I See It Now.
               By: Ajee Smith

My parents raised me to understand the value of education and the importance of obtaining one. Starting day care at the age of two, at my great aunts home I was already surrounded by other children learning to count to 100 and beyond. Moving on to pre-school then kindergarten I was surrounded by a diversity of different students and involved in giving speeches and participating in spelling bee’s at such an early age, and this pattern of being involved in the education system and being able to participate in certain educational opportunities did not change. I moved around from school to school a lot but I never had problems adapting and I never felt an inequality between the education I was receiving versus others, and I find that to be interesting when I look back on how far I have come in receiving an education and here is why.

   I remember being placed in algebra readiness when I was in the 7^th grade and all of my friends which were of African American and Latino decent were in that same class so it was extremely fun, but we never learned anything. I remember going home and telling my mom “I’m in this math class for dumb people, I’m supposed to be in pre-algebra why was I placed in this class?” So soon after, I myself at the age of 12 spoke to my teacher and the principle about placing me in the correct class and I had to take a test to show I was capable of being in that class. When I passed that test and had the honor to be put in the correct class I was the only African American student in the class and it was completely quiet versus the class I was in before. I remember passing that course with an A and I will never forget it because if I had not noticed my own educational value I would have never made it to geometry my freshman year of high school and that could have affected if I got into a University believe it or not. Now although this occurred and I believe this situation has a lot to do with the various inequalities in the education systems, the educational inequalities that appear today did not become apparent to me until my second year as an Undergraduate student at the University of California Merced.

  Currently at the University of California Merced there are only 337 African American students which makes a total 5.7% out of the entire 5,884 students that attend this campus. Asian/Pacific Islander represent 25.2%, Hispanic 45.6%, White 14.1% and other categories are within low percentages as well. Although Merced is a growing campus and these numbers may not appear as bad there is a difference between the educations each of these students will receive. In chapter 8 of Golash-Boza’s Race and Racisms text it is mentioned “at all levels of schooling, educational achievements in the United States vary by racial or ethnic group, in 2010 a national average of over 27.9% of Asians had bachelor degree but only 13% of Hispanics or Asians obtained one. The idea of the achievement gap is expressed throughout this chapter in which the educational outcomes of different ethnicities are perceived to be different and the ideas of social and cultural capital soon fall into perspective. See here at the University of Merced I have social capital in which I have certain resources on campus such as professors and one would think it enhances all student’s ability to succeed but I’m going to share one more story.

  Last semester, I took a course that was one of the hardest courses I have ever taken, I mean I had no idea what I was doing because it involved data programming so I was in office hours all the time. I would have a million questions but they were never answered so I decided to start asking my questions in class and those were never answered. I remember my professor telling me “Put your hand down, next question?” “I’m not answering that, next question?” I remember going to his office hours one last time to address this matter and the professor telling me “I didn’t answer your questions because do not worry about these chapters in the text, and do not worry about trying to figure out the complex problems because that’s not for people like you.” I said,"what do you mean not for people like me?"He says,"oh I didn’t mean it like that, I mean it’s for people like me you know those with Doctorates and higher degrees." I mention this story of mines although it irritates me to do so because as mentioned in the Educational Inequality chapter in Race and Racisms no matter if an African American a White or Asian are at the same level of education, at the same institution, given the same resources, there will always be a difference in the education they receive. I utilized my social capital by going to my professor daily for help but the one helping me created the inequality in my learning experience if that makes since. 

  I believe I experienced an individual racism because other students questions were answered in the course and the experiences I faced taking this course were individual but it can also be structural because our society has constructed this idea that races are different, different ethnicities learn different and some are not capable of what others are capable of and maybe this particular Professor felt I was not capable of understanding him because of this. At the University of California Merced there is a 43% graduation rate and unfortunately I was not able to find accurate data on this rate by ethnicities but due to the inequalities in the education system I am sure that everyone that starts at the same place attending a University do not all finish because of certain inequalities and it is really represented in this chapter 8 of Race and Racisms how minorities do not equally succeed in the education system like others. As mentioned in Golash Boza’s Race and Racisms text the average GPA for Blacks is 2.69, Hispanics 2.84, Whites 3.09, and Asians 3.26. Disparities in educational outcomes still persist and this example of the variation in GPA’s can relate to some students being passive about their grades and just being accepting of whatever they receive but it really entails the differences students go through because of their ethnicity and the world we live in today and just looking back on the personal stories I have shared through out this piece, if I was passive about my grades,or never felt comfortable utilizing the resources available to me the inequalities that are still within our educational systems today could have gotten the best of me just as these inequalities sometimes get in the way of others succeeding in the education system. I see it now. The inequalities surrounded us today. The inequalities within the education system because I've experienced it, because I'm living through it. I see it now.