Colleges Struggle to Help Black Men Stay Enrolled

NY Times ^ | December 30, 2003 | KAREN W. ARENSON

[Kelly4023]

I graduated Summa Cum Laude, posting 4.00 seven out of nine semesters, and worked a 40 hour work week, served in Student Government, and club activities. Not everyone can do it. Be glad you could, encourage the next person to keep on struggling. Don't be so stuck up and egotistical.

As Always:
"K"

[Xenalyte]

Over the course of the semester, class discussions veered from little things, like ways to remember to bring books to school . . .

If you need to have "ways to remember to bring books to school," you're too stupid to be in college. That's like my stylist not bringing her hair dryer or curling iron to work.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

This article is written from the classic liberal attitude: the failure of black men to attend and graduate from college is society's, and white people's in particular, fault. None of the fault is attributable to those failing to make the grade.

Examples:

Over the course of the semester, class discussions veered from little things, like ways to remember to bring books to school, to how the students felt when they could not get waited on in stores and how difficult it was to go anywhere, even to school, without money in their pockets.

If you have to have special ways to remember to bring books to school, you don't really want to be there. The problem is not a lack of book-remembering techniques. It's your attitude. And trading stories about problems getting waited on only stokes feelings of resentment and anger. How does that lead to positive achievement?

35 percent of black women in the same age group and 36 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in higher education.

Why not at least mention the positive side? Black women are attending college at a rate almost identical to young people as a whole. Doesn't that refute the notion that racism and economic oppression deprive willing blacks of opportunity?

"It's the shame of American higher education," said Arthur E. Levine, the president of Teachers College at Columbia University.

Classic liberalism. The failure of black men to attend or graduate college is not *their* shame or failure. Somehow, it's the fault of "American higher education."

Some black male students are labeled developmentally delayed, funneled into special education and "never get mainstreamed," she said. Shoved off the college prep track, they begin a "cycle of being reprimanded, disciplined and ultimately suspended for negative behavior," she said, leading to expulsion, unemployment and even crime and imprisonment.

The implication seems to be that the black male students are wrongly, even maliciously, labeled "developmentally delayed." Yet there's no evidence offered to back that up. Still, implication is clear : the problem is the mean-spirited system, keeping the black man down.

One evening, a student volunteered that he was troubled by his recent attempt to buy his brother a birthday present at Tiffany's. He said he had had trouble attracting a salesclerk's attention. He also told them about trips he had made to stores recently, dressed in jeans and sneakers, and being followed by security guards.

Stop the pity party. There are rational, experience-based reasons, having nothing to do with racism, that explains much of this. How about focusing on negative black culture, the glorification of "gangstas" and everything that goes with them?

[douglas1]

ITS not just race that is going on here this is a conservative site, and believe me some of these folks that post here truly believe in self help, and that is a good thing, but I know of no professors that will stick there necks out for just white students ,that in itself would be judged as racist, and that is something a lot of white people dont understand,at least I dont.

[Lee'sGhost]

Dr. Jackson, a short black man with a shaved head, told the class he knew what they were facing. Not long ago, when he had taken a guest to dinner at Tavern on the Green, he was led past a row of empty tables to one at the back of the room, jammed up against a Christmas tree.

"I didn't get angry," he told the students. "I said: `I'm sorry. This is not what I want.' It makes no sense to get nasty and ugly." His table was changed.

Jeez, the perpetuation of victim hood. What an ass. He's made two assumptions that could be totally wrong. 1) Being seated next to the tree was a bad thing. There could have any number of good reasons to do that. To other people it may have been the preferred table. 2) It was done because he is black. Sigh . . . This presumes that there was something wrong with the table to start with. But even if it was a bad table there are reasons other than his blackness that he could have been seated there. It may have been something as simple as it was the waitress' turn in that section to have a customer.

I swear, these idiots think that every decision a white person makes is based primarily on the color of their skin. I don't suppose it occurs to him that bad things happen to him because he is an @SSHOLE!!!

[neverdem]

Classic liberalism. The failure of black men to attend or graduate college is not *their* shame or failure. Somehow, it's the fault of "American higher education."

Unfortunately no, classical liberalism is now called conservative.

[Kelly4023]

What do you know about Black men?
What do you know about Black people?
What do you know about being Black, period?
Just jump on whitey's bandwagon.
You sound like my sister, who, even though she has had black men all around her, doesn't know a thing about Black men or men period.
Why do white men feel so free to "run their own lives"?
White men complain today that they have it so hard that reverse-discrimination is such a setback.
Ever wonder why, other than what whitey has brainwashed you with, why more Black people, born in America, raised in America, don't participate in the riches of America?
Stop being whitey's showpiece, and THINK.
I'll tell you what, just go ask a white man, then go ask a Black man that has done something over time, like ME.
Ever wonder how the stage got set so that you could meet all those "lucious" white boys? Black People, real black people, fought in the streets, died in the streets, in the tenements, in the fields, in the prisons, in the hallowed hall of this corrupt government, and overseas to prove you were good enough to occupy the seats where you and I received our education.
And "massa's" sons whined.
Don't take my word for it, check whitey's history.

