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@nycricanpapi
I've always had good relationships with my teachers. I am very close with my teachers. Esp. in high school because of the atmosphere (we call them by first name and we consider each other friends instead of teacher and student). When I was a freshman in high school many of my good friends were seniors. That is defintely one thing (laughing a little) that was taught in the 'hood' street smarts and how to be tough against anytime of 'bs'. (Though I never got into a fight). I basically learned to be a tough competitor/fighter in sense of mentality and social life.
@pirate_lafitte
Oh! I know exactly what you mean!! So many people have told me "You're so white". (Though technically I am pretty white considering half of my family is from Spain haha). I stopped caring for pop culture for a LONG time, same with fashion, I thought "why try so hard to look like everyone else". Another pet peeve is when everyone looks like clones of each other. I'm so lucky. In my high school I feel so at home and I feel I can be what I am without feeling judged.
So does the question now become, what is going on with youth in America?
@nycricanpapi
I've always had good relationships with my teachers. I am very close with my teachers. Esp. in high school because of the atmosphere (we call them by first name and we consider each other friends instead of teacher and student). When I was a freshman in high school many of my good friends were seniors. That is defintely one thing (laughing a little) that was taught in the 'hood' street smarts and how to be tough against anytime of 'bs'. (Though I never got into a fight). I basically learned to be a tough competitor/fighter in sense of mentality and social life.
@pirate_lafitte
Oh! I know exactly what you mean!! So many people have told me "You're so white". (Though technically I am pretty white considering half of my family is from Spain haha). I stopped caring for pop culture for a LONG time, same with fashion, I thought "why try so hard to look like everyone else". Another pet peeve is when everyone looks like clones of each other. I'm so lucky. In my high school I feel so at home and I feel I can be what I am without feeling judged.
So does the question now become, what is going on with youth in America?
I had to stop caring because I was looking at it from a perspective of what I wanted. I started looking at "what do I want out of life"? I wanted to be ME. I liked the way I was. I liked my "bookish" self. I felt like I was expected to live up to a stereotype. I felt like I was living life through someone else's view of me. Apparently, the expectation for me was to act like a "thug wannabe". I didn't want it for myself. I felt trapped. I was alot less dysfunctional once I freed myself from all of those things.
I think what is going on with the youth of America is, well, I can't really put my finger on it. I say part of it is the message of today's pop culture.
@pirate_lafitte
Talking about pop culture, can you BELIEVE that Nicki Minaj is considered a Female Hip Hop Icon since Queen Latifah. I can't believe that! Her lyrics are so meaningless and don't get me started on how terrible they are!
@cf77 and everyone else
Why do you think the message just isn't reaching many of these kids?
Its an age old question but I would say it boils down to bad parenting/absent parents. Im not taking the blame off the kids but if you have parents that just dont care and let their property go to **** and act more immature than the kids themselves, well then its bound to rub off on the youth. Alot of people comming from bad circumstances (not just the Bronx) need a little postive push in the right direction, easier said than done though.
Its an age old question but I would say it boils down to bad parenting/absent parents. Im not taking the blame off the kids but if you have parents that just dont care and let their property go to **** and act more immature than the kids themselves, well then its bound to rub off on the youth. Alot of people comming from bad circumstances (not just the Bronx) need a little postive push in the right direction, easier said than done though.
@pirate_lafitte
Talking about pop culture, can you BELIEVE that Nicki Minaj is considered a Female Hip Hop Icon since Queen Latifah. I can't believe that! Her lyrics are so meaningless and don't get me started on how terrible they are!
I hardly know who Nicki Minaj is. I just saw something on Yahoo! with that name. Other than that, I never checked it out, nor have I listened to her songs. I listen to mostly oldies R&B, and some music from other countries. Other than that, I find nothing appealing about pop culture today. I find alot of it meaningless. El DeBarge and Teena Marie are both what I consider talented and great singers. They are comeback artists. They were at their peak in the 1980's.
Now they are coming back and they are still good. El DeBarge just released a new album "Second Chance" in July 2010. Teena Marie released her latest album "Congo Square" last year. I am constantly hearing about Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber. Personally, I have never bothered with either.
Even further, I find myself watching less and less television these days. I thought about getting a cable subscription. I never really bothered. Part of it has to do with knowing there isn't alot of good stuff on television anymore. My siblings(ages 18 and 19) had an easier time fitting in. They are more into pop culture than I am.
You doing what you do is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
I listen to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Central/South American, and some American artists that don't get that much spotlight sadly, though they have SO much talent.
I am a 16 (almost 17) male teenager from the Bronx who has so many issues with the teenagers in the Bronx with their attitudes towards education and ambitions. (Of course not all but many).
Since I was a child I never felt like I fit in with the crowd of kids my age from the Bronx. I liked very different things, I LOVE(D) school, i love reading and I love learning. My peers in elementary school never picked up a book or was interested in the class in front of them.
