Fences Henry Wilson Racial Discrimination Quotes

808 Words4 Pages
Dear Admission Board, I cannot be seen through a color-blind lens and do not wish to be. Race is an important factor of who I am and how I am perceived, which is the case for all human beings, at least in the United States. Pretending not to see race doesn’t mean you don’t see it and removing race from the admissions’ equation forces schools to be blind to one of the key factors in people’s lives. Therefore, affirmative action is continually needed to counteract the effects of racial discrimination, provide reparations for the lingering effects of past discrimination and use it as tool to lead social and economic equality. Affirmative action provided us with a slight counterbalance to the powerful force called white privilege. Doing…show more content…
During this time, there had been some progress made on race relations, such as the integration of pro sports teams and the repeal of the Jim Crow laws. However, on a whole, America still had a long way to go, dealing with racial issues. Slavery has been gone from America for over seventy years, but its shadow still presses down on the country. In the book, Fences, it shows what it was like in the decade before the movement caused such radical change in America (Wilson). Some of the characters seem to sense that progress is in the air, while others are still trapped in America's troubled past, dealing with racism everyday. Troy does not want Cory to experience the hardship and disappointment Troy felt trying to become a professional sports player, so he demands that Cory work after school instead of practicing with the football team. Cory, however, sees that times changed since baseball rejected a player as talented as Troy because of the color of his skin (Wilson). As you can see, there is a ripple effect on the attitudes and emotional views of a person. If affirmative action were to exist during that time, then Troy would have been given a chance to change his life, as well as his own outlook on his and Cory’s
Open Document