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Black Self-Sabotage
Townhall.com ^ | November 29, 2017 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 11/29/2017 6:33:33 AM PST by Kaslin

The educational achievement of white youngsters is nothing to write home about, but that achieved by blacks is nothing less than disgraceful. Let's look at a recent example of an educational outcome all too common. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore's 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state's mathematics exam. In six other high schools, only one percent tested proficient in math. In raw numbers, 3,804 Baltimore students took the state's math test, and 14 tested proficient. Citywide, only 15 percent of Baltimore students passed the state's English test.

Last spring, graduation exercises were held at one Baltimore high school, 90 percent of whose students received the lowest possible math score. Just one student came even close to being proficient. Parents and family members applauded the conferring of diplomas. Some of the students won achievement awards and college scholarships. Baltimore is by no means unique. It's a small part of the ongoing education disaster for black students across the nation. Baltimore schools are not underfunded. Of the nation's 100 largest school systems, Baltimore schools rank third in spending per pupil.

Baltimore's black students receive diplomas that attest that they can function at a 12th-grade level when in fact they may not be able to do so at a seventh- or eighth-grade level. These students and their families have little reason to suspect that their diplomas are fraudulent. Thus, if they cannot land a good job, cannot pass a civil service exam, get poor grades in college and flunk out of college, they will attribute their plight to racism. After all, they have a high school diploma, just as a white person has a high school diploma. In their minds, the only explanation for being treated differently is racism.

Let's look at math. If one graduates from high school without a minimum proficiency in algebra and geometry, he is likely to find whole fields and professions hermetically sealed off to him for life. In many fields and professions, a minimum level of math proficiency is taken for granted.

Let's look at just one endeavor -- being a fighter jet pilot. There are relatively few black fighter jet pilots. There are stringent physical, character and mental requirements that many blacks can meet. But fighter pilots must also have a strong knowledge of air navigation, aircraft operating procedures, flight theory, fluid mechanics and meteorology. The college majors that help prepare undergraduates for a career as a fighter pilot include mathematics, physical science and engineering.

What's the NAACP response to educational fraud? At a 2016 meeting, the NAACP's board of directors ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on charter schools. Among the NAACP's reasons for this were that it wanted charter schools to refrain from "expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate" and "cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious." Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys is a charter school. In 2016, 9 percent of its students scored proficient on the state's math test. This year, over 14 percent did so. It's in the interest of black people for more of our youngsters to attend better schools. However, it's in the interest of the education establishment -- and its handmaidens at the NAACP -- to keep black youngsters in failing public schools.

Few people bother to ask whether there's a connection between what goes on at predominantly black high schools and observed outcomes. Violence at many predominantly black schools is so routine that security guards are hired to patrol the hallways. The violence includes assaults on teachers. Some have been knocked out, had their jaws broken and required treatment by psychologists for post-traumatic stress disorder. On top of the violence is gross disorder and disrespect for authority.

The puzzling question for me is: How long will black people accept the educational destruction of black youngsters -- something that only benefits the education establishment?



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1 posted on 11/29/2017 6:33:33 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The puzzling question for me is: How long will black people accept the educational destruction of black youngsters -- something that only benefits the education establishment?

Indefinitely. They are taught, and believe, that their problems have nothing to do with their behavior, schools/teachers or culture. It's all whitey's fault.

2 posted on 11/29/2017 6:40:13 AM PST by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: Kaslin

they will attribute their plight to racism. After all, they have a high school diploma,

Of course they will, they are already being taught and conditioned that this is the only reason for their self induced plight.


3 posted on 11/29/2017 6:42:20 AM PST by eyeamok (Tolerance: The virtue of having a belief in Nothing!)
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To: Kaslin

Millions of exams are all showing the same thing. It’s time to admit that the exams are all revealing the same truth.

The observed failure is due to lack of inherent ability, a bad home environment, and a culture of rewarding failure. Add to that the bad habit of blaming Whitey for it all, and you have a recipe for exactly what you see happening.


4 posted on 11/29/2017 6:48:39 AM PST by I want the USA back (Cynicism may just keep you from going insane in a world that has chosen its own demise.)
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To: I want the USA back
The observed failure is due to lack of inherent ability, a bad home environment, and a culture of rewarding failure. Add to that the bad habit of blaming Whitey for it all, and you have a recipe for exactly what you see happening

All true, but the left and BLM crowd will never, ever admit it.

I am perhaps one of the few here who has actually taken a Black Studies course. I wanted to observe first hand what is being taught.

I can tell you that these propaganda courses are much worse than you can imagine. They are stews of resentment, hatred, false self-righteousness - all wrapped up in kooky conspiracy theory nonsense and pan-Africanism nonsense.

5 posted on 11/29/2017 6:56:45 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: facedown
Keep 'em poor

Keep 'em needy

Keep 'em voting Democrat!

6 posted on 11/29/2017 6:57:20 AM PST by CtBigPat (Free Republic - The grown-ups table of the internet.)
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To: Kaslin
The puzzling question for me is: How long will black people accept the educational destruction of black youngsters -- something that only benefits the education establishment?

As others say - under present conditions, they will accept it forever. As a voting block, Americans Blacks are extremely gullible and credulous. They seem to be easily bought, again and again, by the promises of progressive government, and are convinced by the intellectual arguments given for their own failure.

