<p>This has been bothering me for months and this past week was the last straw.</p>
<p>School and County Background: We live in one of the top five most affluent counties in the United States. Most kids who go to our D's high school are blessed with dual income parents and don't seem to want for much. This characterization applies to asian, caucasian and AA kids. The school is 12% african american. </p>
<p>Situation: Our D attends a large public high school where she along with 117 other students were inducted into the National Honor Society recently. My wife and I had a bet before the induction as to the percentage of AAs that would be in NHS. </p>
<p>The actual number was 8 of 118 or ~7% which is lower than the ratio of AAs in the school. </p>
<p>What was even worse is that only two of the eight were boys. That's 1.7%!!! I'm sitting there very proud of our D but wondering, "where are the rest of us???"</p>
<p>I do not think for one second that this is an indication of intelligence. This is learned behavior. I wonder (and here comes the controversial part) if our boys are still being taught that the only way for a AA man to make money in this country is through entertaining the "masses". </p>
<p>Yeah, you know what I mean there. </p>
<p>"Entertainment" is broadly defined as playing sports in front of a crowd or rapping and singing on a stage. </p>
<p>Am I overreacting here or is there are subtext that is still as offensive today as it was 100 years ago? I've been on CC for years but as I see the inequity of the college admissions process, I've changed my username so I can speak a little more freely.</p>
<p>thoughts?</p>
<p>There’s no subversive influence on AA boys causing us to want to perform. However, the media presents sports and music as pathways to success, when they rarely are. This is simply the reality of a sensationalized, consumer-driven culture. I doubt it’s intentional, but it is detrimental. As for the inequality of the college admissions process, that is merely a reflection of hundred of years of subjugation. </p>
<p>Low socioeconomic status = low college admission rates = low levels of success in modern economy = disillusionment with set economic systems = turning to rapping/sports OR crime = failure (generally) = low socioeconomic status. That is the cycle, my dear.</p>
<p>I think there is something more cultural than subversive at work.</p>
<p>It’s a culture of low expectations. It’s alive and well in many homes in the black community and it doesn’t matter if that home is in an affluent neighborhood.</p>
<p>I hear many black parents that are very happy if their sons graduate high school, don’t do drugs and stay out of prison and gangs. These aren’t bad objectives but they are bare minimum goals. We need to start pushing kids to excel academically. We need to know when the best they can do is the best they can do.</p>
<p>Another part of this culture of low expectations is the idea that it’s up to schools to teach our children. I hear many in the black community complain about the failure of schools to teach their kids. More black parents need to accept personal responsibility for their children’s learning. It’s the parent’s job to read to their kids, teach the alphabet, encourage reading, review homework and stay on top of the teachers. A school is a place where we send kids to learn but a school is never fully responsible for ensuring that your child learn, nor can it be when thousands of kids go there. They teach and if learning happens that is good. If not, too bad. </p>
<p>There are plenty of exceptions to what I’m saying but not enough. Far too few homes where reading is a passion, education is seen as an escape from poverty and bad neighborhoods and expectations of academic excellence are encouraged, reinforced and enforced upon our children.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised by your observations since you say it is an affluent school district. This implies that the African-American parents are educated, and should have expectations for their children similar to those of their Caucasian /Asian counterparts.
I’m not sure how to explain the disparity at the NHS induction, but I think implying that the parents somehow would rather see their sons in blackface performing for “the man”, than excelling academically is a bit of a stretch…</p>
<p>It is only a stretch because I used an intentionally charged word. Parents need to teach their kids that a college education adds on average more than one million dollars a year in lifetime earnings. Conversely, the average athlete is bankrupt four years after their career is over.</p>
<p>It begins at home.</p>
<p>^ As do most of society’s ills.</p>