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I think this is related to race more than anything. Almost all of the dark red areas are predominantly black. Unfortunately many black children don't have the best role models at home, so they end up living the same life their parents had.
Meh, I know it's race-related, but it's not because of poor role models. I'm Black and I was surrounded by hard-working poor people. My mother was very intelligent, but moving to NC from Baltimore as a teenager didn't bode well for opportunity. It's racism. The first thing I noticed was that all of those bottom tier cities are highly segregated. That's not accidental, it's systemic. This has more to do with societal systems of function more than personal choice.
People aren't born acting a certain way or predisposed to character flaws based on the color of their skin.
Just like children who are raped. Or women in abusive relationships. These environments can effect people more than being born a certain color. If you think race is an issue, maybe it's time we take more policies to help enfranchise African Americans instead of keeping them locked into poor performing schools via resistricting, etc
This. People really want to act like the centuries-long legal, cultural, and economic disenfranchisement of African Americans has nothing do to with the conditions we fact today? *side eye* Have you noticed if it's perceived to be positive and happened in the past, we're supposed to celebrate/honor it? However, if it puts a blemish on America, people want to leave it in the past and tell you to get over it. Some folks have selective amnesia, for real. Hypocrisy at its finest.
Your right. Skin color has nothing to do with it. But black children in America constantly score lower in school than any other race. And generally no school = poor in the 21st century. I blame bad parenting and a lack of good role models.
Even with better schools, if black students have poor role models at home, the good schools won't make much of a difference.
Asian students consistently outperform White students academically? I guess it's because White parents are bad role models.
This has nothing to do with race the simple answer is the TEXTILE JOBs ARE GONE. Go out eastern NC plenty of poor whites that thought they could piggy bank simple factory work all they life. All these unskilled people in the Carolinas is trying to find their way after seeing the last generation make $20-26.00 an hr doing stuff automation has replaced. This is why Eastern NC will never recover
I think race is a factor. It's not just eastern NC. I live in western NC and the tobacco, furniture, and textiles that used to provide a stable livelihood for Whites and Blacks alike are gone. You can blame globalization, however automation is the biggest reason, like you said. There are far fewer blue collar jobs than there used to be. And quite frankly, the K-12 educational system that we have currently is ill-equipped to prepare North Carolinians for 21st century white collar careers. This is particularly true if you live in a county that isn't in or near a large metro.
NC never had the job where someone could drop out of high school, go down to the factory and get a job paying $25 an hour putting 4 bolts on a car. NC, until IBM moved into the RTP, was an agricultural state where the #1 money crop was tobacco and, at least in Durham and Winston Salem, many people worked in the cigarette industry, a low wage, no retirement job.
Even today, salaries for professionals are lower in NC than in other tech centers and the opportunity for venture capital is pathetic compared to MA and the Bay Area.
Outside the Triangle, Charlotte and the Triad, NC is still rural with where no future low wage service jobs employ a large number of people.
NC never had the job where someone could drop out of high school, go down to the factory and get a job paying $25 an hour putting 4 bolts on a car. NC, until IBM moved into the RTP, was an agricultural state where the #1 money crop was tobacco and, at least in Durham and Winston Salem, many people worked in the cigarette industry, a low wage, no retirement job.
Even today, salaries for professionals are lower in NC than in other tech centers and the opportunity for venture capital is pathetic compared to MA and the Bay Area.
Outside the Triangle, Charlotte and the Triad, NC is still rural with where no future low wage service jobs employ a large number of people.
All is true, except for the retirement. Both my grandfather and uncle retired from Reynolds Tobacco. The rapidly rising standard of living since the 70s is a factor, too. It costs more to feed a family of four than it did in the past. Inflation has vastly outpaced wages.
In addition to NC's agricultural past, our being a right to work state has an effect, as well. A friend and NC native said she returned to NC in the early 80s, after leaving in the late 60s. She had lived in NYC, Detroit, and LA in the time she was away. She said she was dumbfounded by the rural poverty that she saw in the small towns where factory jobs were the norm. In Michigan, the factory workers weren't rich, but had decent looking homes and cars....not so for the small towns here. She said there were shacks and broken down vehicles in the front yard. NC has never been labor friendly.
Meh, I know it's race-related, but it's not because of poor role models. I'm Black and I was surrounded by hard-working poor people. My mother was very intelligent, but moving to NC from Baltimore as a teenager didn't bode well for opportunity. It's racism. The first thing I noticed was that all of those bottom tier cities are highly segregated. That's not accidental, it's systemic. This has more to do with societal systems of function more than personal choice.
