Race 2012

When having one of the many race conversations with my mother she once told me that when everybody was given free land years ago, blacks were excluded, in fact, everybody was, the only people that did benefit were the whites. I've always thought that fact was extremely important when looking at low income housing and the lack of race within high class neighborhoods. However, I never recalled actually learning about it any prior history class so I never felt knowledgeable enough to share the information with others. With that being said I choose the quote:

“All throughout history we've seen how whiteness has shaped public policy. You think about the Homestead Act – 240 million acres of free land given to white folks, and yet we didn't call it a “handout”, we didn't call it “welfare”, we called it “nation building.” In the 1930's and 40's the FHA programs, the VA loans in the 40's and 50', the GI Bill, all of these programs which were –in theory– open to everyone but in practice racially restricted to whites almost exclusively, we didn't call those “handouts”, we didn't call that “welfare”, we called that “good macro-economic policy and “the building of a middle class.””

I interpreted this as the missing piece to why millions of people of color are not only on welfare, section 8, and filling low-income neighborhoods but also why many of them remain in the same position. If you don't understand my analysis let me explain. For example, within an elementary school classroom there is a very bright and intelligent young man in a classroom full of girls. Everybody in the room, his classmates and teacher, have repeatedly told him that he's stupid. From now on, do you expect him to do as well as in school as he's capable of? Probably not. Early on in our country when no one really knew yet how to be successful the government offered help. All the white folks were given land. Looking into society today, what families have houses to pass down from generation to generation leaving no worry about rent