<p>Princessbell, you are incorrect when you say Jews aren't a race. They are considered to be a separate ethnic group(ie. Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, etc.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
So, if society is contributing to the problem, how do we, as an individual and as a nation, go about fixing educational disparity in America? It's a tough question to answer.
[/quote]
we dont. we let the children who succeed go on to college and universities. There has always been this divide between rich and poor, and nothing you do can change it- well except if you have a french revolution. Just let Social-Darwinism continue</p>
<p>^^^not true</p>
<p>You fix the public education system so that people in poorer neighborhoods, who need the most help, aren't stuck at the poorest schools which are least able to provide that help. </p>
<p>In order to allieviate the ethnicity disparity you have to continue to integrate education so that all ethnic groups have a strong educated upper class and develop a positive culture.</p>
<p>i can't give you a answer on that. inconspicuous.s.n. but i don't think anyone else can either. I could say though that I think it has a lot to do with society/culture and its generalizations. Personally I find it absolutely disgusting that we are still generalizing by race in the 21st century, but its hard to turn back what society has already imposed on certain races. Whatever the case may be I try to not pay much attention to the predefined stereotypes and just move on with life.</p>
<p>What I meant was that Jews aren't genetically connected the way, say Scandinavians or Carribbean people are. Because it's based on a religion, anyone can claim to be a Jew, and bring their genetic characteristics into the mix. This can happen with any race (some "black" people have more white members in their family than blacks) but is more likely to happen with Jews. There are black Jewish people - were they included in the study? Probably not. I'm just wondering what a Jew was in the study. </p>
<p>Also, about African-Americans and Africans: Any African can tell the difference between the two groups, and anyone can figure out that if you have a weird last name you're probably African. Africans and African Americans diverged almost 400 years ago. African Americans mixed with whites, and Native Americans. Unless you're from Northern Africa or Ethiopia (which have different climates and have experience their own interblending due to location), there is rarely such thing as an (pure) African with skin any lighter than Angela Basset's. Although there are many dark-skinned African Americans, they usually don't have a large nose or the really dark upper lip. Again, there are exceptions. But if you can visually determine the difference between Africans and African Americans, I'm sure you can definetely deterimine the difference genetically.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You fix the public education system so that people in poorer neighborhoods, who need the most help, aren't stuck at the poorest schools which are least able to provide that help.
[/quote]
that would sound great, but we would have to increase taxes, increase pay to teachers, but more importantly how would the middle class neighborhoods respond to the state giving benefits to only the poor. More importantly, everyone right now knows that we are in big debt. The economy may hit a recession soon due to that mortgage crisis we are facing- check around some of your nearby neighborhoods, a lot of houses are being defaulted. I just dont think its economically feasible at this point of time</p>
<p>Like what my econ teacher says: welcome to capitalisms</p>
<p>You are decribing what NJ does in their Abbott Districts. I don't know how much it has helped the students it was designed for, but my guess is not much.
Our school system participates in a " Think Team " competition with several area middle schools. A couple of them are in Abbott districts and they were by far the lowest scoring in the competition.</p>
<p>Have any of you read this? I think it sheds light a both the genetic and environmental aspects of literacy among African Americans. Learning to read and write was a capitol offense maybe 3or 4 generations ago.I wonder how many slaves got to pass on the" SAT testing gene".</p>
<p>Nightjohn</p>
<p>Written by Gary Paulsen
Juvenile Fiction - Ethnic - African American | Delacorte Books for Young Readers | Hardcover | January 1993 | $15.95 | 978-0-385-30838-0 (0-385-30838-8)</p>
<p>Teachers GUIDE</p>
<p>NOTE TO TEACHERS</p>
<p>A message from the Author </p>
<p>The way I came into writing Nightjohn, I came in the back door. I worked for several years on research on a book on Sally Hemings, who was a slave girl owned by Thomas Jefferson. I think they had between six and nine children together over her life. When Jefferson died he was bankrupt and she was sold in the block. Said, "one 53-year-old woman worth $50.00," and they just got rid of her. And I wanted to write about her but there's not enough. I think a lot of the historical information about her has been destroyed over the years.
But while I was doing the research on Sally, I ran into many other stories and I got hold of the slave chronicles and its interviews of ex-slaves in the '20s and '30s in America. Just in dialect--some of it's hard to read. It's written the way they talked. It was beautiful.
