Is African boarding school the answer for Indiana's inner-city kids?

[Anonymous]

Slavery had a profound impact in other areas but as a black person I am asking you to please not bring it up when discussing the broken family structure. We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Slavery had a profound impact in other areas but as a black person I am asking you to please not bring it up when discussing the broken family structure. We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

Dispute, if you wish, the effects of these things, but please don't think that your disagreement justifies barring them from the discussion. Black or white, each of us will evaluate the various influences on modern life according to his or her own judgment.

The fact that some have the determination, strength, training, intelligence, or whatever it takes to overcome obstacles does not mean that the obstacles are non-existent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

O please, you do not seriously think that the inner city kids get equal opportunity to educate themselves as the private school priveledged children?
Like those kids have an equal number of options?

What choices can a child make under such circumstances? No matter how much you want to educate yourself, no matter how smart you are, you are sill the kid in the poorly performing school getting the 'gutter' education. Like some college is going to seriously want you, as if having no money is not an obstacle. And now you call them dumb.
You sound dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

O please, you do not seriously think that the inner city kids get equal opportunity to educate themselves as the private school priveledged children?
Like those kids have an equal number of options?

What choices can a child make under such circumstances? No matter how much you want to educate yourself, no matter how smart you are, you are sill the kid in the poorly performing school getting the 'gutter' education. Like some college is going to seriously want you, as if having no money is not an obstacle. And now you call them dumb.
You sound dumb.

so why is that african immigrants, who often go to those same schools, have the highest educational achievement in this country? they are certainly black, and often have language and cultural obstacles to overcome as well. and who makes up these inner city schools that are poor performers? they and their parents are blameless? I've tutored inner city kids that don't have a book in their homes. whose fault is that?

[Anonymous]

Isn't slavery at least partly to blame for the indoctrination of the self fulfilling prophecy of being less than, lack of family values due to displacement, value based on physical (not intellectual) ability and sexual promiscuity because the only thing a slave owned was his or her own body?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

O please, you do not seriously think that the inner city kids get equal opportunity to educate themselves as the private school priveledged children?
Like those kids have an equal number of options?

What choices can a child make under such circumstances? No matter how much you want to educate yourself, no matter how smart you are, you are sill the kid in the poorly performing school getting the 'gutter' education. Like some college is going to seriously want you, as if having no money is not an obstacle. And now you call them dumb.
You sound dumb.

so why is that african immigrants, who often go to those same schools, have the highest educational achievement in this country? they are certainly black, and often have language and cultural obstacles to overcome as well. and who makes up these inner city schools that are poor performers? they and their parents are blameless? I've tutored inner city kids that don't have a book in their homes. whose fault is that?

I'm so tired of seeing people constantly comparing Africans with African-Americans, just because they are 'black'. They come from completely different cultures. You may as well as be comparing African-Americans and Irish. The obstacles faced by immigrants are very different to the obstacles faced by African-Americans from rough, inner city neighborhoods. I've also worked with inner city kids and the fact that their homes don't contain a single book goes to show the disadvantaged backgrounds they come from, and how many more obstacles they face than those kids who do come from homes where books are read. And you can't blame the parents for that, if their grandparents also didn't have a book in the home, and their great-grandparents, etc.

[Anonymous]

And a fair number of immigrants who have meager incomes are actually quite well educated and don't come from high poverty backgrounds. Makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

Seems kinda unfair for African immigrants to benefit from affirmative action programs, which were really meant for the descendants of AA slaves.

[Anonymous]

PP here. To clarify, I support class-based affirmative action because I believe that economic disadvantage puts children, no matter what their race or ethnicity, unfairly behind. But the link to slavery was not made in that context; the assertion was that slavery is to blame for the current pitiable state of the black family. It is not.

I am a black American woman born to married parents with advanced degrees. I was raised in an Atlanta suburb where there were many black folks like us. Yet, after graduating from high school I saw that many in my neighborhood who came from intact professional families goofed off, dropped out of school, got pregnant, etc. These were people who knew nothing of the ghetto. They had every opportunity but they made bad choices. And slavery has nothing to do with that.

