Life as a minority in nursing

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

"Conservative" (or Neo-Conservatives, or Tea Party or Palin/Bachmann types) Americans love to pretend it doesn't exist. More accurately, they deny that it exists.
They do this because it goes against their utopian ideal that "Every American has the exact same opportunities as every other American!" In their view, to contradict this makes you Anti-American, Socialist, Communist, and probably a child molester.
The everyday Americans who subscribe to this do so because of the constant stream of propoganda they receive. They also engage in raging Confirmation Bias - only looking at data that supports their position and completely ignore or refuse all other data. (They do the same thing with issues like Tobacco Smoke, Acid Rain, CFCs, Climate Change, ad nauseum).
The idea that we indeed all have the same opportunities is a very nice thought and would be great if it was true, but it isnt.

I totally agree with this. Joesph McCarthy, eat your heart out. Who would have thunk that so many years later, this party is no more enlightened than they were in the midst of the Cold War. If you disagree you're a socialist, or totalitarian, or a Marxist, or gasp, even a terrorist.

Same opportunities? Yeah, right. What gets me is all the trailer park, uneducated rednecks that buy into their philosophy hook, line and sinker. Why is that? Perhaps this demographic is happier to let others do the thinking for them? I don't know.. Maybe they just like their guns.

blackberrie_281 · Jan 3, 2011

2ndyearstudent and mjmoon: Stop it yall! :lol2: I completely agree with wat yall are saying, but getting into politics on here is like asking for a fight. and while i can kinda see the link to politics and the OPs topic, if yall really wanna discuss this then yall should probably move this somewhere else.

also to add; those kids that WANT to succeed in school are the ones who make use of there resources and get the grades, get the degrees, whether the child is from a low economic background or not. these children do, however, have to work twice as hard usually to be at the same skill level, academically, to children who are in a better economic situation. anyone who has grown up middle class (low, high, whatever) will know that someone can have all the opportunities in the world and still not use them, and go to a "good" highschool and still be ill prepared for college.

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

One definitely has to apply themselves and find out what opportunities are out there. I grew up in a blue collar family. My older sister was the first to get a college degree (ADN, no less) and she and my parents paid for it out of pocket because my parents assumed (and maybe at the time they were right) she wouldn't qualify for loans or grants or anything like that. My parents believed (even though they never had spare money) they still made too much money to get financial aid. They carried this belief for my brothers and myself, and none of us questioned it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered not all financial aid was need based, or credit based. Not only that, but my husband and I BOTH qualified for pell grants!

A friend of mine recently was complaining that her and her husband would never qualify for financial aid because she carried the same belief. Chances are, they both would also qualify for some amount of pell.

One of the biggest problems is that many, many underprivileged have no idea that there ARE opportunities out there., but even then, they aren't the opportunities the wealthy are given.

ILstudentnurse · Jan 3, 2011

those kids that want to succeed in school are the ones who make use of there resources and get the grades, get the degrees, whether the child is from a low economic background or not. these children do, however, have to work twice as hard usually to be at the same skill level, academically, to children who are in a better economic situation.

so, what is your argument? as you said, a child from a low economic background has to work twice as hard...even if they use the resources made available to them. a person who comes from a poor family and a substandard school cannot be compared with someone from a higher economic status. both of these people are in a race, but the person from a higher economic status has a head start.

tntrn, ASN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

When my daughter started the financial aid process way back in 1990, a phrase right out of the financial aid handbook stated, "parents are expected to EXHAUST THEIR RESOURCES before any aid will be granted." That was regardless of grades, and she graduated with a 4.0 from High School. That meant essentially that one had to take out a second mortgage on your home, and if you have more than one child, what do you do the next time?

I believe that since then, one's home value is not taken into account for need. But then my kids are now in their 30's, and I don't know how it works.

For our grandson, we have started a college tuition savings account and hopefully, his mommy and daddy won't get the shock of a lifetime like we did when it comes time for him to go to college.

2ndyearstudent, CNA · Jan 3, 2011

2ndyearstudent and mjmoon: Stop it yall! I completely agree with wat yall are saying, but getting into politics on here is like asking for a fight. and while i can kinda see the link to politics and the OPs topic, if yall really wanna discuss this then yall should probably move this somewhere else.

It relates directly to the topic the OP posted.

Yes, issues that involve politics, ethnicity or religion can be heated and confrontational, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be discussed. People are free to not participate, but to try to stop others from discussing a subject on a discussion board (while simultaneously adding to the discussion!) doesn't make sense.

blackberrie_281 · Jan 3, 2011

this is my point.

Originally Posted by blackberrie_281

those kids that WANT to succeed in school are the ones who make use of there resources and get the grades, get the degrees, whether the child is from a low economic background or not.

a person strives to succeed only if they feel the goal is worth it. regardless of background.

alrighty then, i gave fair warning. let the political debate commence!...hopefully this thread doesnt take a turn for the worse..

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

those kids that WANT to succeed in school are the ones who make use of there resources and get the grades, get the degrees, whether the child is from a low economic background or not.

I can totally understand, respect, and appreciate the point that you are trying to make. However, the blunt truth is that not all kids succeed in school, no matter how much they want it. Parental influence and social class are huge determinants in a kid's success in school.

For example, a little boy might want to grow up to be a doctor. However, the kid is being raised in a lower-class household. His mother is a cashier who reads at a 6th grade level, cannot do any math beyond basic arithmetic, and barely squeaked by in high school. His father is a gas station attendant who is illiterate, only knows basic arithmetic, and did not attend school beyond 8th grade. There are no books in the household, and the parents cannot help with homework because they do not always understand his assignments. His parents have experienced personal failures with the educational system, and they do not discuss school with their son. These people are present-oriented and do not talk about future events such as college attendance and career planning.

Most of us know that a future doctor needs an exceptionally strong background in mathematics and science in addition to excellent reading comprehension skills, critical thinking skills, etc. His parents were not able to inculcate these things into him at home, and the school system can do only so much with an underprepared student. No matter how badly the boy wants to be a doctor, his disadvantaged background is helping to thwart his ambitious dream.

Children need to be cultivated toward education well before those formative preschool years. A poor child enters school with a smaller vocabulary, less academic skills, and more distractions in life than their more advantaged classmates. In other words, certain kids start far behind in the race to success.

blackberrie_281 · Jan 3, 2011

^^^completely agree, good points. nice illustration btw

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

thecommuter- i couldn't agree with you more. i was shocked at the amount of students (and this is a middle class area) in my son's kinder class last year that didn't even know the alphabet. sure, they could sing the song but when asked to identify a letter they were clueless.. let alone knowing the difference between upper and lowercase. how are kids supposed to succeed when so many parents don't even both teaching them the freaking alphabet? it's not hard.. heck, sesame street will teach them if you just shut of the sponge bob!

iPink, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2011

As a minority myself, coming from parents who migrated to the United States, and who had not received a college education, they were determined to raise children who were going to get a good education.

They worked hard to place us in private schools and when it came to middle and high school, my father fought the school board to get us transferred into the "A" schools. My father was hands on in expanding our vocabulary, by initiating conversations around the dinner table and interjecting words we weren't familiar with. If we didn't know the meaning, we had to look it up.

Not every child needs to attend private schools to become successful in life. But, it is important for parents/guardians to promote and encourage education and a learning lifestyle to help them succeed.

cookie91 · Jan 7, 2011

We have to accept the fact that both economic and racial status is important ,and can make a difference in the hiring process.