When I brought this up earlier I was attacked and it was claimed that the issue just doesn’t exist. And yet, here it is again.
"I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just
stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there," she
says. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an
iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or
toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."
There’s a problem with the black American culture in America, and I’m going to continue to talk about them, no matter how much people want to close their ears and cover their eyes.
Okay, Mister Cosby
What does any of this have to do with black culture? Because Oprah and the South African schoolchildren are black? When I was younger I volunteered at a homeless shelter with a youth group at Christmas; the white homeless kids said they wanted toys and expensive clothes too. It’s not black culture, it’s marketing culture.
And seriously, despite her good work and good nature, I don’t really see an arbiter of responsible civic altruism in a woman who complained that it was “too hard” to work with improving inner-city schools while routinely having ratings boost-slash-ego trips in the form of handing out millions of dollars in that same luxury merchandise you chastise to audience members.
I don’t see a major revelation in the fact that America has “better-off” poor people than the Third World. That doesn’t mean we should stop helping the inner city, despite the fact that it’s apparently boring for Oprah.
That’s not my point. It’s the value system of black American kids who just don’t get the value of education and call anyone who tries to better “acting white” as a derisive term. Sure, white children do it to some extent as well, but there aren’t the same systemic problems in that subsection of society as with black Americans.
Oliver, while I’m strongly tempted to agree with you, don’t you want it to change?
How can it change by either criticizing it or discouraging it? Neither of those tactics have worked.
BTW, Pollack, what does your individual anecdotal experience have to do with anything?
So kids want toys for Christmas… I guess America needs more socialism?
Ask Soviet children what they think.
“That’s not my point. It’s the value system of black American kids who just don’t get the value of education and call anyone who tries to better “acting white” as a derisive term.”
I think the term, ‘Oreo’ is a much more damaging term than, ‘nigger.’ I’ve heard very smart interviews with both Bill Cosby and Will Smith about this subject, and while I don’t normally look to celebrities for anything other than entertainment, they certainly know what they are talking about.
“BTW, Pollack, what does your individual anecdotal experience have to do with anything?
So kids want toys for Christmas… I guess America needs more socialism?”
What the hell is wrong with you? Oliver Willis pointed out that in South Africa the kids want an education while in America black kids want iPods. Pollack is pointing out in America the white kids too value toys more than education, even those that would benefit the most from it.
Unlike Oprah, I don’t visit inner-city (code-word alert) schools. I teach in one.
Although it may not be as widespread or as deeply felt as I would like it to be, I find that “the sense that you need to learn” is there.
While I agree that what Oprah is talking about is real, and it is a problem, her simplistic characterization is insulting.
If you ask American “inner-city” teenagers what they want or need, they will almost invariably reply with consumer goods. I am certain you would get the same response from suburban teenagers or college educated adults.
We live in a consumer culture. The central tenet of the American Credo is that problems are solved by the acquisition of consumer products. A desire to acquire more consumer goods is viewed as a positive character trait; a rejection of that desire renders one suspect.
Fruits and vegetables taste like the soil in which they are nurtured. It is much the same with people.
Oliver, your statement that this is a problem of black American culture surprises me. As a white guy from the suburbs I am usually reluctant to make any grand statements about African-American culture or the challenges of membership therein. But I don’t think that the obsession with possession is unique to African-Americans or more pronounced among them than among whites.
And who said the problem doesn’t exist, Oliver?
You hang with to many conservatives DLC folks. If you’re talking about the post I think you are, you’re gassing shit up. So tell me which post you’re talking about so I can apologize for jumping to conclusions or make your misunderstanding clear.
…iPODs and sneakers..
This isn’t merely a Black problem, it’s consumerist America teaching its young to consume. I can ask my decidely non-black son, who just turned 13, what is priorities are and things related to ensuring the continuation of his education would NOT be found on his list. And that’s in relatively effluent Palm Beach County.
I taught in a school that drew about half the students from a poor neighborhood and half from wealthy one. You can guess which side of the tracks the black kids came from. The black kids were more focused on immediate material rewards because that’s what they lacked. Ask the white kids what they wanted and they’d say stuff like a college degree, to be saved, world peace, their parents to get back together…not because they had superior values, but because they already had the ipods and DVD players and expensive shoes. Why wish for what you already have?