Middle school was somewhat of a nightmare. I went to a great school, but it was dead center in the middle of the 'projects' and it was in the middle of another school that later split into 3 schools. In the hallways of my school were quiet and peaceful, then across the hall was the other school where kids were running, loud, and cursing. After school was probably the worst time (not the morning, i don't know anyone else who wakes up at 6 in the morning), but after school I was bullied a couple of times for looking different and just plain being different. Many times it would be unsafe to go home alone because some of the kids from the projects would lurk outside waiting for a kid who's by himself (obviously not a part of their 'hood') and attempt to rob the student. When I got home I got weird looks for my giant bookbag full of books, the fact that I wasn't sagging my pants like everyone else, and the fact that i got home from school pretty late. In addition, I'm an unfamiliar face to them since I don't go to school with them.
Fortunately, I was accepted to a private high school in downtown Manhattan. It's SO different, everyone dresses appropriately, cares about succeeding, respect themselves, tries their hardest in class (or not). Everyone talks to you with respect and dignity and some class. They are open to people being different and embrace it.
(Sorry if this thread is like a memoir but it's just some of my experience)
Some of my pet peeves regarding this issue are:
-When a kid on the street addresses me with "Ay yo ma *****". This absolutely annoys me.
-Ignorant comments. ie. "Blackey is on tv" I'm wondering, is this some new celebrity? (I don't watch American tv literally...) He said "Obama, blackey" I was in disbelief he would EVER call a man of such stature and intellect 'blackey'. I was so outraged. Then I asked him why would he call him that and he though it was "cute".
-I was once talking to this other guy about my goals of eventually moving out of the Bronx because realistically there are better places to live in. He got so offended that I did not like living in the Bronx and that I thought other places were better.
-I once on my facebook posted a post about how the prospect of Palin running for president AGAIN in 2012 is terrifying. A friend of a friend, left a comment telling me to forget about it because it won't affect me, why am I worried because I'm not voting yet, and who cares. Well, i WILL be voting in 2012, and it does affect everyone is currently living in the country. I go to a very political school and most students DO care. Where did this type of thinking come from?
I once tried talking about a book I read in school and the person told me they never read a book in their life.
I talked to another about a political/historical joke and he was so perplexed as to what the connection was and didn't understand the allusion either.
I haven't been a part of the public school system for years now, and I am curious as to what the heck is going on in these schools? Why aren't they motivated? or could it be the fault of society and mainstream media? Tell me what'cha think.
I agree with you dude, I know exactly what you mean. I'm from the Bronx and went to high school here as well Lehman and Clinton =|. I'm Italian so I had some issues with students(Black mostly) based on just being White, didn't happen often because there was many Italian, Irish and Albanian students in the school, but whenever I got into a fist fight, it was "white boy" or "guido" or something along those lines...But It's like learning or being 'educated' is looked down upon here.... I remember once in class in Clinton my teacher asked a question and nobody knew it but me so I raised my hand and got it correct, I was being stared like they wanted to kill me. I just don't understand it, its the whole ghetto/gangster thing, also the pants below the waist is retarded, I admit I got caught up in that when I was about 14 for a while, but thats because where I lived in Morris Park everyone did it and all of my friends were wearing it like that, then one day I came home and my grandfather(real old school italian even more so then my pops lol) said "you look like a Moderator cut: Languageclown, i should slap ya" and he kept going on and eventually made me realize wow, I do look stupid... But honestly thats how it is in the Bronx dude, you get more respect for being a ghetto POS then being a normal student. Pisses me off as well... But you can't do anything about it, thank god I'm 23 and getting into the NYPD now. Still living in the Bronx though... would've liked to have moved to Yonkers, Queens or Uptown, but hey thats how it is, and all my family is in the bx so ill stay here for a while. but great thread bro, i agree with you 100%. at least you know there was others like you haha
Last edited by bmwguydc; 09-05-2010 at 05:15 PM..
Reason: Language
Forget to add about all of the fights that happen outside of the school and on the train going home, its insane every other day another kid would get beat up by a group of punks, one day they did it to one of my friends little brothers and i jumped in and helped him it was us 2 against those 5 but hey i wasn't going to let them kill him. i got some good hits in to them as well, i'm a pretty big dude at 5'11 and I worked out like crazy then so they didn't mess with me often, I had BIG arms lol. But thats what they do, they jump kids when they are alone on the train or bus after school...
@MrGreatness555
I guess that factors into, but I don't want to make it a race war, but I'm Latino(mostly Spanish grandparents). Most of the bullies were actually African Americans :/. Of course there are bad apples everywhere. Oh Italians haha. In the neighborhood no one messes with me. Though one time kids from a high school were on a street corner and (me being stupid) decided to go through that corner to get somewhere and they followed me a block, hit me on the back of the head a bit and left. (There were like 5~7 of them). NYPD nice! Congratz.
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