Informational Text Analysis Essay

Informational Text Analysis Essay
Education is the basis of everything whether it is culture, civilization, thoughts, or even beliefs. Knowledge has been the main desire for basically anybody who wants to become somebody important. People who are considered very educated have most likely been exposed to many resources and opportunities that have helped them through each step of the way. However, during the 1900s, many people such as African Americans, have not been given these resources and opportunities to accel/improve in their academics. Therefore, they are not expected to perform the same as Caucasians do, due to their unequal opportunities, history, and/or background. The books
A Hope in the Unseen and
Integration Interrupted include real life experiences from students who feel that they are expected to fail or succeed considering the color of their skin and their cultural background. These ideas have taught many of us that stereotypes, rumors, and other types of racist acts, have influenced the students decisions of either trying to succeed or not trying at all, which relates to having a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.
A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind and
Integration Interrupted by Karolyn Tyson have proved that racism still exists in segregated and even desegregated schools in a different manner of ways such as institutional racism, as well as historical racism, the biology of race and race as a cultural construct. Education has been the key aspect of becoming successful whether its economically, socially, or politically and has open many doors for different types of people. A person or a group of people, especially racial groups (such as AfricanAmericans and Caucasians) are expected to have an education in order to set the bar or standard for themselves or even for their race. By this I mean that if AfricanAmericans are not performing well academically because of

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the limited opportunities and resources they are given, then they will not be treated the same as many well educated Caucasians do. This is where racism comes in and has shown people that even though racism has been “abolished,” it still exists and has affected many people in a negative way.
The book
A Hope in the Unseen tells a story that takes place during the late 1900’s about an AfricanAmerican boy named Cedric Jennings who was a 4.02 GPA student in 11th grade that was striving for success. He had dreamed going MIT after graduating from an innercity school located in southeast Washington D.C. called
Frank W. Ballou High School where “there is no safe distance, no safe place to go, not in school, not on the street, not anywhere” (Suskind 22).
One of Cedric’s greatest fears was being discovered that he was smart since “many students feel
[bewildered] when their peers cast academic striving and achievement [which is seen] as acting white” (Tyson 17). Because of this belief, Cedric “was simply scared to death... [but that was] something he can live with” (Suskind 23). This idea that colored students who perform well in school are trying “act white” is absurd and stereotypical. The students who had that belief clearly had a fixed mindset and had no hope in achieving in anything academically. Those who were told that they were “acting white” are the people who had a growth mindset and believed that if they studied hard, they can improve and get the right amount of education to become successful.
In the book
Integration Interrupted, many factual evidence and interviews are provided to give the readers an insight on how racism still exists in school even until this day. For example, the historical background and the cultural construct of African Americans which relates to many of their ancestors that used to be slaves, were not educated whatsoever

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