What we can and shall do! (Final Essay)

Dear Mr. President,

Our country has been changing in a rate that may be slow for some and speedy for people in our country. There have been things that have defined our country’s policies for others and shown our country in the most grotesque manner. Yet that has not slowed us down for one second and our country has been growing day after day. You, Mr. President may be the light that minorities have been waiting for. This nation has gone through troubling times where our weaknesses have been exploited and shown to the rest of the world. Mr. President, I admire you for being able to have the power to change the U.S.A.’s problems with innovative ideas that have never been tried before. You are the type of person that you have needed for many years; this nation is in your hands and when you listen to these ideas you will most likely be able to solve problems that have plagued our country since the beginning of slavery. One of these problems is people blacks are still separated now from other people and are only being distinguished by their skin color and not their personalities. Another problem would be if these black children had a better environment to learn in, then keeping them off the streets would be so much easier.

The disturbing times that have been shown before the Civil Rights movement include the time period of the Jim Crow “laws.” Jim Crow “laws” were not really laws, but they were more like customs and taboos that the African Americans of the South had to follow or face consequences that may have been brutal considering to what rule they broke. The case of Emmett Till was a prime example of this and this was due to racial barriers in the South also known as segregation. In today’s world African Americans are still suffering the effects of Jim Crow because they are not being seen as individuals to certain people. I have had a water downed experience due to gangs in my neighborhood. The Latino gang and the gang residing in my building were fighting over a girl and I got caught with in the middle because of my skin color. They were screaming derogatory terms in Spanish about African Americans and they only attacked those of African descent who lived in my apartment building. There were a lot of innocent children beaten because of a girl that both gangs thought were gorgeous.

This experience of mine is also related to the book called Uncle Tom’s Children written by Richard Wright and the prologue called “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow.” During the course of the story, either the main character or the black people were called a derogatory name thirty-three times and that is at least one word for each page of the story. The story is related to my story concerning of the gang fights because in this story the Jim Crow laws were separating races and consequences were not proportional to the actions of the black person. This is represented in my past when I was attacked by a group of Latinos, and the reason for this was my skin color. I was attacked for something that is beyond my power to change and I did not do anything to deserve the physical attack. The attack did not only stop at me, but was carried onto other black children, mainly young boys, and the gang that lived in my building had never even try to retaliate. They realize only retaliating would only cause more people to be hurt themselves and the people around them. They also thought that fighting head on with the Mosholu gang was a bad idea because they had at least five times than the measly ten people belonging to the Gang Green gang. This is related to the past because the blacks knew retaliating against the whites would only hurt them more even though in their case they outnumbered the whites, yet the whites had scared and oppressed them for so long that rebelling was out of the question. Kids join gangs because they do not receive the help they need during school or feel that they cannot speak about personal problems to someone in the school and feel that they can find a better family of friends in the streets. Some of the members of gangs may live in underdeveloped neighborhoods where their schools may not have enough money.

There are many things that need to be changed because of gaps between the wealthy and the poor. The gaps are also represented in the education of the children. Those children who are middle class receive a better education than those who are from a lower class. The children are most likely to be a minority when they come from a lower income family. They are not learning the basic information that they need to achieve in life. The students are not to be blamed, but those students who see school as optional are dropping out at an increasing rate. A high school student drops out every 26 seconds according the documentary called Black in America. The schools of America should be a place where people feel safe and can say whatever they want without having the trepidation of being criticized. There are students that are being paid for doing well in school which is also shown in Blacks in America. Do you need something as materialistic as money to keep children in school? Must we involve something as materialistic as money?

My belief is no. A student should not be encouraged by money because at a certain age finding money through drug dealing will become an option for them. This will waste all the money you spent trying to instill the idea of learning into a child who will find the streets and gangs a place where money is not a problem. There is obviously no need to give money to a child who should push themselves to learn because the education that they receive will help them become a stronger student. Instead of giving money to the children you should put them in after school programs which will lead to helping them focused on long term goals. These students need to be taught that no matter what predicament you are in you can succeed in that area. Life is short and this may be something that some kids do not realize and this may affect them in the long run.

Mr. President, the children of your school need better resources and better training for the teachers. The ability of a child to learn depends on the teacher and that teacher’s teaching ability. Yet this is only partially true, if the student does not have the will to learn, then teaching an unwilling student becomes an unpleasant job. Students may not be able to learn because their schools may not have the money to get the supplies they need to help them during class and they may not want to learn because their school may be a place where it is hard to feel where you can tell your personal problems to a teacher. Some schools may be overcrowded which does not allow that one on one time that some students may need in order to thrive in their in learning environment. You can fix this by splitting some schools down into smaller schools or even by hiring more guidance counselors for a crowded school. These children should not be left behind because they cannot function in a big environment where teachers are unable to give individual attention.

The future is near Mr. President, what you shall do will devastate or construct a new country where learning is something everyone wants to be a part of.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Agyemang