Lots of white high school kids, too. At our white grocery store, I asked the white female high school kid for 4 ounces of roast beef. She replied “Sir we only sell it by the pound.” I asked her “OK, what fraction of a pound is 4 ounces?”
Dumfounded silence. I said “There are 16 ounces in a pound. I want four ounces. What fraction of a pound is that?”
Dumfounded silence again. I asked “What is the fraction of 4 ounces divided by 16 ounces?”
Dumbounded silence. I said “The answer is 0.25. In other words I want a quarter pound of roast beef.”
Dumb as a box of rocks.
Pathetic.
Yes, it’s not just blacks who can’t count change or do elementary arithmetic. They simply have never been taught these things. They can’t tell time using a regular old clock either. Just this morning I saw where a prominent social media posted a foto in which the giant decorative clock face on her dining room wall was hung upside-down. In her defense it featured Roman numerals . . .
Theres a guy on Youtube that goes around to colleges and asks simple questions.
One of my favorites is “How many minutes are in a quarter of an hour?”
They will either stand there stunned briefly before answering something similar to “Im not really a math major” and then running away or they will inevitably state “25 minutes”.
One time my order at a restaurant came to $17.76, and I remarked, “well, that was a memorable year.” The (white) girl cashier said, “oh yeah, what happened? Did someone win a Super Bowl or something?” I’m sure I rolled my eyes.
I tried to give her some hints. She got zero of them. Then we asked every other person working at the restaurant that we encountered. Only one young man, about 30 minutes later answered correctly.
This was in the late 90’s. I’m sure it’s gone even more downhill since then.