Correlation of SES status, race, and FARMS with test scores and disruptiveness?

[Anonymous]

I am a middle class, PhD-holding AA who has been stopped on suspicion on three occasions - I have never done drugs or any other criminal activity. Was not in the wrong place - just driving home, etc. I have numerous friends and family members that this has happened to as well. My white friends (to my knowledge) have had no such things happen to them.

It sickens me when people think there is no bias in the law enforcement system. Ask around to your black and Latino friends. You'd be surprised.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is a good question but I'm not sure this is the right forum to get the best answer.

I would love for someone to do a true study showing correlation (but more important showing what options work in leveling the playing field, if any). What needs to happen to bring a kid who is disrupting class out of whatever issue he/she is having to perform better? Are we talking lots more psychologists? Are you talking master teachers? More volunteers in the classroom? Classes devoting to addressing specific behaviors?

For the teachers that teach this population, can you answer this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a middle class, PhD-holding AA who has been stopped on suspicion on three occasions - I have never done drugs or any other criminal activity. Was not in the wrong place - just driving home, etc. I have numerous friends and family members that this has happened to as well. My white friends (to my knowledge) have had no such things happen to them.

It sickens me when people think there is no bias in the law enforcement system. Ask around to your black and Latino friends. You'd be surprised.

Tell me about it. I'm afraid to report black kids who are up to no good in my neighborhood because I know of too many people (including a close friends) who have been falsely accused of crimes. The officers didn't seem to care if they had the wrong person or not. Since I've been personally and negatively affected, I am very sympathetic to any black person charged (because I know they could have just been caught up by a system that doesn't care about them). Very sad, but true.

[Anonymous]

Miami Gardens is a majority black city of 110,000 residents with a black mayor, black city council, and black chief of police. It is also a city with a high rate of violent crime.

[Anonymous]

^PP, what is your point?

[Anonymous]

Overall, the data for most major cities in the US shows a clear trend of of violent crime that is disproportionately high in low-income AA neighborhoods as compared to neighborhoods with other demographics - and it's highest among young AA males. As such, is it any surprise that police would be far more suspicious of and far more likely to target anyone who resembles a young low-income AA male? I don't like that trend either, but until things change, that's going to be the perception out there. The government's solution is to arrest, harrass and intimidate. If you want other solutions, those are going to have to come from within the AA community itself.

[Anonymous]

16:45, Miami Gardens is where the person was arrested 62 times for "trespassing" when he was at work. Majority AA city, AA mayor, AA city council, AA chief of police - yet we're supposed to believe he was arrested 62 times because of evil racist whites. Miami Gardens may have a lot of problems but given the circumstances, I really don't think their problems can credibly be blamed on racism.

[Anonymous]

What is the real point of this thread other than to use data to justify being able to openly bash AA's and low SES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Take "white" out of that equation. White kid hanging out somewhere, covered in tattoos, wife-beater tanktop and pants sagging down around his ass, probably going to be watched with suspicion. Same goes for a black kid dressed the same way. Or Latino.

Vice versa, clean-cut, respectable middle-class looking white or black or Latino person will NOT be looked at with suspicion.

Tell that to Forest Whitaker.

(Have you asked your black and Latino friends their opinion about this?)

Forest Whitaker was stopped and frisked by some random store employee, out of the hundreds of thousands of store clerks who do business with blacks, whites, Latinos, whoever every single day all across America without incident. Yet here you are, going ahead and painting the whole world with your broad brush based on the actions of one idiot.

Nope. You said "clean-cut, respectable middle-class looking white or black or Latino person will NOT be looked at with suspicion." You didn't say "usually". You didn't say "by most people." You said "will NOT". Clearly this is incorrect.

Plus I doubt it's much consolation to Forest Whitaker that this kind of stuff only happens to him occasionally, rather than constantly. You know how often it has happened to me? Never. Not once in my whole life. Why? Because I'm a clean-cut, respectable middle-class looking white person.

(Have you asked your black and Latino friends their opinion about this yet?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overall, the data for most major cities in the US shows a clear trend of of violent crime that is disproportionately high in low-income AA neighborhoods as compared to neighborhoods with other demographics - and it's highest among young AA males. As such, is it any surprise that police would be far more suspicious of and far more likely to target anyone who resembles a young low-income AA male? I don't like that trend either, but until things change, that's going to be the perception out there. The government's solution is to arrest, harrass and intimidate. If you want other solutions, those are going to have to come from within the AA community itself.

Either that, or the government could stop arresting, harassing, and intimidating. If you don't like the trend, don't accept it. Work to change it.

[Anonymous]

I would love for someone to do a true study showing correlation (but more important showing what options work in leveling the playing field, if any). What needs to happen to bring a kid who is disrupting class out of whatever issue he/she is having to perform better? Are we talking lots more psychologists? Are you talking master teachers? More volunteers in the classroom? Classes devoting to addressing specific behaviors?

For the teachers that teach this population, can you answer this?

