African American Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

African American Culture - Essay Example (US Census 2003-7).This has been stated to be a continuous climb in educational attainment for African-Americans in recent decades: Almost two decades ago this figure was only 63 percent for this age group and in 1980 it was 51 percent. (US Census 2003-7)..The current figures also show that 14% of the Afro-Americans e 25 and over, have a bachelor's degree or higher. (US Census 2003-7). That proportion has risen since the 1990 census, when 11 percent of African-Americans age 25 and over had a bachelor's degree or higher. (US Census 2003-7).And the current percentage has almost doubled since the 1980 census, when the figure was 8 percent. The age group of 25 and over, with in African Americans having a graduate or professional degree is 5 percent and it was 4% in 1990. (US Census 2003-7).The estimated work life earnings of the modern educated African are $2.5 million which are the estimated work-life earnings for full-time African-American workers with an advanced degree. (US Census 20 03-7)... (US Census 2003-7). Thus it can be gleaned that the Educational standards have been improving in African American population.(Jackson 2008)It shows that the modern African American population has started to take more interest in education and more and more African Americans are graduating from the different universities through out America, and the percentage increase in African American literacy has gone up as well.(Jackson 2008) For African-Americans, more education means higher career earnings: those without a high school diploma would earn less than $1 million during their work life, increasing to $1.0 million for workers with a high school education and $1.7 million for those with a bachelor's degree. (US Census 2003-7) Historically this minority was largely suppressed in terms of education and learning opportunities.Racist attitudes locked the doors of opportunities for these enslaved people and even after they gained freedom the minority ignored education as a tool for survival. (Jackson 2008)They lacked the right of suffrage until the advent of the democratic trend of Civil rights and liberties and initiatives like the American Creed during the early 1940's by Gunnar Myrdal.It was indeed Myrdal who wrote in his book famously (quoted in Jackson 2008) The ideals of the essential dignity of the individual human being, of fundamental equality of all men, and of certain inalienable rights to freedom, justice, and a fair opportunity represent to the American people the essential meaning of the nation's early struggle for independence. . . . These tenets were written into the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and into the