Technology vs. Race: Is it a black and white issue?

The following is a response to "Technology versus African Americans" by Anthony Walton and "The Next University Drive-Thru U,: Higher Education for People Who Mean Business" by James Traub both of which are found in "The Changing World of Work"

Are African Americans lagging behind in the technological field?  Statistics presented by James Traub show us that the pursuit of technological degrees is not something that African Americans are interested in.  For example, the US population of African American people is over 13%, but the amount of African Americans pursuing technology based degrees is around 5%. 

Given the fact that I am not African American I can only speak based on what I have read from the article.  I see a key to the lagging behind of African Americans is the fact that they are not subjected to it as young children.  Many African American children grow up in poorer school systems and thus the opportunities are less. 

On another topic a Para-University is a University that is fully functioning with students and teachers and so on, but it is simply conducted all online.  As stated in the reading the people are not interested in the education itself, but rather what the education can get them.  There is no doubt that people are interested in online univiersities so that they can spend there days working a job and making money while getting an education in free time. 

There is no doubt that these universities are effecting schools that must be attended on site.  People do not have the time or the money to pick up and move their lives to a college especially when they are older.  At the age of 18 kids are looking to get away from home.  However, people that are looking into online Universities are more older than young.  There is a good chance that these people have jobs and are looking to further themselves, but don't have the time to spend all day on a campus.  These drive thru universities are perfect for our fast paced society. 

The Scientific writing of "High-Tech Stress"

Scientific writing is conducted much like academic writing, but has a very specific set up and relies on certain scientic principles.  Looking back on the readings of the semester it is easy to notice many pieces that contain scientific writing principles.  These pieces include Jeremy Rifkin's "High-Tech Stress", which is an obvious example as well as the "Scientific Management and Fordism" reading.

An easy way to identify a scientific piece of writing is that much like academic writing you must identify a thesis for the writing.  This is especially true when it comes to the social sciences.  Often the natural sciences do not focus on identifying a thesis as much as the social sciences do.  The social sciences also take looks at other pieces of literatue that speak on the topic at hand.  You notice in "Scientific Management and Fordism" that they look back to the way things once were before the "Fordist" way of thinking was presented.  This way of writing is used so that the reader can know what the writers opinions agree and disagree with.

Another intrical part of the writing is using statistics or survery information to give the reader facts.  In Rifkin's "High-Tech Stress" he talks about the specific number of people who are experiencing stress in the job force.  Rifkin cites exact numbers from job forces and the number of people who experienced health problems from the stress of work.