In Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Wright describes the struggles of a young, African-American boy growing up in southern America in the early 1900’s. Due to the nature of the social commentary presented in the book, it is easy to attempt to make conjectures about how Wright would feel about life in modern day America. It is important to realize however, that because of the changing nature of American society, and the new face of opportunity, Wright would never feel the need to write a book titled Black Boy. In modern day America, it is not a person’s race that dictates what opportunities they have available to them, but their socioeconomic class.
While there may be racist individuals in modern day America, at the core of the book, Wright does…show more content… Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), determined that “the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (Brown v. Board). This made it illegal to segregate schools, giving both African-Americans and White Americans equality in public education. In the private sector of education, however, we see a large disparity between those with the wealth to afford to go to schools with more resources and those who only have the opportunity to obtain a state-funded education. A 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) study found that “the average private school mean score was higher than the average public school mean score, and the difference was statistically significant” (Braun 1). While test scores may not be an effective method of measuring learning, until a more comprehensive metric to judge a student’s performance is developed, the fact still remains that students with higher standardized test scores are perceived as better students and therefore have more opportunities available to them. It is obvious, then, why students from a higher rung on the socioeconomic ladder have more opportunities than those on a lower one, regardless of…show more content… Formal equality of opportunity, or the nondiscrimination principle is defined by Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy as a hiring method in which “applications are assessed on their merits, and the applicant deemed most qualified according to appropriate criteria is offered the position”. Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal laws that prohibit workplace discrimination based on “race, color, national origin, sex, or religion” (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241). In theory, every applicant is judged solely by their merits; as Karl Alexander, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist, puts it, “Play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school, and that will open doors for you”. In practice, however, many other factors slant the hiring process. Alexander published a paper describing the discovery that children’s future careers and economic class are largely determined by the family in which they are born into. Entitled “The Long Shadow”, Alexander’s paper outlines how "a family's resources and the doors they open cast a long shadow over children's life trajectories” (Alexander 1). Following 800 kids from first grade to their late-20s, Alexander records how students from higher income families managed to acquire much higher paying jobs: out of 800 kids, only 33 moved from a low-income to a high-income bracket, regardless of race or
