Real Diversity Issue

This is such an interesting, and important, thread, precisely because so many things are interrelated and difficult to separate.

College/university education is not the big, bad monster, and neither is race, or even someone's initial economic standing. It's all inter-related, and has become more so because of societal and cultural causes, tendencies and mores.

Personally, I think it boils down to a need for more personal responsibility and accountability -- something I believe has become less valued and/or addressed, in the younger generation, especially, and in today's society in general. There is a rampant sense of expectation and entitlement, and a disinterest in work and earning something, especially if you don't really have to, that all plays into everything. I hate to bring up laziness, lack of direction and, well, bootstraps, but yes, individual drive/initiative, a willingness to work, and an inability to postpone gratification and live within reasonable means, and, well, bootstraps, is what a lot of this comes down to.

To extend that thought, and get back to what I believe was the point of this thread's original post, helping people to do that more easily and productively, without reference or regard to racial inequities in general, is what is actually needed to limit and minimize all types of disparity in society.

Because oftentimes, there is a lot of disparity even within races, or even, families.

I agree that that disparity can be exacerbated by government loans, and in other cases, like, say, the government funding for things like unemployment or welfare that people often have no compunction about abusing. But, to a large extent, it all often comes down to individual/personal responsibility.

 

Nurse in Kiev many years ago. Hadn't been working since coming to America about 15 years ago, and had no interest in nursing again (or doing all it would take to become certified, etc., here). Decided a second income would be nice, though, since husband had to take a pay cut with Lufthansa and they are (foolishly) paying interest-only on their house.

 

Yeah, returning to the field academically after so many years would be a start from the beginning thing. Add in doing it in a second language. Yeesh.

I went back twenty years after I graduated from high school. When they ran me through the placement tests, I did great on the English side. The mathematics side, not so much. Basic math was fine, but when I got to the algebra and anything more advanced, it was awful. I sat there going "I know I used to be able to do these quadratic equations, but I don't remember formula one". I had to start with math 090, remedial bonehead high school algebra, and start from there. Worked my way up through radiation physics - and if I had to do those now, I'd be just as dead in the water. Once I was out of school, I never had to use it again, so it has long left me.

Ultrasound will be principally used either in OB/Gyn or in tracking venous system for clots etc. If her degree was from a tech school rather than college, getting on at a hospital will be hard as they really like those letters after your name. That tends to push her toward working in a physician's office of some sort, and will limit choices. That sucks. Did she get taken by a for profit school? Kinda sounds like it.

 

The top of the thread specifically called for color blind ideas.

In an international economy I don’t know how well a big income tax hike will work. I’d like to it would, but I don’t see it. There’s too many ways to hide and hoard wealth.

I think the gap closes by the middle checking OUT of the upper middle class white fantasy of a great life.

 

That's why I brought it back up. I'm not sure a 'color-blind' solution exists.

I think we have to account for problems as they are, not for how we want them to be.

Which isn't to say that some ideas - better education at a lower cost; more affordable housing; less emphasis on luxury consumption - won't help everyone. They will.

But they're also going to leave some folks behind. As they already have.

 

There is no one size fits all solution. People have different starting points, different cultures, different educations and expectations. That said, virtually any solution that lifts the economic underclass is of value, "color blind" or not. It will probably take different approaches to reach and help various groups.

 

You brought it back up. Let’s hear your solution.

 

Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences
“People who speak African-American English are stigmatized for so doing,” said Taylor Jones, a doctoral student in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the study’s authors.

Mr. Jones added that there was nothing improper or broken about the dialect that some African-Americans inherited over generations, but negative stereotypes have influenced the way people hear or perceive it.

 

I don't think I have one.

That's why I asked.

 

Thanks for taking this subject to areas I didn't envision.

I wasn't thinking so much of color-blind solutions but looking at problems in a color-blind way; sure color is a distinguishing factor but the socio-economic distinction is IMHO a bigger one and one that is avoided while the parties concentrate on the color of those involved.

 

Which party concentrates more on the color of those involved?

 

I don't really know what school she attended. I do know that she had a couple of interviews --- one in which the interviewer spoke Russian! --- and still didn't get hired. She also sabotaged herself in another interview by declining an offer to go to lunch. Didn't make any sense to her --- until we told her later that going to lunch is a normal part of the American interview process!