RAP OR RACISM? A SPIRITED DEBATE ON THE CAUSE OF BLACK UNDERACHIEVEMENT

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette EDITORIAL, Pg.A-27 | December 12, 2002 | WILLIAM RASPBERRY

[new cruelty]

John U. Ogbu's book hasn't been published yet, but Ronald Ross hates it already. Ogbu's "Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb" is based on a study undertaken at the behest of African American parents in Shaker Heights, Ohio, who wanted to know why their solidly middle-class children were lagging academically behind their white counterparts.

[anobjectivist]

Holy crap 12%-90% passing rate in a year? What did he do, make the test ridiculously easy?

[per loin]

Really turning it around. At Longfellow Elementary, for instance, only 12 percent of the fourth-graders passed the state-prescribed achievement test the year he arrived. The following year, 94 percent did. The citywide pass rate rose in one year from 33 percent to 50 percent -- then to 75 percent and up.

Anyone have any background info on these stats?

[mhking]

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[lelio]

Well, what does Ross think the real problem might be?
"Racism," he says without hesitation.
Well he's right. Not being able to get past viewing race as the be all end all is the problem here. Except Mr Ross is on the side of the problem, pushing his racist agenda.

[new cruelty]

fyi:
William Raspberry is a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post (willrasp@washpost.com).

[anobjectivist]

Well he's right. Not being able to get past viewing race as the be all end all is the problem here. Except Mr Ross is on the side of the problem, pushing his racist agenda. Yes! We have a winner

[MrB]

It's easier to have an excuse than a success.
You can use the excuse over and over again without effort.
If you have a success, people expect another out of you, and that takes work.

Take away the excuse, and you'll see the success.

[HELLRAISER II]

Mr. Ross is full of crap, the kids that learn whether their Black, White or other learn for one reason & one reason only. They want to learn. How can they learn if they don't show up for school, show up high or just plain don't give a $hit! I tell you another thing, parents need to be parents. School teachers are not day care providers, they're teachers. Racism? Yeah I see racism alright, coming from the Racist School Superintendent.

[Redleg Duke]

"Holy crap 12%-90% passing rate in a year? What did he do, make the test ridiculously easy?"

Sounds like he replaced one set of "racists" with another.

[dirtboy]

Well, what does Ross think the real problem might be? "Racism," he says without hesitation.

No, the problem is endemic in both black and white students, it is just more prevalent with black students - peer pressure against academic achievement. I know I faced it as a student three decades ago. Asian students excel not because they are smarter, but because first and foremost, their parents place an extremely high emphasis on their involvement in their children's schooling, and, in a close second, the children themselves are mutually supportive and approving of academic achievement.

That ain't racist - that is the stone cold facts.

[End Times Sentinel]

These children, even though they have the innate intelligence and develop the confidence they need to be the top most in their profession, are constantly cowtowed, humiliated, denigrated, and psychologically repressed so that the net result is the stunting, if not repressing, of their natural abilities. It has nothing to do with their race, but is a natural human response to such heavy, systematic, and continuous psychological trauma and pressure.

 

I agree!  This is why Asians are such dismal failures both academically and economically.  A very insightful point.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[lelio]

Reading it the author hits it right on the head that Ross did exactly what Ogbu would do and change the environment. My theory on why Ross blames racism is selfish as he needs something to keep his job. You can't really run as a "black leader" and just offer results like he's done with the school. You need to bring up the blame whitey arguments as that resonates with a lot of people.
Ross is a victim of his own culture. He's sticking the to the past actions that got him where he is today: blaming racism. How to change this attitude? Perhaps a few more turnarounds like Ross has done but highlighting the actions of improving the curriculum, throwing out dead wood, etc.

[jz638]

12%-90% passing rate in a year? What did he do, make the test ridiculously easy?

It reeks of "teaching the test".

[Eternal_Bear]

These children, even though they have the innate intelligence and develop the confidence they need to be the top most in their profession, are constantly cowtowed, humiliated, denigrated, and psychologically repressed so that the net result is the stunting, if not repressing, of their natural abilities. It has nothing to do with their race, but is a natural human response to such heavy, systematic, and continuous psychological trauma and pressure.

Enough of this liberal whiney bull$hit. I've heard this cop out for over 40 years. I'm sure Africa is doing much better at educating their children without the white racists present. I mean look at all their Nobel Laureates in the hard sciences.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It couldn't have anything to do with a 70% illegitimacy rate, could it?

[anobjectivist]

It reminds me of what happened when the FCAT (florida comprehensive assessment test) was instated. About a week or more of time was taken out of each English curriculum to teach the students how to take the test (here, bubble this way for this question, don't forget to include "vivids" when writing your paragraphs, forget content, just be descriptive).

In addition, the homeroom teachers were told to help their students learn the test by giving certain portions of the FCAT practice exam during the homeroom period. Unfortunately, some homeroom teachers were so incompetent that the principal of my school took seniors and juniors out of Calculus classes to teach 10th graders basic ARITHMETIC during homeroom because their homeroom teachers did not understand the math.

Their seems to be MANY unsolved problems still apparent in the florida public high school system, yet they won't be addressed because students won't know how bad they had it until they go to college and realize they missed what was really important.

[Captainpaintball]

I'm willing to bet that the educated blacks in Africa are more proficient in math, science, geography, and maybe even English than American blacks. Does anyone have statistics? Until we break the back of the unions, and get real school choice, this will only get worse.

[AbnSarge]

If you want your kids to succeed like mine have, you have to do what I did:
- turn off the sports and other garbage on TV and keep educational and positive stuff in front of your kid;
- pass up the Lexus or SUV and spend the time and money with/on your kid. Show your kid your emphasis is on other than material goodies;
- read to the kid from the time he/she can first sit in your lap. Make books an important part of their life;
- BOTH parents must devote the time and interest to make their child the priority;
- be involved/stay involved with the school;
- don't allow the negative influences in your house;
- LEAD BY EXAMPLE.

It's MY duty to educate my kids with the HELP of the schools.

An elderly teacher recently retired from the DC schools - in a radio interview, she mourned the fact that, in a southern one-room school during the depths of Jim Crow, she received a better education than the kids are getting now in the DC public schools.