My take:
1) Critical thinking begins with the question: "Am I doing this right?"
2) Critical thinking is simply "knowledge."
3) "Knowledge" is the meaning of information.
No information? No meaning.
The more information, the deeper the meaning.
Do you remember one of the very first topics of the course, the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the South?
Please, read this article (NYTimes).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/opinion/sunday/racism-is-everywhere-so-why-not-move-south.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
COMMENTS optional
This article is right on time for me. After this course I will be a recent college grad. I've been contemplating if I should stay in NY or move. I've been in NYC all my life, have decent health insurance, and NY isn't prone to natural disasters. Not to mention, everything is a hop and skip away with 24 hour access. Some parts of the South are devastated with inadequate healthcare for black people. The best health professionals refuse to practice in predominantly black neighborhoods because they believe white neighborhoods offer greater profits and don't want to deal with health insurance. I have seen way to many videos of the police questioning and following black people in nice cars and nice homes in the south.
ReplyDeleteWORST OF ALL: The supreme court ruled in 2014 that it is okay for employers to discriminate against job candidates (as in not give them a job) with dread locks. And who tends to have dreadlocks? It was based of a case involving an employer that told a woman she would need to change her hair style if she wanted to be considered for the job because dread locks tend to get messy. This is nonsense! The only way to change locks is to cut it off. And what woman wants to walk around bald? ALSO, why not just have a requirement to wear your locks neatly? Why cut it off?
WORST OF ALL: Schools all across the country are banning black students from wearing their natural hair as per their dress code policy.
I say all of this to say, the cheaper prices in the south and being around your own people may not be worth its shortcomings. They give in one hand but take from the other. I say we all stop running (migrating) and take a stand. It's okay to relocate, take risks, and go where the opportunities are. But I think people are making decisions blindly, hastily, with out a clear plan. Everything is political and we must all move with respect to it. There is no sense in having a black mecca (or whatever your background may be) if there are political systems set in place to undermine the organization and efforts of a minority group and that minority group is willing to do no more than run to a place where they will feel it the least.
Hazel, I am extremely sorry that you must deal with this type of discrimination. I feel disgusted that discrimination exists at all. I do not understand why it is difficult for certain individuals to accept someone that looks different than they do. I do not understand what is so unacceptable about dreadlocks that they are seen as unprofessional.
DeleteWell as a black man this article made resonated in me because it happens every day. We are slowly moved out our neighborhoods because we can’t afford it. The prices are rising and salaries are dropping. And all is changing if we like it or not. The only solution is move were you can afford. We are all looking for a place to live the “American dream” to have a nice job, a home and take care of our family.
ReplyDeleteThe south is the next option. Black ran to the north for a better life from the slavery and today we are still running from poverty. The south just became the new north in 2017.In hope we don’t recreate the same errors of the past of not buying, owning, and investing in the community we live in.
I think by doing this we can change the way we live, the way run our economy and the way we the law deals with blacks.
I agree that the south has become the new north with its greater job opportunities and lesser costs of living. Personally, I have seen many individuals I know move to Texas. The houses there are extremely big and grandeur for a fraction of the price of houses in New York City. My family, ourselves, moved out of New York because we could no longer afford living there. We were also looking for a more permanent home we can call ours, and we could never pursue this goal is New York City with the inflated prices of tiny houses.
DeleteI found it surprising when Belton Mickle states that in his experience, people are more racist in the North. I have always learned, and therefore have had a preconceived notion, that there is more discrimination in the South. While my preconception may be true in theory, Mickle explains that in practice, the North is more discriminatory. I would not have believed this new information if Ms. Owens did not also agree. I would like to research this topic further to confirm these details.
ReplyDeleteThat was surprising to me too. The way I learned it, the North always seemed more progressive and free than the South. But I guess in the modern age it makes sense that the Southern "brand" of racism is more subtle because they are embarrassed of their past and the open racism and horrific treatment of black people there. In the North, where there is not the same history of oppression, maybe people aren't as embarrassed and are unfortunately more comfortable with outright racism and discrimination.
DeleteThe article definltly has the right title . But I feel different from what the article stated . The racism in the north isn't has open in the south . The north is very much use to color mixture . Yes change is happening in the south but not as fast as in the north . If I were to move from NY it would be because of the high cost of living .Racism is in every country ,state ,continent you cant escape it .
ReplyDeleteA report released last year by the New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer, found that between 2000 and 2014 about 61 percent of millennials moving to New York were white, while only 9 percent of 18- to 29-year olds moving into the city were black.
ReplyDeleteI have long lived in New York City. Growing up in Brooklyn you see a lot of diversity, I went to Manhattan schools where then again there was a lot of diversity. But as I grew older the diversity seem to wither as this state grows more popular. Long before gentrification being apparent in neighborhoods, this city no longer was for people of my skin tone. You wouldn't imagine the outrage when you enter places and your brown. Its like blacks are banned, like New York City is doing a racial cleaning. These aren't new streets I am walking, this is my city, I've been to these buildings before the businesses have changed before the New White City has taken over. Real statical numbers regarding this fact scare me to death because I just thought this was all in my head.
"The idea of black hope and opportunity are now squarely located in the South." The fate of the south is terrifying because I have no desire to move south, this is my city, I know it well. I want to work here, I want to survive here. I have no desire to relocate. The irony it is for the north to transition to being what the south once was. Why do they keep moving the land of opportunity for black folk and we eagerly chase where ever it is. But we are not accepted no matter the stakes. It is all hard to swallow, Id argumentatively say that European countries may be more accepting then the states.