Chelsea Hoag, Campus Carrier Managing Editor
What’s wrong with America? Through the years of taking classes that dig deeper, almost everything. It depends on personal perspective, but I think it’s a shame people in this nation can’t shed even the slightest amount of human compassion towards those who deserve it.
A lot of people across the country, even some at Berry, are sick and tired of talking about racism in America. “We get it,” they say. I don’t think we do.
It’s entirely luck of the draw where you’re born, what color and even the sex you pop out as. We all are more privileged than others in some sort of way. However, some of us can’t fathom admitting to it.
Darker skin correlates with less money. If your family doesn’t have money, how can they afford a car? If they have to rely on the bus, what if it doesn’t drive to a location near you? As college students looking for work, we know you have to have experience on a resume to get experience. In an education system geared towards helping those who can only afford it, how can one better their chances of success when America holds education on such a high pedestal?
Berry tries to get its students involved by providing the First Year Service Day, the year of service program involving the cottages and other numerous opportunities. Our institution was built on serving others and it’s one of the reasons I choose Berry. But far too often, I encounter students whose cushiony lives can’t possibly provide the perspective needed to understand those of the racially oppressed.
Nicholas Kristof, an American journalist, author, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and op-ed columnist for the New York Times, wrote a concise series of opinion pieces entitled, “When Whites Just Don’t Get It.” In the series, he noted many of the very real and current facts detailing how race plays a factor in American life.
According to census data in 2011, the net worth of the average black household in the U.S. is $6,314. The average net worth of a white household is $110,500. Sadly, the gap is widening.
In Rome, the Silver Creek area, between East 2nd Avenue and East 12th Street, has a median household income of $11,827. Just east, the neighboring white area’s median household income is $44,385, according to 2009 census data published in an interactive map on City-Data’s website. The Silver Creek area is 59.9 percent black.
Think about it this way. What if Berry was segregated like the rest of America’s cities? All of the white males with the highest income live in Centennial. The middle class lives in Morgan and Deerfield, and all of the people of color are forced to live in Thomas Berry. Our sections have completely different lifestyles and experiences, but none of us dare visit the other sides.
It sounds like something out of a dystopian book or film right? We think “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” are cool and all, but believe it or not, that reality is happening just miles down the road in one of the poorest areas of this college town.
I’d argue the Berry Bubble doesn’t allow Rome to be a college town. We all live, eat and exist here in such a tightly sealed area. The outside can’t leak it.
In one of my classes, we are trying to figure out why there is such a large income gap. I encourage you to understand what it means to be privileged and accept it. Then it will be easier to see what it’s like to live without that privilege. Racism is still a problem in America. The bigger problem is that white Americans can’t admit it.