Posted on 12/03/2005 2:09:57 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Mandisa likes Abercrombie & Fitch, not FUBU.
She speaks proper English, not Ebonics.
She takes honor classes and belongs to the Beta Club and National Arts Honors Society at Parkview High. She plays the violin and has danced and sung in area productions of “The Nutcracker” and “My Fair Lady.”
Mandisa Surpris, a 15-year-old sophomore, is all this.
And she’s black.
Some of the other black students don’t know what to make of her. The way she dresses, the way she talks, the grades she earns. She’s an anomaly. To them, she’s more white than black. They’ve even told her so to her face.
“It’s the most ignorant statement I’ve ever heard,” Mandisa told me. “A lot of black students have the ability, but they think that being smart isn’t cool. So they hide it.”
She can talk about her experience now because she knows how to deal with it. That hasn’t always been the case.
Last year, the comments, slights and snubs took a toll. Mondays, the start of the school week, were especially tough. She’d complain of pain in her limbs. Mom and Dad took her to several doctors. Tests were taken and exams were given. Nothing.
Then, a doctor at Emory University wondered if her illness wasn’t psychosomatic. Something, he said, must be going on in Mandisa’s life that’s making her body ache. It was a breakthrough.
Mandisa, crying, had a heart-to-heart with Mom and Dad. She told them how some – not all — black students treated her as an oddity because she didn’t succumb to their idiotic and destructive views of the black diaspora. My words, not hers.
“It was painful,” said Renald Surpris, her father. “Some black kids don’t have the education and understanding to accept people for who they are, not what they look like.”
I know what some of you are thinking. Here Rick goes again. Writing about race. Stirring up trouble. Critics say it all the time. I don’t care. I write about racial issues carefully and selectively, and sometimes, when I’m ticked off.
Like now.
My people, my people. Some of you disturb me. There’s something terribly wrong when black students — even one — at Parkview or any other Gwinnett campus criticize, ridicule and question the “blackness” of someone like Mandisa simply because she wants to excel.
It’s even sadder in this case because Parkview High is no ghetto school. Its student population doesn’t hail from lower-income apartment complexes and subdivisions. At Parkview, the parents and students consider their school the crème de la crème of public schools, the clientele upper-crust perhaps and at the very least middle-class.
So I blame parents. You black parents.
It’s your fault if your children think academic achievement is uncool, anti-black and pro-white. It’s your fault if your offspring are so enthralled with the so-called thug life that they devalue education, hard work and dedication.
And you’re especially to blame if your child’s sense of black culture means that you have to think and act a certain way, and that to do otherwise means you’re acting like whitey.
It’s your fault. And you’re crippling your kids.
Mandisa wants to pursue acting or a career in the fashion industry. She plans to attend college in New York, her birthplace. I’m sure she’ll be fine.
It’s the kids who ridicule her that I worry about. When they succumb to this crippling ignorance, we all lose. We’ll have fewer doctors, teachers, artists and more. Fewer people to be proud of.
Enter Clarence Thomas, Enter Condi Rice, Enter James Steele
Mandisa needs to keep it real.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"-Hillary Clinton
(Yes, she really said that
Peggy Noonan
The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)
The Black adults who pelted that Black Republican with oreo cookies are leading the charge, and there are plenty of them.
Fortunately there are plenty of parents who sacrifice big time to put their children in Parochial School where they don't generally get this black/white dividing line. But by and large it's the thug culture of the parents who perpetuate the desire of their children to remain lazy, stupid, unemployable and worthless. what a legacy to leave the world.
Nauseating
"At Parkview, the parents and students consider their school the crème de la crème of public schools, the clientele upper-crust perhaps and at the very least middle-class."
The key word here: "Public"
Hang in there young lady and make something of yourself.
And yes, PC does permeate the military even now, especially the Air Force....ask the Chaplins at the Air Force Academy.
"She plans to attend college in New York, her birthplace."
Come home Mandisa, if you can make it there.....
