The Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations
I've done some speaking at an inner city school. There, it's the rare kid who has a dad in the home. If they do, they're more likely Latino than black. A regular 11th grade class, not a special ed class, was reading and writing at the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade level.
A lot of these schools just promote the kids whether they've learned sufficiently or not. This has a cost.
For example, Kashawn Campbell became a straight A student at a high school in Los Angeles. It seems that was straight A by terribly "relaxed" standards. Kurt Streeter writes in The LA Times:
School had always been his safe harbor.Growing up in one of South Los Angeles' bleakest, most violent neighborhoods, he learned about the world by watching "Jeopardy" and willed himself to become a straight-A student.
His teachers and his classmates at Jefferson High all rooted for the slight and hopeful African American teenager. He was named the prom king, the most likely to succeed, the senior class salutatorian. He was accepted to UC Berkeley, one of the nation's most renowned public universities.
A semester later, Kashawn Campbell sat inside a cramped room on a dorm floor that Cal reserves for black students. It was early January, and he stared nervously at his first college transcript.
There wasn't much good to see.
He had barely passed an introductory science course. In College Writing 1A, his essays -- pockmarked with misplaced words and odd phrases -- were so weak that he would have to take the class again.
He had never felt this kind of failure, nor felt this insecure. The second term was just days away and he had a 1.7 GPA. If he didn't improve his grades by school year's end, he would flunk out.
...Jefferson, made up almost entirely of Latinos and blacks, had a woeful reputation. His freshman year, just under 13% of its students were judged to be proficient in English, less than 1% in math.
...By the end of his senior year, Kashawn's 4.06 grade point average was second best in the senior class. Because of a statewide program to attract top students from every public California high school, a spot at a UC system campus waited for him.
...Would he flunk out?
"All I can do is pray," he said.
One morning this summer he walked slowly to the kitchen table, sat in a black chair and cracked open his laptop. Cal's website had just posted grades.
He scrolled down the page and saw the results for College Writing. His teacher said he'd improved slightly, but not enough. She gave him an incomplete. To get a grade he'd have to turn in two more essays, if he came back to school.
His heart raced. He saw that he'd passed a three-unit seminar. He scanned further, his eyes resting finally on a line that said African American Studies 5A. There was his grade.
A-.
"Yes!" he exclaimed. An A- lifted his GPA above a 2.0.
He wasn't a freshman anymore. He would return to Cal for his sophomore year.
Also, how creepy and awful that there's a dorm floor that Cal State "reserves for black students."
And the sad thing is, even if this kid makes it through college, his diploma will be next to worthless for any job that requires real skills, general literacy, and basic math.
Isab at August 16, 2013 11:03 PM
The Goddess writes:
It's worse than that. An all-black college or an all-woman college is a "unique educational opportunity."
An all-white college or an all-male college is "racist" or "sexist" respectively.
Patrick at August 17, 2013 12:08 AM
So his only decent grade was in African American Studies. There's a big surprise.
Martin at August 17, 2013 12:27 AM
"An all-white college or an all-male college is "racist" or "sexist" respectively."
Well there is a reason they exist, these places were built in a time when a black person or a woman couldn't simply just go to a college. Though do we still have all just black colleges? I thought a certain percentage of "others" were allowed.
Btw I'm ok with segregated colleges for the sexes but not for the races.
Anyways my thoughts on college are that since anyone can go it's not really representative of anything but a modern day high school diploma. Not for all careers of course...
Ppen at August 17, 2013 2:16 AM
It's worse than that. An all-black college or an all-woman college is a "unique educational opportunity."
An all-white college or an all-male college is "racist" or "sexist" respectively.
Unless its an all black male college
"All I can do is pray," he said.
Hows about you fucking study? And stop wasting the money I pay in taxes.
lujlp at August 17, 2013 3:35 AM
The problem (for the education establishment) is that if Kashawn were taught better he might start to think for himself.
