Comparisons Of Blacks And Whites example essay topic

Robert J. Samuelson, a freelance writer for "Newsweek" magazine believes that the present welfare system needs to be abolished for certain age groups, and that as a result, teenage pregnancy is on the rise. Either this writer is desperate or he just does not care what he writes about. I believe that Samuelson's article displays non conclusive data for his facts, financial flaws, and severe racial issues, but what really infuriate me is that he believes that abolishing welfare is the solution to eliminating teenage pregnancy and "Newsweek" magazine really printed this article. Samuelson focuses on the black family from the beginning of his article by giving statistics that are non conclusive.

He states that "A young black child now has only a one-in-five chance of growing up with two parents". (43) How does he know this? He is not giving any supporting information on this at all to make me believe that it is accurate and factual information. Nevertheless, in making comparisons, he should have given the chances for whites and supported his research better. I am not saying that this information is incorrect, but what I am implying is that I could have believed it if I would have been able to see it for myself.

Samuelson also used information from Leon Dash, a black reporter for the "Washington Post" in his article. First of all, Dash is a black man giving his insight on living in the black community for a year to understand teenage pregnancy. Samuelson is a white man viewing Dash's conclusion in his own words to make his story look good. This is irrelevant and Samuelson should have gone to live in the black community to do his own research instead of giving his overall conclusion on Dash's research. Samuelson believes that financial hardship is basically the problem, but of course I disagree.

He states "In 1991, median family income for black married couples was $33,000; for a single mother, median income was $11,400". (43) This is another case of not having supporting information as well as non comparisons to white's income. Yes, you do need money to provide for your family, but does not having a lot of money really mean that your kids will be unsuccessful? No, money does not dictate how successful kids are. Let's look at my family for example: my mother was a single parent and she did not have a lot of money, but my brother and I are very successful. My brother has graduated from college and owns a business.

I am retired from the military, and about to graduate from college. My family is living proof that not having a lot of money does not make kids unsuccessful. Samuelson goes on to say "loss of well paying factory jobs for black men" (43) is also a problem. He is really getting it twisted!

What makes him think that the only good jobs that black men have are factory jobs? I believe that he is focusing on what he believes and not what is substantial information. Many black men have their own businesses, good jobs and degrees. If he would have done his research the way he should have, he would not have put that statement in his article, but because he is focusing on the negative issues blacks face he decided to use it. Samuelson describes himself best when he wrote "Whites tend to think that blacks resort too easily to racism as an explanation for any difficult problem: blacks think that whites can never understand barriers they face". (43) This basically exemplifies that he think blacks would see him as a racist and he doesn't understand the black race.

He has not talked much about whites at all in this article, made comparisons of blacks and whites and did nothing but stereotype blacks. If he is not a racist then what is? Before you can judge a book, you must read it. Samuelson is stereotyping blacks to the extreme in this article.

Almost every paragraph has something negative to say about blacks, be it kids, single mothers or black men. In conclusion, I really can't believe that a popular magazine such as "Newsweek" which is read all over the world actually printed an article of this caliber by a freelance writer. What happened to the editing process? What happened to the proofreading? Since "Newsweek" allowed this type of racial, stereotypical writing to occur, I can only believe that they were inspired by this writing. As for Robert J. Samuelson, this article portrays that he is an individual that can't think outside the box of racism.

He is focusing only on blacks being single parents, receiving welfare, and having problems. Whites are single parents, on welfare, and having problems as well. To consider that abolishing welfare is the solution for reducing teenage pregnancy is absurd. He really believes that it is a problem now, have he ever even thought about what type of problems would it really create? Well, I guess he hasn't since he did not mention it. If the government would abolish welfare, we would have more problems than just teenage pregnancy to deal with.

I believe that in order to fix a problem, first the government has to admit that there is a problem. Until then, we can only thank GOD that Robert J. Samuelson does not control our government, or we would be headed for destruction.