Comparism and Contrast between 'Foul Shots' by Rogelio Gomez and 'Civilize them with a stick' by Mary Crow Dog.

Essay by karty18A+, March 2004

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

The readings "Foul Shots" by Rogelio Gomez and "Civilize them with a Stick" by Mary Crow Dog reflects on the discrimination and prejudice experienced in places of education. In "Foul Shouts," Gomez examines the shame and anger he felt as a teenager faced with obstacles of race and social class while Mary, a Sioux woman writes on the debasement and racism in a satire on color prejudice she suffered as a young student at a boarding school. They both write from past experiences in some measure of cynicism and open mockery they were subject to in school. There is a general mood of hatred and indignation. Often, a single check mark in a box labeled African American, Hispanic, American Indian, or one of several other underrepresented minorities listed in the ethnicity section of college eligibility and rights can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection. Although diversity is an important part of a liberal education, it is by no means its only goal.

No liberal education can be said to take place where there is an atmosphere of resentment and injustice, as is the case on most universities where affirmative action is practiced today. An aggressive race-based affirmative action program contradicts the idea of a liberal education.

The dogma has logical consequences that are profoundly important. If blacks, for example, are equal to whites in every way, what accounts for their poverty, criminality, and dissipation? Since any theory of racial differences has been outlawed, the only possible explanation for black humiliation is racism. And since minorities are markedly poor, crime-prone, and dissipated like Mary suffers in "Civilize them with a stick". All public discourse on race today is locked into this rigid logic. Though the failure of minority students does not depend on white wickedness, Gomez in "A foul...