This past Sunday morning, after five hours of sleep and before going to my first Bears game, I spent some time volunteering at Keshet. This Sunday school offers a fun and educational environment for children and adults with disabilities. My experience at Keshet was unlike any other. 

Before I got there, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. All I had was some previous experience babysitting for a neighbor: a girl who was the same age as me except she had severe disabilities. Once I arrived at Keshet there were a dozen of volunteers who braved the cold and ice to come out that morning. Having no idea where to go, I asked one of them. After being directed down the hall, I met Rana, the Sunday school director. She was an incredibly busy woman, trying to single-handedly run the whole place. Rana quickly explained to me what Keshet was about and where I was assigned that day. I was in a room with two students, Alex and Gilit, and two other teacher aids, Tracy and Lindsey. Gilit was my student. She’s a forty-year old woman, who beyond her disabilities is one of the sweetest people I have ever met with a smile that can light up with world.

Gilit and I participated in a full day of singing. First we went to prayer along with several other Jewish songs, none of which I knew since I’m Christian but I joyfully clapped along. Then we went upstairs to watch a choir from another temple sing to all of the students. Next we went to snack, where I was introduced to Gilit’s best friend, Zach. Finally we all gathered back in the room for more prayers and songs from the Rabbi.

It was incredibly rewarding when Gilit smiled or when she started a conversation with me. All of the volunteers there help keep Keshet running and provide one-on-one attention to those who attend. Together, all of them give the students a remarkable Sunday experience and something to look forward to every week. Just as much as I hoped I touched Gilit’s life, she touched mine. I really hope I can get back there when Keshet starts up again after winter break because the three hours I spent there were amazing.

May 17th, 1954: The incredibly moving court case, Brown vs. the Board of Education, ruled in favor of desegregation in all public schools across the United States.

Before this ruling, psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark researched the impact segregation had on black children in the 1940s. His famous experiment became known as the "Doll Test" found segregation was detrimental to personality development in black children. His studies provided strong evidence that was used in Brown vs. the Board of Education. (Brown vs Board and Clark's Experiment)

Recently, his study was replicated in the short film A Girl Like Me (watch film here: A Girl Like Me). It is apparent our society's strides against racism haven't gotten as far as we hoped because children still favor white dolls over black dolls, even if they are black themselves because the white dolls are "nice" and look "good". To be exact, fifteen out of the twenty studied chose the white doll over the black one. 

Other girls were interviewed in the film and felt removed from their culture being generalized as "from Africa". Just as each state in America has its different culture so do the individual countries that form Africa, but slowly these girls are forgetting where they came from and their distinct roots.

Our nation has the tendency to label those that aren't white, which is only over-simplifying several cultures and throwing them into groups based off of skin color. Solely labeling people based on this ignores the culture that makes them who they are. It also impacts they way they see themselves, wanting to be white. The black girls from A Girl Like Me wanted the straight, blond hair white girls have. It seemed they saw themselves as less beautiful because they weren't white.

What I don't understand is why. Why did whites feel entitlement and superiority? What exactly is so special about us that makes us "better" than others? Who were we to think that? We shouldn't be entitled to anything nor should we feel superior to anyone strictly because we are white. 

Continuing to remove racism from our society is crucial because kids are still learning traces of it early on.
 

Maybe one day society will finally reach perfect equality without any hints of racism.

Americans can change their social class, but it's insanely difficult and borders practically impossible. So many factors go into determining your social mobility, an important one being education. 

My grandparents on my dad's side were first generation: my grandma being entirely Polish and my grandpa entirely Italian. When my grandma was thirteen she became a second-mom to her siblings after her mother passed away. She dropped out of school, raised her brothers and sisters, then got married to my grandpa who worked long days at the Chicago Tribune, and had four children. Coming from a lower-class family, my dad worked several low-paying jobs and commuted to the University of Chicago so he could receive a higher education. He worked his way up in the work place and today is the CIO of WMS Gaming. 

I think every generation wants to be bigger and better than the one before. It takes insane amounts of work and effort to move up the social ladder, especially when you're starting from nothing. 


For several years my aunt has worked at a West Chicago public school as a principal and school administrator. A majority of her students' families struggle because they're apart of the lower-class with hardly enough money to buy them food and clothes, let alone a nice place to live in a good community that offers a great education at a public school. So many of these families can only afford cheaper homes or apartments, and the districts that offer them have a poor public education. This only puts their children at a greater risk of living in the same social class as they did. 


Something needs to be done to improve the education and school system in these districts because otherwise too many kids will fall to poverty and the struggles of the lower-class.

Side note: The New York Times dedicated a series to social class in America. For a year they studied social class in our society and titled their series "Class Matters".