"African Americans Receive More College Degrees: 1981 vs. 1991"

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I chose to write about “African Americans Receive More College Degrees: 1981 vs. 1991” in the Precinct Reporter in my media portfolio because it explains how there are improvements being made in the ability of African Americans to succeed in education and careers as prejudices are decreased from the past.

This article summarizes the statistics of African Americans earning college degrees between the years of 1981 to 1991. The studies show that bachelor’s degrees earned by African Americans rose by 8% and the number of first professional degrees rose by 22%. In addition, it was African American women who showed the greatest improvement in degree completion over the course of the study, while African American men showed only modest gains. However, this information also explains how the degree completions by African Americans are not steady with their enrollment completion. So, while there are improvements in the degree-earning area for African Americans, they still lag behind the general population for various reasons, some of which include low family income as well as attending college only part time.

“African Americans Receive More College Degrees: 1981 vs. 1991” is relevant to issues discussed in class because it discusses topics that are based on discrimination and prejudices about black people. As described in “Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance,” another reason that blacks aren’t encouraged to pursue college degrees as much as they should be is because of the ignorance to the problem in the first place. Allan G. Johnson explains that, “Another reason for the sick and tired complaint is that life is hard for everyone,” and that we all have problems of our own to worry about, let alone worrying about the success rate of African Americans. This coincides with what was shown in the video we watched in class, “Ethnic Notions”. In this video, like “African Americans Receive More College Degrees: 1981 vs. 1991,” African Americans are looked at as dumb and not capable of handling such a task as earning a college degree or a decent job, when in fact, they could be better than whites themselves.

I believe that “African Americans Receive More College Degrees: 1981 vs. 1991” is an interesting article because it describes the advancements of African Americans in colleges and universities in a span of about ten years. It also included statistics on how they compared with the average white American and that they still are behind in comparison. However, the article could have explained more about the reasons why so many African Americans are not receiving degrees or dropping out of enrollment. I would be interested to know some of the details of the reasons that are affecting their ability or desire to earn degrees.