African Americans In Today's Society

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When a majority of today's society envisions a young African American, they don't often associate such a person with the terms "successful", "prosperous" or even just "well off". Rather, black people have become a group that is mocked. The African diaspora are often referred to as "thugs", "uneducated" and "lazy". According to a 2015 News Week study, out of the 41% of those that choose higher education, black males make up 33.9% of that pool. Which is significantly higher than the 18% they previously held in 1988. Even more commendable, African American women are surpassing all other groups, despite race and gender when it comes to college enrollment, according to the web series, "Truths You Won't Believe". But why is it so hard to …show more content…

Today's society paints African Americans in such a negative light, growing up it seemed like everyone expected blacks to fail. No matter how "white" we talked, how we did our hair, where we lived or how many non-people of color we surrounded ourselves with, it seemed like the outside world saw us all the same; as people who are incapable of achieving. As I grew in wisdom and stature with this melanin graced skin, there was always something that was structurally in place to discourage me from becoming a successful self loving black woman. Anglo Saxon beauty and supremacy overpowering the media encouraged people to make comments about my worth. I constantly fell victim to people's condescending tone and actions before they realize my vocabulary supasses most adults. Being denied honors classes for 11 years without explanation but handing them over to Caucasian children with less intelligence made school frustrating as a child. I was expected to be and was treated like a failure before I even had a chance to prove myself. Yes, this is the biased world that we live in and these along with thousands of instances are obstacles that my people are not expected to overcome. But being an oppressed minority has only made me more determined to be the best version of myself. Not only for me but for those I will have an effect

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