A cry in the black education wilderness

The great disappointment of my ongoing crusade to foment a revolution in black education has been the lack of a response, and even hostility, from black leaders in this community. Naturally, I expected everyone to drop what they were doing and hop onto my education movement bandwagon.

To be sure, black readers in general have responded positively and in droves to the call for a black education movement along the lines of our historic civil rights movement. They have said they agree that this movement must demand rigorous academic standards and a high level of parental responsibility and community involvement to ensure black children's success.

In a comment typical of many I've received, a reader wrote, "We as black people must begin to create a culture of valuing education ... if we are to ever pull our children out of the river of underachievement in which they find themselves. I believe that this can be done, but it will require a new and different determination on the part of the black community, and every black parent in particular, before it will be achieved."

Another reader wrote, "I am just frustrated at our community's complacency towards education and the willingness of so many parents to allow their children to waste their young years on activities that do not help them become competitive in academia. ... I'm making the effort to convert as many [people] as I can. I think I successfully turned my husband around. He was wiling to buy his children-to-be their first car but would not fund their college education. Now THAT had to change."

Of course, many people are doing interesting and important work to promote high standards in black education.

Helen M. Berger runs Houston Preparatory Academy's U-Prep model in which academically promising students from poor northeast neighborhoods are provided four weeks of intensive instruction in reading, writing and math. Afterward, a select few students who meet the high admission and academic standards of some of Houston's best private schools enter those schools with scholarships and the social and academic support of U-Prep to ensure their success.

Sylvia Brooks, president & CEO of the Houston Area Urban League, after reading my columns calling for new black leadership to head a black education movement, called to point out all the work the local Urban League is doing in that field. In fact, the promotion of equal access to education is one of the main goals of the Urban League's advocacy mission, and I applaud that.

Kevin Hoffman, the president of the Houston school board, posed a couple of questions when I complained to him about black leadership on education. "Do you go off and have a public tantrum, or do you work inside the system in which you were elected?," he asked. "Do you want to represent as an insider getting things done or as an outsider making a fuss on the front page?"

Without patting himself on the back too hard, Hoffman noted the significant number of new schools that will be built in black neighborhoods and of old ones that will be renovated under the district's new bond issue. Point well-taken.

My thinking has been that a natural place for the new black education movement to grow could be black churches. I have imagined church leaders organizing tutoring sessions for young members, recognizing and rewarding good grades and bringing in experts to teach test-taking skills and to help parents support their children's educational endeavors.

So, not long ago, I spoke with Rev. Michael Williams, pastor of Joy Tabernacle church. In writing a column afterward, I focused on those issues which he and I held in common, such as parents' major role in early education.

Williams chastised me later for not playing up his other points, such as that "serious and significant inequities" in funding and facilities exist in white and black communities, and that "American institutional life is designed to support white supremacy and public education is no different."

I had chosen to ignore some of his more outrageous statements, such as that "college is overrated for black people" and that many good jobs exist for people without college degrees.

Even if that were true, why would Williams, who also happens to be a trustee of the Houston Community College board, preach that to young people?

People who believe, as Williams apparently does, that black people are powerless to achieve excellence in their lives because they are oppressed victims ought to take a note from all the people who are out there working hard to show black children how bright the future can be. That's real leadership.

Georgsson, an editorial writer, is a member of the Chronicle Editorial Board andrea.georgsson@chron.com

John Kerry's talk with black clergy a portent of fate***...When Kerry campaigned on a promise of reforming education from his chair in the Oval Office, he was making a promise he knew he couldn't keep. In all fairness, Bush has made the same promise and knows the same thing. The best thing a President Kerry could have done and President Bush can do for America's schools is to dismantle the Department of Education, not fund it.

And how, exactly, do we separate that disproportionate number of black men in prison from the moral issues of our time?

Aren't most of the black juveniles committing crimes - who will go on to become those black men filling our prisons - from single-parent households where the mother is too poor and too young to raise children? How is that not a moral issue? What Christian church shouts "amen!" and "hallelujah!" to poverty-stricken teen mothers having children out of wedlock?

That was a no-no in the Roman Catholic Church I grew up in, as were abortion, adultery, "living in sin," drug use, prostitution (either on the consumer or provider side) and, at the risk of sounding homophobic and woefully out of step with political correctness, homosexuality.

There are enough devout Christians - Catholics and non-Catholics - who still cling to the traditional list of what is and is not a sin. It doesn't matter if you agree with them. The bottom line is that these folks will go to the ballot box and cast their votes based on what they - not elected officials or journalists or activist groups - feel are the great moral issues of the day.

