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I’m going to write this here… because. [Note: This is me thinking "out loud." I just needed to converse my thoughts, even if just with myself. Comments?]

Today in Afrocology (African American Studies) we were discussing the current economic situation of the Black community and what needed to be done to change it. This notion of “equality” was thrown into the mix, in reference to the idea that people should treat other people “equally.” So two people, with the exact everything, go to a bank to get a home loan. One person is Black, the other white. What I’m told happens is the Black person gets denied or a higher interest rate on average than the White. There are a million different situations like this displaying the disparities of Blacks and Whites (I won’t mention other races, colors and whatnot for simplicities sake.)

The question again was “How do we make it ‘better’ for the Black community?” A lot of people had answers that were basically “People need to treat people equally.” Yeah, but how? I came up with an answer I’m pleased with, but first I’d like to dissect the thought process I went through before arising at my answer.

First I thought about the various social policies that have been put into place that are suppose to make things more equal. Things like affirmative action (and others I’m sure.) Then, for some reason I related that to the good ol’ supply and demand curves.

What we see there at P sub e is the equilibrium price. That’s when looking at Price vs. Quantity. Now when there is government policy to fix prices (with ceilings or floors) that can potential throw things out of equilibrium causing shortages and surpluses. Controlling prices with policy as opposed to a real change in the demand/supply curve is, generally, a “bad” thing (I think.)

Now, I currently don’t know exactly how to express it, but I feel like that graph could somehow show the impact of socio-economic policies (things like affirmative action.)

What I’m saying is there’s an equilibrium level to… the current status of the social view of a Black Man. Lets say “the people” think that view is inaccurate and want to raise it to a higher level. That can be done two ways. By setting a floor to the socially accepted view of a Black Man, making it “illegal” to view one as anything lower than the predefined limit. Or there could be a real change in the XYZ curve which makes the new and higher view real, as opposed to a governmentally/societally fixed one.

I think that came out OK :S

Anyhow, my answer to the question (this wasn’t the real question, but I believe it catches the essence of it) “How can things in the Black Community be made better?” is Real and Lasting changes within the Black community. I think “forcing” people to see things a certain way is similar to fixing prices.