Blog #10

Ola Omar
                                                                          Blog #10
        The quote that I have chosen is from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1). The quote that I have chosen is "They argued that such segregation violated Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
         The Brown vs. The Board of Education case was a case that was about how black and white students were being segregated into different schools due to their race in many states such as Virginia, Kansas, and Washington D.C. Many people argued that separating students into different schools due to their race is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In the end of the Brown vs. Board of Education case, the judges came to a conclusion that denying students the right to go to certain schools because of their skin color is indeed a violation of the 14th Amendment and gives African American a sense of inferiority over the white students. The judges also came to the conclusion that segregating white and black students in public schools left a detrimental effect in the development of black students. Therefore, chief justice Earl Warren was the one to say the decision of the unanimous court.
          I chose this quote because I feel like segregating public schools based on race was indeed a huge issue. I absolutely agree that the segregation of public schools based on race did indeed violate the Equal Protection clause. The 14th Amendment says "nor deny to any person with in its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The 14th Amendment clearly states that U.S citizens should be equally protected by the laws of the U.S constitution. Therefore, nobody should have an advantage over others when it comes to where people could eat, live, shop, or go to school. How were the rights of black people being protected by the 14th amendment when they could not get a good education at the time? I know that black and white students both went to schools, even though the schools were segregated based on the color of each students skin, but lets face it, we all know which schools got the best resources for students to learn and that was the schools that was for white student only.
          If young black students see that they are the ones who are not being well educated, then they will have low self esteem because they will exhibit how their skin color is the reason why they are not being provided with opportunities. Also, with academic resources being scarce and the school conditions being poor, how will the black students learn in such terrible conditions? Of course the white students will be able to learn better and get more academic experience when they are going to good schools with good resources and black students are barely getting by with the detrimental conditions of their schools. The segregation of public schools is just setting black students up for failure. Not only does the segregation of public schools for students based on their race hurt the black students, but it also hurts the white students as well because they will feel a sense of superiority over black students.
         Segregation is also another word for separation, so I feel like separating black and white students from one another leads to a lack of communication between the two groups of people and encourages stereotypes among different groups of people. I am glad that the courts realized that the segregation of schools will indeed cause negative and harmful effects for black students. I feel like without the Brown vs. Board of Education case, black students would not have had the equal opportunity as white students to become successful or make something of themselves. This case made America more of a nation for everyone and not a nation for only one particular race. Even though America has a long way to go with racial and minority issues, more opportunities did open up for black students after this case such as Barack Obama becoming president because without getting a good education, Obama would not have the skills he needed to make it so far in his life. Obama was running against a white candidate and yet he still won the presidential election. Therefore, Obama proved that it does not matter what skin color you are, what matters is how well a person is willing to go the extra mile in order for him to succeed in his life. Being smart or succeeding in life does not have to do with what color your skin is, it has to do with how hard you are willing to working, how well your effort is when you do something, and how hard you push yourself because perseverance is everything.