Kerry must have had some inkling that many black Christians feel the same way, especially about the issue of gay marriage. That's why he attempted to make his pre-emptive strike a week before the election in hopes of steering enough black votes his way to swing the election.

It didn't work. Considering the folks he had stumping for him - Messrs. Clinton and Jackson - it's no wonder it didn't. That should be a lesson learned for Democrats who want to regain the White House in 2008.

Sometimes, people do consider the source. ...***

How president improved his black vote since 2000***When the final votes came in, President Bush's black vote looked like a drop in the bucket amid his national flood, but it looked like a big hole in the bucket for his Democratic opponent.

In a black vote that surged upward about 25 percent from 2000 to 13.2 million voters, 11 percent of it went to Bush, compared to a paltry 8 percent in 2000.

But the real cost to Sen. John Kerry appeared in key battleground states like Ohio, where Bush received an impressive 16 percent of the black vote, 7 points more than he received in 2000.

And in Florida, where 13 percent of the black vote went to Bush, almost twice the 7 percent he received there four years ago.

And in Pennsylvania, which Kerry won, Bush nevertheless took 16 percent of the black vote, up from 7 percent in 2000.

And in Georgia (12 percent, up from 7 percent in 2000), North Carolina (14 percent, up from 9 percent) and his home state of Texas (16 percent, up from 5 percent).

Since African-Americans are the Democratic Party's most loyal major ethnic or racial group, that's a lot of Kerry's political base that jumped the fence.

Many of those fence jumpers appear to be new voters, part of Bush political adviser Karl Rove's success in mobilizing the 4 million evangelical Christians who reportedly stayed home in 2000. The "moral values" issue, however you define it, that emerged surprisingly in exit polls as a bigger concern for voters than any other issue, including Iraq and the economy, apparently proved to be a big draw for black Bush voters, too.

A recent poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank specializing in black issues, forecast a surprisingly large black turnout for Bush. It also found that pro-Bush blacks were more likely than Kerry supporters to be regular churchgoers, over age 50, opposed to gay marriage and not as worried about where their next dollar would come from. .....***

Cosby, engage blacks to marry***....Like so many others, I support Cosby's crusade. Indeed, I'll be there when he brings his old-fashioned sermonizing to Atlanta on Nov. 18, in an appearance at Douglass High School. I'd just like to add one small item to his agenda: marriage. I'd like to hear him — in the plain and unadorned language for which he has become known — urging black men and women to get married.

Having weathered crises together, he and Camille have been married for 40 years. He obviously believes in the institution. (The Cosbys are the parents of four daughters; their son, Ennis, was murdered in an apparent carjacking in 1997.) And Cosby has implicitly supported it in talks around the country — pointing out the detriment of teen pregnancy and urging fathers to get involved in their children's lives.

But I'm not sure that young black men and women are quite getting the message. Over the last few years, many unmarried young black fathers have begun attending parenting seminars to learn the basics of fatherhood. As a result, some are going to PTA meetings, monitoring their kids' report cards and even coaching their children's Little League teams. But too few are getting married to the mother of their children. What is better for kids than a law-abiding, hardworking dad who is present in the home? ...***

Cosby tells 'his people' to stand up***...Dressed in a maroon University of Massachusetts sweat shirt, blue sweat pants and sandals, Cosby delivered a message that was anything but casual.

"I am wondering, when I am looking at 55 percent of African-American males dropping out of school, how bad off we are going to be when we need some lawyers," he said.

James Donald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections and one of the evening's speakers, fed Cosby plenty of ammunition. The state's top prison official said that, of the 54,000 men locked up in Georgia, 30,000 are black. "And they average about 2.3 children," Donald said. "That is over 60,000 children going to bed without their fathers."

Before he went on stage, Cosby sat in the green room and joked with the Rev. Gerald Durley and Imam Plemon El-Amin about long-winded preachers. But Cosby commanded the audience more like a preacher than the comedian most know him as.

"Tell it!" someone shouted as he talked about single mothers bringing different men into their homes to use them and abuse their children.

"I want you to make Jesus smile," Cosby said. "Don't just sit there and consider yourself a Christian and do to your child what has been done to you."

Farron Philpot of Jonesboro got in line outside the school's basketball gym about 5 p.m. "Mr. Cosby has a message that needs to be heard," Philpot said. "It's late, but I guess it still needs to be told."

