Wednesday, July 24, 2013

"SEPARATE BUT UNEQUAL REPLACES INTEGRATION WITHOUT EQUALITY IN AMERICA"

The civil rights movement in America achieved its desired objective of the integration of the white and the black Americans together in the same society by overcoming the decades of the established racial segregation. This integration can be seen today across the United States, in public housing, restaurants, bars, shopping malls, public transportation systems, United States military, media world, health care accessibility, employment, neighborhoods,  workplaces, sports and sporting events, public functions, religions, inter-racial marriages, professional associations, entertainment industry, arts, science, corporate America, educational system, public places and facilities. This is a major milestone of achievement in the political evolution in America today as a society that first started with the slavery of the blacks which was then later transformed into the Jim Crow laws or the racial segregation that became the law of the land in the Southern United States after the official end of this slavery system in 1865.

Has this racial integration in America today produced a new American society that has equality of the white and the black Americans as far as the access to the American Dream or to the American opportunities are concerned? This integration has also produced two types of Americans that live together in one. The white American is rich and educated and the black America is still poor and does not have the same level of the education of the white Americans today in 2013. There are fewer black Americans with the undergraduate and the advanced degrees, in every profession, in the membership of professional or academic bodies, in private businesses, in public offices and in the corporate America in 2013. There are more black Americans who are today unemployed, dropping out of the high schools, in the prisons, on paroles or court supervisions, living below the poverty level and in the public assisted programs than the white Americans today after almost 50 years of this integration of the two races together in America. 

How can the black Americans overcome this economic inequality in the American society that is now integrated? What is the practical way forward for the black Americans to bridge these visible, but mammoth economic disparities in America? How can this huge economic gap be closed that came directly from the centuries of slavery, racial segregation and economic injustice that the black Americans have suffered in America? The practical answer to this lack of economic equality is not far-fetched from America, but has its solution in one-word that is called "education." This education is my own judgement is the strongest intellectual weapon that is physically available to the black Americans today that can help them to practically bridge this huge disparity gap that the integration that came out directly from the civil rights movement can never achieved alone in America by itself. I will conclude this article with the words of Nelson Mandela of South Africa:“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

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