But both Oliver and Oprah have a point–the focus black kids, especially boys, have on unrealistic fantasy futures rather than practical achievable futures is self distructive. The fixation on being a sports star or a criminal is not beneficial. There isn’t enough of an ethic of being willinng to do the hard work of learning to be literate. The answer isn’t rejection, however. Kids need to believe in the future to work for it. They need to be actively taught how to learn and they need to believe in their own ability to learn. The low income kids don’t lack the desire to learn but they often lack the knowledge of how to learn or the belief in the future inspires a desire to work hard at the drudgery aspects of learning.
This is laughable. If you asked white kids, the same response would be given. If you ask people what they want, don’t expect them to tell you what they need. You’re sounding more and more like Bill Cosby every day.
These are not “black” problems, these are cultural problems across the unites states. It’s laughable to pretend that only black people dream about futures that are out of their grasp. The truth is, being an NBA star is more likely to happen to most lower class kids than getting a job at a fortune 500 or becomming a lawyer. The problem isn’t that people recognize that, it’s that that’s the state of the nation.
Could someone point out where in the article linked to that Winfrey says anything about the actual curriculum that will be taught at her school?
The only thing that comes close is the mention that she’s going to be teaching a couple of leadership courses.
There isn’t a single sentence about any other subject to be taught.
The rest of the article is entirely devoted to the material, aesthetic quality of the school and its impact on the students’ self-esteem.
It’s sort of odd that Winfrey critcizes the materialism of “inner city” school chidren in America while building a posh prep school half way around the world that has extra lagre closets for the students to fill up with purchases:
She wants to teach impoverished children how to “appreciate things”? Okay…
Interesting thread here. Seeing so many people essentially dodging the clear fact that our inner-city African-American kids are doing really poorly in school highlights the problem–denial.
Keep on talking about it Oliver. People need to hear it.
For the record, I’m a 58 year old black man, married to the same woman for 31 years. We raised a wonderful daughter who has remained unpregnant and is about to be married. I went to inner city schools. But learning was important to my parents, and in that environment, I learned. As did our daughter.
Inner city failure is not inevitable.
I don’t personally know any DLC folks, so your charge is as hollow as it was before. P6, your argument is that some black people in America are succeeding, so these problems don’t exist. And yet, they do. Yes, we live in a consumer culture, but the obsession with relatively unimportant surface things is not retarding the rest of America as it is black America. The biggest problem is what appears above this, when anyone dares to point out these issues they’re attacked as “acting white” or betraying the cause as P6 does on his blog. But the first step is admitting there’s a problem. Too many folks in black America continue to insist there’s no problem, and another generation gets left behind out of pride.
I never made such an argument.
My argument is that the part you pick out and call a Black problem are actually parts of a larger issue, and you can’t address “the Black problem” independently.
Find anywhere on the net I’ve EVER made the argument you claim I have. Show me what I’ve written.
And yes, I said “acting white” because YOU said this:
“Them,” huh?
Hell of a Freudian slip. Denying you’re Black is acting white, yes.
“The truth is, being an NBA star is more likely to happen to most lower class kids than getting a job at a fortune 500 or becomming a lawyer. The problem isn’t that people recognize that, it’s that that’s the state of the nation.” Soullite.
This statement is totally false.
Wow, now you have problems deciphering language? “Them” was referring to the problems (”I’m going to continue to talk about them” = “I’m going to continue to talk about the problems no matter how much some people try to pretend they aren’t real.”). I’m certainly not denying I’m black, though I’m sure that’s a convenient way to once again dismiss the issues at hand. There’s a universal problem, but it affects black America harder.
Rounds77 is right, but too many kids - black kids - think that being an NBA player or a rapper is a legitimate career goal. It’s no surprise that once the reality sets in, so many kids spiral out.
I could go on at length about how crushing the peer pressure is now compared to even 10 years ago. I won’t because I’m tired also, Oliver, of people not realizing that you don’t just spend the same amount per pupil on crisis schools if you want to improve problems. You spend much more. You don’t just give a single way out(athletics) or outlet for achievement and pride. I do like you Oliver but don’t hand me this bullshit of yours unless you are at least willing to give as much effort to reporting the valedictorians, the great teachers, the great students and achievements in science,math,medicine etc. as you do for the sports teams on this blog. Everybody who spouts off about this issue needs to first check themselves and say “What am I doing other than bitching?” Do you volunteer at schools? Do you contribute money over and above your taxes? Do you go and ask the Principal or Superintendent how you can help? Until you take these first steps you should STFU. I have spoken to educators repeatedly over the last many years while dealing with a special needs stepson. Oprah is all about Oprah. I don’t give a damn about her. She could easily write the checks necessary to greatly improve access to books and reading programs for K-3 kids in Chicago. That would have a major impact.Apparently that won’t happen because their “attitude” doesn’t meet with her standards. I am so tired of the phoniness of athletics in schools. How about instead of that new mega-million dollar weight room we demand that every NCAA broadcast carry 30 minutes on each schools academic programs, teachers, students and achievements.
