Black boys see little to encourage education

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 8/17/03 | NATHAN McCALL

[Mamzelle]

Gee, I wonder how many *white* men with a criminal record--felony, possibly violent--could get a job as a teacher at Emory? Sheesh...

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[Lizavetta]

Nowadays, blacks entering the nation's top schools often are haunted by suspicion

You can thank affirmative action for that.

and nasty lawsuits that essentially challenge their right to be in school.

Nice try, felon boy, but the "nasty" lawsuits are challenging their "right" to be admitted based on race. They are not challenging their right to "be in school".

[ladyjane]

So important jobs are reserved for "rich wite men" and that is why young poor black men stop trying? Why doesn't that factor seem to affect young women? Young Koreans? Chinese? Indians? Affects only young blacks. Interesting.

[optimistically_conservative]

I thought I was going to read about something like the difference that mentors can make for young black boys. Instead I wasted my time on this crap.

Sorry about that, you might like this one better: Clayton board fails its students

Just once, I'd like to see black civil rights activists take to the streets to protest schools that miseducate black children. Just once, I'd like to see so-called black leaders up in arms about popular culture's casual acceptance of mediocrity (and worse) in black students.

But that's not the typical story line of black protest in matters related to education. The plot, ever so predictable, usually goes like this:

A black teacher or principal is fired. Black activists call a press conference to denounce the alleged racism of white school officials.

Or, school officials propose that new teachers be required to pass a standardized test. Black activists immediately declare the requirement racist.

Or, blacks win a majority of seats on a school board. They immediately institute a purge, eliminating whites from top administrative spots.

[WestPacSailor]

Now after 2 years in a public high school in the D.C. area, he's know longer passing and saying education isn't cool, it's a white thing.

We have the same problem in my neighborhood schools. I live in a middle-class, mixed race area but they bus the hood rats in from the projects (I guess the school down the street from the hood is getting rich, white kids???). The discipline is horrible, subjects are dumbed down, and the place looks like an add for street bums and homeless people with ill fitting clothes.

All of this is why my children will be going to a Christian school. They will learn the meaning of respect for God, their parents, and themselves. They will learn that education is good, ignorance is something to be remedied, not celebrated. They will learn that they are responsible for their situation in life, not the gummint, and certainly not someone of another race.

[aristeides]

The word for struggle in German is "Kampf". Hitler and the Nazis constantly spoke of how it was central to life.

The word for struggle in Arabic is "jihad."

[FixitGuy]

Most intelligent folks already KNOW what's wrong about the "Black Experience". How about we talk about "Change" & "Hope" within that experience.

Quit bitchin' at the dark and light a candle.

(paraphrased from "the Christopher" movement)

[Freee-dame]

...a mediocre white man of average intelligence (George W. Bush!) gets to run the world.

If average intelligence is defined as being in the IQ range of 90 to 110, President Bush is way above that. People (mostly in or below the average IQ range?) who say that he is of average intelligence, must mean that he not a genius. Leadership is needed in a president, not genius.

[ninenot]

After you clear away the usual flapdoodle (a great majority of this piece,) however--the author has actually tripped across an interesting point.

BOYS in general (not just Blacks) are turned off by education as 'the path to greatness,' and it's beginning to be shown in the male/female ratio of college graduates and current college enrollment.

IMHO, feminazi theory has managed to pervert family structure. In combination with LBJ's twisted social programming and the typical mindless Gummint "quota" systems, (ruthlessly enforced), male upward mobility and its natural consequence, 'breadwinner-Dad'/'homemaker-Mom' has been nuked out of society.

Thus the slow but very visible exit of men from college.

[MissAmericanPie]

There is always a way to excuse oneself if one looks hard enough. I keep a file for quick and easy recipies and another file for quick and easy excuses. Both are real handy.

[happygrl]

Why is an ex-con teaching at a real university?

Leftist academia fawning over "authenticity."

Hear's another take on Mr. Nathan McCall from a review on Amazon.com:

A well-written book about BM hypocrisy!!, October 13, 1999

Reviewer: Shay Max from Los Angeles, CA

I am an African American female.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. What was GOOD -- explaining the criminal mind while engaging in a crime, high school rivalries, prison life, post-prison life.

What was SAD -- McCall's anger/hatred/violence directed at black women, the girls he gang-raped in high school, the one he planned to kill after sex in a car, his crazed criticism of his wife, his illegitimate children (again blaming their mother alone as if he himself never heard of a condom).

Also, SAD -- McCall had no problem committing crimes against black people in his own community yet he admitted that he would dare not challenge a White police officer's authority on the street! Also, this lying, raping, stealing excuse of a Black man gets caught by America's justice system and now he cries "racism" the way his female victims tried to cry "rape." Like them, no one hears McCall's cry. Next, McCall lies to get a job and is upset over getting caught! He steals and is upset over being watched by others! DUHH! -- MCCALL, YOU ARE MISSING A FEW FRIES FROM YOUR HAPPY MEAL!!

The worst part of this novel is that McCall grew up in a decent home with a father/stepfather. Yet McCall criticized everyone: his stepfather working for white people, Blacks who travelled, white people (yet he confessed having sex with a white woman was some kind of Black male rite of passage).

