Destroying black youth

TownHall.com ^ | Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | Walter Williams

[JohnHuang2]

In last week's U.S. Supreme Court's affirmative action decision, Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent included a quotation from an 1865 speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. "What I ask for the Negro," Douglass said, "is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury."

Forget how the majority used the phrase "compelling state interest" to trump the 14th Amendment's requirement of equal treatment under the law and give continued sanction to racial discrimination. Let's examine some practical matters ignored in the pro-affirmative action celebration of the court's decision.

According to recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports, the average black high school senior had math skills on par with those of the typical nitnth-grade white student. The average 17-year-old black student could read only as well as the average 12-year-old white. Twelfth-grade black students were doing science problems at the level of sixth-grade white students and writing about as well as whites in the eighth grade.

As of 1998, only 18 percent of black students were rated proficient or advanced in reading, as compared to 47 percent for white students, which itself is nothing to write home about. In Michigan, the source of the controversy leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, just 2 percent of black eighth-graders score proficient in reading, compared to 34 percent of whites -- again, nothing to write home about. In addition to grossly fraudulent education, there's unthinkable school violence at many of the schools that black students attend.

According to a Department of Education report, "School Crime Patterns" (August 2002), "High schools with the highest levels of violence tended to be located in urban areas and have a high percentage of minority students (black and Hispanic), compared to high schools that reported no crime to the police."

The bottom line is given the day-to-day destruction of education for black students at the primary and secondary levels of schooling, most will never be able to compete academically. The fact that the affirmative action crowd demands discriminatory admission practices for post-graduate education such as in law and medical schools confirms something else. Black performance on admittance exams, such as the LSAT, MCAT and GRE, is stark testament that four years of undergraduate education cannot erase the damage of 12 years of fraudulent primary and secondary education.

In the name of diversity, college administrators and their campus sycophants support racially discriminatory admissions practices. They argue that racial diversity enriches the education experiences of all college students, for which there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever. However, since most college students and administrators are white, it might simply mean that racial diversity gives them a greater sense of superiority having a few campus mascots around, who can't hold their own, beholden to them.

Then there's the false-face of diversity, as Justice Antonin Scalia pointed out in his dissent. Academics support campus "tribalism and racial segregation" with "minority-only student organizations, separate minority housing opportunities, separate minority student centers, even separate minority-only graduation ceremonies."

Black politicians and civil rights organizations' loyalty to the education establishment means academic doom to black youngsters. Washington, D.C,. politics and its schools, among the worse in the nation, are a case in point. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, along with most members of the Congressional Black Caucus, use private schools to educate their children. But, when D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams broke ranks with most black elected-officials and endorsed recently proposed education vouchers, Norton blasted him as being "a sell-out."

Whom do you think Frederick Douglass would deem the sell-out: those who seek an alternative to rotten schools that cost taxpayers $13,000 a year per student or those who support the status quo?

©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

[Steve0113]

I still have white women, clutch their purses closer to themselves when I pass, and still have white men and women look out of their car windows and blatantly lock the doors.

I believe it was Jesse Jackson who admitted that when he walks down a street at night and hears a group of young men walking behind him, he is relieved if they are white. Maybe it's because young black men commit violent crimes at a rate that is six or eight times their representation in the population. Check the FBI's crime stats on their Web site if you don't believe me.

[kuma]

**Army drill instructor**

Why am I not surprised? I'm having flashbacks of DS Francis. They are actually fond memories and I'm sure many of this man's students have a due affection for him as well.

[optimistically_conservative]

Kelly4023
Since Jul 2, 2003

Welcome to FR! Let me make a few corrections to your post.

America, a blatantly white racist society

Please don't exclude yourself, your post is so apropos for what is really destroying black youth.

Even though I wear a Suit and tie to work evry day, I still have white black women, clutch their purses closer to themselves glare with hatred and epithets when I pass, and still have white black men and women look out of their car windows and blatantly lock the doors drag whitey from his/her car or home in a group think rage riot. What are they trying to tell me?