Immigrants to this country, with few exceptions, are almost never the poorest of the poor in their own countries. The poorest cannot get visas to come legally or raise the money to pay smugglers and come illegally. Comparing Africans and Black Americans is indeed like comparing kiwis and oranges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We cannot blame slavery for our lack of emphasis on marriage and higher education, failure to use birth control, collective acceptance of sexual activity among children, and the resulting out-of-wedlock births and fatherless families.

I do not blame the availability of government benefits either. They do not affect people who are determined to educate themselves for good jobs and make smart choices in their personal lives rather than irresponsible ones.

O please, you do not seriously think that the inner city kids get equal opportunity to educate themselves as the private school priveledged children?
Like those kids have an equal number of options?

What choices can a child make under such circumstances? No matter how much you want to educate yourself, no matter how smart you are, you are sill the kid in the poorly performing school getting the 'gutter' education. Like some college is going to seriously want you, as if having no money is not an obstacle. And now you call them dumb.
You sound dumb.

so why is that african immigrants, who often go to those same schools, have the highest educational achievement in this country? they are certainly black, and often have language and cultural obstacles to overcome as well. and who makes up these inner city schools that are poor performers? they and their parents are blameless? I've tutored inner city kids that don't have a book in their homes. whose fault is that?

I'm so tired of seeing people constantly comparing Africans with African-Americans, just because they are 'black'. They come from completely different cultures. You may as well as be comparing African-Americans and Irish. The obstacles faced by immigrants are very different to the obstacles faced by African-Americans from rough, inner city neighborhoods. I've also worked with inner city kids and the fact that their homes don't contain a single book goes to show the disadvantaged backgrounds they come from, and how many more obstacles they face than those kids who do come from homes where books are read. And you can't blame the parents for that, if their grandparents also didn't have a book in the home, and their great-grandparents, etc.

Agreed. But in many of these homes you will find luxuries such as expensive video games and toys. Books can be borrowed at the library for free. People have no problem finding the library to use the Internet or scrounging enough to buy that pair of 200-dollar sneakers but a book is nearly impossible to come by. Why? I think people should spend their money as they see fit but do not feel the need to make excuses for their misplaced priorities and choices. As a black person I am not bound by any well-meaning but misplaced sense of white liberal guilt. I have tutored in Southeast schools too and I think it is a shame that irresponsible parents condemn their children to lives of low achievement. We, as a society, must do all we can to protect these kids from the bad choices of their parents but let us not fool ourselves -- these are bad choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't slavery at least partly to blame for the indoctrination of the self fulfilling prophecy of being less than, lack of family values due to displacement, value based on physical (not intellectual) ability and sexual promiscuity because the only thing a slave owned was his or her own body?

Who has the lack of family values and suffers from sexual promiscuity?

The last I heard it was Paris Hilton, and the immoral hollywood crowd.
I really find it offensive that the '**' get accused of immorality. Buy a mirror

[Anonymous]

You all should grab a copy of the book "Slavery By Another Name".
It did not all end with emancipation. Even by 1945 there was widespread racism.
We live in a society of inheritance. Many blacks have not been able to bless their children with the fruits of their labor.
What does concern me is a the devaluation of academic achievement. Seems like women in certain ethnic groups choose their mates based on intellect and academic accomplishments. Black women don't seem to value that enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Black women don't seem to value that enough.

Thanks for speaking for every Black woman in America. I'll be sure to contact you to find out what else you know about me based on the color of my skin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't slavery at least partly to blame for the indoctrination of the self fulfilling prophecy of being less than, lack of family values due to displacement, value based on physical (not intellectual) ability and sexual promiscuity because the only thing a slave owned was his or her own body?

Not this many generations later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't slavery at least partly to blame for the indoctrination of the self fulfilling prophecy of being less than, lack of family values due to displacement, value based on physical (not intellectual) ability and sexual promiscuity because the only thing a slave owned was his or her own body?

Who has the lack of family values and suffers from sexual promiscuity?

The last I heard it was Paris Hilton, and the immoral hollywood crowd.
I really find it offensive that the '**' get accused of immorality. Buy a mirror

Agree that there are many similarities between the rich and poor. But the poor often have to live with the consequences of their mistakes.