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The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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In the <strong>in</strong>terviews, half <strong>of</strong> the black youth <strong>of</strong> Woodbury county believe that the<br />

opportunities for blacks will improve and half believe opportunities will worsen. Aga<strong>in</strong>,<br />

there is a lack <strong>of</strong> elaboration <strong>in</strong> the responses. <strong>The</strong> answers were <strong>of</strong>ten short, “Get better,”<br />

or “Get worse.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> majority <strong>of</strong> the white youth feel that the opportunities for blacks is only go<strong>in</strong>g<br />

to improve. Some <strong>of</strong> the positive responses were:<br />

Well, I th<strong>in</strong>k it’s go<strong>in</strong>g to get better. <strong>The</strong> ones downtown are the only ones<br />

that bother me. <strong>The</strong>y’re not different, they just make people th<strong>in</strong>k <strong>of</strong> them<br />

different because <strong>of</strong> the way they act. If they didn’t do it then people<br />

wouldn’t say anyth<strong>in</strong>g about it.<br />

It looks like it might get better. Because I see more blacks stay<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />

school.<br />

I th<strong>in</strong>k the opportunities for blacks will open up.<br />

I th<strong>in</strong>k it will probably improve.<br />

Probably better.<br />

Improve.<br />

One youth <strong>of</strong>fered an <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g perspective on racial problems by stat<strong>in</strong>g that,<br />

“Probably the next year or so it’ll get worse but after that I th<strong>in</strong>k it’ll get better.” When<br />

probed to f<strong>in</strong>d out why the youth thought it would get worse <strong>in</strong> the next year the response<br />

was:<br />

Because there are a lot <strong>of</strong> problems right now and there are people who<br />

have never had problems <strong>in</strong> their life before that are say<strong>in</strong>g, ‘Hey, look at<br />

what you’re do<strong>in</strong>g to my brother’ that I never met before. <strong>The</strong>y will be<br />

th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g about it a lot more.<br />

One white youth took the reverse approach <strong>in</strong> answer<strong>in</strong>g the question, “In the next five<br />

years, do you th<strong>in</strong>k that the opportunities for blacks to get ahead will improve or get<br />

worse”

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