Wednesday, April 1, 2009

"C students"



Rock,Chris. "C students". Never Scared. HBO. Youtube. 5.21.07. 3.31.09 .



This clip is a recording of Chris Rock’s stand-up performance in his Never Scared (2004) comedy special on HBO. In this segment, the themes of his performance act include affirmative action, race relations, and education. In particular, he discusses how job opportunities differ for African American “C students” compared to Caucasian “C students.” Rock discusses how America is “a nation of B and C students,” and although this is true, a C average African American student may not be qualified for many high position jobs. Rock concludes this segment by discussing how a Caucasian “C student just happened to be the president of the United States of America,” which illustrates the difference in job opportunities. This poses a significant question: is this difference due to inequality in the educational system, or is it due to inequality in the workforce. Using Rock’s comparison, although the African American and the Caucasian are both C students, the quality of education provided to each student could become the determining factor of who gets the better jobs. For example, the educational systems in most minority neighborhoods are very poor, whereas most educational systems serving Caucasians are very well developed. Thus, the amount of knowledge an African American C student has, may not be equivalent to the amount of knowledge a Caucasian C student has. On the other hand, this may not be the case, and the difference between job opportunities may come from inequalities in the workforce while elements of discrimination may influence who gets a job opportunity and who does not.


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