Blog 6

After reading excerpts from "Growing Up Black," the story that I most enjoyed was Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."  This story really struck me because it is a good indicator of the institutional racism that many African Americans were subject to, both then and now.  This was made clearly evident in the speech made to the graduating class by Donleavy.  In the story, he goes on to state that the children of the predominantly-white school across town were going to be given great improvements such as new microscopes and chemistry equipment.  Conversely, he assumed that giving Angelou's school a paved playing field would appease the schoolchildren's needs and was, somehow, on the same level as giving the white kids improvements in areas such as the arts and science.  Although many African Americans were and are now given educations, this story is a good example of the unequal nature of many of their schools when compared to more affluent, white schools.