So how can we explain cities where blacks are the majority? If there are no whites in town, how can racism have anything to do with it? Poorly run schools and black culture is the biggest problem.
In most cases, I'm sure that institutionalized racism plays a role. But culture plays an even bigger role. In many black communities, there is a stigma attached to being smart and doing well in school. Black kids want to fit in with their peers, so they easily blow off school to fit in with the other dumbos.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nita0312
Asian students consistently outperform White students academically? I guess it's because White parents are bad role models.
Partly. Doing well in school and not being a "shame to the family" is a big part of Asian culture. My Laotian friend told me his parents would have a almost disowned him for making anything less than straight As.
Whites just say "do your best", even if that means getting Cs and Ds and not going to college.
Given that this study is particularly measuring the chances of kids born into a bottom 20% situation, I think that it's fair to say that systemic poverty continues to not be addressed in the South. I think that it's also fair to say that the South has traditionally been overrepresented in the bottom 20% nationally. I suspect that concentration of poverty creates substantial barriers to future achievement since local investment in programs to address poverty cannot be well funded because, well, there isn't any money in these communities.
It's easy to think that NC's metros are only the parts that are rapidly growing and relatively wealthy but the daily experiences of people living in places like Cary are light years away from those who live in the poorer communities oftentimes found in the stagnant peripheries of the metros. This is not to say that there isn't poverty within the more urban areas of a metro, there is. I am just saying that if the only exposure a kid has in daily life is poverty and no opportunity, how are they to even begin to think about getting out of that cycle?
Wise post and I especially agree with the statement in bold. It's disturbing to me how little people in the metro areas of NC think of or even come close to understanding the experiences of people living just down the road. Henderson is about an hour outside Raleigh and the differences between North Raleigh/ Wake Forest and Henderson are stark -- quite frankly, extreme. When people think of "moving to NC" and its benefits and what it can get them, they are almost always thinking exclusively of areas near RTP or Charlotte, or perhaps near the beach for retirement -- and all of that discussion and movement rarely involves a lot of people in the more rural areas who have been in this state for generations. It's almost like they are left behind, or at least not included in all of the opportunity that is here. I think the reasons for that are many (and don't feel like getting into those reasons), but in any case, it bothers me and has ever since I spent some time working in higher education, with some exposure to kids coming from other parts of the state. I am not at all surprised by the chart in the original post.
So how can we explain cities where blacks are the majority? If there are no whites in town, how can racism have anything to do with it? Poorly run schools and black culture is the biggest problem.
In most cases, I'm sure that institutionalized racism plays a role. But culture plays an even bigger role. In many black communities, there is a stigma attached to being smart and doing well in school. Black kids want to fit in with their peers, so they easily blow off school to fit in with the other dumbos.
Partly. Doing well in school and not being a "shame to the family" is a big part of Asian culture. My Laotian friend told me his parents would have a almost disowned him for making anything less than straight As.
Whites just say "do your best", even if that means getting Cs and Ds and not going to college.
Black people being the majority population of a city doesn't always translate to political clout. There are a few Black mayors, but they take orders from state government where Black representation/influence is limited. I saw someone on Twitter try to blame the Flint water crisis on city officials, when in fact, it was the state officials who's arrogance and incompetence caused the problem. Systemic racism is just that. Schools are funded with tax dollars, an area of poverty-stricken renters don't have the same school resources as a neighborhood of homeowners. It's as simple as that. Prince George county is the wealthiest Black enclave in the nation and has an average median household income $20K above nation's average. More than a quarter of the county has bachelor degrees and roughly half of the businesses are Black-owned. Tell me again how Black culture is anti-education and detrimental?
There's a national stigma against education and anti-intellectualism/distrust of universities has been on the rise in America as a whole for a while now. The tired narrative of being a nerd or geek did not start with Black people. Being popular in American schools is about personality and athletic ability, it's not academics. Don't put that on poor Black folks because it's patently false. What do you think accounts for the low academic standards in Appalachia where poverty and poor schools are the norm, as well? Clearly, White culture has it's failings, too. It's annoying our America pathologizes Black issues when the very same issues occur in other communities.
Well-stated, Nita. The President-elect is Exhibit A of the growing anti-intellectualism that is rampant in this nation. Heck, you have an entire Party that doesn't believe in science or academia.
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