Inflammed Activism and Hope by Judy

Inflammed Activism and Hope by Judy - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

I am the only minority student in my advanced placement classes; the class’ socioeconomic background is predominantly middle-class, white, and Christian; meanwhile, lower-class Native Americans that live on the reservation ten miles away make up most of my elective classes. The interplay between social stratification and cultural production in schools and communities reveal academic achievement gaps in racial groups which include lack of advisement, support, on-campus engagement, a poor high school experience, financial burdens, stereotype threats, not coming from a college-educated family, colleges poorly structured for minority success, low institutional expectations for success, cultural conflicts, institutional racism, isolation, problems that involve socialization. These achievement gaps show that ethnic minority students attending a predominantly white campus tend to reflect the preconceived behaviors and attitudes that the students, faculty, and staff have about them. James Baldwin would feed my curiosity about race relations in education and society.

He was an activist writer and social critic who captured the intricacies of race and class. Baldwin was the grandson of a slave and grew up in Harlem. My community is deeply concentrated in poverty, unemployment, police brutality, crimes, and broken school systems which leads teens feel depressed and isolated with no outlet thus they use alcohol and drugs as a getaway. I see myself in him because I too hope to transcend from an impoverished community and share unspoken, inflammatory ideas in the world of ideas. Individuals must “think of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it” because this is society’s only hope of change for the better (Baldwin 2). He understands my exact same struggles and inspires me to own the “right and necessity to examine everything.” (Baldwin 19). Baldwin made me acknowledge that “It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person (Baldwin 19).

Racial discrimination and limited socioeconomic prospects compel some ethnic minority groups to maintain culturally different approaches to opportunity structures. Furthermore, slavery and racism have been a social experience for African Americans and predisposes many African American students to lower their educational aspirations because they believe that high academic achievement does not benefit them. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s remark of African Americans performing better at a “slower-track” school further validates these misconceptions. They do not see how education can be beneficial. Cultural capital is predicated by the dominant social class; their parents are very involved and have access to the school culture.

A Native American student once told me that friends have called her whitewashed if she tries to succeed in the white world and her desire to transcend from the oppression of living in a reservation. It is very important to have a diverse and inclusive community so students do not feel excluded or left behind in the world of ideas because their perspectives are invaluable to group dynamics. It is easy to say the lower-class, African Americans, and other ethnic groups have the same opportunities when the struggles of those communities are not actually understood. James Baldwin would give me insight that no one else could. I know that “No American has the right to allow the present government to say, when Negro children are being bombed and hosed and shot and beaten all over the Deep South, that there is nothing we can do about it” (Baldwin 19) and I hope to foster that activism in my society.