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Essay on african american success
Essay on african american success
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"No matter how good you are, no matter how big your brain or sophisticated your words, once your pigmented skin changes from caramel to chocolate, your good will never be good enough." This was an ignorant, although well-intentioned, statement addressed to my impressionable eighth grade classmates - misguided advice that discouraged half of the already small group of students from taking the Specialized High School Admissions Test. My concerned teacher's opinion cost my classmates - and almost cost me - the educational opportunity of a lifetime.
In the fall semester of eighth grade, I watched my best friend succumb to self-doubt. As we researched the racial composition of the specialized high schools, she cried out, "This is sad. Out of the 6,400 African Americans who took the test, a measly 320 received an offer of admissions. Let's be real, we don't belong in those schools." I wanted to disagree with her, but I
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Despite the fact that I am the only female Black student in many of my classes, I have rarely felt out of place. With the help of encouraging teachers and a rigorous curriculum, my school has helped me grow intellectually and emotionally. I am appreciative of the endless opportunities that it offers, but I cannot help but wish more African American students were afforded these same possibilities.
The rapidly decreasing number of African Americans in the specialized high schools troubles me. I am convinced that the decrease is not due to intellectual aptitude, but to lack of preparation and confidence. In my final fall semester of middle school, my school did not have the funding to prepare us for the Specialized High School Admissions Test. Instead of the months, or even years, of preparation that more privileged students undergo, my classmates and I received a three-week crash
Cater, the author of the book Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, became interested as of why minority students were faced with white society challenges in school systems? In her book, Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black And White, she offers an insightful look at the educational attainment in low-income urban communities. Carter suggest that these students are embraced the dominant opportunity ideology, they acknowledge the dominant cultural to obtain status and goods. However, they use their own cultural to gain status in their own communities. She conducted a research to study the importance of cultural authenticity for minority, such as African American and Latino, students. She examines how cultural authenticity influences minority students’ relationship with the values they believe are privileged in schools. Cultural authenticity reflects on the beliefs and values of everyday society. Carter questioned, why do so many African American and Latino students perform worse than their Asians and White peers in class and on exams? And why might African Americans and Latino students are less engaged in
Black adolescents are more likely to be suspended or expelled than their White peers, yet close to all government and community based programs are focused on specifically helping young Black men achieve academically. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw wrote the article “Black Girls Matter” in 2015. This article was meant to be informative and persuasive. Crenshaw wanted to inform readers about the issue of Black girls being excluded from race-based government initiatives and persuade them to agree with her claim about this being an issue. In order to convince readers that government and community officials need to create more programs that focus on the academic success of Black girls, Crenshaw had to inform readers with statistics and other facts about
African- American males have been underrepresented among college students and degree earners for years, however the reason for this is often misconstrued. The percentages of white high school graduates “In 1998-2000 had jumped to 46. However, only 40 percent of African-Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics in the same age group were attending college” (McGlynn, Angela Proviteira). The question then to pose, is why minority students are not succeeding in college compared to Caucasian students, “Only 47% of Black male students graduated on time
Many tend to shy away when anything concerning race is involved. The article’s title “Modern-Day Segregation in Public Schools” calls the issue directly out. Everyone realizes what segregation is. There is no question that the topic should be taken seriously. Kohli relates the issue back to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of 1954, “…which mandated the desegregation of America’s public schools.” The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education will forever be known as a highly historic and heart-wrenching decision. An emotional tactic was used as seen through an actual experience with a student. Walter Fields, the father of an African-American New Jersey student has seen firsthand the effects of tracking becoming another form of segregation. Field’s daughter scored high enough scores to be placed in an accelerated course at her high school, but was not placed in the course due to a lacking recommendation from her teacher. Fields stated “You can…look in a classroom and know whether it’s an upper level class or a lower level class based on the racial composition of the classroom.” This saying that the lower level classes are predominately comprised of African-Americans and the higher level classes are predominately comprised of white students. Therefore, reinforcing the statistics of the Racial Distribution in AP Courses at Columbia High School in which black students made up 51.5 percent of total enrollment, but only having 18.7 percent enrolled in AP courses. Unlike the 38.4 percent enrollment of white students with 69.8 percent making up the AP course
As cliché as it sounds, it is true that many African American students come from very harsh and poverty stricken environments. They tend to go to under resourced schools as well that do not provide the proper knowledge for them to further their education. And even worse, these schools tend to be segregated since they are usually in the harsher parts of a neighborhood. Sadly, it’s the segregated schools are one of the main reasons why black students decide not to go on to pursue a higher education. According to "The Way Out of the Black Poverty Cycle", a black student that attends an integrated suburban school is six times more likely to graduate compared to a segregated under resourced school. An African Americans family structure and the opinions of family members affects if their decision to further their education as well. Many African American children grow up un...
