FROM A BLACK FEMALE'S PERSPECTIVE: I'll Tell You What's Wrong With A Lot of Blacks

I grew up in what is considered as "the ghetto" for a great deal of my life, but lucky for me, I had the opportunity to attend a predominantly black high school AND ALSO a predominantly white high school, both for two years. i got a chance to see two different worlds in a short period of time. I'll tell you of the differences between these two types of schools as I've observed:
STRUCTURE!!!

My mother taught elementary music for nearly 40 years in a mid sized Midwest city. She taught in the suburbs early in her career and then decided to work for an inner city school the last 5 years of her career. She has always loved teaching and children and really hoped to make a difference, no matter how small, in a few underprivileged lives. At first she loved being able to reach these kids who were starving for attention and knowledge, and even helped a few by purchasing things for the really neglected kids like mittens, scarves and hats in the winter when they had none. She tolerated the constant discipline problems because she believed in those kids.

After a few years I could physically see the exhaustion and the toll it had taken on her. She wasn't as excited for a new school year and always had problems with the principal and various parents for not just passing kids even though they didn't do the work assigned or didn't show up for class.

Her last week there, she had been dealing with a little boy who's dad was in prison and had 8 brothers and sisters. The boy rarely showed up for class and when he did he would disrupt the entire class with his profanity laden tantrums, so he was usually sent to the principal's office before the hour was up.

There was a conference with the boy's mom, the principal and my mother to discuss why he was being failed and it did not go well. The principal didn't support my mother's "technique" for grading (it was music class, if you show up and participate, you pass). The very next day the boy showed up for class, caused a disruption and was sent to the principal and was scheduled to be suspended. On the way to her car that afternoon, the little boy's mother approached my mother and held a gun to face screaming that my mother was racist, and a million other choice word. Luckily another teacher had seen and gotten the cop who worked security and the woman was arrested.

That was my mother's last day of teaching. She was 63 years old. She quit the next morning. She was and still is heartbroken about it and feels she failed the kids. I told her that she didn't fail the kids, their parents did.

Kudos to you for speaking some rarely heard truth....

The wife has taught in the inner-city schools for 22 years.
The problem is deeper than what you have stated, though.

Beyond the lack of expectation, and lack of parental involvement that is so different than the suburban schools, the racism and the culture of blacks themselves is a HUGE part of the problem. A very much larger percentage of Hispanics do well in the exact same schools, than the black kids.

One school she taught at was over-run by the Black Panthers, from Asst. Principal down to several of the teachers. They were too busy teaching the kids racial political bulls**t, to teach them basics.

Racism against the non-blacks, including Hispanics, was prevalent, but no one dared to speak against it, from the board on down. They had the entire staff intimidated. Things finally came to a head after several years of this BS.

The school system eventually broke up the Panthers Cabal, retiring a few, and transferring the rest to other schools, when the two American Indian teachers finally stood up to them, (including the wife), and started using their own tactics against them, including filing Racism complaints against the Panthers.

The Panthers had NO IDEA of how to react when their own rhetoric and tactics were turned against them.

i really feel for your mom. Thats no way to end your career, especially when you had a heart for it. I also forgot about these types of things. Ive seen and heard it, where some of these mothers come to the school with demands while they arent contributing to the education of said child. Its heart breaking to see people trying to force your hand with threats of violence. its like, what are you to do in this case? smh. this happens too. i couldnt even tell you the logic behind this kind of behavior. as for my mom? when my older brother was failing the tenth grade, during her meeting with the guidance counselor, she mom advised that he stayed back, and he did. my brother was pissed at the time, but he didnt earn a promotion to the eleventh grade. Today, when we talk about it, he says hes so glad my mother did what she did.

WOWZERS!!! I never even imagined it working in that way, Panthers running schools. But what i will say is that yes, there is definitely taught racism within the black urban community. Its funny, huh? its this us vs. them type of mentality that seems to reign over the nation.

excellent post op

Good post op.

