[QUOTE="Blackbird, post: 863362, member: 3986" I will deal with your answer very shortly. You may not like the answer but that doesn't mean it is invalid. Also, I will say I was raised from birth to age 14 by a grandmother who only had a 6th grade education.
My mom was present but she worked two maid jobs and went to college so her influence wasn't as great as my grandmother's. My grandmother being an older Black lady in the rural south spoke African American Vernacular English. I am also a high school dropout. I got my GED because my mom and dad forced me to go to Job Corps at age 18. From the time I was 13 up to 19, I was an active gang member in a city that had the highest per capita murder rate in the country when I was 16 and 17. Nothing special.
However, my command of the English language is greater than the average American whether white or Black. I actually wrote my wife's law school entrance letter which the admissions advisor stated was one of the best letters he had seen in his 10 years as an advisor.
I went from being raised in a poverty stricken area of the rural South to being a high school dropout and gangbanger to getting a GED to having a respectable ACT score of 32 and a touted SAT score of 1985 to becoming a college graduate to working as a private banker and investment advisor to high net worth clientèle in corporate America to being a self employed relatively well to do business person.
How did that happen? I don't know. Luck, aptitude, who knows? At the end of the day, I am just a poor Black country boy from Louisiana that enjoys speaking colloquial Black English but can code switch based on the circumstances.
Like many Black children, I was written off in grade school and honestly, I mentally dropped out in the ninth grade. School became a place to go because it was compulsory. I had to deal with school counselors that wanted me to go to trade schools or who would rather push the equally struggling white boy over me.
I received disciplinary action at a greater frequency than my classmates who committed the same offenses. I remember during the Rodney King trial being told by classmates that I was just mad because I reported one to the teacher for talking too loud while I was taking a test. Of course, the teacher did nothing which prompted the Rodney King comment. Seconds later, another classmate taking the test in the same area blurted out "Joel, shut up!" The teacher at that moment told Joel to be quiet.
I would receive failing grades based on attitude and not class performance. I learned that class attitude received greater weighting on scoring grades than passing tests. One teacher even went so far as to deduct points from my grade because of the behavior of the only other Black male in the class. I didn't accept this passively and told her that she could not hold me accountable for the actions of another simply because we were friends.
I told my friend that it was also an insult to him because she was saying in essence that he was too dumb to be held responsible for his own actions. We were in high school. Afterwards in class, the teacher berated my friend so badly that he decided to quit and go to an alternative school. She basically told him that he wasn't capable to perform at the level he was in and that his best bet was to learn a trade. I have plenty of these instances I can pull from.
The Black educational experience is not nearly as amiable as the white experience and if you believe this to be true, I have a private island in the UAE I can sell you for $3.00.
I had rage coupled with some household changes like the death of my grandmother, my primary care giver and my mom's subsequent marriage to a guy I didn't like, and the rising violence in city so I sought solace in gang life. I felt hopeless and I responded with violent behavior. Shootouts and car chases was how I numbed the pain and channeled my anger as well as attempted to gain some power and control.
I became excited at the fear I could give random white people who had already prejudged me even before I started gang banging. The rush of adrenaline in instances of fight or flight gave me a high. Before white folks could call me nxgger with impunity but during my gang days, calling me a nxgger or treating me like one would find the perpetrator on the opposite end of a 40 caliber. I could see the whites of their eyes widen with fear as they never suspected that to be the result.
As a 12 year old child, still innocent and hopeful with nothing but going to the mall to meet girls, I would walk across the cross walk of a busy intersection in the middle of the day and hear white folks locking their car doors.
I had no gun and no intent to do anything wrong but my color made me suspect. At 14, I gave self righteous white people a reason to lock doors. Of course, my rage was ultimately directed at my own kind and beefing with dudes from a rival neighborhood was my full time job, even at school. There was no point for school other than that. I became the worst nightmare for plenty of people.
I became the overt expression of the young Black male experience - wild, ignorant and unpredictable. I was what America made me. It is not fun getting searched or accosted by police at a young age simply because you are Black and look suspicious - not because you did anything wrong or broke the law.
The law you broke was the unofficial one of being Black at the wrong time. Treated as a criminal before becoming one or being treated as a failure in life before being a failure is the best way to create a fulfilling prophecy.[/QUOTE]
But by virtue of being literate, numerate and intelligent you had the tools that allowed you to subsequently break out of that so desperately downward spiral, whereas there are many people in our community who don't have those tools or ANY support from family and friends at all, what chance do they stand within the mainstream mis-education minefield?
