It Is Time To End Race/Based/Gender Based Policies Especially In Education Here is Why:

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
Yeah, it's about time we stop telling blacks that they are not smart enough to compete with whites.

I was an English tutor in a liberal arts college. I saw several young black students sent to me by their professors because they were so sub par in their writing skills. One student informed me that he was the Salutatorian in his high school and didn't see why he needed help. When I read his essay, I then asked him where he went to school. He had graduated from a high school in Cleveland. I then asked him why his principal allowed him to be Salutatorian, because his writing skills were at the 5th grade level. Someone had convinced him his lower skills were appropriate enough for a professional career.

Also, from Cleveland, a young black girl in a required art class, threw a temper tantrum because the professor told her that even though she had talent, she needed to work harder. She didn't like the idea that he had graded her for her own ability, but demanded to get an A because other students had gotten an A.

This same young girl was sent to me because her professor accused her of plagiarism. She kept insisting the professor accused her wrongly. So I asked her to show me the essay. I read it, and knowing the first paragraph could not possibly be her work, asked her to read to me from the essay. I stopped her after a few sentences and asked her to explain to me what the words meant that she had written. She said that she didn't know what they meant, I asked her to tell me why she wrote something she didn't know about. She then informed me that she had copied it from the book, but that wasn't plagiarism.

See the problem? When they are given the idea that they can succeed without doing the work, and it shows in their poor performance, they will never think to work hard to achieve. She plagiarized and said it wasn't, was caught on it and could not see why she needed to read the book, not copy from it.

Then these same two students were calling others "Uncle Toms" who did work hard. The problem is now, if a black person works hard to succeed, they are "cooning for the white man". That is their term, not mine. Where did this come from?

It was my job to help them learn what they didn't learn in high school, I was the link between them and their professors. Maybe that was just a problem in Cleveland high schools, but then again, it is not only blacks but whites who think the same way.

But white people don't say "cooning for the white man". I didn't treat them differently, I just expected them to work like everyone else, because if they didn't, they would have been kicked out.

He was a Salutatorian, but he could not write above the 5th grade level. I did not give him opportunity to use his "blackness" to get by with being ignorant. His professors expected better and they were the ones who had to deal with the mess of having students thrust upon them who were not ready for college.

That was my job. I got paid to equally address their ignorance.

a reply to: WarminIndy

I wanna caution that while your post rang true, it is not the experience of most even in rundown communities, but it is enough to be noticeable,low expectation breathe low self esteem. but I can't say it enough that Black immigrant families from the Caribbean and Africa especially Nigerians are among the most highly educated group in the country.I think Nigerians out paced all others, significantly old line African American females is all so very well represented but the big problem is the old line African American males ,so the landscape is jumbled, this it's clearly not an admittance problem with the Universities it's a community problem that have to be address from the inside out.

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: WarminIndy

I wanna caution that while your post rang true, it is not the experience of most even in rundown communities, but it is enough to be noticeable,low expectation breathe low self esteem. but I can't say it enough that Black immigrant families from the Caribbean and Africa especially Nigerians are among the most highly educated group in the country.I think Nigerians out paced all others, significantly old line African American females is all so very well represented but the big problem is the old line African American males ,so the landscape is jumbled, this it's clearly not an admittance problem with the Universities it's a community problem that have to be address from the inside out.

I agree.

I think it is a shame that so many go to college, get that scholarship based on athletic performance alone and then throw away their education in hopes they might make it to the big league or whatever.

It's like there is a general sense that athletic prowess is something to be achieved above intellectual pursuits, then a college player is injured, can't make it to the top, they can't even get a job because their grades were so poor and then become a huge failure. All the while some university or league made huge money off them.

White and black, the problem is the same. But this idea that one could be given the chance to go to college and then not take it serious and never follow through with what their chosen degree is, that is a shame of massive proportions. But how many young people want to become The Voice, the Next Top Model, the Idol...and think this is the way to the top, while education becomes secondary?

I would rather see them become doctors or professors or something useful. But that is the fault of Americans who spend hundreds of dollars to buy merchandise or download from iTunes. We have led them and continued to allow them to think that becoming that great athletic hero is something more appropriate than actually benefitting the rest of society.

Don't get me wrong, there are athletes who do good after they make it big. But it is rare. It's like they never heard that there is more to life than just becoming the star. Aaron Hernandez, just sentenced and found guilty. What was the point of his college scholarship?

Ben Carson is running for president. How many young people would vote for him? He's too conservative and yet he didn't become famous for athletic skills, he was the first to successfully separate conjoined twins. That is more impressive than a Dennis Rodman who could do nothing more than lose money on drinking and gambling and running around with a wedding dress.

But you hear it every day, they want to become the next LeBron James and not another Ben Carson. I will vote for Ben Carson.

Nigerians then should be showing the world that intellectual pursuits will benefit humanity.

a reply to: WarminIndy

Ben Carson is running for president. How many young people would vote for him? He's too conservative and yet he didn't become famous for athletic skills, he was the first to successfully separate conjoined twins. That is more impressive than a Dennis Rodman who could do nothing more than lose money on drinking and gambling and running around with a wedding dress.

But you hear it every day, they want to become the next LeBron James and not another Ben Carson. I will vote for Ben Carson.

Heck I wouldn't vote for Ben Carson but I respect his achievements, the Dennis Rodmans of the world phew! what can I say?? but there is something new in American youth culture with instant fame, even infamy is good when it used to be a form of shame, leaked sex tapes by no talent celebs, Kardashians and Paris Hiltons came to mind everyone wants to be a star.

Sink or swim. Survival of the fittest. Nature prevails in the end. It always will. People can go though the motions and think otherwise but in the end, nature rules this rock. Ego is a powerful drug.