7 posted on 11/29/2017 6:59:42 AM PST by PGR88
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To: facedown

My sister teaches math to these kids. It is more the teachers’ “fault” than the generic “whitey’s” fault. Everybody holds the teachers accountable - the parents, the administrators, the politicians. But, as you point out, it is never the obvious party’s fault - the kids and parents themselves.

It is an unbelievably bad culture. Zero respect for anybody, nonstop acting out, sheer pride in not learning anything, violence and physical attacks, taunting, immature handling of insults, almost no innate ability to learn anything. Kids come out of eighth grade not knowing the meaning of 1/2 or “half.” Splitting something in two is too difficult to grasp.


8 posted on 11/29/2017 7:02:01 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Kaslin
"Some of the students won achievement awards and college scholarships."

Just wait until construction companies are forced to hire these college graduates to engineer high rise building and highway over-passes.

9 posted on 11/29/2017 7:05:26 AM PST by blam
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To: Kaslin

Our over managed and centralized education system is one of our nations greatest enemies.

Independent School District has become a oxymoron and a sardonic joke.


10 posted on 11/29/2017 7:06:01 AM PST by fella ("As it wshas before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: Kaslin

The best bet to really overcoming this would be for a deep pockets, Republican conservative to set up a private elementary-middle-secondary school solely for poor black children.

It would have strict rules and discipline, school uniforms, serve breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Its teachers would wear formal teaching attire as professionals, and many of them would be veterans. If parents signed a statement that they could not guarantee a good home environment for their children, the school would also act as a boarding school.

Students would have thorough annual physicals, tests especially looking for things that could inhibit learning, like dyslexia, vision and hearing problems, and overall health.

English instruction, strictly by phonics and grammar as well as penmanship, typing and lots and lots of reading.

Mathematics instruction, with frequent use, review, practice and applications. No calculators until late in their education, for complex calculations.

Home economics and financial management, health and safety, natural sciences, etc.

By the time their first seniors graduated, I expect they would be on a par or even better than white students from charter schools. Much better than white students from public schools.


11 posted on 11/29/2017 7:07:15 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Globalism is Colonialism)
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To: Kaslin
Denzel Washington To Black America: Stop Blaming The Prison System, ‘It Starts At Home’
12 posted on 11/29/2017 7:07:16 AM PST by blam
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To: I want the USA back
"The observed failure is due to lack of inherent ability, a bad home environment, and a culture of rewarding failure. Add to that the bad habit of blaming Whitey for it all, and you have a recipe for exactly what you see happening.

Agree with all points except "lack of inherent ability". Even if the median IQ curve for blacks is a few points less than for whites and Asians, there are still plenty of bright black kids that are as smart as or smarter than their white and Asian counterparts. It is the education establishment that is failing these children.

This is proven by the performance of black kids in "pre-integration" era Catholic all-black schools. Drawing from the exact same student population as the public schools of the day, they produced a far higher fraction of properly educated people than their "public school" counterparts.

13 posted on 11/29/2017 7:13:31 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

I think a lot of black parents would want to see their children accepted in such a school. They see the long term advantages to their children of being successful. But the teachers unions would turn backflips to have such a school closed. And that’s where our President would come in with a program to support, promote and publicize the results that could be achieved even in his first term.


14 posted on 11/29/2017 7:15:45 AM PST by mairdie
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To: Kaslin

On the news last night, there was a piece showing Denzel Washington speaking similar thoughts. The commentator said that with words like those Denzel could win the Presidency


15 posted on 11/29/2017 7:15:58 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: Kaslin

We’re going on three generations of dependent, unproductive urban black wards of the state not being held to account for really anything, barring commission of armed robbery, rape or murder and they’re working on stigmatizing the enforcement of even that minimal behavioral standard. They’re being rewarded for this because they vote as a bloc for Democrats. Democrats accept no responsibility for the creation of this festering wound in the national populace however, they blame racism. This extends to the public school system. No standards, no accountability, no expectations of the students themselves to even behave in a civil manner let alone actually learn the coursework. Why? Because it can again be blamed upon racism, which is the mantra repeated for more funding for more Democrat boondoggles which will only lead to more of the same but worse. It’s a vicious cycle and the only ones who can break it are black people themselves, but I am not encouraged by what I’ve seen over the past several decades. It’s gone all Lord Of The Flies and hope is fading.


16 posted on 11/29/2017 7:16:23 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Catholic all-black schools in the pre-integration era South have already done most of what you suggest, with exactly the result you are postulating.


17 posted on 11/29/2017 7:16:43 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: Kaslin

In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s mathematics exam.

Of course not, the test is obviously too hard...and racist. /S


18 posted on 11/29/2017 7:17:15 AM PST by GoldenPup
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To: Kaslin

Bfl


19 posted on 11/29/2017 7:19:44 AM PST by Kudsman ( Anyone to the Right of Stalin is a Far Right Wing candidate to the Far Left Wing Media.)
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To: GoldenPup

39 high schools in a city the size of Baltimore sounds a little gold-plated, too. Can’t be more than a couple hundred students total on average in each. Charlotte is much larger and has maybe ten or twelve in the consolidated city-county system. They’re all fairly large as far as student body though.


20 posted on 11/29/2017 7:24:51 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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