This is really tough. I taught these kids and I do not have the answer.
I taught this population many years ago as a young new college graduate. I am Caucasian.
First, I also had some white children in my class who had the same problems. In fact, one of the white moms got in a fight with the (white) school bus driver and put her in the hospital. The kids were on the playground before school and witnessed the fight. That is an example of the problem and the environment in which some of these kids live. Do not think that white kids are exempt. And, while almost all the AA children that I taught lived in the projects , they weren’t all behavior problems. However, more were than were not.
Many of these kids fought a lot. We were told (by the “experts” that they didn’t have toys, so they “manipulate” each other.) I think that is BS from professors who are not dealing with the problem. Kids who see violence in their homes will express it themselves. It is very hard to establish rules in school when there are no rules at home. One of my students had her dad killed in a bar fight (knife). Another’s nineteen year old brother was arrested for a violent rape. These two young girls were among the better behaved and were sweet children. It breaks your heart when you see these issues. Most of my students was struggling in school. I had a meeting with a dad about trying to help her a little extra at home. The next day she came in with strap marks on her legs—I never gave her a bad grade again.
I taught first grade in Florida before K was mandatory. Many of the kids I taught did not even know the names of the colors. I spent time teaching “inside and outside”, “over and under”—basic concepts that these children should have known at three.
Most of the kids I taught were on welfare and just about all were on free lunch. A few were on reduced lunch, as I recall. They may not have eaten properly, but I never felt that they were malnourished or hungry. I do not know that for a fact, however. I will say that we had a terrific dietician at our school with superb food, so the kids did get healthy food that tasted great for lunch. This is a rarity in a public school.
It is hard to explain to people who have not been a class like those I taught, just how difficult it is to get the kids’ attention and keep them on task. I did have kids that did great—some of them from the poorest homes. One of the smartest I taught had a mother who was a prostitute. He started at the bottom of my class and rose to the top in one year. However, most of the kids struggled and definitely were not going to be on a college track. They had not been read to. They had not been talked to—they had been yelled at and that is what they expected. It is hard to teach a reading group when you have other kids pestering each other. This was before IEP’S and I am sure that many of these kids would have had them.
Sadly, this was forty years ago, and, from what I see, little has changed.
My suggestions: start in the hospital with educating the parents about the right way to talk to their babies. . Public service announcements on television and the radio about the best way to handle your child. Stress the importance of reading to your child and parenting classes. I think parenting classes would be more valuable than preschool. Teach middle school kids and elementary school kids about how to talk and help their younger siblings. Teach parenting classes in high school. Get the rappers and the hip hoppers involved. Get the preachers to step up more.
Barack Obama should talk about this. Other AA leaders should, as well. It is the culture—though the problems are not limited to the African American community. Throwing money at the schools won’t change things.

[Anonymous]

I'm the teacher from the post above. I need to add that I firmly believe that all of the parents loved their children and wanted good things to happen to them. They just didn't know how to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overall, the data for most major cities in the US shows a clear trend of of violent crime that is disproportionately high in low-income AA neighborhoods as compared to neighborhoods with other demographics - and it's highest among young AA males. As such, is it any surprise that police would be far more suspicious of and far more likely to target anyone who resembles a young low-income AA male? I don't like that trend either, but until things change, that's going to be the perception out there. The government's solution is to arrest, harrass and intimidate. If you want other solutions, those are going to have to come from within the AA community itself.

Either that, or the government could stop arresting, harassing, and intimidating. If you don't like the trend, don't accept it. Work to change it.

It's not a "chicken or egg" thing, doesn't work that way. Police react to crime and arrest, that's their job, and they surveil and watch potential suspects in high-crime circumstances. I wouldn't count on them to stop profiling or targeting until AA violent crime is no longer disproportionate to crime in other demographics. Blaming police for the violence within the AA community is a cop-out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Overall, the data for most major cities in the US shows a clear trend of of violent crime that is disproportionately high in low-income AA neighborhoods as compared to neighborhoods with other demographics - and it's highest among young AA males. As such, is it any surprise that police would be far more suspicious of and far more likely to target anyone who resembles a young low-income AA male? I don't like that trend either, but until things change, that's going to be the perception out there. The government's solution is to arrest, harrass and intimidate. If you want other solutions, those are going to have to come from within the AA community itself.

Either that, or the government could stop arresting, harassing, and intimidating. If you don't like the trend, don't accept it. Work to change it.

It's not a "chicken or egg" thing, doesn't work that way. Police react to crime and arrest, that's their job, and they surveil and watch potential suspects in high-crime circumstances. I wouldn't count on them to stop profiling or targeting until AA violent crime is no longer disproportionate to crime in other demographics. Blaming police for the violence within the AA community is a cop-out.

your entire post is a cop out. whites commit crimes too, and they are not profiled. Innocent AA's and Latinos are constantly profiled even when they are doing nothing, and let us not even get into privatization of prisons, falsifying evidence to arrest and convict folks to fill the prisons and trust me it will not be white.

[Anonymous]

Some posters on here would probably see eye-to-eye with Jim Crow