I think one if the most important things we can do as a society is make information accessible. Make as much information and data readily available to anyone and everyone who wants to use it. This can be achieved though the internet, schools, library, and other similar institutions. That being said it is the availability that I think society is responsible for, not the consumption. I think that force feeding  knowledge will not do any good. If people choose to ignore the resources at their disposal then so be it. The fault lies with the individual for not taking advantage of available resources.

The trick becomes finding a passion for acquiring knowledge. It makes me think of my first year in college. I was only there because it was where I was expected to be.I might as well have still been in high school. College was just the next logical step. I did not have the drive to succeed, because honestly I did not want to be there. Granted I did not want to be much of anywhere, but that was because I was dealing with depression at the time. That really is not relevant though so I will stop talking about it. The point being I most likely would have benefit heavily from taking a year between graduating high school and entering college. Entering college with a goal in mind would have made a world of difference What I am trying to get is acquiring knowledge and skills should be something we want to do,

As far as potential racial pressures keeping people from learning. I think is falls on the individual to overcome that. Life is not about who you are it is about who you want to be and seeing who close you can get to the ideal you have in your head.