People who think for themselves might not vote the "correct" way.
Better to keep them dependent.
dee nile at August 17, 2013 3:56 AM
Real education is dangerous, because it requires asking questions. These days, those bold enough to do so get the Jay Carney show, not answers. It's hardly surprising so few bother.
MarkD at August 17, 2013 5:57 AM
He's not at Cal State! He's at UC Berkeley, called Cal. My kids couldn't get in there, being white, middle-class and nonvictitms. He would have been better off at a community college for 2years.
KateC at August 17, 2013 6:38 AM
"Also, how creepy and awful that there's a dorm floor that Cal State "reserves for black students.""
I can tell you why this is the case: if Raj, Wolowitz, Leonard or Sheldon sneer at the black kid for not instantly grasping some aspect of the curriculum, there will be a race card pulled.
And, of course, the counselors at the school can say what they wish about other races in that dorm without controversy.
It might be "creepy and awful", but college is not utopia. Persons who think it's "a place where eager minds can soar!" are being unrealistic. Can happen. Usually doesn't.
And I am not at all surprised that this is a California school. Time to make fun of the backwards South again...
Radwaste at August 17, 2013 8:15 AM
The answer is obvious.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 17, 2013 8:23 AM
"My kids couldn't get in there, being white, middle-class and nonvictitms."
So that's why only 3% of undergrads at Berkeley are black?
Jason S. at August 17, 2013 8:43 AM
geez...he should have gone to city college - same Eng 1A, transferable. my very bright now-MD stepson did it that way.
ponder, the quality of students in black colleges, which get the leftovers.
carol at August 17, 2013 8:48 AM
Berkeley's undergrad census for 2012:
"In 2012, 3% of current undergraduate students are African American, 39% are Asian, 13% are Chicano/Latino, 1% are Native American/Alaskan Native, less than 1% are Pacific Islander, 29% are White, and 5% are Other/Decline to State.
Women outnumber men in most race/ethnic groups, with the largest gender gap occurring in Chicano/Latino current undergraduate students."
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 17, 2013 8:50 AM
Thanks for the link, Gog.
Jason S. at August 17, 2013 9:06 AM
He might have been better off at one of the Cal State campuses.
And a big red flag. If the only thing he does well in is African-American studies, he may decide to major in it and will be one more unskilled and under-educated but entitled college graduate whining that he can't find a job.
If his other grades were so bad, it makes you wonder how low the bar is set in that African-American Studies class that he not only passed, but he got an A-.
Or does that class exist only to give African-American students a decent grade so they can postpone getting kicked out of school?
Conan the Grammarian at August 17, 2013 10:37 AM
Ppen: Well there is a reason they exist, these places were built in a time when a black person or a woman couldn't simply just go to a college. Though do we still have all just black colleges? I thought a certain percentage of "others" were allowed.
A certain percentage of "others" were allowed? That is still racist or sexist, depending upon which group their favoring.
How do you feel about a college that is pretty much all male, or all white (or even all white male) that allows a certain percentage of "others"?
Patrick at August 17, 2013 12:20 PM
A semester later, Kashawn Campbell sat inside a cramped room on a dorm floor that Cal reserves for black students.
I thought we did away with institutionalized segregation.
Maybe Berkeley can start a busing program between dorm floors. /sarc
In all seriousness, if my college (University of Maryland at Collage Park) had decided to segregate black students while I was there (1985 - 1989), I bet you would have heard the scream from one end of the campus to the other. The Black Student Union would have probably firebombed the administration building.
Unbelievable.
mpetrie98 at August 17, 2013 1:29 PM
"Kashawn Campbell sat inside a cramped room on a dorm floor that Cal reserves for black students"
Wow. That's awful.
So the non-black students get giant luxurious segregated townhomes their freshman year?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 17, 2013 2:08 PM
Patrick I stated above I'm ok with segregation based on sex but not race.