Ain't whitey's grandchildren's fault. It's your attitude. It's a black thing.

[optimistically_conservative]

LOL, still remember mine as well, DS's Hamlett and Searching.

Must be Stockholm Syndrome.

[cyborg]

I'm Black.

*That's all you have to say about yourself? There are many different kinds of people that are members of FR. FReepers are very different. You sound a bit angry and maybe need to take a deep breath. Say a bit more about yourself other than that you're black. I am sure you do not appreciate someone calling you nigger anymore than a black conservative being called 'hankerchief head negro'. You have not met mhking then, and trublackman.

[pke]

Went to a black inner-city grade school to help in a community support project. I brought a baseball, bat, and set up a baseball game for the kids. They were very enthusiastic but didn't have a clue of how to play. They joyously ran the wrong way around the bases and and didn't realize what 3 outs or strikes meant. Maybe these kids just need black mentors who will spend a little baseball time with them. They're kids and they need someone who cares enough to spend some time with them. Not a bunch of grandstanding opportunists like Jesse who are never really there for them. Why can't the leaders in the black community realize these kids need them as mentors and stop blaming everything and everbody else for their problems? Start with a baseball game, not the blame game.

[cyborg]

Maybe these kids just need black mentors who will spend a little baseball time with them

* How about mentors from any background? Friendship and helping people ought not to be constrained by race.

[pke]

* How about mentors from any background? Friendship and helping people ought not to be constrained by race.

True, we are all Americans and need each other.

[cyborg]

You mentioned Jesse Jackson... ever notice that the student becomes worse than the so-called master? It used to be that the laws of segregation and so-called white racists were keeping everyone separate. Now it's Jesse Jackson and his crowd. Their WORST nightmare is to see white people (worst of all conservatives) helping black people and getting along. It's not in their best interests to have black youth see white people as friends and not enemies. Notice how the popularity of PAL clubs have gone down?

[Skywalk]

Asians have faced discrimination, been the target of exclusionary immigration laws, social alienation and separation at least as great as blacks and have a higher per capita income than whites do. Caribbean and African(real african) blacks also achieve at a higher level and earn more income.

Explain that.

I'll say this, the black middle class has continued to grow, and blacks in general have a higher GDP than entire countries. So, it's not all hopeless, but your attitude certainly doesn't help, "brutha."

My grandfather became a top attorney in DC, despite growing up in the days of legal and socially accepted discrimination. Of course, he was born in the West Indies, so maybe that has something to do with it. In any case, don't call us names, be it Uncle Tom or Handkerchief head Negroes.

You won't be around long, it looks like it. Too bad, maybe if you presented your thoughts in a rational manner you could challenge some here to examine some of the realities of America that they don't get to see.

[optimistically_conservative]

How about mentors from any background? Friendship and helping people ought not to be constrained by race.

G-d, I pray that would happen. Not enough good folk getting out and taking care of each other as it is, then pile on excluding all non-blacks to save the AA culture and you could predict the outcome.

[alrea]

What passes for education today is pure unadulterated EVIL!!!

Education is a way for bureaucrats and politicians to leverage control. It is simply one of the easiest ways they can confiscate property and maintain their employment.

[cyborg]

Unfortunately I believe the truth to tend more towards an alternate explanation- black culture just doesn't place as a strong a value on education as other cultures, whites, and even more so Jewish and certain Asian cultures.

