One thing that I think people do
not necessarily realize is how alive and active the Civil Rights Movement is
today. There are still aspects of this
movement that are still being fought to improve to this very day. It may not be as obvious to the American
public as it was sixty year ago, but there is no doubt it is still alive in the
society we live in today. An article
written by Richard Wolf in April of this year hit on all of the progress that
can still be made in regards to the Civil Rights movement.
This article is very interesting to
me because Wolf touches on many aspects of everyday life that have improved
drastically due to the Civil Rights movement, but he shows that there is still
so much left to be done. Wolf shows how
African Americans have made huge strides in high school education, but graduation
rates for African Americans in college lag significantly. High unemployment rates still plague the
African American community, but the incomes in the workplace have gone up for
blacks. Voter turnout for blacks was
larger than that of whites in the 2012 presidential election. School segregation and workplace
discrimination have declines dramatically, but too many African Americans go
home to “ segregated, often impoverish neighborhoods.”
The issues are all very interesting
to me. These issues that are still being
wrestled with today are the issues that were being wrestled with in 1950’s
America. Progress over the past fifty
years has been unbelievable, but that doesn’t exactly mean that all these
issues have gone away. Even the electing
of a black president doesn’t make all of these issues go away. Wolf is using this article to specifically
show that African American leaders are remaining loyal to this cause. They are fully aware of the problems that are
hindering the black community to this day, and they want to be able to bring
about change in the United States.
Reading this article was very
interesting. I believe that so many of
us today just go about our normal lives and we don’t necessarily realize the
problems in our own backyard. These
issues are happening all around us, and many of us, myself included, have no
idea. These are issues that demand our
attention as American citizens. Many of
us look back on segregation, and think about how awful it is and say to
ourselves that we would have never ben a part of something so atrocious. I believe that these issues deserve our
attention, because this is our community and our country, and we want to make a
lasting impact on this nation.
I believe that in 100 years, history books will be reading about disparities in incarceration and education in disgust the same way we read about disparities due to segregation in the last 100 years. I believe education to be the most important civil rights issue of today and the discrepancies in graduation rates and college attendance are alarming. Black males are also incarcerated at exorbitantly higher levels than white males and studies have now shown that young black males are 21 times more likely to be shot by police than young white males.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this issue is so easily overlooked in our society today. I think that things have progressed, but that does not make it right for us as American citizens to hide from the reality. I feel as if many of this is pushed under the rug intentionally, because many people believe it is better left not talked about than bringing the issue up to keep progressing the movement. This is because in our society today it can be seen as an uncomfortable thing to talk of or address, but this needs to change. This should be brought back to something we as a whole try to improve daily, instead of hiding from the reality that this issue has not been fully resolved.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is worth pointing out that the Civil Rights Movement is not yet finished. It is unfortunate that it still needs to exist but given the inequality still prevalent in our society it seems that we will need the Civil Rights Movement for the foreseeable future. I was also pleased to see Jackson's comment about the barbaric practices of our nation regarding the incarceration of black males. The disproportional incarceration rate, denial of parole, and uneven prosecution of black men remains a huge issue in our society and ought to be a stain on a nation which prides itself on "equality". One would hope that the one place in which equality is assured is in the nation's courts. However, current practices rebut that. The role of the Civil Rights Movement must continue to make headway to ensure a fairer society for us all.
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