Billy Cooper of Smyrna and Karen Moreland of Douglasville also wanted to hear what Cosby had to say. They work together at Inland Seafood.

"My friend asked me to come, and I think [Cosby] is cool," Cooper said. "I really like him. He's a great motivator as well as a top humorist. I like his humor because it is clean." ...***

'We Love Black Folks Contest' has revealed some real losers***......I don't know who started this nonsense about who loves black folks the most, but I do know this: People who don't give a tinker's damn about you will tell you what you want to hear, or what they think you want to hear. People who love you will tell you what you need to hear.

So who loves black people the most? Those of us, no matter what our politics are, who say that blacks can't blame white racism for all - or even most - of what afflicts us and that we have to take some responsibility for doing things ourselves? Do those blacks who say racism and the system hold black folks back while patronizing those black parents who have no interest in their children's education really "love" black folks?

Is loving black people telling them that pouring more money into public schools will save public education or is it those black conservatives who said, long before Cosby did, "Hey, it's the parents, stupid" who are showing the love?

Well, it can't be us black conservatives, according to Poussaint. We "don't love" black people. Poussaint isn't the first to utter this nonsense, of course. I've had some e-mailers, callers and letter writers tell me that all the time. When I remind them that two of the most famous black conservatives, Booker T. Washington and Birmingham, Ala., businessman A.G. Gaston, did more for black folks in one day than detractors of black conservatives have done all their lives, the commentators move the goal posts.

Washington and Gaston, they will contend, weren't "real" black conservatives.

Once they're done rewriting history with a wave of the hand, they get back to telling me how Mr. Justice Thomas has single-handedly reduced the quality of life for every black man, woman and child living in America. Thomas and other black conservatives "don't love" black people, you know, certainly not the way other factions within the black body politic love it.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Black Panther Party, the revolutionary faction, showed its love for black people by having its members intimidate, alienate and terrorize black nationalist groups the Panthers labeled "pork chop nationalists." ......***

The good reverend stumbles again over issue of racism***.......King wasn't just "riding down the street." He wasn't a "slave" fleeing his "slave masters," either. He was a miscreant who led police on a high-speed chase across Los Angeles' thoroughfares and resisted arrest when he was finally stopped. The beating he took followed failed efforts to subdue him with a Taser. Those blows to his arms and legs were part of an LAPD use-of-force procedure after a chokehold cops used to subdue suspects was banned, at the behest of civil rights activists much, I suspect, like Jackson. ....***

Sexism in rap sparks black magazine to say, 'Enough!'***Essence, the black women's magazine, has a daring New Year's resolution: It's embarking on a 12-month campaign to challenge the prevalence of misogyny and sexism in hip-hop lyrics and videos.

Many rappers and MCs coolly objectify women with vulgar song lyrics and hard-hitting, raunchy images on MTV. It's common, for instance, to see videos in which hip-hop artists lounge poolside as a harem of women gyrate around them in bikinis. The video for Nelly's "Tip-Drill" goes so far as to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances.

The publication's crusade, dubbed Take Back the Music, seeks to inspire public dialogue via magazine features that offer a range of perspectives on the entertainment industry from inside as well as outside observers. The January issue kicks off with comments from artists, critics, and activists.

Taking on a multibillion-dollar industry that accounts for more music sales than pop and rock - and exerts a cultural influence that extends far beyond the African-American community - is a monumental undertaking, even for a publication with a circulation of over 1.6 million. While few expect Essence to turn the tide, it's significant that the preeminent magazine for African-American women believes that the degree of sexism in rap is no longer tenable…………..***

A cry in the black education wilderness***More than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic arrived in the United States, a significant proportion of African Americans embrace the theory that government scientists created the disease to control or wipe out their communities, according to a study released today by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University.

That belief markedly hurts efforts to prevent the spread of the disease among black Americans, the study's authors and activists said. African Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau figures, yet they account for 50 percent of new HIV infections in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is man-made. ........

More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA.

A slight majority said they believe that a cure for AIDS is being withheld from the poor. Forty-four percent said people who take the new medicines for HIV are government guinea pigs, and 15 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide against black people.

..... 75 percent said they believe medical and public health agencies are working to stop the spread of AIDS in black communities. But the responses, which varied only slightly by age, gender, education and income level, alarmed the researchers.

