"He Talk Like A White Boy"
Black conservative Joseph C. Phillips on how the old school needs to be new school in the black community. Stone-sensible stuff. Video here.
Phillips' book: He Talk Like a White Boy: Reflections of a Conservative Black Man on Faith, Family, Politics, and Authenticity.
It isn't just "the black community". I find people all around me who will say, "I'm through with school" as if it was a great burden. These people behave as though a new thing is the toughest obstacle there is.
I was getting my hair cut, and "I don't like to read" drifted over from the next chair. I was dumbfounded. To me, that's the same as, "I don't like to look at anything." There is no faster way to learn, and learning is the only thing that will open doors for you. If all you do is enough to get by, then getting by is all you'll do.
Lots of people don't think, period.
No wonder a pretty smile and empty words gets their vote.
Radwaste at May 8, 2010 4:14 AM
Generations of blacks in the past worked so hard and took so many risks to obtain education, and the right to pursue an education. It stuns me to see some blacks today who are eager to throw all that away.
Cousin Dave at May 8, 2010 8:23 AM
Also true for Legal Hispanics. In the late 80's and early 90's, my daughter was the only Hispanic student in Science Education in a large state university.
That is outrageous with all the opportunities available in the US.
There is something missing in their subculture, and I wish I knew what it was.
irlandes at May 8, 2010 9:30 AM
I have to agree with irlandes -- I'm a computer tech. The number of computer techs could easily be doubled and we would still be understaffed. The number of minorities and women that are in my field is minuscule. All it takes is a little intelligence and logic and you can succeed. Of the few minorities are highly intelligent people, but so many of the people I support are like "I don't understand it and I don't want to."
And in relation to that, of the few minorities that I have run into -- talking and e-mailing with them (outside some regional colloquial phrasing) all sound the same.
Talking on the phone or on via e-mail they all sound the same.
Jim P. at May 8, 2010 9:56 AM
As Radwaste noted, this lack of interest in reading and learning is not unique to blacks. I own a manufacturing company in Utah that employs about 100 people (white, Hispanic, Asian, no blacks currently). We have a requirement that every employee do some type of job-related training totaling 50 hours per year. We pay for any costs, they train "on the clock," and the training can be any medium: books, magazines, videos, classes, conferences, etc.
Many times I have heard an employee whine about "having to train." We are PAYING them to improve their job skills, and yet some people complain. I just do not understand that attitude.
It will not surprise anyone to know that the lower the person's wage, the higher the likelihood they will be one of the complainers. That said, some of the lower-wage employees love this particular opportunity to improve their skills.
Jim E. at May 8, 2010 11:29 AM
Reminds me of when one of the talk show guys said poverty was a mental illness. As right wing as I am when I heard that, I was pretty pissed off.
After I thought about it a while, I understood what he was saying.
Kids tend to learn their values and life skills from their parents and friends of parents. Middle class kids learn middle class survival skills from their families.
Twenty some years ago, a man I worked with had a hobby of sports cards. He took off one Friday and drive to Dallas to a trading show, with his little booth of sports cards.
His 12 year old went along. All weekend the kid wandered around the hall, looking at the bargain boxes other traders had. He knew his cards and when there was a bargain, he bought it and took it to his dad to sell, marked at the correct price. I have no idea how much money Bob made, but his kid make $1,000 that weekend.
Bob said his kid at 12 could have run a small business.
What do kids from poverty learn? Mostly how to fail. And, as you folks have said, they will ignore any and all opportunities.
So, I realized what the guy meant. It may not be mental illness, but it might as well be.
irlandes at May 8, 2010 11:59 AM
Not that I am qualified to cast the first stone. I took a correspondence course in electronics in the 60's, and when I got out of the Army became a production technician in a factory, worked there until I retired at age 55. I made $16.25 when I retired in 1997, which in a small midwestern city was a sufficient income for a two worker family.
In 1980, I passed the CPA exam but never practiced. Part of the reason was I had a hyperactive child, and didn't want to work 70 hour weeks. Today, they'd say I daddy-tracked.
But, it is also true my background was working class, and we were raised to never voluntarily quit a job, because "it is hard to find another job."
And, after seeing all the nasty stuff management was doing in our company, I simply did not trust my future to firm management. So, I sat there in the factory until I was old enough to draw retirement.
I did make what I thought was a considerable amount of money in the stock market. But, to me less than $100,000 profits was a lot of money. To others, it isn't.
I got out in the late 90's when people showed they were insane, just in time.
We did not feel poor as some might have. The secret to financial success is not making lots of money. The secret to financial success is spending less than you earn, while having a satisfactory life. We did.
The "office" folks in the factory used to criticize the working class for not "bettering themselves'. I noted with interest that most of them did not raise themselves any higher than their parents had been (though I did, heh, heh.)
irlandes at May 8, 2010 12:30 PM
"The number of computer techs could easily be doubled and we would still be understaffed."
Man, get with the program. Windows 7 fixed that!
I suggest that your problem is an industry set up to employ programmers, not actually serve users. Look at the kludge today that is Flash and Lotus Notes. Meh.