My mom was present but she worked two maid jobs and went to college so her influence wasn't as great as my grandmother's. My grandmother being an older Black lady in the rural south spoke African American Vernacular English. I am also a high school dropout. I got my GED because my mom and dad forced me to go to Job Corps at age 18. From the time I was 13 up to 19, I was an active gang member in a city that had the highest per capita murder rate in the country when I was 16 and 17. Nothing special.
However, my command of the English language is greater than the average American whether white or Black. I actually wrote my wife's law school entrance letter which the admissions advisor stated was one of the best letters he had seen in his 10 years as an advisor.
I went from being raised in a poverty stricken area of the rural South to being a high school dropout and gangbanger to getting a GED to having a respectable ACT score of 32 and a touted SAT score of 1985 to becoming a college graduate to working as a private banker and investment advisor to high net worth clientèle in corporate America to being a self employed relatively well to do business person.
How did that happen? I don't know. Luck, aptitude, who knows? At the end of the day, I am just a poor Black country boy from Louisiana that enjoys speaking colloquial Black English but can code switch based on the circumstances.
Like many Black children, I was written off in grade school and honestly, I mentally dropped out in the ninth grade. School became a place to go because it was compulsory. I had to deal with school counselors that wanted me to go to trade schools or who would rather push the equally struggling white boy over me.
I received disciplinary action at a greater frequency than my classmates who committed the same offenses. I remember during the Rodney King trial being told by classmates that I was just mad because I reported one to the teacher for talking too loud while I was taking a test. Of course, the teacher did nothing which prompted the Rodney King comment. Seconds later, another classmate taking the test in the same area blurted out "Joel, shut up!" The teacher at that moment told Joel to be quiet.
I would receive failing grades based on attitude and not class performance. I learned that class attitude received greater weighting on scoring grades than passing tests. One teacher even went so far as to deduct points from my grade because of the behavior of the only other Black male in the class. I didn't accept this passively and told her that she could not hold me accountable for the actions of another simply because we were friends.
I told my friend that it was also an insult to him because she was saying in essence that he was too dumb to be held responsible for his own actions. We were in high school. Afterwards in class, the teacher berated my friend so badly that he decided to quit and go to an alternative school. She basically told him that he wasn't capable to perform at the level he was in and that his best bet was to learn a trade. I have plenty of these instances I can pull from.
The Black educational experience is not nearly as amiable as the white experience and if you believe this to be true, I have a private island in the UAE I can sell you for $3.00.
I had rage coupled with some household changes like the death of my grandmother, my primary care giver and my mom's subsequent marriage to a guy I didn't like, and the rising violence in city so I sought solace in gang life. I felt hopeless and I responded with violent behavior. Shootouts and car chases was how I numbed the pain and channeled my anger as well as attempted to gain some power and control.
I became excited at the fear I could give random white people who had already prejudged me even before I started gang banging. The rush of adrenaline in instances of fight or flight gave me a high. Before white folks could call me nxgger with impunity but during my gang days, calling me a nxgger or treating me like one would find the perpetrator on the opposite end of a 40 caliber. I could see the whites of their eyes widen with fear as they never suspected that to be the result.
As a 12 year old child, still innocent and hopeful with nothing but going to the mall to meet girls, I would walk across the cross walk of a busy intersection in the middle of the day and hear white folks locking their car doors.
I had no gun and no intent to do anything wrong but my color made me suspect. At 14, I gave self righteous white people a reason to lock doors. Of course, my rage was ultimately directed at my own kind and beefing with dudes from a rival neighborhood was my full time job, even at school. There was no point for school other than that. I became the worst nightmare for plenty of people.
I became the overt expression of the young Black male experience - wild, ignorant and unpredictable. I was what America made me. It is not fun getting searched or accosted by police at a young age simply because you are Black and look suspicious - not because you did anything wrong or broke the law.
The law you broke was the unofficial one of being Black at the wrong time. Treated as a criminal before becoming one or being treated as a failure in life before being a failure is the best way to create a fulfilling prophecy.[/QUOTE]
But by virtue of being literate, numerate and intelligent you had the tools that allowed you to subsequently break out of that so desperately downward spiral, whereas there are many people in our community who don't have those tools or ANY support from family and friends at all, what chance do they stand within the mainstream mis-education minefield?
Isn’t ANYONE who genuinely believes they are not programmed
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?
