5 Questions

1. Living in a class apart: The separate world of America's Black elite”—how are the issues discussed in the article still impacting African Americans today?

I think a main issue in the black community today that refers to this article, is skin complexion. Who knew that this would be an issue within the black community, since it has been and issue against the black community for over 400 years, and I believe even before then in certain areas the different tones of African skin was a symbol of division. In today's society, they stereotypes aren't as bad, but they are still an issue. If you have a lighter skin complexion doesn't mean you are automatically stuck up and if your skin complexion just happen to be darker doesn't mean you are less prettier than the next. These idiotic stereotypes, show how the "house slave" and "field slave" mentality may have had an affect on the psyche of black people. Now our struggle for black unity is expressed through comments like #teamlightskin and #teamdarkskin. In the article it is expressed through the "brown paper bag test". All of these expressions, to me, explains how our black community then and now are unconsciously crying for help.

2. In the article by Offner, P. (2002). What’s love got to do with it?: Disparity between black men and women, the author presents several explanations for why Black women are advancing so far beyond Black men. What would you add to these explanations?

While families encourage higher learner for young women, I think they encourage sports for young men. Seeing that you are more likely to be successful when you have higher learner then that means black women are more likely to be successful leading them to be farther beyond black men. It's rare to find young men who make it to the pros, so that leaves a large group of young black men at a place that is lower than the status of young black women.

3. From the editorial by Raspberry on “Successful women who are childless”, (A) what percent of African American women between 28-55 years old and earning over $55,000 a year are married? 29 Percent. (B) Further, according to Cornel West, how has the ratio of black men to black women college students at Harvard changed between 1970 and today? Went from close to even to 9-1. Compare this to John Hope Franklin article.

Franklin and Raspberry talked about the same issues in there articles. They both talked about how the number of father-absent house holds and families increased over the years.

4. From the article by Eckholm, E. (2006), “Studies sound alarm on plight of black males”, (A) How has the plight deepened for black men in the last 2 decades? (B) Describe the two factors cited by Holzer and colleagues for keeping black employment rates down.

We have more poorly black educated men because of high school drop outs. This puts them at a higher disadvantage in the community. To keep the employement rates down you simply have to keep them out of school and keep them incarcerated.

5. From the article by Edwards, A. (2002), “Bring me home a black girl”, What does the term "annihilation through integration" mean? How does that relate to the Black marriageability index today? After reading the McLarin and Evans articles, discuss the implications for the marriageability index among African Americans. Does either article speak to perhaps an increase in marriageability index among and between African American couples?