Langston Inequality Research Paper

Critical Essay 2
From an early age children are taught that “life’s not fair”. Some people refuse to accept this and go through life blaming people for their own problems, “If people are poor it is something they did or didn’t do…” (Langston, 2000, 298). Life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean it has to be left that way. We can make our life into “…this kind of long chipping away…” at the things that threaten equal treatment (Edgington, 2000, 282). Racism and other forms of discrimination are prevalent in our society and culture. Through hard work and deep reflection we can find how we add or take away from the effects of inequality. Unlike my fellow authors Langston and Edington, I don’t think we can help our society by starting thought movements. Open discussion should be available, by all means. We also must keep in mind that every act, even if compelled by a system, is still an act. Inequality must be stopped at a personal level and only then can it be fixed at the top.
Landson points out a very compelling argument “If hard work were the sole determinate of your ability to support yourself and your family, surely we’d have a different outcome for many in our society.”

It advances some and disadvantages others. In the schools system today, “If you’re other than white and middle class, you have to become bilingual...” (Langston, 2000, 300). The only way to succeed is to become like the dominate group, and even then you can be held back. In our class discussion we talked about the “American Dream”, that you can be anything if you try hard enough. The consensus was that people can become whatever they want to be, as long as they belong to the dominate group. That is to say, “Middle class people have the privilege of choosing careers.” (Langston, 2000, 300). While working to overcome individual racism, people must keep their eyes focused on the “American Dream”. The goal should be that this dream will one day apply to