Puzzling Racial Gap

The Hartford Courant ^ | Oct 7 2007 | Roger Frahm

[ABN 505]

BLOOMFIELD - A generation ago, Bloomfield was heralded as the all-American community. Blacks and whites lived side by side, chasing the American dream of middle-class stability without regard to skin color. There were trimmed lawns and good schools.

Now, Bloomfield operates one of the most racially segregated school systems in the state. Minority students, mainly black children, account for 95 percent of public school enrollment.

And when results were released recently on the state's annual 10th-grade achievement test, this quiet, middle-class suburb found itself confronting a question more often associated with the nation's poorest urban school systems:

[LibFreeOrDie]

Check out this recent photo:

http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070929/NEWS01/709290316

“Students at Alma J. Brown Elementary School on the campus of Grambling State University learn about racism during a supposed march in protest of the imprisonment of Mychal Bell.”

[elpadre]

FAMILIES, FAMILIES, FAMILIES

compare the low achievements with:

1.the percentage of one-parent famulies
2.out-of-wedlock births
3.percentage of weekly church-goers

and you will find the reasons. Now the solutions to the problem: ???

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Political correctness doesn’t allow the real questions of how this could happen to be spoken, much less answered. "

AMEN! My comment was exactly the same, but I did read down far enough to see your post.

[groanup]

it is just an exercise in futility.

Those Catholic schools probably spend most of the time trying to TEACH. Gov't schools don't bother. They try to build self esteem. The teachers themselves often aren't educated.

[kabar]

Another ongoing issue in Bloomfield is the steady stream of new arrivals to the schools, including some with limited language skills and educational backgrounds, he said. Of the students who took last spring's 10th-grade test, as many as one-third had arrived in the school system after eighth-grade, he said.

A possible answer. Fairfax County, VA is among the top five richest counties in America. In 2006-7 68 schools fell short of the no child left behind standards up 36 schools from 2005-6 school year. The reason claimed for the increasing numbers of schools falling below passing is that "limited Engllish students took state reading tests in grade level difficulty to the exams taken by their peers who were fluent English speakers."

[Yardstick]

The problem of course is cultural, not racial. It’s the self-defeating black culture. The remedy for it is criticism from the rest of society. If people were free to condemn the disfunctional aspects of black culture, it would change. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen. Why? Because liberals have cut the feedback loop. If you criticise, you’re a racist. So we watch helplessly while black America drowns. We keep to ourselves the very thing they need — our criticism. It’s tragic.

[Plains Drifter]

Re #22 “You’ll notice, of course, that the race hustlers NEVER analyze the racial gap in athletics.”

I’ve noticed this for 30 years and I’ve often wondered wouldn’t it be really cool if affirmative action was applied to all professional sports. I think football and basketball would be the funniest to watch. I’ve also wondered why no one questions that 55% of the linemen in the NFL come from 11% of the population.

[American in Singapore]

In that interview, Ferguson was asked whether focusing on lifestyle factors isn't just a way of blaming the victim.

Victim?

Blindly vote 80% or more every election over decades for Democrats and you get what you asked for.

[oldbrowser]

Background, family income, stability, teachers, all have something to do with the problem but I believe the main cause is rap music, liberal television, movies, commercials and just the general decay of the culture. We have lost our work ethic and our morals. The kids are not learning because they don't want to.

I have met the greatest generation and I have met the generation coming up and the devolution is astonishing.

[BnBlFlag]

The IQ averages among the various races have been known for many years. It’s not “mysterious” but it is being supressed.

[Sergio]

Of course we all know that Fredrick Douglas, George Washington Carver, and the Tuskegee Airmen were all successful because of their affluent backgrounds, and because of equal opportunity directives.

Hard work, determination, and a desire to learn never even entered into the equation, and anyone who says so is a racist. /sarc

[B-Chan]

I have nothing to say on this topic that would conform to the agreed-upon posting rules here at FR. I therefore refrain from comment.

My apologies.

[B-Chan]

I have nothing to say on this topic that would conform to the agreed-upon posting rules here at FR. I therefore refrain from comment.

My apologies.

[yldstrk]

I was at the Department of Neighborhood Restoration last week for a client because I couldn’t get anywhere over the phone. I was in line behind a filthy man and his two filthy little boys. The boys were fighting over a Spider Man sticker. I said “Hi guys” and smiled at them. Their father asked them to say hi to me and then by way of explanation said to me, “The have to be told to talk to you because they have to deal with Caucasions at school....teachers and such....” I said “oh...OK” But I was thinking...”Sheesh, with an upbringing like that, what chance will they have to turn out without an attitude of resentment and hatred?

[PallMal]

It was handedly answered by the guest who replied that the African black, even facing whatever they did in their country of origin, didn't have to deal with the effect of 400 years of racism that saddles American blacks.

By using this reasoning, whether this "guest" knows it or not, he/she has basically stated that these perceived problems are just in the minds of American blacks, and not caused due to "color of skin".

So the cure, according to this "guest", should be a change in mindset of the American black who has these perceived problems. But you know that is not what this guest's agenda really was supposed to be on the show.

[TheThinker]

So the guest is maintaining that conditions are better for blacks in Africa? Wow.

[boop]

"Bloomfield's 10th-graders posted some of the worst results in the state on the annual test of reading, writing, mathematics and science"

And the author of this piece is "puzzled" by why white parents WOULDN'T want their kids to go there? Hint to the author: it isn't because they are racist.

[MichiganMan]

So the guest is maintaining that conditions are better for blacks in Africa? Wow.

If you think about it, that position is quite flattering, and therefore seductive, to those that believe themselves to be victims of America.

[boop]

"Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at New York University...Although family incomes may be similar, some families do not have the advantages or stability that comes with inherited wealth or several generations of college education, he said."

FOAD Pedro! I was born into a po' white family and I was always tops in my classes. In fact some of the biggest slackers were the rich white kids who got high all the time. Ignorant parents breed ignorant kids. Skin color is irrelevant. If the parents really cared about their kids getting an education and making something of themselves they would have demanded it from them. Look at Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell. They were born into a very racist society and were poor growing up, but their parents insisted that they work hard in school. No surprise if mommy blames all her problems on "the man" that junior is going to pick up on that.

[whitedog57]

This is just the EXCUSE to take our money and give it to their constituents (e.g, minority groups, labor unions, etc).

Hillary and the DEMS are launching a Communist takeover of the US. After election, they won’t explain anything - they will just take everything from us.