1. Living in a class apart: The separate world of America's Black elite”—how are the issues discussed in the article still impacting African Americans today?
This article was extremely interesting for me. In the beginning it starts with the author reminiscing about what his grandmother used to tell him about being wary about getting to dark in the sun. She wanted her grandchildren to maintain a lighter skin tone. In addition, she also wanted the author to not hang out with African American children whose complexions were too dark. It never occurred to me how within the African American Community there were so many divisions. It’s saddening to think that your ancestors, money, and skin tone can dictate the way people of your own race see you. Somewhat surprised by this article, I asked my boyfriend about what his mother and father experienced when they got married. His mother is an African American woman with light complexion who comes from a wealthy southern family. She attended a good university and was in an all African American sorority. His father is a refugee from Nigeria with very dark complexion. He said that his mother’s family was not to keen on the idea of their daughter marrying a dark African even though he turned out to be quite successful as a doctor. This “us vs. them” complex between elitist African Americans and the “others” is only hurting the African American community as a whole. As I’ve stated numerous times before, the African American community most come to together through self-empowerment.
2. In the article by Offner, P. (2002). What’s love got to do with it?: Disparity between black men and women, the author presents several explanations for why Black women are advancing so far beyond Black men. What would you add to these explanations?
This article made me think about concepts that I hadn’t before. The idea of the “lazy black man” and the “b*****y black woman” has been poisoning African American relationships. The author presents several explanations as to why black women are advancing far beyond black men. Offner lists of explanations such as incarceration, mortality rates, etc. that hold black man back. I would accredit the cycle of poverty for the disparity of many African American males. I work with an all boys group at a middle school in east Austin. The majority of the boys are African American. A question was raised (not sure if it was an appropriate question to ask) by one of the boys’ coaches…
“How many of your dads are gone?”
out of the group of about 25 boys, I can’t recall one boy NOT raising his hands.
These boys are growing up without a strong male role model in their lives and are being raised primarily by their mothers and grandmothers. I’m not saying that mothers and grad mothers can’t successful raise boys, but I am saying that the boys are lacking a strong male role model at home. With this in mind, boys may be a bit more susceptible to failing into similar traps their fathers fell into such as drugs, gang violence, incarceration, etc.
3. From the editorial by Raspberry on “Successful women who are childless”, (A) what percent of African American women between 28-55 years old and earning over $55,000 a year are married? _____. (B) Further, according to Cornel West, how has the ratio of black men to black women college students at Harvard changed between 1970 and today?
Compare this to John Hope Franklin article.
60% of African American women between 28-55 years old and earning over $55,000 a year are married. Also, now more black women are at Harvard than man.
4. From the article by Eckholm, E. (2006), “Studies sound alarm on plight of black males”, (A) How has the plight deepened for black men in the last 2 decades? (B) Describe the two factors cited by Holzer and colleagues for keeping black employment rates down.
I agree with you that the “us vs. them” complex between elitist African Americans and the “others” is hurting their community as a whole. This is one reason why the African American community cannot grow for the better is because without African Americans, the elitist and the “others”, working together they will not be all that they can be. I also agree that one reason why there are not a lot of dads in families is because of poverty. Single moms can raise successful children but sons do need a role model from their dads. The role models, the fathers, need to be a positive model because if they are not then there is no point in them being in their children’s lives.
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