The myth of Blacks looking down on education (statistics, weapons, revolution)
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As a black person, I want to say that I actually agree with the above. I feel that black people put too much emphasis on trying to "prove" to white people and others that we are "just as good" as them. As a black person, I know that I am way better than most of the white people I know lol. May sound arrogant, but that is just me and I am just cocky like that!
My kids are better than other people's kids too BTW.
I feel too many blacks have this inferiority complex and this makes them continuously want to prove something to someone else about black people. But FWIW, I do agree with the OP. I grew up poor, my mom was a single teen mom on welfare. I was expected to get all As in school and I did. My brothers were expected to do the same (there were 4 of us all together). I lived in "the hood" and my dad was a petty criminal and drug dealer so I knew a lot of prostitutes, drug dealers, addicts, just all kinds of characters and ALL of those people were supportive of me and my goal to go to college and get an education and to stay out of trouble. Many of them said they would and they did, threaten and beat up other people who spoke ill of me and my nerdiness (mostly teachers, I had a couple issues with teachers when I was in elementary school and jr. high). I know that they were integral to me achieving my education and my goals in life and I still think of them often. One of my "play cousins" who used to beat up boys who messed with me recently was murdered. He was known as a very rough person and did multiple stints in prison. He was always supportive of me and he paid for my books when I didn't have enough money to pay for them in my first year of college. So even those who people think are horrific people, most have a soft side. It is difficult to explain in writing, but most of the "criminals" I knew were very decent at their core and they knew they didn't do the best they could have done with their own lives and they wanted the best for all the kids and did whatever they could to support us as long as we were on the right path. Once you made the choice though to go to the other side, they expected you to do the crazy sh * t that they did lol. But to this day, I am still respected as someone who "made it" and who doesn't look down on my people and relatives who didn't make the decisions that I made or who faced different circumstances. They know I come from where they come from and even went through sometimes worse experiences than they did, so I get a lot of respect for my own achievements and they still will "put someone in check" who tries to say anything negative about me.
This is true. I was told I "talked like a white girl" by a white teacher in grade school. But FWIW, I was teased for being nerdy (until I got said cousin above to come to school lol) but that had nothing to do with me being black. I went to integrated schools and the majority of my friends were white and Asian kids in the TAG program and my cousin was nice enough to protect them too because he thought we were nice kids and shouldn't be bothered for being smart enough to want to do well in school and do something with our lives. Many white and Asian kids where I am from are poor too and went through the same things I went through. All of us lived in the same neighborhood.
Actually your links prove that what the OP saying is true. The rates of achievement for black males, according to your links are improving and have been steadily improving for many years. The Huff Post article said that it would take 50 years for black males to close the gap in regards to going to college after high school, and I actually believe that that is what it will take. Black people were denied the opportunity to achieve via education for many years and only in the past 50 years have we had that full opportunity given to us. Due to the fact we are at a disadvantage in regards to statistics based on the history of our country's racial discrimination, I personally do think it will take at least 100 years from the passage of the CRA for us to close educational gaps. And I see this as a reality and nothing to be ashamed of on the part of black people.
They had nowhere to go but up, after hitting rock buttom. And even with the "achievements" their numbers are still god awful, compared to other races of Americans. Bascially you have a bunch of excuses. I find it strange that blacks from africa and the carribean and their children don't have the same problems that Ameircan blacks do, and achieve at a much higher rate than American born blacks.
"Talking white", "too good for the hood", etc. And other factoids oft repeated by those typically middle-aged and old whites (and arrogant blacks) who have little to no actual experience with young blacks...outside of the evening news, of course. This is the most ridiculous and overblown stereotype about blacks that I wish would just die already.
Coming from this community myself, I can say with absolute certainty that the majority of inner-city blacks do indeed place a value on education. For those who aren't able to get one for themselves, they still congratulate their peers who are able to make it so far. If I had a nickel for every time another young black man or woman told me they had plans to pursue a degree or certificate, I'd have enough money to fund your child's college education.
At the grade school level, you do have teasing aimed at the "nerds" or "good students" and higher value placed on being cool and popular, but, the last time I checked, this was not exclusive to black children.
Enough already.
I don't know how widely this opinion is shared in the white community, of which I am a member. I think there is a perception that inner city, i.e., black, schools are unsafe. Around here, this is fed by frequent news stories of fights, beatings, assaults, etc. in mainly black schools. And inner city schools have a bad academic reputation as well due to pupils' generally poor test results. In NY all of worst performing schools are inner city ones. Administrations in many of these schools have proven themselves inept to the point of criminality.
I'm not a fan of black victimhood. But where blacks are victims is in the schools they are consigned to. The people who work in these schools fail their pupils miserably and apparently could not care less. I'd like to see a system of charter schools and vouchers put in place so these kids would have access to the same education kids in suburban and private schools have.
Now the NYC schools are bringing back social promotion..another generation down the drain.
My childhood stint in St. Lucia was an eye opener. I saw a predominantly black nation vigorously engage in entrepreneurship and were super hardcore when it came to education. Families helped each other.
One of the best things young people can do for themselves is to get out of the U.S. (whose increasingly race-focused culture can be suffocating) and see how other black nations live.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shiftymh
I'll believe it when a flash mob loots a Barnes and Noble.
My family immigrated to the US back in the early 90's. We walked off the plane with exactly $10.00 (I kid you not). We spent the next 2 years in a small trailer, all 7 of us. My brothers and sisters went to college to become professionals. So, they were studying STEM fields while learning English. I forgot to mention that none of us spoke a word of English.
In fact, all of my siblings went to college right away. I was the youngest, and there was a big age gap between me and my next brother so I was in middle school.
