Shades of Gray

One thing that bothers me about the way that, frankly, most conservatives speak is that they tend to view issues and the world in black and white without being able to see any shades of gray. They seem more likely to generalize and this affects the kind of policy and world view they are likely to put forth. I was reminded of this when reading Chapter 25 in the text. When Macedo quotes the passage from Lukas about the racism that African-American students faced in Boston Public Schools, I was disgusted and depressed. Still, conservatives aren't likely to put much weight on this part of the story and would rather focus on the fact that many African-American students drop out of school and see a lower level of success when compared to their white, suburban counterparts. These issues all seem to be about which part of the story to you give the most attention and relevance. Conservatives tend to look at the symptoms of problems rather than the cause (this is an idea I stole from an earlier section of this book). Instead of thinking about WHY some kids may be dropping out of school, they only look at the fact that kids are dropping out of school. (From the earlier section of the text) Instead of thinking that someone may be driven to steal because they are poor, they would rather say there is something inherently wrong with a specific group of people. In this conservative mindset there are no shades of gray and people can only be judged by generalizations or the actions of sometimes a small, isolated few. It frustrates me that people aren't willing to dig deeper when discussing and debating these issues and would rather allow a story they saw on local news make up their opinion of an entire group of people.