Most of you are probably wondering why I am interested in Ebonics. Obviously I’m not black. But, that does not mean that I can’t take an interest in the success of my friends and classmates. I attended Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Massachusetts. My town is supposedly a liberal, open-minded place. But I always wondered why there were very few black students in my advanced-level classes and how come some of the black friends I had in the beginning of the year were no longer around at the end. I talked to one of my friends about this once. She told me that many black students in our school had moved from a nearby city and that they were not used to the academic standards of the school. Many of them became discouraged due to the lack of support of the teachers and some students even dropped out. This is a problem. In my opinion, many teachers do not respect students’ cultures if they are not a part of the mainstream, white culture. Although language is only one part of this respect, it is a large part of every student’s culture. Even though there has been a movement to improve inner-city schools and increase the success of black students, these programs would benefit any school around the country.
Throughout the years the dropout rate of African Americans has increased and decreased. Many people look at black students as if they sit there and do not learn anything at all but we do try. Some may think that the only reason the black students drop out is because their grades, but that’s not true. Some dropout because of financial pressure, health problems, mental, emotional, and social issues, and may not have family support.
The issue of whether HBCU’s are still needed have been occurring constantly in today’s nation. HBCU’s have been in existence for almost two centuries now. Their principal mission is to educate African Americans, and they have. HBCU’s graduate more than 50% of “African American” professionals and public school teachers. But, HBCU’s have been facing challenges such as their decrease in diversity, financing, and graduate rates which has caused a speculation of their importance in today’s communities. I believe that HBCU’s are still needed.
As previously stated, it appears there are persistant barriers present that hinder enrollment, retention, and rate of graduation for African Americans in higher education. It is imperative that educational concerns for African Americans are addressed at all levels, but it is particularly important at the post secondary stage. Higher levels of education are associated with both lower unemployment rates and a higher income. If...
Cokley, Kevin. "The Impact of College Racial Composition on African American Students' Academic Self-Concept: A Replication and Extension." Journal of Negro Education 71.4 (2002): 288-96. JSTOR. Web.
society…CRT views racism as an inherent part of American civilization, privileging White individuals over people of color in most areas of life” (Hiraldo, p. 55). In other words, racism is considered to be a normal part of American lives so much so that higher education ignore systemic racism. By ignoring systemic racism, higher education is promoting and reinforcing institutional racism. For example, when institutions decide to improve their diversity, they promote institutional racism by luring in diverse groups of students in order to make more profits as an institution. Most institutions intentionally admit diverse students in order to gain a better reputation of being a more diverse institution. What many people tend to overlook is the fact that colleges and universities become more diverse for the sake of reputation and increased
SAT participation among Montgomery County schools' 2010 minority graduates drops. Retrieved from: http://www.cds.org/item/cds http://www.gazette.net/stories/09222010/montsch231827_32535.php The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. (2006).Black Student College Graduation Rates Remain Low, But Modest Progress Begins to Show. Retrieved from: http://www.jbhe.com/features/50_blackstudent_gradrates.html.
Efforts toward ethnic integration on the macro and micro levels of American society were considered important, not only to the Black American family, but to the overall social, political and economic success of the nation. The Supreme Court of the United States paved the way for greater diversity in schools by imposing enforceable, busing programs in an effort to desegregate schools, and also by using so-called “affirmative action” programs to diversify schools with more women and ethnic minorities. Jeremy Fiel describes the incidence of resegregation in schools as, “a mode of exclusion that emerges from group-based competition for resources and promotes educational stratification” (Fiel 2013). At the macro level, laws were instituted to provide equal access to groups that were institutionally oppressed. The consensus was that desegregation of the public schools and workforce would provide meaningful socio-economic opportunities. The previous efforts to integrate, educate and prosper these stratified groups have been diluted by recent attempts of the status quo to rescind the institutional protections afforded to these groups. As a result of these counterproductive efforts, “‘Black children are more racially and socioeconomically isolated today than at any time’ since data became available in 1970, Richard Rothstein, a research
English has never been one of my strengths. I hate reading books and writing papers. I only did them because I had to. College English and High School English are nothing alike. The expectations for College essays are much higher than that of High School essays. What may have been an A on a high school essay may be a D on a college paper. In college English, the main essay type is classical argumentation. An argumentative essay focuses on whether the writer can construct a well-developed argument that persuades his/her audience. The transition from high school level writing to college level writing has been a little bit hard for me to grasp, because it was something I had never done before. At first, I was skeptical as to why I was put into English 111. I thought to
I realize that many other students applying for this scholarship will have great academic records and may also be in clubs like myself, but I believe that I will be able to put the scholarship money to good use and not waste a cent of it. The one thing that sets me apart from everyone else is that I appreciate anything anyone does for whether it is helping me up when I fall or if my friend lends me a small amount of money and does not want it back. It is sad to see when people get scholarships and fail classes or will not try as hard because they did not pay for it out of pocket. I will always try hard in college whether or not someone gave me money to assist me or I paid for it myself. I realize how valuable money is and I will never waste