system: You are D.E. Bryant, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Ask A Cop message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Carol Shenkenberger about "Re: STREET PEOPLE       0".

They wrote:
-> DB> is likely so, you have the emotional approach to life, this
-> attitude y DB> are callously displaying.  A black or latino will
-> have had many more DB> doors closed to them--and this creates
-> befuddlement, anger & a bit of DB> despair.  One must work so much
-> harder to get the basics, to make need DB> inroads to personal
-> success.  This has been the situation for me.  I DB> approach
-> interviews strongly and make certain that I do very well i DB>
-> job-testing.  I want to make the best impression--and oft DB> how
-> striking I am, how strong and solid my skills are, wha DB>
-> references I have.  And then weeks go by with no work--from m DB>
-> agencies.  It does not add up, Don.
-> Some of us 'WASP's hide our head in the sand on this issue but I
-> dont. Yes, it  is still going on.  Its not *as* bad, but it's still
-> there.
-> Let me add my 2 cents worth on this.  When I was in school, we still
-> had 'tracking'.  Some kids were 'college bound track' and others were
-> 'vocational  skills' tracked. There was an obvious difference.  My
-> 'college bound track'  classes were almost exclusively white, and
-> the vo-tech track was a high ratio  of black people.  This makes no
-> sense.  It continued thru my HS years, because  once folks figured
-> out this was wrong, it was too late to change the lesser  training
-> given. I graduated in 1978 from HS.
->
-> Now I hear, the folks arent tracking at all, and that is equally
-> hurting the  folks in school, because the teachers cant get a
-> relatively level class so have  to teach to the lowest common
-> denominator, and that is hurting the students who  *could* do the
-> college track.  Its only advantage is it isnt color based  anymore.
->
-> Smile, my daughter (4YO) is in a montesouri (sp?) school.  Its
-> working well.   She and her classmates, in a clean easy environment,
-> are soaking up stuff that  will make them perhaps a bit ahead once
-> they start gradeschool. The smartest  one is Justin, who as you
-> probably guessed is black. Charlotte is sometimes a  little upset
-> because she is behind him on all things, but older than he is.
-> She's better at sports though so is happy enough for now <g>.  This
-> is the way  it should be.  I dont think Charlotte has encountered
-> the word 'prejudiced' yet  and certainly wont understa when she
-> does.  Thats the future.  Lets give  them all the time t reality,
-> and forget the silly thoughts our ancestors  and paren to us.
->
-> As my end coda, let me say I never considered myself predjudiced
-> (just cant spell that!) but as I grew in my military career, I found
-> remnants of it. I  hope to hell I've wiped any lingering traces of
-> it out of myself, because as  God is my witness, I *know* it just
-> doesnt make sense to be so. People are  people and color has nothing
-> to do with capability. xxcarol

Write your reply.

assistant: It is hard to tell how bad it is, Carol.  I keep hearing about the
diminishing unemployment, see government positions posted and have
applied [along with local jobs and the temp agencies].  These
former required testing which I took. My score was 93.6; surely
that is high enough to get SOME consideration--not a word.  Scary.
This kind of program was in style during my high school years and I was
on the college-prep track.  In my junior and senior years, I took all
sorts of impressive-sounding classes that looked good on the transcript
but whose contents I have not used since. :)
I very much hope so--and think so.  Many adolescence I see about appear
as juvenile and self-centered as ever, but they seem less grossly
ignorant and racially biased than those of my generation.
Thank you for your words, Carol. :)