“The Rise and Fall of Detroit’s Middle Class” by Thomas J. Sugrue illustrated the important role government jobs played in supporting Detroit’s African American population as it ascended into the middle class. I found this surprising, simply because when one hears about government jobs, the stereotype is that they are acquired through connections, and that they’re difficult to find because of the lucrative benefits they provide. When Sugrue said in 1980, half of the blacks holding high level jobs were working for the government, it really emphasized how crucial the government was in providing them jobs. He also stated multiple times how hard the African American Community worked to earn these jobs, through law suits, and groups applying pressure for equality.

An instance of another product of the government that was prominent in the twentieth century, but has ceased to exist within today’s society is Jamaica High School. We learned its history in “Class Notes” by Jelani Cobb. There were multiple aspects of Jamaica High School that sounded amazing, even by today’s standards. Wilma Rudolph visiting Jamaica High School is more of a high profile visit than anything you would hear of in our society at a high school. Another was when the author was describing the diversity present on his high school baseball team alone. Diversity was not present in my high school at all, and even from what I’ve heard about many of the high schools here in New York City, apparently they are commonly dominated by certain ethnicities and lacking many others. It’s a shame that the public school system wasn’t able to sustain what’s become nothing more than a gem of the past.