Good on this guy for pointing the finger at the parents, a la Bill Cosby. Enough with the "black redneck" stuff. Check out the NY Post today and see how Mr. Singh a member of the Crips (or Bloods, I forget) shot to death another Guyanese immigrant over a cigarette. Now the "thug culture" is corrupting those hard working immigrants we hear so much about.
ENOUGH ALREADY! As we say in NYC.
I've been in the military since 1972, and it is worse now than it's ever been before.
There is a high school that accomodates every student in the small town. All types of kids from all backgrounds are thrown in together. That ghetto anti-education attitude affects decent kids. I've seen good students pick up on that attitude and lose interest in homework, tests, etc. When these kids finally wake up, they're in their late 20's, and they don't have a good enough job to afford a house, etc.
That's part of it, but also look at the black celebrity types like Snoop Dogg. He deliberately dumbs hisself down. He be talkin' like a complete imbecile 'cuz it coo.
Fo shizzle ma nizzle.
Now WTF is THAT supposed to mean in plain English?
You can't even hope to get through a job interview when you talk like half a retard.
I think it was Dave Barry who said the British sound smart because of their accents. People can sound really stupid, too speaking Ebonics.
They're stuck on stupid the Lib Plantation!
I agree. If African-Americans (pardon my concession to PC) would have role models like Rice, Powell, Sowell, Williams. Carver, and a myriad of others, maybe they would score higher than 85 on IQ tests and move on up through society.
Exactly! I was going to add Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter Williams, Ward Connerly, Roy & Niger Innes, Alan Keyes... The list goes on and on.
These proponants of the "Thug Life," who claim "Black heritage" for their "style" need to ask themselves one thing... WWFDD? (What Would Frederick Douglass Do?)!
Mark
I am not sure that is a uniquely black problem, I vaguely remember similar problems when I went to HS some 30 years ago. It didn't matter what color your skin was though. If you had some smarts, you were a target of some ridicule or shunning. It isn't that much different as an adult either. Get an employee of the year award and you'll find out who your friends really are.
This girl is in grave danger of becoming a Republican.
Nah, they'll brainwash all of her good instincts out when she goes to acting or fashion school in New York.
>>>"She can talk about her experience now because she knows how to deal with it."<<<
The Uncle Toms can't keep all the blacks enslaved on the liberal plantation, no matter how hard they try. There will allways be a few who will escape to freedom.
[By "Uncle Toms", I mean, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte, Spike Lee, and their kind.]
So right on...
It's also the culture that kids are fed from the media. The gangsta lifestyle doesn't lend itself to excellence.
My daughters best friend sounds like and eleven year old version of Mandisa. Earlier this year, another black girl made similar comments about her, essentially that she wasn't black enough on the inside. Even more ridiculous...the girl who made the nasty statement is herself bi-racial and very light skinned....but apparently according to the prevailing thinking...black enough inside.
While serving as a squad leader in the 82nd Airborne, my best private was a black kid from South Carolina. He was motivated, knowledgeable, and all around good troop. I figured this kid would end up in Delta Force before too long.
Unfortunately in his off duty time he was surrounding himself with some of the less than stellar soldiers who were more interested in being gangstas than paratroopers. This kid was ridiculed for being gung ho, and trying to be too white. Only white rednecks go in for all that Army stuff you see.
Mandisa cut the chains and escaped the bondage of the Big House. She is no longer a slave to her NAACLP massas who control all.
To those who fear leaving the plantation Mandisa is a threat.
"Some of the other black students don’t know what to make of her. The way she dresses, the way she talks, the grades she earns. She’s an anomaly. To them, she’s more white than black."
My guess is that blacks have been so filled with anti white hatred and propaganda that they reject white values.
Excellent post. This extends beyond Blacks, though. I've seen it a lot in inner city Hispanic kids too. With Hispanics it seems to be not un-Hispanic, but just uncool. Some white kids see being intelligent as uncool too but to a much lesser extent.