Chuck says it all:: The same tired old shit that has been done again and again, and failed. And he says we should do it again.
And BTW, Strowbridge, the pertinent sentence im Pollack’s remark that I was referring to was this one: “It’s not black culture, it’s marketing culture.”
You’re getting that “When Frank makes a remark, there must be something wrong with it” stupidity that afflicts so many other jimokes on these threads.
I’m not sure doing anything to improve our public school system, inner city or otherwise, is going to do anything about parents lacking the will to responsibly raise their children.
We can’t substitute what parents should be doing every day by encouraging and being a mentor to one’s own child with some nebulous fix of our schools.
But one thing that is a pre-requisite to doing anything to improve our school system is making teaching a highly competitive field, it’s now akin to nursing, you don’t do it for the money, you do it because you believe it.
How many doctors and lawyers can say that? But the level of expertise we find in those two fields is directly related to pay scale and competition. Are teachers no less important than a doctor or lawyer?
Kids need to believe in the future to work for it. They need to be actively taught how to learn and they need to believe in their own ability to learn. The low income kids don’t lack the desire to learn but they often lack the knowledge of how to learn or the belief in the future inspires a desire to work hard at the drudgery aspects of learning.
lily shoots and scores.
Two follow up points.
The teachers I work with and I pound this message but it is a hard sell. To the students, the message is so at odds with their experience of the world that they do not so much reject as they simply do not believe it to be possible.
The focus on that message can also divert attention from the very real and very huge differences in the resources and teachers available to the inner city students.
Illustrative examples.
Last year I retired from the practice of law and began teaching English in Watts. Our English department had 21 teachers. 14 of us were in our first year of teaching.
Our students do not have adequate access to computers. The only reason I have a computer in my classroom for my own use is that a friend donated it.
I could go on and on about the resources and teachers, but I think you get the point.
I would urge anyone and everyone who has an interest in knowing more about this situation to volunteer at a school near you. We love the guest speakers. The students love the guest speakers.
Check it out, talk to the students. They will tell you the facts of life as they see them.
I think mindset is more of an issue than resources. I attended the high school in Florida with a magnet program that attracted money and had more computers in the school than something like 90% of the other schools in the state. Yet, the mindset was still the same damaged one amongst way too many students.
I agree that mindset is more important than resources, but the two are not unrelated.
And I include materials, training and mentoring for new teachers among the resources.
New teachers are essentially given a classroom key and told to go teach.
What - and be specific, please - is “Black American culture”?
Culture and cultural ideas specific to black Americans, or especially popular with that group of Americans.
Culture and cultural ideas specific to black Americans, or especially popular with that group of Americans.
Hmmm. That doesn’t answer much.
Which culture and cultural ideas would you consider to be specific to black Americans, first. And which just especially popular?
No, it could have easily been either.
Meanwhile, tell me where I said what you accused me of saying or admit to the error.
And after years of declaring you’re not blogging on race, NOW it’s your mission to call out Black folks? What’s up with that?
No, skip that…just tell me where you hallucinated my saying there’s no problem because some Black people succeed.
By the way (to the thread participants), you’re all talking about improving the education process, which I support.
That’s not where the thread started. It’s the thread that maybe should have been the topic in the first place.
Now, if we saying the social process, education, is the way to address “The Black Problem,” is the problem Black people or the education process?
Relativity of perception, right?
P6, every time I’ve noted this issue, you link to stats on the black middle class as if to say because the black middle exists there isn’t any problem to address.
The problem is it isn’t just an education problem. There are others who have it much worse than black American kids do, but succeed more because they have a culture that doesn’t raise the superficial higher than it should be. We continue to have a value system - specific to black American culture - that tells kids that bling is the highest value, and that to be into academics is to be negative and “acting white”.
Like I’ve noted various times, there are thousands of positive aspects to black culture (the high value placed on family, for one) but these other issues cloud them and people are not willing to address them. Those of us who do bring them up are regularly derided as either race traitors, outsiders, or rich folks who don’t “understand” the plight of the poor as if it’s an excuse.
