Branches Book

BRANCHES

Nati Knobler

A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE

The modern day plight of the African American community is the product of 150 years of systematic discrimination by federal and state governments. The predicament of much of the black community is the result of oppressive housing policies that have ghettoized and impoverished blacks, an educational system that has not given the same opportunities to black children as to white children, and a federal government that has continually ignored and divested from these same communities. The history of blacks in America is one filled with contradictions. Blacks were stolen from their homes, stripped from their cultures, and exposed to a level of violence unprecedented in history. But the grander narrative of the African American story can’t be summarized purely by the cyclical patterns of oppression because blacks triumphed from many of those evils, as seen by the end of slavery and the dismantling of the tyrannical Jim Crow laws. The African American narrative is just as much the story of oppression as it is the story of artists, politicians, and musicians forging a new America from the lessons of the past. The proliferation of African American culture globally is an unlikely story, but it is one that is only possible through struggle and hope. This essay is just as much about covering what I believe has been the biggest impediment toward the community, lack of formal education and a lack of federal economic stimulus programs, as it is about the larger role history plays in creating the mood or sentiment of the present. Education is a vital part of the success of any individual, community, and nation. In the United States, education is necessary for employment opportunities and success. Malcolm X said that it is “the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” It is estimated that the “average dropout can expect to earn an annual income of $20,241, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a full $10,386 less than the typical high school graduate, and $36,424 less than someone with a bachelor’s degree.” 6 This has dire implications for low income, usually minority, families in under-funded educational districts. Underfunded low resource schools have a much higher dropout rate than their well-funded counterparts. This is due to the inability of schools to tend to each students’ needs, which means that many fall through the cracks. Many of the pupils

6 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-dropping- out-of-high-school/

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