I don't teach regular public school, but I see it in the religion classes (Catholic CCD, 7th-8th grade) kids I teach on Sunday. Not a whole lot of teaching experience, granted. But with a couple of the kids, their normal school attitudes seem to carry over to Sunday too. I have only one Black kid and she is a really bright, devout and eager to learn kid.
School Choice Bump
Dont forget Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams
Indeed, it all about handouts, what can I get for free
Read the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Here you have the same syndrome only instead of eventual acceptance she will never always be outside their sphere.
She has two choice as she goes through life. Either she rises above her antagonists like Condi Rice has done or she will hide her intelligence for fear of being called Uncle Tom.
Wow. Someone finally had the onions to say this.
Wish I had.
I've often wondered how Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech would sound delivered in ebonics.
It would have lessened the speech's effect.
This young lady is helping to change history. The day will come when black America is going to divide leaving a very messy legacy of helpless plantation slaves with their RAT masters. People of character won't allow themselves to be judged by the color of their skin.
I've been told by many executives in our business that if you were black and could dress and speak properly they would hire you in a minute.
"I am not sure that is a uniquely black problem..."
Agree - the rappers have gotten to a lot of white kids - stupid is cool.
Exactly - it isn't a black or a white thing - it's parents AND teachers AND a culture that discourages people from exerting effort to do and be their best. It reminds me of a discussion I had a long time ago with a school teacher in Germany. He said they made a point of teaching their students not to compete, NOT to try too hard, or try to be better than other people because it just wasn't fair to the people of lesser ability AND not everyone could succeed. If they tried and failed they would be miserable. It was better just to let the government take care of them. I see a LOT of that attitude in America today.
All in all, it's a rather amazing commentary on some aspects of black culture, especially coming from Mr. Rock.
Agree. I was watching the local news last night and they had a story on one of the high school basketball teams going to State (or something like that). They sent a news crew out to the high school rally and ended up interviewing a few of the kids. It was a mixed-race bunch--hispanic, white, native american, etc., but all the kids they interviewed spoke in 'gangsta', or whatever it's called--MTVSpeak, maybe. "Is like this, no whad ahm sayin'? We gonna do dis, we gonna be on top, no whad ahm sayin', yo?".
It's rather interesting that blacks have adopted the fascist idea of racial purity. But there's a catch! Their idea of the racially pure master race is one that can't spell and has no intention of learning how.
Is this ever true! A brilliant blue-eyed blond boy of my acquaintance (now a man) went through harassment and hazing, even by the teachers and principal. I recognized it as the same abuse his brilliant mother, who had also skipped a grade, had suffered in school in the 50s.
Fortunately for this boy, his mother was on hand to champion him, as her parents had not been for her, and he went on to success in a private high school and top-notch university.
"I am not sure that is a uniquely black problem, I vaguely remember similar problems when I went to HS some 30 years ago. It didn't matter what color your skin was though. If you had some smarts, you were a target of some ridicule or shunning."
Not necessarily. Look at the black and brilliant Tyra Banks, who has her own talk show and successful long-running "top model" show, just renewed for the 5th season. She is just 32. She is using her beauty as a stepping stone to a lucrative career as a brainy producer and media magnate. Look for her to become the next Oprah, who is undeniably one of the world's most extraordinary public benefactors.
Not at all. See post 47.
One of our local high schools had a lock down a few weeks ago. 6 girls got into some kind of brawl. Evidently, problems of this nature have been increasing at the school and in the district. If so, I wouldn't call that environment conducive for learning.
They aren't "white" values, are they? Almost every black person who succeeds talks about how his mother inspired him or her. The phenomenal Baltimore brain surgeon Ben Carson comes to mind. He grew up with a single mother in a ghetto, yet her insistence on homework and good values propelled his natural intelligence. He became head of neurosurgery at the nation's premier hospital, Johns Hopkins, by the time he was 35!
His mother couldn't even read, but she would scan his homework papers, hand them back and say, "You can do better." What a brilliant mother, who once was a maid but now lives in a wonderful home due to her son's accomplishments and her own inspiration for him.
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