Thoughts on "What It's Like to Be Black On Campus Now"

After reading "What It's Like to Be on Black on Campus now" it has opened up my eyes to how much injustice a black student could actually go through and how these injustices continue to happen after they graduate from college. This article also relates to several pieces we have already covered. For example, the article begins by talking about "staying woke" figuratively and physically. Siyanbola literally could not stay awake because of finals week and then got questioned by campus security of her right to be on campus. This relates to Coates and Between the World and Me because Coates constantly emphasizes how black people in the United States have to "stay woke" or they will "lose control over their bodies". In addition to that, the article talks about the barrier for blacks to attend college. Even though the gap between white and black high school graduation rates has reduced, the percentage of blacks that go to college compared to whites is still substantially lower. I think this relates to DuBois and The Talented Tenth because of the idea of struggling for higher education. I don't believe that more whites than blacks go to college because whites are smarter but because of the prejudices in the United States. But say someone black does make it to college and does get it a degree, then they go out into the real world where there is just more inequality and injustices. These inequalities are especially resilient in salaries and just getting a job in general. The wealth return gap and the unemployment rates between blacks and whites is not a narrow gap. This is something that I started to question after reading the article. Why would a black person not get a job over a white person if they both went to college and got the same degree? The fact that people lose opportunities over skin color really blows my mind. I even feel like some blacks who are even more qualified than the white people still do not get the job. And that to me is probably the second biggest problem into todays society, right behind the white supremacists wielding torches and hanging nooses and bananas from trees.

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