I’m speaking from my personal experience on this. I certainly didn’t grow up rich, and I’m not rich. I’m a black American, but I didn’t grow up in a traditional black American household.
I think there are tons of external issues and pressures on black people, and want those fixed as well, but they could all be taken away tomorrow and the internal problems would still be there because people won’t acknowledge them and lash out at people who dare to point them out.
Imagine if someone is an alcoholic, and the response is that beer companies should quit making and marketing alcohol without addressing why it is the addict craves alcohol in the first place?
And I’m writing about this issue because not enough people are. I keep seeing the same old, same old attacks - justified or not - on external pressures and continued pretending away of the inside stuff.
“And BTW, Strowbridge, the pertinent sentence im Pollack’s remark that I was referring to was this one: “It’s not black culture, it’s marketing culture.”"
I know that. I can read. You are saying that if someone complains about a culture than values material goods over an education, that means they want socialism. Again, what the hell is wrong with you?
“You’re getting that “When Frank makes a remark, there must be something wrong with it”"
That’s because when Frank makes a remark, there is usualy something wrong with it.
“And I’m writing about this issue because not enough people are.”
But I think there ARE people writing about it, it’s called the failure of the American Family. It’s not simpy a Black problem (yes, caps intended).
I say again, fixing schools is NOT going to make parents raise their children responsibly. It’s not even going to come close to comphensating for it either.
Make that the last lie, Oliver. You’re already accused me ot that. I’ve already asked where you say me say that.
I don’t do “as if.”
Do not lie about my statements. It’s in print both here and on the previous thread that you refuse to link.
You should stop talking about “the internal problem” because there’s a HUGE amount of discussion about it. You just have to be up on what the really progressive Black folks are talking about.
Or better, answer Nannette’s question. Give us examples that meet your own definition of “Black culture.”
And all this education discussion…do you think there’s a chance in hell of any program specific to Black folks being approved? Not if you’ve been paying any attention at all. So you MUST approach it in unitary fashion. Any other approach is guaranteed to fail for political reason (hell with morality, eh?) and so is an immense waste of time.
More, you’ve already admitted the problems are universal but affect Black people more severely. So you work on Black folks…and the society keeps generating the same crap issues…and YOU blame Black folks for its reappearance. Again, the approach MUST be universal or it WILL fail.
When you pull these pieces together and call it “The Black Problem” you’re like a kid who finished a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle and threw away the extra pieces.
Ah, specifics!
We continue to have a value system - specific to black American culture - that tells kids that bling is the highest value, and that to be into academics is to be negative and “acting white”. (emphasis added)
Well! At least that’s better than saying liking watermelon and fried chicken - although not much better, as I believe it all comes from the same source. Right wing tropes that, while they may have some basis in reality, among some sets of kids and adults (who, by the way, are not all black) are being used, by you, as being indicative of all “black American culture”.
The reason you can’t give real specifics, in my view, is because once you actually attempt to do so you’ll necessarily have to come to the realization that there is no such thing as a standard “black American culture”. Black Americans, and various cultural enclaves, beliefs, traditions, etc, are quite varied.
In your previous post on this, you mentioned the lack of interest in learning and academic excellence among the black kids in high school, and then almost immediately qualified it with something like “well, not at the one in Maryland, but look at the ones in DC!” (all this being lots of paraphrasing, no direct quotes.) Reminds me of those folks who sometimes will go on and on about how black people are this, and black people are that, and black people never do this or think this other thing… and then they realize that you, black person, are standing there in front of them, obviously not any of the things they’ve been moaning on about… and they say “Oh! Well I didn’t mean you [you're one of the good ones]“.
Now, about the specifics you did mention:
black American culture - that tells kids that bling is the highest value
Sadly, I must admit (and I hope no one takes away my member of black American culture card because of it), I still have an imperfect understanding of what, exactly, bling is. I first heard the term when my mother was watching The View a while back, and Lisa Ling (who I thought was Chinese, but who I now realize must be black) was going on and on about her and others “bling”, showing this picture and that picture of people of all sorts… the only thing they all had in common was jewelry, so I came to the conclusion that bling was jewelry. But it seems that it’s also money? But what makes it bling, as opposed to money or jewelry or ostentation, besides the word choice? Is bling specifically from unearned income, or something? Surely, whatever it is, it can’t be from earned income, as ostentatious display of the fruits of that is The American Way. Are beemers bling?
