The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

84
Several black youth felt that white people were holding them back. As one black
male stated, “ CUZ it’s a white man’s world. . .We was slaves for too long, and there
ain’t nothing really changed. Whenever a white person wanna get something that a black
man wanna get and got the same education as a black man, the white man gonna get it.”
Another black youth stated, “The white people really don’t want the black people to have
nothing, like when you get a bar, then they try to say all this stuff going on, and they
close you down. The white people don’t want the black people to move up in society.”
A white female believed that society perpetuates discrimination from one
generation to the next, “A long time ago black people were nothing, if they did something
wrong, white people could beat them up, and nothing could happen to them. And their
parents go around telling their kids that black people aren’t any good and black people
tell their kids that, so they just make it worse.” Another white youth indicated that racial
discrimination persisted because society still judges people on the color of their skin.
“Because nowadays it’s all about that. It’s people in the gangs and how people see one
another because of their skin color.” A white male put the blame on the blacks
themselves, “If they change their attitude they will probably get a lot more chances to do
a lot of things and they would have a lot more friends.”
A small number of the youth were optimistic about racial discrimination. For
example, a black male stated, “I was