A Social Injustice: the effects of social inequalities in foster care a

As an adult, people that I encounter in my everyday life often wonder how I got to be the person that I am today – an understanding, open-minded individual who does not look down upon anyone that is less fortunate than I am and who does not look to â€Å"more† fortunate individuals as role models. When I am asked how I got to be so understanding, I answer giving credit to my parents’ value system they instilled in me as well as acknowledging their duties as public servants in the City of New York. My father was a police officer who worked in a number of precincts in some of the worst, crime ridden areas of Brooklyn and my mother worked for the Department of Social Services in Child Welfare and the Bureau of Public Assistance, initially as a case-worker, in Brooklyn as well. It was because of their experiences in the â€Å"field† and interacting with those less fortunate then we were that I gained a certain level of knowledge and understanding of the unfor tunate mishaps of people of my culture and the inequalities inflicted upon the black community. Yet the most influential aspects of my knowledge came from the exposure my mother had through working for the City of New York’s child welfare system and the unfair treatments that her clients endured. As a result I will discuss the affects of social, economic and racial inequalities suffered by her clients and the impact it has had on their children’s education. During my studies in this class, we have discussed many issues in society that affects children apart of education systems across America. After reading through our assigned texts so far, I have had time to reflect upon and add to the opinions discussed in class as far as access, gender, opportunity and particularly inequalities in today’s society and how they affect our children today. The main text that influenced most of my opinions so far is David Nasaw’s book â€Å"Schooled to Order† – which discusses the history of the public school system here in America. As shown through my reaction papers and discussions in class, I felt Nasaw’s theories and opinions were reflective of the elitist, biased and prejudiced attitudes towards the working poor. I believed that people in our society today believe that unless you come from a certain lineage, pedigree, or mass amounts of money that the individual lacks a certain level of class and therefore would no t be successful adul... ...y own observance, many of these children learn from an early age to give up hope in growing up to improve their lives through education, and sometimes do not want to strive to achieve better. My mother and I both agree that until racial, economic and social inequalities are put into balance, that this city as well as many other areas around the country minority citizens will seem to always struggle and suffer from unfair treatments. She said that it is no coincidence that most of the city’s worst schools, hospitals, and emergency services seem to largely be in heavily minority populated areas and she feels that the biggest inequality in New York is race. Admittedly, this paper has been the most difficult for me to prepare in that of the topics we discussed in class, I feel that inequalities is the main category for society’s problems in which it incorporates accessibility, opportunity, gender, and mostly race. Our education system has been set-up mainly to separate the elite from the masses, and the fact that blacks have been apart of this country’s history, unfortunately have always been the last on the social list and I believe that until it changes, they will remain that way.