Always willing to help a sis..................
lady out.

As Always:
"K"

p.s.: Keep an ear cocked for MY complaint

[radiohead]

I was waiting for some black guy to blame their problems on black women.

[neverdem]

It's just George W. Bush. Don't ask me why. Happy New Year!!!

[Kelly4023]

"Kelly" is my alter ego's name.
Say hello to mom.
Season's Greetings!!

As Always:
"K"

[Riverman94610]

I know that reminding students to bring books to class may seem absurd but the sad fact is that in most high schools in the hood it is commonplace for students to come to class completely unprepared.
I have seen black kids who went to high schools and were either bored or distracted with the usual adolescent nonsense bloom once they got into a college environment where they finally had friends and peers with goals and higher expectations.
Unfortunately,these kids are few and far between because they let the madness of the hood bend them to such a point where they fall hopelessly back with no chance to recover.

[sarasmom]

Whitey?

Not racist are you?

[verity]

#41.

ANYONE accomplishing this had to make one hell of an effort! kudos!!

[fuzzthatwuz]

"I'm muddling through," he said, in an interview during the semester. "Honestly, I still want to do what I can to chill and hang out. I'm trying to figure out how to balance my life."

First oall bud, stop your "muddling" and get off your ass! Once you get past "muddle", you can then "chill and hang out". Then, and only then, will your life be "in balance".

[Sir Gawain]

Of course, these young men are not responsible for their own "negative" behavior, and therefore should not be expected to suffer the consequences, e.g., punishment.

Yeah, I remember my freshmen orientation. I could factually tell you which group sat in the back and cut up, acting like they didn't care about being there, but I would be called a racist.

[rdb3]

I can't even think of a movie or TV show depicting black men in college.

I can. "A Different World" was a Cosby spin-off that lasted quite a while on NBC. For movies, I can think of "School Daze," "Higher Learning," and "Drumline" off the top of my head. There may be more.

[AdamSelene235]

White men complain today that they have it so hard that reverse-discrimination is such a setback.

I've never found it to be a setback. I do find it morally offensive to treat people differently on the basis of race. There is nothing "reverse" about this discrimation.

Ever wonder why, other than what whitey has brainwashed you with, why more Black people, born in America, raised in America, don't participate in the riches of America?

Tell me, why is that?

And where can I attend Whitey Brainwashing 101? I was never invited.

Don't take my word for it, check whitey's history.

Could you please direct me to the history of *any* racial group that is not rife with injustice, arbitrary control, and abuse?

[rdb3]

Ever wonder why, other than what whitey has brainwashed you with, why more Black people, born in America, raised in America, don't participate in the riches of America? Stop being whitey's showpiece, and THINK.

Fumble! Now head back to your sideline due to your turnover.

radiohead spoke from personal experience as a black person. I do the same. mhking does the same. None of us blame anyone (and those who know me here can vouch for my saying that I could care less what a lot of the mouth-breathers around here think).

Our histories are interlaced. Therefore, there is no "whitey" history or black history. It's only American history.

Period.

[denfurb]

I don't think anyone should be given preference for their skin color, however, almost every black person I know with sons is having trouble with them in school. For example, a good friend of mine had her son in public school and by the end of Kindergarten, they wanted to hold him back to repeat it and had him labled LD and he could not read. She enrolled him in a private school the next year and within 2 weeks he could read and has done extremely well from then on. For some reason, the schools seem to have a prejudice against black boys. I only say that because I know so many people who have had this experience in my city, Virginia Beach.

[aquila48]

"Colleges Struggle to Help Black Men Stay Enrolled"

What a pathetic article!! The title says it all - the point is to just keep them "enrolled" using any spoonfeeding and bonehead classes they can devise so their racial quota statistics come out good.

These are the fruits of years of affirmative action and phony self-esteem programs.

Where in the article is any mention of the real source of the problem? The loser, entitlement attitude and bankrupt values of most of the black "community" (I hate that word).

The blacks will only dig themselves out of the hole they're in when they start using Walter Williams, Condi Rice, Powell, Ward Connerly, Star Parker, Oprah, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Reverend Peterson and many other successful blacks as role models - and turn their backs on race pimps like Jackson and Sharpton...

...AND, when they finally understand that it's not about RACE but about VALUES!!