(Where I work, your tax dollars are being spent to "upgrade" Digital VAX and D/3 to Windows XP and DeltaV. The "reason" is "obsolescence". The reality is that a $200 PC will run the entire plant with VAX and D/3, installed 10 years ago with 60MHz 386's, already obsolete. We are changing because the computer people can't get professional credit for maintaining a system - only "upgrading" it. Yes, the XP underpinnings will have to be changed to W7.)
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"Kids tend to learn their values and life skills from their parents and friends of parents. Middle class kids learn middle class survival skills from their families."
Kids are not stupid, but they are instant mimics.
The best late-night get-rich quote I have ever seen was this old guy whose name I forget, who husked, "Do you want to be rich? Then, look at what the poor people do, and don't do that!
Radwaste at May 8, 2010 2:29 PM
The Little Rock 9 and Ruby Bridges risked death to get a decent education. The 9 were subjected to physical and verbal abuse. Bridges (six years old at the time) had to bring her lunch from home because someone threatened to poison her school lunch. Her father lost his job over her going to a white school.
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. endured four years of silence and isolation at West Point. When he graduated and was commissioned, there was only one other serving African-American officer in the entire US Army - his father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. So, for a while, it was the Davises against the US Army. The Davises won.
And today they'd be accused of "acting white" by illiterate gang-bangers whose idea of courage is a drive-by shooting.
Conan the Grammarian at May 8, 2010 4:47 PM
I can't speak with any authority about the black community, but this reminds me of an article I read a few years ago. I can't for the life of me remember the author or the publication, but it detailed how not being good at math has become a point of pride for some people, mostly the upper-middle class. I actually saw it when I used to work in retail. I'd be explaining that you can't just add percentages to get a final discount, and the person would just say smugly, "I just don't have a head for numbers." Like they're too successful to do fractions or something. I can't tell you the number of times I had to explain to obviously wealthy people that seventy percent off clearance plus an extra twenty percent off coupon does not make ninety percent off. But they'd trust the computer to be right, which is scary.
It's weird that people are sort of proud of not knowing how to do stuff now. It was in my youth that people were becoming successful by being smarter and better and working harder than everyone else. I don't like to blame the media, but there are several shows on television now that celebrate people who are ostensibly employed, but are actually famous for just existing. They don't have to bother with all that messy knowledge. There are people to take care of that for them.
On a lighter note, it's pretty cool to see that Martin Kendall is an author. I've always liked him as an actor, and now I can see that he's a damn good thinker, too.
NumberSix at May 8, 2010 9:36 PM
I think liking to read is not that great of an indicator. I mean I absolutely hate to read and avoid it at reasonable costs. I think I am reasonably smart. I do read of course, but not for fun. I cannot remember the last fiction book I read. If I am reading it is generally because it is something I believe I can learn from.
Now lets contrast with a lady I dated awhile back. She loved to read and considered herself quite the intellectual. She could write perfectly grammatically speaking and parse the most complex writings and remember all kinds of details about the classics, etc. Yet couldn't think her way out of a paper bag to save her life. Reminded me of Sr. HS English teacher, on a test there was a question that asked about foreshadowing or something like that in a play (Shakespeare?) and the teacher marked it wrong. I asked her why she marked it wrong, she couldn't tell me why my answer was wrong but it was not one of the correct answers in the teachers guide so it was wrong.
The Former Banker at May 9, 2010 2:42 AM
Raddy, you ready for Vax on a Palm Pilot?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at May 9, 2010 10:45 PM
From TIME Magazine's Feb. 2005 cover story: "What Teachers Hate About Parents":
At the deepest level, teachers fear that all this parental anxiety is not always aimed at the stuff that matters. Parents who instantly call about a grade or score seldom ask about what is being taught or how. When a teacher has spent the whole summer brightening and deepening the history curriculum for her ninth-graders, finding new ways to surprise and engage them, it is frustrating to encounter parents whose only focus is on test scores. "If these parents were pushing for richer, more meaningful instruction, you could almost forgive them their obnoxiousness and inattention to the interests of all the other children," says Alfie Kohn, a Boston-based education commentator and author of Unconditional Parenting. But "we have pushy parents pushing for the wrong thing." He argues that test scores often measure what matters least—and that even high test scores should invite parents to wonder what was cut from the curriculum to make room for more test prep.
Kohn knows a college counselor hired by parents to help "package" their child, who had perfect board scores and a wonderful grade-point average. When it was time to work on the college essay, the counselor said, "Let's start with a book you read outside of school that really made a difference in your life." There was a moment of silence. Then the child responded, "Why would I read a book if I didn't have to?"
If parents focus only on the transcript—drive out of children their natural curiosity, discourage their trying anything at which they might fail—their definition of success will get a failing grade from any teacher watching.
(end)
I don't know if I know any families like the one with the child in the second paragraph. However, it's important to remember that aside from families like that - or families where the parents are cowardly wimps who let their kids buy all sorts of visual electronics for their bedrooms but who wouldn't dream of ordering their teens to READ anything, there's another serious problem. Namely, parents who just don't LIKE to read, have friends who don't like to read, and who let their kids grow up without ever visiting the library or bookstore. Kids like that are neglected, not "spoiled," so we can't blame them for not having a love of reading. As one newspaper said, often the heavy lifting lies in reaching out to parents who are already literate, but who don't see the point in reading aloud when they hate it.
lenona at May 10, 2010 12:31 PM
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