that to be into academics is to be negative and “acting white
I’m glad P6 teased this out a bit up above, because I was wondering if I was the only one whose experience with the “acting white” was that it was not something that particularly meant getting good grades, or getting a good education and so on, but was more applied to “acting like you are not one of us“, which is something (sometimes) entirely different. And certainly not specific to black culture, or to American culture, for that matter. Other cultures may not use that exact term (especially not poor white cultures) but whatever the term used, it effectively means the same thing… acting as if you are better, not one of us, you don’t want to know us, embarrassed to be considered part of our culture, family, town etc, etc.
This is not to say that anti-intellectualism does not exist among some, especially younger, black people by the way. Or that unrealistic expectations for the future (becoming an entertainment mogul or rap star or sports figure, without hard work, so on) do not exist. Or may of the other problems plaguing society… I’m just trying to get to the details of what is specific to “black American culture” that can be worked on by dealing with that exclusively, as opposed to overall societal issues.
By the way, in that Florida high school you mention from time to time… how many of the black American kids graduated with your class? And where are they now?
A PBS special on Appalachia (sp?) showed their term was “getting beyond your raising.”
Once again, whistling past the graveyard. The phenomena of “acting white” doesn’t exist to you guys, black kids aren’t preocuppied with being rappers and basketball players, every time someone points out these issues, you accuse them of engaging in stereotype or worse.
Have any of you been a black kid recently? I graduated from high school 13 years ago this June, and the problem was bad. Yes, it varies based on region and an area with a larger black middle class like Maryland is surely better in dealing with the problem than Southern Florida. But I don’t understand why you guys just don’t want to admit that there’s a problem?
Fixing an educational system only goes so far when a kid goes home and his family doesn’t care about academics versus surface issues. And then when people point out this disparity, they’re supposedly a hater engaging in stereotype and the problem festers on.
OW - what do you consider a “traditional” black household? Do you mean “not stereotypical”? Nanette, touched on this.
@Nanette
“because I was wondering if I was the only one whose experience with the “acting white” was that it was not something that particularly meant getting good grades, or getting a good education and so on, but was more applied to “acting like you are not one of us”, which is something (sometimes) entirely different.”
In my experience, it was a combination of: courses (advanced-I was often the only one), class participation, grades, DICTION, neighborhood, class, clothing…I must note that I experienced this in middle school (a flawed system in and of itself) and from FEMALES (attn from guys is at play).
the phenomena of “acting white” doesn’t exist to you guys
I can’t quite recall where I said that - no doubt you’ll point it out to me, though.
My mother is visually ‘white’. And, probably, some would say culturally ‘white’, although she is black. My father is Nigerian (and returned there after my parents divorced when I was a baby). In my early years we lived in a primarily black and Mexican neighborhood but there was more classical music in my house than motown (there was that too, though, and we kids never missed Famous on um… American Bandstand, I think it was). I was reading and doing math before I ever started school, top of my classes, skipped a grade (which awful thing they used to do to children, at least in my area, before they started with the advanced classes thing… I hope they’ve discontinued that practice, for the most part), have always been quiet, soft spoken and bookish. We moved around a lot when I was young, so I was “the new kid” fairly often, in segregated (by neighborhood, if not by law) schools, as well as mixed ones and primarily white ones.
Being new is difficult enough, add to the above being light skinned, with a mother who looks white, speaking with good US approved diction - sounding “white” enough that it’s only after I arrive at a job interview in person that I discover that the “job has been filled” in the 5 or 10 minutes it took me to end the confirming conversation with someone excited by my resume and appear for the interview - (and, unlike many black folks, not speaking one way with black people and another with white, as I’d only learned one way of speaking - mom made sure of that), making friends of people of all cultures and colors, often being favored by teachers, and you know… I’d say I know just a little bit about this “acting white” stuff, at least at that point in time, as it’s something I went through every time I started a new school.
Here is what I found (and still find today) - at base, (most) black kids didn’t really care what my grades were, how I spoke, who my friends were, what music I listened to, and so on, as long as I didn’t separate myself out (”I’m not like you”), or allow teachers (”You’re not like them”) or even the kids themselves (”You’re not like us”) to separate me out from the herd, so to speak, then things were mostly fine.
Have any of you been a black kid recently?