I sat in my basement reading these things crying every night. And one of the things I ran into several times was the slaves' attempt to learn to read. For the slaves it was a capital offense to learn to read and they could be killed. They usually didn't get killed right away because they were too valuable to the slave owner. So the owners would cut a thumb off, or sometimes a toe; sometimes the front half of the foot would be chopped off. Men were castrated. And they were always whipped. That didn't stop them and they would hide in the schools--they would call them pit schools--and they would get a ditch or a gully or a hole, and they'd cover it with brush so the light wouldn't shine out, and they'd go in there at night with torches. They tried to teach each other to read and were successful in many places. Most of the owners were terrified of the slaves learning to read, because they knew they would want to be free.</p>
<p>ABOUT THIS BOOK</p>
<p>A riveting story that pits the power of literacy against the inhumanity of the slave system in the pre-Civil War South.
Travel to the Waller plantation and meet 12-year-old Sarny, a slave whose mother was sold away when she was four. Sarny first sees Nightjohn when he is brought to the plantation with a rope around his neck, his body covered with scars from many beatings. Sarny is drawn to Nightjohn when she learns that he had escaped North to freedom, only to voluntarily return to the South. Nightjohn has a self-imposed mission--to teach slaves how to read and write. He believes knowledge is the key to helping slaves break out of bondage. Sarny is willing to take the risk, even knowing that the penalty for reading is dismemberment.</p>
<p>Nonfiction</p>
<p>'Cut</a> Yer Thumb er Finger Off' : Jim Crow's Children</p>
<p>My father was born in Alabama in 1913. He learned to read from a sharecroppers son. He was denied his Phd from Columbia. ( He was told it wasn't "time").My daughter would be considered a "privileged" African American. She could care less about "Ivy league" and never comes here. She does want to meet "people like her", and the Ivy League seem to be among the few places to find a significant population.</p>
<p>thanks shrinkrap.
thanks to this board i've got a whole new reading list...</p>
<p>Hi guys, I'm new here. Ive been lurking around this forum awhile and decided to respond to this thread.</p>
<p>As an African American female, I too, understand the OP's pain in being one of the only Blacks in my AP and Honor's classes. Over the years, I've just learned to focus on bettering (is that a word lol?) myself and immersing myself in doing what i love to do: which is obtaining knowledge and empowering myself thru learning. That's all I can do truthfully!!</p>
<p>hmmm...
I hope my post won't upset anyone :D</p>
<p>I am an Asian, and I have just been living in the US for 1 and a half year. I am a sophomore and I attend the best classes that my school can offer, but just consider the fact that I am a foreigner who has just lived in the US for so short a time.
People sometimes laugh at the fact that I take Pre-AP for English. I couldn't get into Science Olympiad and after asking the teacher the reason why (in order to prepare for next year), I am informed that because I don't have any experiences, while the others attended Science Olympiads in their Middle School years, which was when I was still living in my country.... The point is, my grades are higher than many of the Science Olympiads members but I still got kicked out.
Now, OP, see?
I am an ASIAN, and what really make the difference here are nothing but experiences.
I don't want to be pompous and babble how smart I am. I have been discouraged by several people before because they all underestimate my ability, or at least, my effort to step up. They threw me to ESL, and I have run around, doing all paper works to get into optional program and reach AP classes, however, that doesn't make any differences.
Next year, I will still sign up for Sci-O and well, try to persuade the teacher, by essays, by words, by whatever I can think of. Nothing is gonna stop me, nor do I feel any resentment. It's just.... life. "Life is unfair, get used to it!"(Bill Gates)</p>
<p>The only thing matters is yourself.
Yet you can never reach a perfect equity, but if you try hard, who dares to say that "you are black, therefore you cannot do abc."
Why don't you try hard to achieve certain position in your society and do your best too improve Black Americans' lives instead of sitting here posting complains?</p>
<p>my post is probably cruel , and I apologize for that.</p>
<p>But in fact, we Asians are not smarter. It's just the pressure we have to suffer everyday that makes us work harder and harder. Most of us are not good at dancing or sports, what else can we do? Study!;)
The other cultural factor is that our principles since primeval time ask us not to show up our money and stuff, not to use muscular strength to win the others. I have no comments on whether those principles are right or wrong, but Asians seem to favor skinny (in an Asian way) knowledgeable people. The American's culture is just different. People wear XO, Calvin Klein, Tommy,...., go to malls, because that is just the American culture. I guess most Americans like muscular people. And the Black Americans are affected by this, since people just valuate the others from the outside (cars, clothing,...) and since Black Americans, so sad but true, have more disadvantages than the Caucasians do, they tend to show up. That is, I consider, just a kind of temporary dreams people want to reach.</p>
<p>But if we try hard enough, I believe we can surpass all the prejudices preoccupied in this society.</p>
<p>
[quote]
understand where i'm coming from. it gets lonely, and i've become progressively bitter over time.
