Posted on 11/01/2001 8:48:20 AM PST by mafree
SAN DIEGO (NNPA) - There was a buzz of expectation in the air of the huge auditorium, typical of events designed to appeal to large numbers of young people.
A ballgame? A concert?
No, this gathering was truly special: hundreds of young local Black boys were assembling to receive recognition as academic achievers.
Also in the auditorium were parents, educators, community activists, and business, spiritual and political leaders who had come to enjoy something more serious than sports or entertainment. More than 1,300 members of San Diego's progressive community had chosen to attend an event to recognize and reward the intelligence, discipline, and determination and accomplishment of young Black male scholars, who must maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
''We make it clear that achievement is normal,'' says program director Jimma McWilson, executive vice president of the National Urban League's local affiliate. ''We continually state to kids, parents and society that this is the 'normal' African-American. The 'abnormal' are the thugs that are portrayed as the norm.''
The ''normal'' honorees are members of the Golden Pyramid Scholars Program, a high-profile youth program for boys in grades six through 12. The program was founded in 1991 by the San Diego Urban League and the Congress of National Black Churches (CNBC). Young men engage in activities designed to foster academic excellence, personal growth and community involvement. Since its inception, the program has given more than 4,000 young males an truthful yet unpopular message-education is the key to opportunity and success. African-Americans represents only 8 percent of the local population.
''The strategic aim is to yield better grades and test scores; more social and enhanced survival skills; a heightened sense of history and self; and a larger group of students prepared for college or the job market in the 21st century,'' explains McWilson.
The San Diego program for Black males is part of the National Urban League's National Achievers Society (NAS), a community based vehicle for encouraging achievement by all African-American children of each gender.
The San Diego program, and others like it, holds enormous potential for the future of African-Americans. If successful, they will produce a more talented and educated pool of African-American males. That, in turn, will increase the prospect of developing healthy, intact Black families that help nurture healthy teens. And the program helps teenagers realize that achieving academically is not ''acting White.'' Rather, it is ''acting Black.''
Throughout the 1990s, report after report made dire predictions for Black males. And nothing has changed with the beginning of a new millennium. McWilson know why: ''racism, pure and simple.''
Racism, along with economics, employment opportunities and other factors make Black males more prone to quit school, become unemployed, go to jail and become homicide victims. While that may help explain poor academic achievement on the part of African-American males, there are a growing number of Black leaders eager to overcome those odds.
Bishop George D. McKinney, the founding pastor of St. Stephen's Church of God in Christ and a longtime San Diego activist, is one of those leaders. He has several young members of his congregation participating in the Golden Pyramid. McKinney believes such programs counter ''a philosophy that condones failure and mediocrity.''
On the opposite coast, Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the New York City-based Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, is another leader who refuses to accept failure.
''The real values that have been the bedrock of the African-American community get drowned-out by a variety of forces,'' Canada says.
The nationally known child advocate says the problems usually begin in the fourth grade. ''You begin to see our boys become, academically, much less aggressive,'' he notes. ''The teachers are less patient or less liable to take time to help those kids, based on the perception that they have 'bad apples' on their hands.''
Canada says educators, parents and community activists must collectively ''set up a counter-culture that pushes the values we care about - hard work, academic achievement, sobriety, honesty.'' He explains, ''Ultimately, the world that our children are inheriting requires that they know how to achieve academically and if they've learned how to manage in a social environment complicated by issues of race, sex, class. ''
In San Diego, McWilson says excellence is not determined by a person's race or circumstances.
''We have kids who have made it who were in foster homes or homeless,'' he says. ''We don't want excuses, but rather for the children to tell us what they need to be successful. Our job is to figure ways to connect them with those resources.''
Golden Pyramid scholars are responsible for having their school validate their performance, as well as having their parents sign their applications. And the program has partnered with more than 82 public and private schools throughout San Diego County, which nominate their best students for membership.