I know some. In mixed schools, high achievers (and not so high achievers), family members and no, various economic circumstances… you want stories? Probably not… they don’t seem to have a clue about being a “black American problem”, especially as they seem to have the apparently astonishing ability to get good grades, plan for a future AND dream of bling.
gatamala - I’ve been “the only one” in many places, but thankfully not in middle school, which is tough enough as it is. There is an article in I think the NY Times today, about how kids often basically just fall apart in those years.
Before anything else, you still have to show where I made the arguments you claim I did or admit you made an error.
Roland Fryer, star economist at Harvard, did an extensive analysis of “acting white.” One most interesting finding was that in the elite private schools the white kids lost popularity as their grades got above a C. Is that what you’re talking about?
They aspire after the most obvious examples of success in American terms.
And if you want to know the truth, it makes no sense for all of us to aspire to leadership. There’s only so many spots at the top of the pyramid.
Only you, Oliver. Because you’re clumsy and wrong about it, accuse and never actually deal with the response, and just repeat rhetoric that everyone expects to hear.
Fryer’s research also talks about the environment in black circles where learning is looked down upon. That’s what I’m talking about and that’s what I want to change, but you keep wanting to dismiss it. Don’t you think there’s something wrong that the idols are rappers and basketball players? It’s very wrong. It’s very sick.
It’s the minority of kids that are succeeding. I want it to be a majority, and for that somehow I’m you guy’s enemy for daring to point out a problem. Come on.
the environment in black circles where learning is looked down upon. That’s what I’m talking about and that’s what I want to change
By golly, I think we might be getting somewhere! We’ve moved from the falsely labeled “black American culture” to the more narrowed black circles where learning is looked down on.
Okay, well maybe not so much progress:
Don’t you think there’s something wrong that the idols are rappers and basketball players? It’s very wrong. It’s very sick.
What in the world is wrong with you? Since there have been stars - entertainment, sports, movie, what have you - there have been kids, teens and even adults idolizing them, and wanting to be them, when they grow up. How many have ever done that? How many have even held on to that after they reach a certain maturity? Are they all “wrong” and “sick”, or just the little black children who idolize the figures most familiar to them? What is more wrong and sick about wanting to be Jay Z than wanting to be Britney Spears?
Kids also often want to keep horses and tigers in their back yards - is this an acceptable fantasy or is it too “sick and wrong”?
I’ve spent too much time on this as it is, so I’m sure no one will miss me if I bow out here and don’t bother with it anymore. You don’t want to identify any problems, otherwise you’d stop trying to take the easy way out and concentrate on doing just that hard work… identifying what the issues are instead of trying to take a blanket and cover them all under “black problems” and “sick” and “wrong” children - you just want them to GO AWAY so that they won’t reflect on you, I suspect.
This nonsense is way too LaShawn Barber for me.
You still haven’t admitted your straw man was an error. After having given you several chances to do so, I must reclassify it as a willful lie.
He also found them not nearly as prevalent as conventional rhetoric would have it. In fact, he undermined Ogbu’s research.
Never argue with people who can read, Oliver…especially when you start with a lie. We will catch it.
“Roland Fryer, star economist at Harvard, did an extensive analysis of “acting white.” One most interesting finding was that in the elite private schools the white kids lost popularity as their grades got above a C. Is that what you’re talking about?”
There’s a difference between losing popularity and being seen as a race traitor.
No wonder we’re fucked. People don’t want to read or look at the problem, and you want to attack straw men instead of a sick culture. The effect of the celebrity worship culture on blacks vs. whites is as clear as day. There’s a reason why we’ve got all the drugs, gang violence and dropout problems. The solution isn’t only more money or more teachers. Other minority groups are thriving in the same conditions, so it is the problems at home that are the “x” factor. I’m not denying racism (strawman), I’m not pawning this off on some “other” (strawman). I’m a black man, I may not have lived in the same culture, but I grew up seeing it, and I’ve seen its after effects. I think the solution is to identify the bad elements in the culture and hold them up to public shame (some people are doing this already, slamming the “bitch and ho” labeling of black women, but it’s clearly not enough people) so that this problem can be rectified at the same time that the educational system is improved for all Americans.
But no, to you guys to point these things out is to be tired old outsider race traitor and we should just blame the white man for oppression and do nothing to fix our own back yard. Come on. Get real.
How’s this…
Every culture has good points and bad points. Black culture is no different.
We can debate good points and bad points, but pointing out bad ones and looking for ways to fix them is not being racist.