Back in 1970s, there was a table where only black people go to during lunch and just hang out. This table was separated away from everyone else thus creating a sort of niche a place for all black people go to during lunch if you have nowhere to go. The black table wasn’t the only one like this and schools now have expanded to include all kinds of different niches for all kinds of people. Nowadays, there is a Hispanic table, band or music table, rockers, Game of Thrones lovers, smokers or vapers, book lovers, gym rats, and so on. They aren’t at just tables though all of different kinds of people have carved out their own niche in different parts of the school. Band players hang out near the band room of course, vapers hang out by the vape store, book lovers are at the library or book store, while the gym rats are by the gym. The reason why these “tables” are here being less about segregation and being away from everyone it’s more about having a hub, a general area to go to if you like a specific thing. “Birds of a feather flock together” this saying is basis of what it’s going on now. More and more people are discovering different things, different communities of like-minded people all sharing the same interest. Now with the advent of the internet anyone could go onto Facebook, twitter, or reddit and find even a small group of people who all enjoy the same thing. Having these tables either on the internet or physically in schools and colleges allows people to be free. To give people confidence and opportunities to share and talk about what they love. Less about people keeping themselves separate, more about getting people different walks of life under one common interest.

In the 1970s there was only the black table. A table that was segregating themselves away from everyone else due to the issue of the race. Now it’s only just the tables segregating themselves, entire schools have begun segregating away from the “white” schools. The segregation going on here is a mix of both class and racial inequality. There is a recent of trend of students getting an unequal access to education. Students who live in more affluent, white neighborhoods are receiving a much better education, with better learning facilities, and better instructors then those in the poorer neighborhoods. However, even in those same better schools there is a disproportional number of Asians and Whites in advanced classes then there is Hispanics and African Americans. A new practice called tracking that follow student’s academic achievements is racially biased geared towards Asians and Whites, while ignoring Hispanics and African Americans. In 1960 Theodore Roosevelt unveiled the New Deal and with it came change and hope for Americans everywhere. The New Deal at first gave affordable housing to everyone making integrated neighborhoods everywhere. However, as time went on, economy started to slowly improve, the need for integrated neighborhoods was deemed unnecessary and the Public Works Administration began to build segregated housing. This pattern of finding integrated neighborhoods and replacing it with segregated communities continued for generations, leaving the black people stuck in projects and other public housing while the white people were able to get more and more homes away from the projects thanks to the Federal Housing Administration Program. The program made it easier for white people to make suburban homes by guaranteeing loans for any suburban subdivision as long as black families are excluded and that house deeds are prohibited to resale to them. As jobs were moving further in the suburbs that left those still stuck in public housing without jobs. As it stands now the schools made in these projects do not have the funds to afford for better learning facilities and good instructors. This makes the students of these schools, usually black people, with fewer ways preparation courses making it harder for the students to even graduate.

In this day and age as much as the internet and the idea behind globalism makes it easier for everyone to come together, share ideas, and form their own black tables as a means of comfort. Sadly, there is even more and worse cases of segregation charged by racial discrimination and now even poverty levels, where if you do not have a high enough income you could also be held back from reaching your full potential. “Black tables” have now taken on a different form both good and bad. While Graham would have loved to see the good of it, the idea of sharing information in a niche community and making it easy for people to join in, he would have hated how it got worse and now there is heavy segregation in the different schools. Segregation will always happen in one way or another.