[/quote]
I don't like it when URM get a step up in, for instance, college admissions (even though it may make a small difference), but I understand that colleges want diversity. I understand what it likes to be the only kids from X religion or culture in an entire school -- it does get lonely and people do become bitter. Ideally, colleges want students from a diverse set of experiences - kids that were poor, rich, etc. I think that they believe that race (which it does to an extent) plays a role in a person's experiences. So, I can understand where they are coming from...But I think that they need to more openly recognize that this creates a lot of tension among different races. X race will think Y race got in because of ethnicity, etc. They are still dealing with young people and, from my experiences, people tend to blow things out of proportion - especially when they feel they have been mistreated.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But if we try hard enough, I believe we can surpass all the prejudices preoccupied in this society.
[/quote]
I might be pessimistic, but you sound idealistic. Do you really think we can surpass ALL societal prejudices? You are a part of the society - can you surpass all of your prejudices? About everything? I can't. It's embedded into my life and it will be a slow, almost unnoticeable process when one of my prejudices changes.</p>
<p>Just giving my perspective --- I come from the LA area in CA and I, as a member of society, don't look down upon URMs intellectually initially. I just..I've never looked at someone and thought "Wow! I'm really glad Obama is a senator because he is African American. It's great to see them representing!" or "Wow! I'm glad to see Clinton is a senator because she is a woman! Go woman!" or anything like that. I don't look at the education system and think that we have to integrate it so that all different ETHNIC groups have an equal opportunity. I look at it and want to integrate it in hopes that all of these KIDS have an equal opportunity. I try judge people on their character and merit - isn't that what we should try to do? Can you change the morality and views of a nation so drastically? That would be some aggressive legislation right there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But if we try hard enough, I believe we can surpass all the prejudices preoccupied in this society.
[/quote]
You mean if you continue to work even harder, you will destroy the prejudice that asians work hard?</p>
<p>@optimization:
[quote]
Yet you can never reach a perfect equity, but if you try hard, who dares to say that "you are black, therefore you cannot do abc."
[/quote]
for sure, you will never absolutely surpass prejudices, but well, at least at the point you can satisfy with. People might still have some kinds of prejudices with your ethnicity, but not with you. And well, as far as you can surpass them by your ability and effort, you can reduce prejudices.</p>
<p>@mrchipset: I hope people will stop thinking that foreigners like me are not able to get to highest classes. Otherwise, it sounds impossible to surpass the prejudice that asians work hard, because in fact we do work hard. Most of us, I must say. Too much pressure from our families >,<</p>
<p>"Wow! I'm really glad Obama is a senator because he is African American. It's great to see them representing!" or "Wow! I'm glad to see Clinton is a senator because she is a woman! Go woman!" or anything like that. "</p>
<p>funny how the '08 election is bringing that out in people.
people ask me if, as this black girl, "am i doing clinton or obama next year?"
i should totally vote for ron paul. just to screw with peoples heads.</p>
<p>We Latinos have solemnly sworn not to vote for Obama. So Hilary it is.</p>
<p>We latinos...speak for yourself...Why hillary over Obama?</p>
<p>I go to this random high school in central Texas, good but not nationally ranked, where all ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the general population. But I actually don't know too much about the school's generation population, because I've been segregated in the honors/AP subculture my entire time here, taking classes with basically the same people.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, I can think of two African-Americans who take a crapload of tough courses and do well in them. Both are middle-class individuals who have highly educated parents and play musical instruments. One even has a Yale-educated dad. They're basically more stereotypically Asian than I, a Chinese immigrant, can claim to be.</p>
<p>Okay, that was pretty pointless. But I think it's maybe more of a socioeconomic thing than a racial thing? So I guess we have to figure out why blacks are overrepresented in the lower income brackets.</p>
<p>Or maybe the "black experience" was shaped by slavery the way the "American experience" was shaped by westward expansion. Under slavery, that had to be slyly intelligent, passively rebellious, because outright rebellion was dangerous and true complacency was soul-deadening. Find loopholes, find shortcuts. "You may think I'm working, but I ain't." Maybe that sort of mindset was transferred from the slave generations to their descendants, so that it still persists today.</p>
<p>But I think that's too much of a generalization. </p>
<p>Maybe we still forget how recent integration was. </p>
<p>What I don't understand is affirmative action. Supposedly, URM are given a leg up in admissions because they were discriminated against in the past, right? So what about the minorities traditionally hurt by AA. Are you telling me that Asians haven't been discriminated against, that there was no anti-Semitism on American soil? Asians got the vote after Hispanics. There's an anti-Chinese quota at some prestigious high school in California today. How Hitlerian is that?</p>
<p>I don't know. It seems to me like affirmative action is just institutionalized racism.</p>
<p>
[quote]
We latinos...speak for yourself...Why hillary over Obama?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Do you speak Spanish?</p>