Darrick Smith

Watching the video of Darrick Smith speaking really opened my eyes to the world around me. He raised some real thought provoking issues. From the very beginning of America's history, how it was founded through slavery up to today's present struggles of social equality. I never put much thought into the disparity of education between the wealthy and the poor. The wealthy are given every resource to succeed, while everyday is a struggle for the people stuck in poverty. I just saw an article on CNN called The most unequal place in America. It is about a town called Lake Providence in Louisiana. Here are some startling statistics:
"The richest 5% in the parish earns $611,000 per year on average. That's 90 times higher what the bottom fifth makes per year: $6,800. And 16% of parish residents are unemployed."- Jon D Sutter
If these numbers do not get your attention I do not know what will. Even in Louisiana where the cost of living is less, how is someone supposed to live on $6,800 a year? When you do not have access to a proper education it affects the quality of your life,not just the material things that money can buy. Jon D Sutter says, "Surprising links have emerged between income inequality and a host of social problems, including mental illness, substance abuse, incarceration, educational failure, teenage pregnancy, lower life expectancy, violence and infant mortality." Being poor and uneducated is like being in the bottom of a pit with no hope of escaping. Some people would like to go to school to help better their situations, but are hamstrung by not having the financial means and are subsequently trapped in their current conditions. Where you live helps define who you become. You are a product of your environment. When children are brought into the world under these conditions the vicious  cycle repeats itself. The government needs to do a better job assisting the poor with programs that will help them improve their situations and not just food stamps and welfare, but long lasting change in the way of giving underprivileged people a way out by giving them access to a good education, just like the wealthy. Even though slavery ended long ago, it exists in a different way today by separating the classes by education and economic discrepancies.