President Lyndon Johnson enacted affirmative action, signing it would "ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" (215) Students, from a very young age, are informed of all the hardships that Black people and women have faced and overcome throughout time and, that because of their dedication to equal treatment, discrimination has become nearly non-existent.
Though in broad spectrum in the United States equal rights for Blacks and women have improved drastically, these issues have not disappeared. Tatum writes that "a study... sent out close to 5,000 fictitious resumes... the resumes were all similar except that half of them were assigned as African American-sounding name... and the other half had names more commonly associated with Whites... the results showed significant discrimination against the Black-identified resumes" (217). We would like to think that the people most qualified for a job would be the ones to be hired, but when two people are neck and neck, the White person is the one to be hired, as shown in the survey. This survey's results can be reflected in the article from the Boston Globe by Nicole Dungca, "Lost On Campus, As Colleges Look Abroad". Dunca's article discussed the racism and discrimination seen in Boston colleges against Black students and how international students are favored. While we see these international students as a great way to diversify Boston, you will see very few Black local students, which you would think would be attending colleges from their city. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Dunca, they don't go to local schools because they don't feel welcomed. Yes, there are other races on campus, which can be seen as affirmative action, but one skin color is hardly ever seen on Boston campuses. Racism and discrimination against Black people is still very much a relevant problem, which Tatum is saying in this section of the book, but people (in broad terms) have become so used to the smaller problems that they think they no longer exist.
As readers begin chapter eight, they can see that Tatum is ready to open doors to problems among races besides Black groups. The group she focuses most on is the Latinx population. The most wide-spread issue that Latinx Americans have is the loss of their culture's language, Spanish. It's the most significant piece of the Central and Southern American worlds for many and when it is lost, people lose themselves (246). The largest group of Latinx people in the US are Puerto Ricans, whose language has been "devalued by the dominant culture" (246). While it is perfectly okay to want to be accepted by new people and make new friends, this should not mean that people need to forget who they were raised as and their heritage. If people do speak their native/ethnic tongue, they are possibly going to be shamed; such negative reactions to people speaking Spanish come from anyone from teens to the elderly. We hear about encounters like such in the news or even on the streets of a diverse city. Losing a language, while as said before is not good, gives one less thing for rude people to point out and laugh at, which is a positive that some immigrants might see.
Fitting in and being a "normal American teenager," speaking English might assist people in lsoing who they are or forgetting where they come from, but issues often reappear later in life for many. In the example Tatum gives, we are talking about the children of undocumented immigrants. Tatum goes in depth in her conversation about children that graduate high school, but can't further their education due to their parents being illegal (253). Kids and families don't want to risk getting their parents deported, but without financial assistance, they get stuck in the same low-paying jobs as their parents. Illegal immigrants in the past four years have been a huge topic of discussion in US news and a jumping off point for politics. The problems they have that Tatum talks about in this section are not quite like what we talk about now, but they are similar. There are lots of people that think healthcare should be provided for all, but others think illegal immigrants should not receive assistance. Like Tatum's example, they need help from the US to progress, but can't get it without exposing themselves, which is where a harsh and endless circle of struggles begin.
Tatum's book, especially in this section, is very relevant to problems we face today, which is what I would expect, as this copy is an edited and updated edition for its 20th anniversary.
Fitting in and being a "normal American teenager," speaking English might assist people in lsoing who they are or forgetting where they come from, but issues often reappear later in life for many. In the example Tatum gives, we are talking about the children of undocumented immigrants. Tatum goes in depth in her conversation about children that graduate high school, but can't further their education due to their parents being illegal (253). Kids and families don't want to risk getting their parents deported, but without financial assistance, they get stuck in the same low-paying jobs as their parents. Illegal immigrants in the past four years have been a huge topic of discussion in US news and a jumping off point for politics. The problems they have that Tatum talks about in this section are not quite like what we talk about now, but they are similar. There are lots of people that think healthcare should be provided for all, but others think illegal immigrants should not receive assistance. Like Tatum's example, they need help from the US to progress, but can't get it without exposing themselves, which is where a harsh and endless circle of struggles begin.
Tatum's book, especially in this section, is very relevant to problems we face today, which is what I would expect, as this copy is an edited and updated edition for its 20th anniversary.
Good discussion of a link to a current event. Using a specific news story or event would help ground your discussion of its relevance.
ReplyDeleteLily - I like the way that you discuss the ways your book relates to present-day issues, as we clearly still grapple with a lot of race-based issues as a country. When you mentioned Affirmative Action, I wanted to ask -- do you think Affirmative Action is a good strategy for counteracting racial disadvantages? It definitely addresses an important problem, but some people criticize it for going too far in the other direction, and denying positions to qualified people who aren't minorities. I don't know enough about it to have an informed opinion, but I know it's contentious, and I'm interested in your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHey Mia - I don't have a good answer for whether or not affirmative action is a good or a bad thing because I'm not well informed enough. I think to form a proper opinion, I would have to experience it first hand or talk to people who have encountered it themselves. While it sounds like it could work if applied in the right situations, I think it's difficult to find a happy medium. There should be diversity and (preferably) no discrimination, but if people who are unqualified are being hired over well-qualified and prepared purely based on historical problems with their race, then there's obviously a problem. An issue that arises with affirmative action in place is when white people begin to complain about it. Such people don't want to be called out for being racist if they say something about a Black person is chosen over them. Even if they have good reason, it's too easy for others to just call them racist.
DeleteI hope what I'm saying makes sense! Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Lily, I also wrote about the affirmative action part of the book in my blog post. I don't entirely agree with the sources she uses when they claim that this policy isn't reverse discrimination because affirmative action today actually does the opposite of what it was originally intended to do when put in place by President Johnson in 1965. As you stated, it was passed as a way to "'ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.'" And yet it is ironic that today, a great deal of the decision is made based on the color of the applicants skin for colleges that have affirmative action. In my blog, I talked about the Fisher v University of Texas lawsuit in 2016. This lawsuit is proof of how corrupt this system can be when admitting prospective students. I'm not disagreeing with you because you don't really state your own opinion on the matter.
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin - I think that in the case of miss use of affirmative action, you could call it "reverse discrimination." It's weird to think that reverse discrimination could occur, but favoritism towards a race is what it is. What bothers me about colleges in particular accepting certain students is that, as I wrote in this post, there are a lot of diverse schools, but none of them are what you could refer to as "locally sourced." The affirmative action is present, but only to a certain degree which I find to be really strange.
DeleteI didn't really want to state my personal opinion because I don't know enough about the pros and cons of affirmative action (it would have been good to look further into it). From what I know based on this book, I think affirmative action might work in some circumstances, but overall, it's not a productive or proactive solution to the issues of racism and causes more problems than it solves. Thank you for the comment!
I really liked your discussion of this section and how being an illegal immigrant or a person of color in general can trap people in a cycle of poverty. In terms of the "American Dream," it is especially difficult for people of color to achieve this idealization of American values. The true American dream of upward mobility is often impossible for anyone who isn't white and wealthy. I also liked your discussion of the issues with international students. I liked this part of the book and how Tatum argues that while colleges may be able to diversify themselves with international students, they're not helping the local population of color. International students are important for diversity and to help with tuition costs, but I also agree with her argument that colleges should support local students of color.
ReplyDelete