....."The whole notion of conspiracy theories and misinformation . . . removes personal responsibility," Wilson said. "If there is this boogeyman, people say, 'Why should I use condoms? Why should I use clean needles?' And if I'm an organization, 'Why should I bother with educating my folks?' The syphilis study was real, but it happened 40 years ago, and holding on to it is killing us.".........***

Hand-wringing over incarceration won't help city's young black men***......... There are, no doubt, young white men -- and Hispanic men and men of other races and ethnic groups -- who are in prison, in jail or on probation or parole in Baltimore. But there's a difference between them and young black men: It's assumed the nonblack ones have some responsibility for, and control over, their actions.

If that's not a classic, textbook definition of racism, I don't know what to call it. And it's an insidious racism that will, in the long run, hurt the young black men those JPI bleeding hearts think they are helping.

"The system is to blame" is not what these young men need to hear. They need a stern rebuke, some scolding, perhaps a foot up their derrieres and some sage advice about getting their acts together. And they should definitely be reminded that being in jail or in prison is neither a rite of passage nor a cultural imperative for young black men.

But I've overheard that discussion a dozen times if I've heard it once. Two or more young black men in Baltimore -- on a bus, at a bus stop, on the subway, on a corner -- talking about themselves and their friends. Which ones are in jail. Which ones are out. Who did what to get sent up this time.

This is said loudly, so that folks standing nearby can hear it. There's no shame. There's no embarrassment. Going to jail or prison, these young black men figure, is something they're supposed to do.

You'll forgive me if I refuse to blame police, lawmakers, prosecutors, state and city government and judges for this sorry state of affairs. This sounds more like a failure of way too many families to instill proper values in their sons, nephews and cousins......

And so do a lot of teachers and politicans who scream whenever the subject of educational choice is brought up.

This is a very interesting thread. A couple of days ago Cardinal Maida shut down 15 Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese, mostly in the city and what they now refer to as the "ring communities," at least I think that is the term I heard used. The way in which this whole thing was handled was kind of tough. I have been told the principals of these schools were called in on Monday given the news and then first thing Tuesday morning it was headlined in one of the newspapers.

There are now no Catholic Highschools for girls in Detroit. They have to travel pretty far to get to one. At the original meeting with the principals, when asked what these young women were suppose to do Cardinal Maida suggested they go to public school! But, my understanding is they are shutting public schools down as well and that it is becoming very difficult to get an education in Detroit.

Some are thinking of opening Charter schools, I have been told that in Michigan you can have a Catholic Charter school but the state still supplies the money so I'm not so sure how this can be. Perhpas the situation has become bad enough for the voters to go for public funds being used for religious schools. It is a real big problem and has been one in this city for many years. To be fair Cardinal Maida tried repeatedly to get help for the failing Catholic school system in this area.

Black Democrats embrace faith issues ........... "The younger African-Americans who really are not familiar with the Civil Rights Movement, those 35 and under, who are clueless about the pressures and violence that took place are looking for something totally different," said Vivian Berryhill, a Republican and founder of the National Coalition of Pastors' Spouses.

"The challenge is how will the Democratic Party be able to maintain an African-American base for whom the civil rights mantra of 'we shall overcome' doesn't even resonate," she said.

She said young blacks are largely college educated or entrepreneurs interested in homeownership and lower taxes, and that the Republican ownership society message is "tickling" their ears.

"Therein is where there is concern because the Al Sharptons and Donna Braziles and Jesse Jacksons are from the old school and they need a new message for younger blacks," Mrs. Berryhill said.

The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a prominent conservative talk-show host, said Democrats do fear the growing number of conservative black ministers speaking out in favor of Republicans.

"Without a doubt, the Democrats are in fear of conservative black ministers because a lot of the time the congregation will follow their pastor," Mr. Peterson said in an interview.

"Some of them are moving more conservative because of the social issues, and some for the faith-based funding, but regardless, if black folks move away from the Democratic Party then they will never win another election."***

Black parents tackle a gap ***The single mother dutifully attends PTA meetings, knows the names of her children's teachers, and sends her daughters to after-school tutoring, test preparation sessions, and karate lessons. On weekends, the family sometimes visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art or a public library in Harlem.

.......... she was not always so involved,... and regrets leaving the education of her 18-year-old son entirely in the hands of the public schools he attended. She thought only prosperous parents had the time and ability to navigate a school system -- until last school year, when Harlem educators taught her how to do the same.

.....Hers is the kind of transformation that a concerted effort launched in the 2003-04 school year by African-American academics, social workers, and the College Board aims to achieve widely in Harlem -- to get black parents, regardless of their income, to match well-to-do white parents in being deeply involved in the education of their children and providing learning experiences outside the classroom. Both are proven strategies for boosting academic performance.

