The fact that about 95% of these kids growing up in this kind of environment are compiled of minority races, and a vast array of ethnic backgrounds is just another huge obstacle they are forced to overcome. In today’s job market, competition is fierce and your education, skills and experience distinctly define what course of direction you will search. If one of your first opportunities in life were presented to you in such a negative, unorganized and chaotic manner, then why would you perceive this as an actual opportunity? How would you be able to discern the difference between positive opportunities versus negative opportunities as a growing adult? The minority youth in poverty driven areas today are faced with this problem daily, and although many of them are able to succeed they are still not given the opportunities of a white child growing up in Greenwich Connecticut, attending a private school. They are not able to make the right connections through networking because most of their friends come from the same neighborhood as them. Short of a miracle, opportunities presented to them are limited and they have to strive harder than the average white American child who is attending a public school does.
These are obstacles many say they do not even want to acknowledge, because they are going to overcome them, but they are real. We see them every day in our work place, in our supermarkets, and our retail stores. In Black and Hispanic communities you see almost on every other corner a liquor store, open all hours of the night and every day of the week. In White communities you might find two or three liquor stores within a certain mile radius, they close early and do not operate on Sundays in some states. The quality of food that is sold in supermarkets are totally different, the selection of clothing and furniture sold in our retail franchises are different. These are opportunities that are missed that may seem small and inconsequential, but they are still missed opportunities that enable people to make healthier and safer choices in our eating habits and improve our living standards. The misconception that the only opportunities that can be missed out on are all financial, is just that, a misconception. Thousands of other details are left to the wayside and forgotten; sometimes focus of the major problem overlooks the minor problems, which contribute greatly to the bigger picture.
** Imagine This **
Aliens from Outer Space invade Earth! They come in peace and want the American opportunity that millions of foreigners from other Countries on Earth have availed themselves to. How will we as Americans be able to relate to them? Give them the opportunities that will better enhance their American experience. They are from another country, do not speak our language, they look different, smell different, and eat different. We now have to construct laws that enable them to be citizens on our planet, giving them equal opportunity to find employment. Affirmative Action laws will have to be revised to include other life forms from the stratosphere. Employers world wide will have to take on the additional expense of hiring Alien interpreters, and the President passes an Executive Law that a job quota for Aliens must be filled in all small, medium and large corporations.
Here is where we see the whether the welcome wagon will be positive or negative reaction! You will have millions of “Americans” (all races) angry to the point of rebellion against the government if their only form of survival now has to be shared with Aliens from another planet. There will be complaints from Americans of no money, no space, and no growth potential, and last but not least demonstrations of unbelievable ugliness against another life form that no one should have to endure. I purposely choose this extreme view point because as a minority in America today this is what hundreds of millions of our ancestors had to go through, and it is sometimes what we minorities still face today. It is just not done as blatantly and openly as it was before but there is most definitely a glass ceiling in place, and your race, gender, and ethnicity will ultimately effect whether you will be the one individual to get close enough to shatter that glass. Breaking that glass ceiling can be done, it has been done and determined individuals such as myself continue to surpass obstacles that “seemingly” occur in our path; But do not be fooled into complacence, and above all else do not underestimate the power of that ceiling. One day you might bump your head and not know how to deal with it.
**Food for thought**
If America is so fair in the opportunities that it affords all races and ethnic backgrounds, how come we have yet to see a President of another race or gender, other than white men.