This is a well-written book by a very disturbed criminal who happens to be a black male. (The book's subtitle is a complete misnomer!!) The only time McCall claims "Blackness" was when he got himself in trouble and needed a way out.

[oyez]

The Atlanta paper must hard up for something to print. Why not print the truth instead of BS? Possibly, if they looked at their circulation they would see that that it is going down and advertisers are dropping off. I bet they don't know why.

[dwd1]

I think the article brings up a valid point that needs to be discussed... It is a parenting and community problem where stability and hard work are not always rewarded... Everyone here probably experienced the hostility within the black community where people say that you talk white, act white, etc...

We don't have many heroes in our community but please remember that most of us are simply spending most of our time trying to make a living and surviving a difficult economic downturn... Lights, water, and gas along with feeding a family of four... Makes it hard to focus on community development... There may be some in the black community that feel like our mother's church and our father's political party have failed us... Trying something new is not always easy...

The thing that is hard for me is to realize that I have spent forty years helping myself and I find myself in a position where I am not able to help others the way I like... I would love to be able to say I have been able to participate in the alumni association and let my children know that it is going to be better for them... I think every parent, regardless of race, wants that...

The corridors of power are still limited but what is interesting is that no one wants to acknowledge the shortage of Colin Powells and Clarence Thomas... And quietly, very quietly, Colin Powell has opened a door for his son, Michael Powell...

I find it interesting that Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson, Harold Ford, and Clarence Thomas came up about the same time... I am not sure about Clarence Thomas's children but I know that Jackson, Jr and Ford, Jr are in congress and Colin Powell is way up in the FCC or whoever it is that regulates radio and TV...All of them have something that they want to pass on to their posterity... Perhaps the writer's real problem is that he feels he does not have anything to pass on...

Re:Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas... What is different and special about them is that they were not abandoned by the conservative elements that opened doors for them... We all know that Clarence Thomas did very well because he worked very hard, but knowing Attorney General and later Senator John Danforth did not hurt... For Colin Powell, I don't think he hurt himself knowing Frank Carlucci, George Bush, and several others since he was a young man... I think he made his own luck where his preparation made him ready to capitalize on opportunity...

Some could argue that Jesse Jackson got abandoned by Liberals but he was able to pass some opportunity on and give his son name recognition...

Those who say we are victims are way off but the truth is, we are on our own and we need to realize that to move forward, we need to secure our position of wealth and as an established interest through education...

What we are still trying to find out as a community is how do we pass on a work ethic and appreciation for the opportunity in the face of those of demand and receive such rewards through athletic achievement, artistic achievement(if you want to call rap music art), name recognition inheritance and connections... Children, who may tend to demand "Instant Gratification" may get the wrong impression when they see it come to others so easily... We have to tell them that if you can gain riches so easily, you can lose them just as easily...

The biggest problem that we have is that too many of our heroes have traveled a path that many of us can not (athletics, entertainment) and not enough travel the path of Colin Powell, Lester Lyle, Vince Brooks, Benjamin Davis, Bernard Randolph, Ralph Bunche, Julius Becton, Ernest Green, Bernard Parks, Leo Higginbotham, Mary Berry, Langston Hughes...

And the fact that you may not know many of the people I have listed is exactly the point... We need to focus on the good and move forward...Redefining who we look up to may not be a bad start...

[dwd1]

"and Colin Powell is way up in the FCC or whoever it is that regulates radio and TV..."

That should have read "Colin Powell's Son, Michael"

[CatoRenasci]

Very insightful review. Thanks.

[King Prout]

more importantly: it only affects AMERICAN blacks; recent immigrants from Africa seem to do quite well.
even more importantly: it only affects SOME American blacks; those who actually have a work ethic seem to do quite well.

[dwd1]

Could someone please tell me the history of how the majority of black people came to support the Democratic Party?... Is there a lesson to be learned in something that the Democrats may have done right or that the Republicans may have done wrong?

How does the "Party of Lincoln" lose the support of the group that it helped? I am guessing there was some point in history (End of Reconstruction, Jim Crow Laws, Plessy vs. Ferguson, Segregation, The Great Depression, Industrial Revolution, The Rise of Labor Unions, Brown vs. Board of Education (Thought Eisenhower was a Republican)... I am certain there was never a law requiring black people only be allowed to vote if they register as a Democrat so please, someone tell me the history... I have the feeling that whatever the event was, if we were to discuss that event with the black community and let them know times have changed and that the conservative movement is where their interests would best be served, things may have a chance of changing... It is a hard case to make to the black community that they should change their allegiance without making a case of how the other party would serve their best interests.... You may find that pointing to Colin Powell and Condi Rice may not be enough because the odds of most people of any race making 4 star general and chairing the joint chiefs are long...

Clarence Thomas...Getting into Yale and then taking the career path he took with the support of John Danforth...Also remote...

I am a conservative that wants to make a case to a liberal black person and I don't think name calling and calling them lazy and stupid is going to help...

I welcome all replies...

[dwd1]

Well, there are those Nigerians with Master's Degrees in Engineering that drive a cab, but for the most part, after they show their mettle, they do OK...

[King Prout]

bone up on your Alexis deTocqueville. 150 years ago he stated words to the effect of: the American republic will survive only until the people discover that they can vote to themselves entitlements, from that point on the decline into mob politics and proledom is inevitable.