Born on Third Base Blog
I was assigned to read the chapter, “Black
Wealth, Brown Wealth, White Wealth” of Born
on Third Base and the chapter focused on the differences in wages made by
white people vs black people. The chapter was split into three separate sections
with the first one titled The State of
the Dream. In that section it discussed how black people under the age of
35 make 75 cents to the dollar of what white people in that same age group
make. It went on to mention that while the majority of Americans suffered from
the 2008 recession but that white people were able to recover much quicker than
black people. While I’m not surprised about these facts, I hate to admit that I
have never thought about this issue. The gender wage gap is something that is
talked about so much, and for good reason, that I think it caused people like
me to not realize that there is also an issue in wages between races. I’ve
never understood how people could get paid differently for doing the same job
and I know I speak for everyone in saying that this is something that needs to
be fixed sooner than later because in 2019 this should not still exist.
The 2nd section of this
chapter was titled White Affirmative
Action and it focused on a story of a family buying a house. The story is
about how a family worked extra hard to make money and sacrificed the luxuries
of life by avoiding vacations and going out to eat in order to save up to buy
the house. However, it explains that while the family was eventually able to
buy the house, the majority of the money they received for it was from a gift
from a relative and not the money that they saved up. It then says how they end
up being proud of themselves for the hardships and sacrifices they put in to
buy it and almost immediately forget about the help that they received from the
relative. The purpose of this story was to show that we as humans are always
going to remember the hardships and sacrifices that we make and will always put
that ahead of help we receive from others. I definitely agree with this
sentiment because I think it’s human nature to want to feel good about our hard
work and give ourselves a pat on the back before thinking of the help we received
from others. Everyone wants to feel like they accomplished something and while
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to feel good about ourselves, we as a society
need to appreciate what others do for us a lot more than we currently do.
The 3rd and final section
of this chapter was titled Repair and
Reparations and it was in my opinion the most important section of this chapter.
It focused on the debt that white people owe black people for the terrible
things their ancestors did to them, which of course is referring to slavery. The
section explained how while all living white people didn’t personally enslave
black people, but they are still reaping the financial benefits of slavery. In
addition, it said how most white people don’t feel guilty since a lot of their
ancestors came immigrated to the U.S. but those people are ignoring the fact
that Europeans played a role in slavery primarily with making ships to send slaves
to America. “Few are guilty but all are responsible” is a quote that hit me
hard since it’s a hard one to argue. The section ended focusing on how white
people have an advantage in present day based off of slavery and used an
example of a poker game. It explained how the current financial state of whites
vs blacks is like a poker game where white people were given more cards to use
than black people, giving them an advantage, but then they lost that advantage
and made the decks fair, they were still able to keep the chips they won with
the unfair advantage. I don’t know how to repair this issue but I can clearly
see that it’s unfair and something needs to be done.
I agree with you and with the author of the book in saying that too often human beings praise themselves when things are good and blame others when things are bad. I think that we should all be more objective and recognize our faults and other people's successes.
ReplyDeleteI think given the nature of how news is covered today certain stories get brushed to the side. I feel bad that I also didn't know that African Americans make 3/4 of what white people make, but that I was aware of the gender gap. I hope things like this get more publicity and that the news doesn't keep recycling the same 3 story lines from different angles.
ReplyDelete- Brendan
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ReplyDeleteSeems like you got to read 3 great sections! This second section really stuck with me. It seems I often times like to talk about all my accomplishments, but I always fail to mention the help that I received working towards them. The poker game analogy in the third section is pretty heart-breaking.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the third section. The analogy of the poker game is very accurate. At the moment it will be vary hard to change something about it because we are not the same people who played the initial poker game. The inequality has just been inherited to us–thus nobody has actively caused it. I don't see any obvious solution for this problem right now.
ReplyDeleteIt is a dangerous idea to demand that the white people of today owe the black people of today some huge monetary debt. The white people of today did not enslave, and most of their ancestors also likely didn't enslave, and the black people of today are not enslaved. In fact, more than 75% of southern whites did not own slaves, and of the 25% that did, the bulk of the slaves were concentrated in the wealthy owners of the large southern plantations. Therefore the idea that all white people are responsible for this disadvantage is false and charging all for the mistakes of the few is inherently unjust. What we can do, however, is level the playing field and try much harder to provide for equal opportunity for all people, regardless of skin color. We can't change what has happened in the past, but we can work on the present and change the future.
ReplyDelete