I was just explaining that all black colleges aren't "all black" in that they do allow a certain percentage of others. Doesn't mean I'm ok with it.
Ppen at August 17, 2013 2:17 PM
I teach at a college in Atlanta, and many of my students are graduates of Atlanta Public Schools, a place riddled with scandal--as most know. Anyway, I am amazed at what my students don't know. I wonder almost daily what it must be like to walk around with those brains--with such a limited understanding of basic concepts, word usage, vocabulary, etc...
Kg at August 17, 2013 4:14 PM
What I wonder is how the Texas top 10% do in college, especially from lower economic schools?
I hope the kid does succeed at a true career field. But he will have to put in the effort.
Jim P. at August 17, 2013 5:23 PM
"How do you feel about a college that is pretty much all male, or all white (or even all white male) that allows a certain percentage of "others"?"
Well, you've quoted courts before without taking a side. Here's my turn: the USSC found that racial quotas are OK.
Radwaste at August 17, 2013 5:46 PM
" I wonder almost daily what it must be like to walk around with those brains"
Me too kg! What occupies their thoughts? I'm so curious as they must think about something.
I've tutored (long long long time ago) kids that didn't know where Canada was, why multiplying and dividing exist (they would uhh....just add everything up one by one) and the concepts of bacteria (why washing hands is important).
The worst thing though is that parents didn't understand that educated kids don't automatically spring up. The concept of spending time guiding them was completely foreign.
Ppen at August 17, 2013 7:49 PM
Radwaste: Well, you've quoted courts before without taking a side. Here's my turn: the USSC found that racial quotas are OK.
Is this my cue to act like you now?
Okay.
Since you didn't specifically denounce it, that means you support it! You have to tell me your opinion on the subject! I demand to know! If you don't, then I'm going to tell everyone that you support racial quotas and that you're a racist from now until the end of time!
You don't have the right to quote a court ruling without giving your opinion on it! And no one has to right to keep their opinions from me!
Therefore, I have the right to assume you support and infer the very worst things about you because of it. You support quotas and profiling and you're a racist who wants to go back to the America that existed before Brown v The Board of Education. You obviously support the "separate but equal" doctrine.
/radwaste
Patrick at August 17, 2013 8:18 PM
"I wonder almost daily what it must be like to walk around with those brains--with such a limited understanding of basic concepts . . ."
No need to wonder, they voted for Obama. And now they just sit around waiting for their free stuff!
And when their free stuff doesn't arrive; they simply believe the lies that the "Rethuglicans" don't want them to have what they are entitled to.
Seriously, I am not trying to be sarcastic here. Anyone remember Marion "the bitch set me up" Barry; the former disgraced Mayor of Washington, DC?
Back in the 90s; after that infamous FBI sting which caught him smoking crack, after going to jail, and getting a BJ from his lady friend in the middle in the family visiting room at the jail while other families were there, after his mother tried to burn down someone's house, etc. He ran for DC city council as a representative of the Anacostia neighborhood ward (over 92% Black and mostly uneducated). He won!
Part of his campaign was that the black folks need to vote for him so that he could help to "renew" the 13th amendment (anti-slavery amendment) and the civil rights bills as they were due to expire and without him in office white folks would make all black folks slaves again.
Maybe this wasn't taken seriously (or maybe it was); but the fact that he was't laughed out of town says something about the ignorance of the voters.
Charles at August 17, 2013 8:46 PM
Ah Marion Barry, I was working in DC during that debacle. The people who voted for him didn't see it as him doing wrong. Drugs, cheating, bribery corruption, they didn't see them as crimes if done by one of their own. I asked one person why she voted for him, the answer surprised me a bit. Everyone takes bribes, kickbacks etc, but when he steals DCs money it stays in DC.
Other politicias were already assumed guilty, but money they stole went to friends in other states, often NY.