Elsewhere in the country, educators describe a similar phenomenon among middle-class and affluent black parents, whose children do not perform as well academically as white students from families with comparable incomes, according to a controversial 1999 study. …………………………..***

March 19, 1966: one day that should live in sports infamy***…….."The sports fixation damages black children by discouraging academic achievement in favor of physical self-expression," author John Hoberman wrote in his 1997 book Darwin's Athletes......the subtitle was "How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race."

One of those myths -- at least until last summer -- was that basketball is "a black man's game." The spanking that black NBA players received from white guys who live in places like Serbia and Argentina in last year's Olympic games should, we hope, put that myth to rest forever. A group of black American men not winning Olympic gold in 2004 was a bittersweet moment for me.

... The 2004 Olympics proved basketball isn't a "black man's game." It's a skilled athlete's game, and athletic talent knows no color.

The black boys in our nation's schools need to know that. When I visit middle schools, the common answer black boys give to my question about what career they will choose is either pro football or basketball. ……..***

Unexpected perspective - color commentator has never seen a baseball game ***.....Born in Nicaragua and raised in Florida, Henry as a boy learned baseball by listening to a transistor radio tucked under his pillow and letting at least his imagination run wild around the bases. For him, an informed word is worth far more than a thousand pictures. He has been blind from birth.

At 42, the St. Petersburg resident is what they call the "color" man on the broadcasts of Devil Rays games. While his partner supplies the play-by-play, he provides analysis and context. It is almost impossible to stump him on statistics or history or strategy. When he talks about changeups and the value of speed over the long ball, and the art of the hit and run, and when to sacrifice bunt and when to hit away, never mind, you can bank on it. His fans know they are listening to a master.

"We have a fast infield at Tropicana Field," he barks into his press box microphone. He is explaining how ground balls can ricochet like bullets off the artificial turf and explode past unprepared infielders. "I'm sure Julio Lugo is ready, and he is ready for a bad hop."

Henry is not guessing. Before games he and his white cane explore the field. He has touched the very seam where artificial turf and infield dirt come together, the place where a bouncing ball can take an unexpected trajectory toward a shortstop's Adam's apple. He also has spoken with Lugo about the challenges of playing on artificial turf. An hour before the first pitch he taps his way into the clubhouse, seeks out No. 23 and asks "Que pasa?" Even a casual "What's up?" can lead to something he might use on the broadcast.

Many who hear him on the radio have no idea their expert has never set eyes on a baseball diamond. Those who know are in the dark about how he does it.

"Sometimes he is so on the money it seems unworldly, impossible," says Danny Martinez, who was Henry's radio partner for three seasons before moving this year to Philadelphia and the Phillies. "Just by the sound of the ball hitting the bat he sometimes seems to know where the ball is going and what might or might not happen. "Tough catch out there by the wall!' I hear him say. I used to wave my hand in front of his face because I didn't quite believe he is blind." ...........***

[This will make students unemployable]

Ebonics suggested for district*** Incorporating Ebonics into a new school policy that targets black students, the lowest-achieving group in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, may provide students a more well-rounded curriculum, said a local sociologist.

The goal of the district's policy is to improve black students' academic performance by keeping them interested in school. Compared with other racial groups in the district, black students go to college the least and have the most dropouts and suspensions.

Blacks make up the second largest racial group in the district, trailing Latinos.

A pilot of the policy, known as the Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment Initiative, has been implemented at two city schools.

Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, commended the San Bernardino Board of Education for approving the policy in June.

Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,' Texeira said. "For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language.' ……………………………………***

Atlanta schools look to upgrade image - Hire P.R. firm - Public wants results, "not more jive"***…."What I hear is that many residents do not feel that they are getting sufficient return of their tax dollars," Fauver said.

Even the public schools' most vocal critics acknowledge progress in some areas, but they focus on the bottom line: Too few students are graduating, and SAT scores remain far too low.

"Atlanta Public Schools are tragically at the bottom of the heap," said Joseph Kelly, an Atlanta lawyer who is chairman of the board of the Fulton County Taxpayers Association, a frequent APS critic. "There may be some marginal improvement, but this is a serious crisis."

Each school superintendent Atlanta hires claims to have the answers, but the system remains mired in mediocrity, Kelly said.

"We've had 20 years of the schools saying the exact same thing, year after year. The public wants to see some results, not more jive." ……..

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