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I know its unusual but I think putting it all on the schools is a kind of conservative PC scapegoat. When blacks and whites are put in the same schools and even in the same classes blacks do more poorly.

Perhaps the schools play a role, and certainlycsonservatives should be skeptical of liberal indoctrination and the schools.

But the fact remains When blacks and whites are put in the same schools and even in the same classes blacks do more poorly.

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. And without pressure to excel, from parents, peers whatever, the drive to do so disappears. And sometimes pressure goes in reverse - i.e. that it is deviant to succeed (or as it often is said - succeding is "acting white" or "selling out" et al)

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.