What Is The Real Cost Of Opportunity?

In America, we are told that it is the land where everything and anything is possible. For many years, it wasn’t like that for African American. With many hard work, strength, and courage African American manage to earn the right to an education. To the African American community education became more of a need than a want. We’ve learn that education is such a powerful asset that with it you are unstoppable. You can do so much if you put your time and energy to it. Having an education to African American is the one hope for a brighter and better

One month, the family is struggling to pay for groceries and rent, the next they are all living in mansion, driving expensive cars, and eating at expensive restaurants. In White households, the expectancy to go through many stages of school and earn various degrees in order to achieve this level of living is more standard. “The percentage of associates degrees attained increased by a small amount over bachelors degrees attained by Blacks in the academic year of 2000-2001. In all of the masters degrees acquired, Blacks were accountable for 8%, and a small portion of first professional and doctoral degrees, only accounting for 7% and 5% of those. Whites were said to have obtained the highest number of degrees,” (Hoffman, 2204: 1). It is our goal to use our research to prove this point.

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

Ultimately the lack of reliable resources and preparation from underfunded schools leads African American students into being unprepared for college and jobs, once again reinforcing a vicious cycle of poverty within the community. Gillian B. White, a senior associate editor at The Atlantic, wrote a chilling article regarding the systematic racism that is deeply embedded in the American school system. In the article The Data: Race Influences School Funding, White states “At a given poverty level, districts that have a higher proportion of white students get substantially higher funding than districts that have more minority students” (White). In this quote White explains the clear correlation of race and inadequate funding in the American school

Due to the discrimination of African-Americans, and oppression resulting from it, the government, justice system, educational system, and society has made it clear that African-American teenagers obtaining a thorough and effective education is the least of their concerns. It is almost as though African-American teenagers are purposely being set up to fail. As stated in “The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution we need”, “Today the schools are more segregated than they have been since the 1960s with urban, predominantly Black and Latino schools receiving fewer resources and set up to fail. These schools more and more resemble prisons

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

The successful education process starts with the family in the home and community, and continues in school and throughout life. The extent to which Black parents become actively involved in the education of Black male children is the extent to which the destruction of potentially millions of young Black men will stop. When young Black men realize they have become expendable, are we ready for their reaction? The United States does not tolerate young Black men being unproductive or counter-productive to the goals of mainstream society. Black males are suspended, expelled and failed in schools at rates that are two to five times higher than students of other races and go to jail at rates five to ten times higher than people of other races ().Jackson, Phillip. “The Massive Failure of

Students attend school starting at pre-school then kindergarten, kindergarten to first grade and leading up to middle school then high school, the classes and teachers are supposed to prepare them for the next level. With the correct preparation and tools, after graduating high school, many students have their mind set on attending college as the next level. However many African-American male students who do have the ability to graduate high school, are not prepared for their next level which is college. Due to the quality of these schools “the school districts in urban neighborhoods have fewer academic offerings, less qualified teachers, out of date materials and lower quality curriculum” (WOOD, J. (2011), results in the poor education of the minority students attending them. Also due to the different academic and environment backgrounds that white and black students come from, many teachers are unaware of how to teach black students and how to gain their attention in the classroom. Other than

In the United States alone, minorities have struggled for centuries to earn the basic rights and opportunities as others. African Americans have always worked harder and been treated maliciously just because of the color of their skin. There have been numerous movements, peaceful protests, and brutal battles by black leaders against whites for equality, justice, and a fair chance at a better life. It is safe to say that in the past, blacks were not allowed to progress or have a mind of their own. In comparison to the past, the educational sector for minorities still remains as an extreme societal challenge. For many years, African Americans have been denied educational advancement opportunities. The higher education area suffers greatly for the black population but very few people will address why this matter occurs. Do black families’ socioeconomic status affect the children’s education? The socioeconomic status is easily defined as an individuals or families’ economic and social rank based on income, education level, and occupation. The socioeconomic status of black families does affect their children’s academic success, however; it does not determine their children’s success. This educational disadvantage for black students needs to be addressed because of the lack of financial and emotional support that minority students receive due to their parents lack of experience and knowledge with higher education. Many black students become a product of their environment because

A substantial amount of educational and psychological research has consistently demonstrated that African American students underperform academically relative to White students. For example, they tend to receive lower grades in school (e.g., Demo & Parker, 1987; Simmons, Brown, Bush, & Blyth, 1978), score lower on standardized tests of intellectual ability (e.g., Bachman, 1970; Herring, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Simmons et al., 1978), drop out at higher rates (e.g., American Council on Education, 1990; Steele, 1992), and graduate from college with substantially lower grades than White students (e.g., Nettles, 1988). Such performance gaps can be attributed to

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

Most young black American’s believed that they couldn’t become successful in this nation full of oppression. On average, black family’s earned half the income of whites and were twice as likely to be unemployed. Hope of becoming successful for a young black American was grim. Fortunately, one thing

Looking at these statistics it is easy to recognize the many hardships African American males have to endure and it also depicts the portrait of Black male underachievement at various points in their lives. “There is no shortage of empirical evidence to highlight the difficulties African American males encounter, including the realm of education and the consequences associated with being undereducated (McGee, 2013).

On a Monday afternoon in October of 1996, my sex, the biological distinction between male and female, was determined to be female. Thus, I was involuntarily ascribed the status of daughter and younger sister. From this moment on, my parents used my gender and race to act accordingly in making the decisions of how I should be raised, how I should be dressed, and most importantly, the type of education I was to receive from social institutions, starting with family and academic institutions. Within this social culture, the expectations of acquiring an education becomes a norm for obtaining decent opportunities, yet the challenges people of color, like myself have to face such as, unequal distribution of funds and low-quality education makes this “norm” seem less like an equal opportunity and more like a privilege for those who can financially afford it.

One of the key factors in economics is an opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is when you are gaining something but losing something else. This means that if I were to purchase the iPhone, for example, I would be turning down the other options of phones as in Androids, Samsung’s, and etc. Another example would be if someone were to get Lays chips they will be turning away Pringles. While I have been on campus I have made some opportunity costs. One of the few opportunity costs I have made is choosing a meal plan. I chose Meal Plan B, which is a plan where I get one hundred and fifty meals per semester and then one hundred dollars in Ben Bucks. I lost the chance of getting Meal Plan A. Meal Plan A had unlimited meals in the Cafeteria but also