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African American Community Observation Report

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While describing a room in the African American museum where visitors can go to reflect on what they’ve seen in the rest of the museum, Charles Yetter, the museum’s Senior Project Manager, said “You’ve all seen all the bad and some of the good, and you can come here and think about what you saw.” I see this quote as an indication that the museum’s exhibits won’t focus entirely on the problems faced by African Americans, nor will they focus entirely on the accomplishments of the African American community. As a result, I think I ought to select one item that demonstrates the progress that has been made towards racial equality, and one item which demonstrates the fact that America is still plagued with racial issues.

Of the five items to choose …show more content…
Chicago as a whole has an annual murder rate of about 16 homicides per 100,000 people, and about one in three of its residents are African American. However, there are several neighborhoods in Chicago’s south side which are more than 90% black and have murder rates of more than 30 homicides per 100,000 people. In addition to the tragic loss of life from these homicides, I also believe the high homicide rates in Chicago’s black neighborhoods are a symptom of the racial income inequality which still persists nationally to this day. According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, the average white family has an annual household income of $71,300 while the average black family has an annual household income of only $43,300. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there is generally a strong correlation between the number of people living below the poverty line in a region and that region’s violent crime rate. While I recognize the fact that it’s dangerous to conclude that there’s a causal relationship between two variables just because there’s a correlation between them, I still believe racial income inequality is at least partially to blame for the high murder rates in Chicago’s black

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