Black Men in College

I was told to write about the Issue Black men in College.

 

 The topic chosen for this essay was to discuss black men in college.  Well, I do believe there is a definite issue with black men in college.  My personalized view of the issue of black men in college is neither that there are not enough black men going to college, nor that there are too many.  My issue with black men in college is that there is reverse discrimination.  If everyone was supposed to be equal then there would not be an issue with black men in college.  It would not matter what color they were or how many of that particular race went to certain schools.  I just have not figured out why the ethnic background of college students and how many of them attend should matter.
        To describe an issue as dealing in reverse discrimination is a very controversial statement.  Reverse discrimination is described as “Discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, especially when resulting from policies established to correct discrimination against members of a minority or disadvantaged group.” Now, wouldn’t having a college fund only for a minority group and not open to the general public be considered reverse discrimination?  This also goes along with only certain college funds reserved for those of a certain religion or gender.  I completely agree that people should be free to call the college fund whatever they would like due to the Fifth Amendment, which allows free speech and press.  People are free to call college scholarships and funds names such as The White Christian Male college fund, the United Negro college fund, or Italian Female Society college fund.  I would just prefer that these college funds, although specified to particular types of people, could still be open to the general public.  Say you have 20 males applying for the Christian Male college fund, yet they are all terrible students.  Then one female who is an immaculate student applies for the same college fund. Hopefully she would get the scholarship due to her peers ill grades versus her good grades.  If the female was not allowed to apply, she may never receive a scholarship and have the ability to go to college and do great things.  A mediocre student would have gotten the scholarship and may not have produced positive levels of academic achievements.  Overall, I feel that the physical characteristics of a person should not exclude anyone wanting to further their education and apply for scholarships.
        Due to the nature of this essay, I feel it necessary to throw in a few statistics of the different races populating our nation’s colleges.  Unfortunately I have yet to find any viable statistics at this time.  What I did find while attempting to find a solid statistical graph based on minorities in
college; was that supposedly almost half of the Californian college population was Hispanic. I found that in some states, the numbers of minorities in college has risen dramatically since 1989, and I also found that a few states,  these numbers in college have fallen, not dramatically, but still fallen.  This concludes nothing to me.  All that I found while looking up statistics was that some people go to school in some places while some people do not in other places.  I concluded that sometimes people want to go to school and sometimes they don’t.  Last but not least, some minorities may want to go to school this year, while some don’t, allowing the statistics to be different in every school.
        If it were up to me, I would take any effort people are making to help any issue of any minority in college and put it towards the children.  If people find an issue with black men in college, why don’t they put more effort into the public school system?  Why don’t the people who are trying so hard to help adult minorities put more money toward helping every young child in a less than adequate school?  There are several schools that have children with terrible SAT scores and the lowest reading levels in the nation.  People should try using the money to clean up the streets and have nice parks where children can grow and socialize without fear of getting shot or dealing with drug addicts and gang members.  It would be better to give more money to schools for field trips so the children can see adults working as astronauts and other interesting jobs.  Field trips would have the ability to inspire children to do what it takes in school to grow up to be amazing, well educated citizens.  I do understand that everyone does not have an amazing job, but with the right education the children can find a field that they love and learn what it takes to be what they want to be.  Without proper motivation as young children, I firmly believe children grow up not living up to their full potential, struggling through life,
wondering what their future could have held.  I would not want this for my children,  so why would anyone else want an unfulfilled life for theirs?
        Even as I am writing this paper, I feel nervous.  I am nervous about being portrayed as Racist and nervous that anyone who reads this essay who is not white would consider the essay racist.  I never really thought about different cultures not being considered equal before.  I myself have three African American cousins whom I have never thought were any different from
myself.  Is this what America has become?  I am afraid to be considered racist even though I don’t consider myself to have ever been racist.  I tried in this essay to paint a portrait of equality where no one is left without college and yet I still feel like I have written something wrong.  I understand that the topic of Black Men in College can be considered controversial.  It is controversial only because of one thing; people can see color.  It would be nice to live in a
world where everyone was grey, everyone looked the same and everyone was like a clone.  Even if we were all clones, someone would find a way to discriminate and belittle someone else.  I think that this is just human nature; cruelty can be found in any society.