Once in the program, ''we get them to understand from day one that they can coordinate, collaborate and compete in a collective sense and raise the race, on that basis,'' McWilson explains. ''We start with axiology - the study of how you value things - because when you place a value on something, you determine how much emotion you're going to put into it.''
Golden Pyramid members also help plan many of the award activities such as the recently completed ''Achievement Month,'' which featured several events including the ''Do The Right Thing'' celebration spotlighting local youth who are achieving. The Youth Development Initiative is an outgrowth of that celebration, which reinforces an ''achievement matters'' message by allowing Golden Pyramid members to participate in academic leadership teams as well as act as tutors and mentors for other youth at schools within their communities. And along with NAS female members, Golden Pyramid scholars participate in a higher education collaborative, which counsels students on college requirements and puts them in direct contact with nearly every local college and university. As a result, Golden Pyramid scholars have enrolled at local institutions such as San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego. Others have enrolled in Harvard University and several Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
And while distinctly for African-American males, the Golden Pyramid program emphasizes to its scholars that they also are NAS members. This means sharing and communicating the knowledge and experience they gain as brothers, with their female counterparts - their sisters.
McWilson explains, ''There is a strong consideration of what Black males endure, hence the creation of the Golden Pyramid,'' but he adds, ''There has to be balance through their interaction with young women.''
Ed Lopez, a two-term board member of San Diego City Schools has first-hand knowledge of the Golden Pyramid. He frequently attends ceremonies supporting the Golden Pyramid program.
He says, ''Too often we only see the negative portrayals. Anybody that looks sincerely and deeply would come to the conclusion that African-American male students can achieve - just like anyone else.''
Tut tut. According to the article, it's not the "black" community, it's the "Black" community. Can't quite put my finger on it, but something about that capitalization really bugs me.
What's wrong with YOU that the first thing you think of is that the standards had to have been lowered in order to produce the results mentioned in this article? Why can't you accept that blacks can achieve academically just like anyone else?
Let me give you a chapter or two from my own life: I am black/African American. My American roots are in the South, which means my ancestors were slaves. I attended public schools through 12th grade. In 6th and 7th grade, I went to a school in a middle-class white neighborhood and I was the only black in my homeroom both years. In both grades, I won the spelling bee for my homeroom. In 7th grade, I got the highest grade on the English final exam. I was never big on studying- i just did the work I needed to do; yet, I beat out my classmates. Do you think they lowered the standards so that I could accomplish these things? Do you think I cheated?
Somehow, I'll bet you find a way to answer "yes" to both questions, which to me proves where you're coming from.
What do you mean by that?
Some believe when "black" or "white" or other words are used as descriptive nouns that they should be capitzlizesd. I do it sometimes but it isn't the biggest deal in the world to me.
You said it but as long as some people are unable to accept black achievers marxism will maintain a foothold in the black community.
Don't be fooled completely. This is downright laughable. Progressive is the lunatic left's politically correct replacement word for Liberal. For the last forty years the Liberals in this nation have encouraged blacks to take advantage of welfare and lean on them for support. It was the worst thing that every happneed to blacks.
During the same period, the Conservatives in this nation preached self-improvement, taking responsibility for your own future and obtaining an education as the road to success.
Now the "Progressives" have finally found the light. Well, it only took them forty years in the wilderness.
It's my guess that a cross section of the San Diego community honored the students. This article was an attempt by the media to hijack the event in the name of those who have trashed every value that was wholesome in this nation.
Drowned out by rap music, ebonics, and gun-fire.
Some people need a good kick in the teeth!
True ... true, but, unfortunately, the ones who are the most likely to be unable to accept black achievers are the other black students enamored with the whole afro-centric tripe espoused by, if not the majority, the most vocal portion of black education professionals. Those who repeat the whole mantra "Learning means trying to be white" are doing the most to sustain the belief that the reverse must be true ... if you're black, you have to be uneducated.
An excellent point.
It's also hard to inspire black kids to emulate conservative role models such as Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice and Thomas Sowell when the very idea of achievement is viewed with contempt in many black communities.
We should be getting involved in this kind of effort, not sniping at it.
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