Impact Of Social Security On African Americans

There are five words I grew up hearing continuously spoken from the mouths of my parents “Don’t take things for granted.” Unlike what many of my black friends or just black people in general can say, I grew up with everything I could ever ask for and more. My parents don’t consider themselves wealthy; instead they prefer the word comfortable. My mother grew up in segregated schools, but she also grew up in desegregated schools, of which her experience she said wasn’t bad for her. In 5th grade when they first combined whites and blacks it was just her and this other black boy in class and the both of them together were mistaken for being white because of how light their skin was. My father on the other hand had it much worse than my mother segregated or not. The stories he speaks of still to this day

Today race in America is a highly controversial topic. It seems that every day we turn on the news, it’s a story about protest or police brutality. Hundreds of black men and women have been killed due to racial discrimination. Thousands of African Americans are incarcerated in Americas prison systems, many of which won’t live to see the light of day. The previous president was African American, yet we can’t escape

In life you begin to learn that things never stay the same because things, people, politics, or anything in fact will eventually change for the good or the bad. For example, Richard Spikes is the inventor who invented the automatic gear shift. He saw that not everyone could not drive successfully with a stick shift, therefore he took the initiative change the way of driving a car. Richard Spikes changed the way cars are and that was a good change, but not all changes are for the best. There are unfortunately changes that are made and they do not help people. In fact some changes hurt or harm individuals. The political change in African American Ghettos during the years of the 1990s until the year 2000 did more harm than good to the African American Ghettos.

o     Social Security has made a difference in the lives of African Americans o     Without Social Security, the poverty rate for elderly African American beneficiaries would increase from 21 percent to 60 percent. o     Social Security is the only source of retirement income for 37 percent of elderly African Americans. o     African Americans face different situations when it comes to retirement.o     Social Security is race neutral – individuals who are in identical life situations are treated the same. People, however, are rarely in identical situations. African Americans tend to have lower earnings than whites and less pension coverage. Therefore, Social Security benefits are disproportionately important to them.o     African Americans have lower life expectancies than whites. The average African American male currently aged 65 can expect to live to about age 79,

Although we do not live in a perfect world, the society we live in today is a result of everything our ancestors fought for. However, as the activist Jesse Williams stated in his acceptance speech at the BET awards, we are still fighting for equality. According to Williams we live in “a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us.” African Americans are still not free, they live in fear everyday because public servants do not treat them equally. Bacon’s rebellion, Nat Turners rebellion and The Civil War helped shape race relations as we know them today.

"Because of the Civil Rights movement,new doors of opportunity and education swung open for everybody … Not just for blacks and whites, but also women and Latinos; and Asians and Native Americans; and gay Americans and Americans with a disability. They swung open for you, and they swung open for me. That’s why I’m standing here today—because of those efforts, because of that legacy."So many people died for everyone to be equal, Most people are treated equal. Only in some areas are people harassed or discriminated against. We are lucky enough that we've gained experience and that we've learned from our ignorance.The Three-supreme court case decisions influenced the civil rights movement by extending voting rights, making

That has changed radically today with the emergence of the first black President ever in the United States. African American’s have also, for a majority of the existence of the United States, not been treated as equal citizens to everyone else, particularly to the “white” population. Slavery and segregation have dominated our existence and we have been treated more like property than we have been treated like equals. Our social existence in America was not something that even truly existed until the mid-1960’s. Culturally we always have been faced with hatred from others, particularly the White population, which has caused us to band together as a race and live together in communities of our “own kind”. Our historical segregation meant that no one had ever given us a chance to share our culture with the world. No one ever got a chance to know us. We had to live together, in communities of African American’s that did not have any other mixing of cultures. This has led to widespread ghetto areas that are economically depressed and do not receive any government funding to help better the community.

To my family we always saw the inequality, it was a part of our daily lives and we had to deal with it as best as we could. The inequality was always an inconvenience, a part of my daily life that had less resources, stricter rules, less to no privileges, which made no sense to me where in the country we live in is supposedly free and equal for everyone. Growing up we always had to be careful around cops and made sure that we come fully prepared with papers to any meeting foe healthcare, or government benefits because weren’t given the benefit of the doubt. A prime example for the inequalities my family went through was extra processes for car insurance, dental care, and medical care. We always had to make sure to dot our I’s and cross our T’s or else it could be taken away in an instant. It just didn’t affect my family but my community as well. Having a community of Hispanics and African Americans we had to make sure not to make too much noise during parties or in an instant we would have cops on our blocks. These kinds of small things snowball into such a massive effect and influence our tremendously to the point where we think it’s “just another day” and not an attack against our

About 3.5 times more blacks are in poverty than whites (DBQ 7). As a result, blacks do not have the same income as whites and it is harder for African Americans to find a jobs. Since the civil rights movement occurred, about 15% of the whites that lived in Latino or black neighborhoods have moved out and into a neighborhood that are mostly white (DBQ 8). This continues to support that whites and even blacks are still showing a great example of the Civil Rights term “separate but equal”.

When Congressman Davis speaks about Senior Issues he uses percentages and history in order to back up his political opinion. He states that “three fourths of the African American seniors rely on social security for at least half their income.” He also bashes the Bush Administration to back up his opinion. He talks about the future of social security and where it might end up. Using trustees opinions it states that it will never be solved and the African American community will never get out of the poverty they are in.

African Americans received unequal treatment in Mississippi of 1964. Some had to pick cotton rather than go to school even if they wanted. They got told, “They don’t need to be in school anyway, they need to be in the field.” The straw boss would even say that the kids where too big to be in school. When they rode to school on the bus, they were forced to sit in the back. They weren’t able to sit in the front of the bus like whites could. At school they weren’t allowed to drink out of the same water fountain as whites were. Women got treated badly, they were raped by older men that took advantaged of them. Although, their parents couldn’t say anything about the situation or they would even get killed over it. African Americans also didn’t receive

Since the early 1960s poverty rates for African American adults and children has been a problem. But, since the early 1960s the poverty rate has shrieked for specifically the African American children over twenty percent. There are many reason why this shrinkage has happened but I specifically would like to talk about one African American graduating high school and receiving Federal Financial Aid.

labor market, would affect African Americans. Throughout history, the majority of African Americans work at lower paying jobs and make up the majority of people living in poverty. In almost every city or town in the United States, there are neighborhoods where no one travels unless they know someone. The houses are falling apart, the streets are lined with abandoned cars, the schools are well-below standard, and the kids are running in the streets. Often you see the children playing basketball in the streets.

Great work Elizabeth! Our own president has made it very difficult for people of different race, religion and gender in this country. Its really a very disturbing situation to witness. I have a nine year old daughter and I have always taught her, that we are all the same. I was born in the Bronx, but both my parents came from Puerto Rico and my husband is African American. I always explained to her that only the exterior might be different, inside we are all the same. We shouldn't treat people different because we never know what they are capable of

Today many people believe that we have obtained racial equality. However there are multiple reasons and statistics that contradict those arguments . For decades African Americans has been deprived of basic rights, “If America had racial equality in education and jobs, African Americans would have two million more high school degrees…(Raines)”. There are many drastic racial gaps from education to owning property. Throughout America’s history blacks have been limited, when it comes to education, property, and other things. If people truly believe that after four hundred years of enslavement and limited rights, can be fixed within one generation they are wrong. The African American community has faced