. Which has a strongly impact even today. Above all people, it is one of the most divided issue that keeps us separated within the human race. And it shouldn’t matter, especially when it comes to education.

Debra Dickerson is an author who wrote the essay, “The Great White Way.” Who speaks about race, social norm, ethnic, and ways the boundaries are divided by whites and nonwhites. She also explains how the difference

between people are strange and the human race as a whole. She says, “When space aliens arrive to colonize us, race, along with the Atkins diet and Paris Hilton, will be among the things they’ll think we’re kidding about.” (68). Kristina Rizga is a perspective, journalist who wrote the essay, “Everything You’ve Heard about Failing Schools is Wrong.” She speaks about the crisis in public education and challenges that are received ideas about what is and isn’t working in contemporary education. She says, “Overall, the last 10 years have revealed that while Big Data can make our questions more sophisticated, it doesn’t necessarily lead to Big Answers.” (257).
Although these two essay topics are about two different things, they indeed have much things in common that relate to each other. In Dickerson’s essay, she says, “Race is America’s central drama, but just to define it in 25 words or less” (70). As to Rizga’s essay, she says, “Nationally, 32 percent of Latino and 38 percent of African Americans students go to college” (255). While she also talks about Asian American percentage and how the most various high schools in the country, her high school, Missions has 925 students holding 47 different passports. Although percentages are increasing to a better success, they are still placed and listed as one of the lowest-performing schools. And yet, a student named Maria in Rizga’s essay, who isn’t an American and doesn’t speak English very well, has been told by an administrator at the school to not to worry about her future in education or graduating, because Latinos either work or raise kids and don’t finish high school.
Another reason what these two essays have in common is that they both talk about social class and culture, how they are pushed into be categorized and can become successful or achieve. They can do more and be more than just based off of their culture and social class, by all I also mean stereotype. In Dickerson’s essay, she states that, “If you were neither black nor Asian nor Hispanic, eventually you could become white, invested with enforceable civil rights and the right to exploit-and hate-nonwhites” (69). In other words, you can become an American citizen as today you can still do that. In Rizga’s essay, states that 72 percent of Latino, African American, And Asian American are poor. But yet, 88 percent were accepted to college and 84 percent of the graduating class went onto college. Which was a higher percentage than the district average.
Both of these essay cover talking about race and even by personal experience or throughout history events around the world.

In Rizga’s essay, she explains about how two different students who have experienced stereotype by someone’s race. A student named Brianna, was once in the bathroom with five of her other black girl friend’s fixing their hair. While two Asian American girls came in and saw them, they ran out right away, thinking something bad might happened and get bullied. Another experience from a student in Rizga’s essay was a girl named Rebecca. She exclaims how she moved to St. Louis from China. She went to an all-African American school and was told by her parents to stay away from black students, to not trust them, and run away even though they were all really nice to her. In Dickerson’s essay, she says one thing that is similar to these two situations of the student’s in Rizga’s essay. Dickerson says, “Race is an arbitrary system for establishing hierarchy and privilege” (69). If so, we shouldn’t rank one above the other or lower, stereotype and judge by their group of culture, education and race society has organized and shaped well in to be pushed and categorize by groups. Some of all of us, meaning of all people are not good. Stereo type and social stereo type has caused difficulties in the world tension and

unhappiness.
All these reasons and experiences within these two essays have a good visual of these things, and how depending on someone’s race, culture, and education are more likely to be pushed into a social class or be categorized as a social class. But, no matter what religion, culture, color, language, skin, clothes, living status, family, parents, and etc. a person has, it should not be looked, seen or thought as who or what they are as a person by their “race.” There is no difference between those “groups” as how society and govern makes us think we should see it as. We all as in all people across the globe share one thing, which is the land and everything on this Earth. And one thing we all as in all people across all nations have one thing in common and race, which is the human race. There is no difference, we are all the same. Don’t let race put you in your place.