*Blacks from the West Indies and Africa score significantly higher on standardized tests and get better grades than many American Blacks. This is due no small part to the educational system in the West Indies founded by the British Colonialists; this is the same with Africa. Also, the phenomena of 'acting white' and 'acting black' only exists in this country. I was watching the story of a black african boy was a slave (yes a real slave) his mother was forced into sexual slavery. A white family adopted him. Get this not knowing the english language AT ALL... the boy goes to the same school as his adopted white brothers and gets almost straight As. It has more to do with focus than worrying about racist CRAP. My mother is a creole woman from the West Indies so that's how I know all this stuff. Also, my father is a first generation American of Italian descent. I was not allowed to watch tv except Channel 13. My mother and father pounded education and class into my head. Immigrants who struggled to get here know the value of knowledge. My mother taught me how to speak english and my father paid for me to learn university italian (so I would not have a regional dialect). I went to a pretty mixed race school. It was OK that I listen to classical music and spoke proper english because of where my parents were from BUT it was not cool for black kids to do that. HUH? Who teaches people that? I would say given my experience it's really parents that affect a child's life. There's something about American Blacks that they have a lot of problems, but I'd say now in this twentieth century, it's all about personal responsibility. If my parents could come here with NOTHING and make something of themselves, they can too esp. now with so much opportunity and freedom.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

"You and the "handkerchief head" negroes beleive the "playing field is level"?"

K. No. We believe it should be. we are NOT racists such as those who believe black people need help. We do NOT believe in affirmative action for ANYBODY!! And, As Walter Williams mentions in his article, Washington DC spends more money on public schools per student than almost ALL districts in the U.S. of A., so your "where money is spent" arguement is pure bullshit. And, Even, as Walter writes also, even Frederick Douglas, a "self made man" if there ever was one, just wanted equal opportunity, NOT presents. Your wonderful affirmative action has been going on for years, and things HAVE changed. Education costs more and is WORSE for both black and whites, and ALL students in public schools. And, I have NEVER blamed the "parents". I know that parents aren't running schools. TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS ARE!!! And, they suck!! Peace and love, George.

[cyborg]

You know what? I perhaps would have said, well okay, maybe black students do need black mentors, but I caught myself. I do not limit myself to rolemodels/idols/whatever who are either of a white European background or West Indian. This situation going on is too serious! Aside from the fact we need to stop this unhealthy thing with race, it's time to give the race pimps the heave ho.

Really the worst enemy of many black Americans are themselves, as the ones you will find this spouting this 'wannabe white' crap are the poor,uneducated peanut gallery. Not to many people can look beyond themselves to find success in other people. Okay so your ancestors were brought over here against their will. Does that count for something? Yes it does. HOWEVER, should an American have to black to derive the motivation to be a success? I read The Chosen in fourth grade, and well aside from another kid with my same background, I was the only one that got the meaning of that book.

Dinesh D'Souza goes into this issue very well in the book End of Racism or some title like that.

[rdb3]

The black community needs new leadership that actually wants them to succeed

No, we don't.

I know you truly mean well, Mo1. But you have swallowed Leftist thinking hook, line and sinker.

There is absolutely no need for another Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois (ick!), MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, Farrakhan, Je$$e, or Al $harpton. Selfish selflessness is the only avenue out. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Well, it isn't.

If American blacks want their rightful place in American society, they must act as Americans act. Every other American must treat us like they would any other American.

NO excuses. NO comprimising the American spirit. NO hyphenation. America for Americans and all that she offers.

It's just that plain and simple.

[spodefly]

You people still forget the effect living in this white socety has on Black people.

You must take great comfort in the fact that 90% of the population of this planet is NOT WHITE. Oh, and by the way:

[Dianna]

First: we live in America, a blatantly white racist society, where non whites have suffered and continue to suffer injustices by whites and the laws that govern.

Which laws?

You seem to forget the climate that still exists for particularly Black, and many non-white people in regard to any endeavor of achievement, even White women:

White women? Are you insane? I'm a white woman and NO ONE has ever stood in the way of my achieving anything I want to achieve. I and my priorities are the only things that limit me.

[rdb3]

Welcome to Free Republic. Hopefully you've come to FR to learn and engage.

Yes, there is approximately 0.00000001% Kluxers here (and I can name them). I often ask others not to paint us all with the same broad brush. Now I'm asking the same of you.

BTW, I'm black, too. Ya heard, my weeble?

KAY ~ FNP

Any questions?

[optimistically_conservative]

Not sure which The Chosen you mean.

I do appreciate the point to

I've been reading nothing but tech books lately. It would be nice to read something else.