The result? My oldest sister is an electrical engineer. She is now the head of the design team for a branch of an international company dealing with microchips. My oldest brother is a head engineer in his firm. He specializes in design and construction of bridge building projects. My other sister is a mathematician working for a nuclear research facility down south. And my next brother is a project manager at one of the largest insurance companies in the country. As for myself, I'm an engineer/construction manager in the Chicago area.
If you look at statistics, Asian Americans are a minute minority, yet our children are taking over the most prestigious universities. My oldest niece is 14, and she's already taking college classes. She hopes to get into med school by 18-20.
Sometimes, we step back and look at other people. They've been in this country for how long? How many generations? It took less than 1 generation for my family to all become professionals. Take it for what it's worth. But at times, it really does appear that education isn't particularly high up there in people's to-do list.
Last edited by rosie_hair; 04-15-2014 at 11:00 AM..
You could not be more wrong. As the husband of an eductor who teaches "in the hood" of Strawberry mansion at a grade school, she sees this stuff all the time. The black children do act like this. My wife experiences this all the time. You get black kids who think that if you are too smart that you are "acting white".
You can deny this all you want. And yes the black community does not value education as it should.
I do not know of any other group of people that has millions of dollars poured into it for all sorts of programs, and very few take advantage of it. And when they do , they get the "uncle Tom" treatment.
Your logic rests on the flawed assumption that I, myself, have never been an educator. You may believe your wife's isolated experience to be law, but it doesn't work that way, as I can just as easily refer to my knowledge of teachers who also have experience with inner-city youths and are able to make a distinction between a disdain for education that carries over into adulthood, the inability to be educated, and the fear of education altogether; three completely different mindsets that you (and quite possibly your wife) and most of the people in this thread obviously don't have the aptitude to comprehend.
My experience with Black Americans is they are extremely stereotypical and materialistic. Being labeled an "Uncle Tom" is the biggest fear. Many Blacks are too fixated on $$$, sacrificing family & values. Too many view 9 to 5 jobs as for suckers and instead take the easy route of entertainment & sports.
My experience with Black Americans is they are extremely stereotypical and materialistic. Being labeled an "Uncle Tom" is the biggest fear. Many Blacks are too fixated on $$$, sacrificing family & values. Too many view 9 to 5 jobs as for suckers and instead take the easy route of entertainment & sports.
Exactly. Which is why I'm more likely to run into Beyonce or LeBron James than a black employee at Walmart.
This is not something that has a simple answer. Alexander's response to the Gordion Knot problem won't work here.
There has long, long been a common social prejudice against inteligencia in the US--you can see it lamented even in the writings of Mark Twain. It runs throughout American social culture, but it is most often displayed "on the street" in schools among school children...but they got those attitudes from their adults.
One X-Genner wrote an eloquent explanation of how it still manifests itself in schools today.
But it's really a relatively recent phenomenon to see this played out among black people. When I say "recent" I mean "within my lifetime" as in "I remember when it wasn't like this."
When I was in school--in legally racially segregated schools in the south--the common social prejudice against intelligencia did not manifest itself even in the hallways. "Bookworms" and "professors" were certainly identified--but not taunted. Kids called me "prof," but even though I disliked it, it was not a matter of social exclusion but an identification of an accepted role even in teen-age society. Kids had roles. There was the jock, there was the beatnik, there was the thug, there was the princess, and there was the "prof." You knew pretty much who you were (yeah, I just described "The Breakfast Club"), but the roles were not particularly hostile to one another.
When I was a teenager, we heard from every direction about the importance and role of the "black intellectual." It didn't matter if you were listening to Martin Luther King or Malcom X or Eldridge Cleaver. Whether the issue was assimilation or revolution, the "black intellectual" was hammered as an essential component to whichever direction of progress black people were to go, and that filtered down to the school hallway experience of the day.
My daughter's experience was vastly different from mine. She got pounded, hounded, shoved into lockers, threatened with weapons by other black kids, and this was not only in the "common" junior high school she attended, but also by the black kids in the selective laboratory high school we got her into.
In the latter case, it was especially ironic because those black kids were of an economic class from which their "anti-intellectual" stance was certainly not coming from their own parents, but from some socially given impression "that's how blacks are supposed to be."
That was "thug culture" or "gangsta culture" or whatever you want to call it that did not exist when I was a kid. Yes, there were gangs and thugs back then, but there certainly wasn't anything visible in common culture. Gangsters were bad guys, even in the blaxploitation films made "by us, for us."
In other words, the general American anti-intellectualism did not exist in the black community 50 years ago.
I think it does now. This is not a greater level of anti-intellectualism than is common in the US, it's the same thing.
The problem, though, is "when white America catches a cold, black America catches the flu." Blacks have never been able to afford the dissipation that the white community can afford, not in the past and not now.
My experience with Black Americans is they are extremely stereotypical and materialistic. Being labeled an "Uncle Tom" is the biggest fear. Many Blacks are too fixated on $$$, sacrificing family & values. Too many view 9 to 5 jobs as for suckers and instead take the easy route of entertainment & sports.
That "easy route" does not exist.
There are only about 2,000 black athletes paying their mortgages through their sports or sports endorsements. That includes the baseball minor leagues and retired athletes who still do endorsements. There are no more than another 2,000 blacks paying their mortgages in entertainment.
But there are over a million black doctors, lawyers, and architects. There close to a million black computer programmers.
Go to any city or town and compare the numbers of professional athletes and muscians in that town with the number of black academic professionals--there are always more black academic professionals.
The real numbers don't jive with sports and entertainment being the "easy route."
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