"Learning While Black": Racially profiling in the classroom?

National Review Online ^ | May 30, 2002 | Roger Clegg

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

[Dimensio]

The article calls him "a C student"; at the end of the article, however, it is noted that he is worried about "the D and F on his latest report card and whether they will affect his prospects for studying architecture in college."

My heart bleeds for that kid, really...

No, wait, it was just indigestion.

[FreePaul]

But are minority kids also being unfairly singled out for discipline in schools?

Probably not unfairly. They have been conditioned to believe that they can do anything without consequences. The more serious problem is that minority students have been singled out by liberals in general and liberals in the education system as being to stupid to learn. Whole education systems have been dumbed down because liberals believed that the minority students couldn't keep up with others. This certainly hasn't been beneficial to the minority students.

[AppyPappy]

What would racial profiling have to do with learning? Is knowledge biased against darker skin color?

[Tacis]

There is definitely bias in society today. Worse yet is the continuing outright discrimination. For example, this past weekend, I watched a very little bit of a nationally televised Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) game. Women black basketball players are forced to play on segregated, all black teams and the TV network still broadcast this racist game. In most other sports, blacks and whites are allowed to play on the same teams. But the WNBA forces fine black athletes to play on segregated teams. This must end! No wonder these kids think they are put upon in the classroom.

[mhking]

...black students are "told by their black peers that to do well in school is to act white. Doing well is selling out. It is white students who do well; a proper black person really shouldn't do well in school." They make no secret of this, says (Linguist & noted author John) McWhorter, who has seen it and experienced it firsthand, and it is true at every income level.

I have to agree - my wife and I have experienced this first hand over the years, and my children have also experienced this over the last few years as well.

We emphasize excellence. We emphasize studying. We emphasize education. While there are plenty of black families who place the same values that we place on those things, there are many others who do not. And their attitudes translate to their children (or as I've been known to call them, those 'bad assed kids'). And what's even more sad is that when the don't do well; when they cause disruption in the classroom, then my child is the one that suffers. Because not only is my child ostracized by these cretins, but the rest of society attempts to lump my child in with these urchins, marginalizing them and reducing the opportunities to succeed without even greater efforts on the part of my wife and myself. We are left with the thankless task of browbeating the school systems into making sure that our children get what they need, regardless of their attitude toward others that look like them.

[Rodney King]

If anything, blacks have it easier. All a black student has to do is have a B average and slightly above average SAT scores and he will get a full scholarship to almost any of the top schools in the nation.

[Phantom Lord]

Is knowledge biased against skin color? Of course it is. Havent you been paying attention?

Math is math is math. No matter where you are, your age, gender, or race, math is math. It does not change. Yet the NAALCP and other 'civil rights' groups claim tests such as the SAT and others are 'prejudiced' against blacks.

Could someone please explain to me how math tests can be prejudiced? This white boy will tell you that math has always given me big trouble.

And there is a tremendous anti-acheivement mentality in the black community. I proscribe that the educational problems of black students is not racial, but cultural. There is no doubt, and it can not be denied that black students who do well in school are accused of 'acting white' or being a sell-out or an Uncle Tom.

I firmly believe that liberals think blacks are inherently incapable of learning.

[mhking]

All a black student has to do is have a B average and slightly above average SAT scores and he will get a full scholarship to almost any of the top schools in the nation.

And that's the problem that I see today. My children can compete with any of the other students across the nation today, but because of the bedwetting poverty pimps and race warlords, my kids are left with having to prove themselves further yet. Not only do they have to excel, but they have to excel above and beyond even the high achievers from the remainder of the mainstream students in order to prove that they did not get where they were because of someone's sick sense of tokenism.

God, that makes me furious!

[lepton]

Thanks.

As I've said before...money won't solve this problem. It is a cultural and familial problem, not one of poverty. Can others help? Sure - but it's on an individual basis - one government is singularly unsuited for. Holding people up to standards, and treating those that do achieve with proper respect and a refusal to accept that blacks are inferior no matter how much the whining are parts of the path. ...Of course, that applies to pretty much everyone.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Blacks are similarly more likely to be incarcerated; why are the geniuses at Time wasting their energy looking for some kind of bias when other statistics indicate that the higher suspension rate is justified?

[Gumlegs]

As well it should. Dr. Sowell has no little fury at those who accuse him similarly ... as well he should.

Please keep up the good fight.

[gubamyster]

Aren't most teachers in inner-city schools minorities - probably black? Isn't the NEA a liberal organization? Aren't most teachers liberal? Then we are to believe that liberal, black teachers are unfairly punishing black school children.

Maybe, just maybe it is not a racism problem, but a problem that black school children cause more problems & are punished accordingly. Nah..., can't be.

[toupsie]

NATIONALLY, AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE 2.4 TIMES AS LIKELY TO BE SUSPENDED AS WHITES

Considering that about 50% of the US Prison population is African-American and African-Americans make up only 13% of the US population, the "2.4 times" number seems reasonable.

[Trailerpark Badass]

If anything, blacks have it easier. All a black student has to do is have a B average and slightly above average SAT scores and he will get a full scholarship to almost any of the top schools in the nation.

And I shudder to think about how little is required to achieve a "B" average at most public schools.

But you are correct, and I have my own personal experience with such a situation. It's hard not to be bitter about it.

[AppyPappy]

Not only that, black kids are cheated by the "passing along" syndrome. The lack of challenges reduces their scores. I went to school with a black kid who was very smart and the teachers treated him like a freak. If he had been white, he would be just another smart kid.

If you are a black parent and your kid can't read, don't expect any help teaching him to read. They will just pass him along rather than help him.

[lepton]

God, that makes me furious!

Me too...and the people that will dumb-down your children's education so that when they get out they are unprepared I consider vile. I do not understand how adults can do that to children. One of my friends from Jamaica talks of when he was younger and was getting "A"s without trying in a NYC school, and then his parents moved to NJ and he was totally lost. The realization of how much of his time and mind had been wasted still brings him to furious tears today. (It torques me pretty good too). This guy is normally pretty calm - but when this subject comes up, he just goes ballistic.

[ratdog]

This whole mess is a result of sin.  God had some very good reasons for people NOT having sex BEFORE marriage.  This is the result of one of them.  I'll briefly list two very obvious ones.

One.  The spread of disease ... AIDS has claimed millions of lives and will claim millions more.  STD's are rampant enough that you see commercials about STD medications on TV almost every night.  There is no substitute for abstinence.

Two.  Illegitimate births ... and this article does a good job of explaining this one.

God did not give commandments in order to make Him feel important.  He did it to help us live better lives.