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So Charles comes out and states the truth and the very ones he is referring to are are quick to jump up in protest. Better you step back and reflect on the truth in his statement, rather than condem him for hurting your feeling about something you know well is the truth.. There are examples on every street corner... The black man is holding himself down.
I would concur with SHABAZZ310 except for the fact that there is not enough progress being made. Chuckles Barkley has a long history of trying to be a ghetto intellectual. He pops up like a jack-in-the-box every so often and spouts something profoundly stupid or self-serving. His only interest is his wallet, just like his contemporaries who all of the sudden find their peculiar brand of suck up conservatism once they have some money in their pockets for once in their life.
I read what people who are upset at what he said, and I can't help but think that just because it doesnt fit their narrative of what they think the world should be like that they ignore it. Its a inconvenient truth. More in larger cities with gang related issues then everywhere perhaps.
Just because we dont like the message is no reason to attack it. Instead-determine if its right, and it very well may be, and then determine what we can do to combat it.
The most pathetic part of this is not what Barkley said, or the fact that Conservatives spin it out of context to suit their purpose, but that Conservatives think they are in a position to address what "blacks" think.
A respectful, informed perspective on black people is something that Conservatives have never had, and this is clearly evident in this thread.
Yet there are leftist morons out there who claim to know what conservatives think.
Since 1972 the difference between the status dropout rates of Whites and Blacks has narrowed (figure 2 and table 8). This narrowing of the gap occurred during the 1980s, with no measurable change during the 1970s or between 1990 and 2008.
The percentage of Hispanics ages 16–24 who were dropouts was consistently higher than that of Blacks and Whites throughout the 36-year period of 1972–2008 (figure 2 and table 8). White and Black status dropout rates have fallen significantly since 1972; the rates for Whites fell from 12.3 to 4.8 percent and the rates for Blacks declined from 21.3 to 9.9 percent. Between 1972 and 1990, Hispanic status dropout rates were generally consistent, but since 1990 they have demonstrated a downward trend, falling from 32.4 percent to 18.3 percent.
I don't know what stats if any your are looking at, But......
Aspiring to be an athlete or an entertainer is not anti intellectual. People don't askew advancing their
education.
Again, Mr Barkely expressed and ignorant and racist belief about black people. A lot of people go signed his ignorance.
What's up with this "underclass" nonsense. They are poor people.
And poor people value education it's validated in every survey of poor Americans.
I'd say poor people need better and more opportunities as do all Americans.
This distorted sick idea that pathologizes poor people and black people and etc people is a huge part of the problem, and a waste of resources and leads to dumb answers based on those prejudiced beliefs.
Inevitably that kind of thinking will always basically reach the same conclusion that those people can't be helped they are too messed up not worth it.
If you go into thinking oh these people are so messed up they have to be fixed you are setting up the impossible because we can't fix other human beings. We can barely fix our individual selves. Plus the poor don't need to be fixed they need more and better opportunities.
If we focused on that instead of indulging our ugly and ignorant prejudiced beliefs about millions of other people we will improve things.
I won't even bother citing all of the numerous studies that show the correlation between parental income and educational attainment.
I think, in all honesty, you're the only person I've seen who has claimed that poor people are equally educated and it's just about - how did you put it - "poor people need better and more opportunities as do all Americans" and not say it's about education. It's always about education. It's also about personal responsibility. It's also about work ethic and making good choices and not committing crime. It's about a lot of things, most of which is a problem with poorer demographics (e.g. the underclass).
I think there's plenty of things we can do. I also think having more role models like Neil Degrasse Tyson would be better. I think making being intelligent and hard working 'cool' would be better. I think showing people that with good choices comes good lives would be good. What I do not think and do not ascribe to is your false conclusions that identifying the problem is somehow saying they're too messed up to be worth it, as you said. Nope. That's the beauty of this country - in one generation, you can go from poverty to middle class or beyond.
I think, in all honesty, you're the only person I've seen who has claimed that poor people are equally educated and it's just about - how did you put it - "poor people need better and more opportunities as do all Americans" and not say it's about education. It's always about education. It's also about personal responsibility. It's also about work ethic and making good choices and not committing crime. It's about a lot of things, most of which is a problem with poorer demographics (e.g. the underclass).
I think there's plenty of things we can do. I also think having more role models like Neil Degrasse Tyson would be better. I think making being intelligent and hard working 'cool' would be better. I think showing people that with good choices comes good lives would be good. What I do not think and do not ascribe to is your false conclusions that identifying the problem is somehow saying they're too messed up to be worth it, as you said. Nope. That's the beauty of this country - in one generation, you can go from poverty to middle class or beyond.
Look, the point I have been making is that poor Americans right now are better educated than poor Americans in the past. This disproves the lie that they don't value education.
Saying that the wealthy or higher income people do better is a truism that spans across all human societies at all times, but it doesn't mean that poor people dont value education. Because again poor people in American contine to become more educated. It means they have fewer and worse opportunities for a good education in America.
I never said poor people are equally educated. I said they value education which they do. I said they continue to become more educated which they are, which disproves the lie that they don't vslue education.
I didn't say it was or wasn't about anything.
I fundamentally disagree. If a nation's own citizens aren't doing well that is a fundamental flaw of that nation.
It is an indication that your society is failing and needs to do better.
Again this focus on fixing so called broken poor people is an excuse to attack and lie and demonize poor people and really sets up a system to make other people feel good by insulting them.
I work in a refinery, with different operating units that produce different products that are important to a refinery.
Now the front office decides where to put money, man power, training, resources.
If a refinery puts all the money in a few units and neglects the other parts of the refinery by giving them scraps and crying about having to spend those scraps and demonizing the disfavored units, the results will not be surprising.
I guarantee you the employees and units in the disfavored sections of the refinery will not be happy about their overall treatment, there will be more issues just because they are getting less help.
That's what we do in this nation. We put the money and resources in certain areas for certain people, the jobs, the opportunities and we neglect other areas and groups of people. Then when the inevitable happens we attack those group of people as being broken.
As if the inevitable problems that arise came from them and are not indicative of how our society is failing people.
I don't believe in magic totems and so called role models that you can never met. Or giving people pep talks.
If we want to improve things then we will give more opportunities for success and make that the focus.
Instead of phony ideas like poor people are broken which goes no where.
Look, unsuccessful blacks are unsuccessful for the same reasons unsuccessful whites are. They're either lazy, apathetic, hang out with the wrong crowd, or are pulled down by people that don't want to see you succeed.
Then of course, there are blacks...just like whites, that are born into poverty or adverse situations where they have no models to show them by example how to navigate life's pitfalls.
Let's just leave it at that and stop getting hung up on the same old racist nonsense.
Look, unsuccessful blacks are unsuccessful for the same reasons unsuccessful whites are. They're either lazy, apathetic, hang out with the wrong crowd, or are pulled down by people that don't want to see you succeed.
Then of course, there are blacks...just like whites, that are born into poverty or adverse situations where they have no models to show them by example how to navigate life's pitfalls.
Let's just leave it at that and stop getting hung up on the same old racist nonsense.
A bum, of any color, is still a bum.
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