Posted on 11/29/2002 11:31:28 PM PST by kattracks
They then turn around, and perpetuate the rot in the education system by voting for democrats.
Probably for the same reason whites lag behind blacks in foot races and other sports. - Tom
Honestly, I don't see that being isolated to blacks; Pop culture has created a generation of "feel-good slackers" who do as they please.
Professor Ogbu was invited by black parents in 1997 to examine the district's 5,000 students to figure out why....For example, he said that middle-class black parents in general spent no more time on homework or tracking their children's schooling than poor white parents. And he said that while black students talked in detail about what efforts were needed to get an A and about their desire to achieve, too many nonetheless failed to put forth that effort....Not surprisingly, he said, the parents were disappointed when he turned the spotlight on them as well as the schools.
As a teacher, I find it amusing that the parents themselves hired Professor Ogbu, presumably to find a scapegoat in the school system for their children's lack of success, but were offended when he found the problem was closer to home.
"It's things like talking too properly when you're in informal social settings," he continued. "It's hanging around white friends and acting like you don't want to be with your black friends. It's really about behavior patterns and not achievement."
Mr. Ferguson speculated that what Professor Ogbu saw was a clumsy attempt by black students to search for a comfortable racial identity. "What does it mean to be black?" he said. "What does it mean to be white? The community needs to help kids make sense of their own identity."
The answer to all those questions is no. Has this Mr. Ferguson checked to see that these high achieving black kids that supposedly only hang around white friends are not doing so because they've been rejected by their black friends for their high achieving ways? Hell, there are probably teachers who don't hand out graded test papers in class precisely because to do so would make their star pupils' lives a living hell.
Ferguson actually managed to talk himself into a circular argument. If the automatic assumption amongst low achieving minority students is that anyone who is a good student thinks himself superior to them, then it's quite obvious that they would reject him for this crime. The good student soon realizes that the only to fit in (which is incredibly important to school kids) is to not be a good student anymore. Everyone stays in the gutter of low achievement because anyone who tries to pull himself up gets punished by the group.
In the end, this Ferguson guy is simply clutching at straws. If one is interested in school, then it shows in the quality of one's work. This study that Ferguson ran probably just asked the black and Latino students if they "worked hard" and they answerred "yes" as much as white and Asian students did. But then it didn't investigate what "working hard" meant for both groups. It simply reported, and did not observe.
I mean, how is it possible that Ferguson can say that black and Latino students are definitely just as interested in school and work just as hard as whites and Asians ... and then acknowledge that black and Latino students lag behind in "things" like Homework Completion??? If you were interested in school, you would damn well do your homework. It's one of the best ways of measuring one's interest in school.
Ferguson is obviously a Leftie; he actually has the answers in front of him, he's just not gonna let himself admit it because it goes against the victim ideology. All his "identity" bullshit also pisses me off. It's obvious that whatever meaning these black students have come up with regarding being black, it doesn't involve getting As. Why do we need to actually have some meaning of what it is to be black? Isn't that seriously limiting?
No, that was all mine...
A very good point - just take a quick look at MTV (Yes, I know you don't watch it, but it's on your cable or satellite system...go on take a quick look for illustrative purposes). The types of folks they have as VJ's, and the artists that appear, not to mention the kids that show up on drek like "Jackass" and "The Real World" all reenforce that slacker-eduction-don't-mean-jack mindset that we're talking about here.
Indeed, and consider the Reconstruction period as well. The first things many former slaves did was start schools and try to re-unite their families - two things that fly in the face of much of the current "popular wisdom" of black culture.
That's how liberals teach statistics: determine what you want as your outcome, then find someone, anyone, who will support it, no matter how outlandish it sounds.
That's why it is successful. Public schools are not allowed to pick-and-choose their students... and they are rarely allowed to get rid of those whose only interest within the building is disruption and indulging their appetites. If school attendance were not compulsory (as is espoused by the Communist Manifesto), schools would then have the power and responsibility to eject those who intentionally destroy the system for everyone.
Keep in mind that those disruptors behave that way primarily because they are rebelling against being forced to do something they have absolutely no interest in doing. That's the typical American attitude, and I don't hold it against them... but I do expect the schools to enforce proper behavior.
The reality is that blacks tend to not do well on mental tests. This is not in factual dispute. For example, UC Berkley's Freshman Admission statistics To get enough blacks to admit in 2000, Berkley had to choose from those with SAT scores in the range 990-1210, while white guys had to be in the range 1250-1440 to be considered
Great point, and I agree 98%, but I think music and dance are two areas where black culture encourages, admires, and rewards excellence... unfortunately, music and dance alone won't make a civilized social construct.
(However, if you rephrase that quote to read, "suggests a desire to excel, improve, educate, edify, or prosper beyond thuggism or entertainment," then I'd be in 100% agreement.)
The contemporary problem is two-fold. First, thanks to the race warlords and poverty pimps and liberal enablers, it has become "OK" for blacks to relish within their "victim" status. The be-all, end-all for black America, thanks to the Jesse Jacksons of the world, is to play the victim. Unfortunately, this has spread to education. John McWhorter pointed this out in his book, "Losing the Race."
Culture does change with time. Imagine an American World War II soldier magically transported from 1942 Berkley, California to 2002 Berkley, California. He would be wondering what planet he had landed on. "Black culture" overall has declined just as "white culture" overall has declined since the 1940's. Unfortunately, the decline of black culture has outpaced the decline of white culture because of the race-pimps.
In current "white culture", it is accepted in school that there will be "jocks", "nerds", "stoners", "brains", etc. They may harass each other but no one group claims to represent "whiteness".
As a black Conservative, you not merely harassed. You are demonized by the Jesse Jackson-Harry Belafonte crowd. There is only one "black culture", it is the True Black Culture and that culture is the Victim Culture. Thus, self-sufficiency is frowned upon and failure is not only excused but actually demanded.
I had a black friend in medical residency that I tutored for Boards on a subject she was weak in. She had come from a well-off family with her father being an airline pilot for a major airline. She told me that, in high school, when she went to a white private school, she did fine in school. However, when they moved and she transferred to a school with a large black student body, she experienced the "acting white" attacks from the other black students because of her academic excellence. Peer pressure is a very powerful force in a teenager's life. After a while, she decide to let her schoolwork slide and be accepted as as "black" rather than remain an "Oreo" with a high grade point average.
It is the tragedy of modern American black culture that the popularized ideal of "black culture" is the culture of the most dysfunctional sub-culture that Black America has to offer. It's cool to be the black equivalent of "white trash".
For that, black youth is not to blame. They had no control over what culture surrounded them when they were born.
For that, the race and poverty-pimps and the Liberal media who sign on to their Victimhood agenda are to blame. They have replaced the black culture of Booker T. Washington with black culture of Snoop Doggy Dogg.
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