But what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Black culture has decayed. The destruction of the family unit, precipitated by gov policy no doubt, has created this problem.
For the average black teen, who are the role models?

The black community was sold up the river by its leaders. The funders of those leaders ( do you know who I mean) ,and the gov that created the programs that the leaders and the funders wanted.

Now I doubt if the black community has any way out. with the war on drugs, the corporate prison system and the glorification of the gangsta .

You need new leaders. You need black men to stand up and fulfil the roles they are in. From father to role model to scientist.
Instead of blaming the white man black men need to stand up for the family unit.
That is what Opera should be on about.

OP can you become a teacher or are you one?

Since your aware of it you could really reach out to the Black Community and teach them where opportunity lies.

i remember once at the black school that they had some representatives from some overpriced for profit school you see in commercials. It wasnt even an educational presentation, but moreso trying to get kids to sign up to go to some overpriced school with no true degree program. Also, I notice there was more of an ROTC presence at this black school, as if they were preparing these kids to go to war. I never heard of any program like that at this white school .

They have ROTC in predominantly white schools, also. I believe it has something to do with funding and interest on the part of the students. Great post, OP. Seems standards are key in both schools and homes. May be of benefit to restart boarding schools to break the current cycles. Every lost kid represents lost potential.

A great post OP. thanks

my dear friend, would you say it is unfair to try to summarize all white people by your own personal account??? if all white people were intrinsically interested in learning in your way, there would have been zero black people in my AP classes and an over flooding of whites in their place. that was not the case. In my black school, some of the white kids were not in honors classes, so i think your POV is more personal and less general.

I grew up in what is considered as "the ghetto" for a great deal of my life, but lucky for me, I had the opportunity to attend a predominantly black high school AND ALSO a predominantly white high school, both for two years. i got a chance to see two different worlds in a short period of time. I'll tell you of the differences between these two types of schools as I've observed:
STRUCTURE!!!
Most of the teachers in the white school had an expected standard, whereas with the black school, only a handful of teachers cared enough and saw hope in the students, and as a result, only a handful of them taught honors classes and the same handful ran after school activities. The teachers with the higher expectations molded some awesome individuals and a lot of my black peers are either finishing up college now with masters degrees or are in their careers. Unfortunately, many of the other students were treated like peons, therefore they became peons, with little to no expectations of themselves.
I was a part of the choral program in both the white and black school, both lead by black men. In the white school, i witnessed inexperienced kids evolve into singing machines whereas at the black school, the standards were MUCH lower. The teacher didn't seem to care.

Also, its the source of entertainment and lack of home training. When you have kids raising themselves become mom/both parents are not spending enough time at home because she/they need to work double shifts in order to put food on the table, you have a kid left to be raised by BET (Bullshit Entertainment Television) and friends who are equally as brainwashed, more or less. So at the learning stages, these kids are learning about cars, bling, and hoes, but no way of realistically acquiring these desirables (lets face it, white people like their own versions of these things too). Noone is forcing him or her to read, no one is challenging that kid. Noone is showing these kids the way to achieve positively. No one is around to give that kid any real meaningful expectations. Lucky for me, I was raised by my grandmother who bought me my own collection of encyclopedias and some really interesting books i was forced to read until i realized how interesting they were, and a grandfather who watched The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet all day and if i wanted to watch tv in the same room, those were my options. My peers on the same block probably never watched thirty minutes of anything on either channels because their parents either weren't around, or had no one to teach them what really matters either.


Long story short, black people are not incapable of learning. THe problem is that many black people were not taught what to learn and what/how to properly prioritize. The media, lack of parenting, and apathy is a hell of a drug.

People actually trust the state with their children. And trust the state to feed their children something decent...

When did people stop questioning this action of sending your child to be with the state all day??

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: The Obsolete Man (1961)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUi0M_JQWXE
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Tell you all day what and what not to believe from the state...