Joe J at August 17, 2013 10:31 PM
Well Patrick you skipped a couple of steps, first Rad would have had to post it in excess of 25 times and when asked dozens of times if he disagreed petulantly claimed "I'm not going to answer cause you're all meanines"
Then you could claim he agrees, and you'd be reasonably assured that his asinine refusal to answer a simple no to the question means he does.
And can I just say Patrick, I just love the fucking irony of the way you jumped down Ppen's throat assuming and questioning her non committal statement assuming it did in fact endorse segregation.
If we were in the same room I'd be doing the slow clap while pointing out the hypocrisy.
lujlp at August 18, 2013 8:55 AM
Here's the difference: I do not endorse the USSC finding that racial quotas for college admissions was OK.
A college that doesn't invest in the students most likely to succeed is wasting resources - and demonstrating that their goal is something other than academic excellence.
And I say that, not because of you, Patrick, but because the blog is better off knowing where its participants stand on any issue.
There you go, Patrick. That's how its done - courteously, no drama, and no egotistical pretense that I hold anyone in contempt because they don't "get" what I didn't write, or misinderstood what was written.
Grow. Up.
Radwaste at August 18, 2013 2:23 PM
In Texas, the top 10% is mostly white. I've heard of white people with means moving their kids to crappier schools here to make the top 10% where they would not have at a better school. Because truly, white middle class kids tend to do okay no matter how crappy the school is. It's the minorities that lose out, and only they can change that.
Or they are Hispanic. And Hispanics care a lot more about education than inner city blacks. For the most part at least-yes, it's generalization, but it's a pretty true one.
I got my first degree from UT. The STEM courses required me to think and study. The rest? No. And my STEM classes now at a community college are every bit as rigorous for the most part. But again, I'm white and middle class. There plenty not passing these community college classes, even the nonstem ones.
momof4 at August 18, 2013 4:43 PM
'Waste: "Here's the difference: I do not endorse the USSC finding that racial quotas for college admissions was OK."
Here's the difference: I couldn't have cared less what your opinion on the subject was.
Had I not decided that I was going to take this opportunity to launch into a parody of you (which was obviously successful given that fact that your panties are well-and-truly knotted), I might have nonchalantly asked, "Do you know which court ruling this was?"
Or simply commented as to whether or not I agree or disagree with this ruling.
I honestly saw nothing in you comment that made me compelled to demand what your opinion was. You simply made the observation that SCOTUS has ruled in favor of racial quotas. Under other circumstances, I might have simply thanked you for the information and then gone on to discuss it.
I don't need to know your opinion. I don't demand to know it. (In fact, in your case, I don't even care to know it.) I figure that if most people on this blog want to give their opinion, they will. I can certainly ask, if I'm at all curious. But I don't feel the need to launch into extended hissy fits over a period of weeks if they don't give it. If they choose not to comment on it for any reason, that's their right.
My happiness does not depend upon whether each and every person on this blog openly shares their opinion, and that I've been able to pigeonhole everyone on this blog in accordance to what they believe on each and every issue.
As for your whine about "drama" and "egotistical pretense," you'd have spared your hurt feelings if you had simply accepted that I didn't want to talk about it, for any reason.
Grow up. Seriously. Today.
Patrick at August 19, 2013 12:15 AM
"I was just explaining that all black colleges aren't "all black" in that they do allow a certain percentage of others. Doesn't mean I'm ok with it."
There is a historically black college in the city where I live. For the past two decades, they have gone through one administration after another, trying to figure out what their future is. They can't decide what they want to be when they grow up, and some people there don't want them to grow up at all. They are so wrapped around the axle of the past that they can't get themselves untangled. They are getting blown out of the water by the big engineering school across town, by the private college (which happenes to have a mostly black student body) a few miles away, and by the various community colleges and trade schools in the area. Progress is passing them by, but like a drug addict, they can't quit what they're doing even though they realize it's killing them. But hey, a few years ago when they got a big reparations payment from the state, they used it to build a new football stadium! Pride!
Cousin Dave at August 19, 2013 9:35 AM
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