Racism today

In class we took the voting Louisiana voting test. If a class of 10 college seniors and the professor can not pass it how were blacks who were not allowed an education supposed to be able to? That was the point at that time. It was not about being able to vote competently it was about keeping blacks from voting period. This is a link that talks about the test and the voting tax. http://specialcollections.tulane.edu/PolyEph/Poll.htm
Another subject for discussion in class was what makes race? There is no one true test of race therefore race is a conundrum. What really makes us who we are has nothing to do with the colour of our skin or our ancestry. Stereotypes and racism need to be eradicated. I liked the way Mr Smith de-constructed race in the wu reading, it made his students really think about prejudiced and stereotyping people. The question of who is qualified to teach about racial issues was also brought up. I am not sure there is a right answer for that question.
In the A&K readings the failure of Brown V Board of Education was discussed. We spoke on how moving students out of poor areas did not help and maybe we should reverse the process and move richer kids into the poorer schools might help. We discussed different ways in which to make school funding and resources more equitable. We did not come up with a solution but we had some good ideas.