A couple weeks ago, Beaumont's West Brook High School invited 800 black male students to a school-hours assembly. The freshmen, sophomores and juniors were divided by grade-level and heard intensive lectures about the importance of education, test scores, crime, family and gangs.
No white students were invited by the school administration. No females either. Only young black men.
Naturally, the Texas ACLU's ears perked up when it heard this. "On what basis is the conclusion being drawn that black people need some kind of special intervention and to what end is that intervention tailored?" legal director Lisa Graybill asked.
Many people voiced opinions pro and con in an Enterprise story today, but one of the students who attended the lectures was wisest:
"If only the white boys were pulled out of the class to go into an assembly, Al Sharpton would have knocked the door down," 17-year-old Brandon Nelson said. "But what they were saying to us needed to be said. The statistics are true -- a lot of African-Americans in jail, a lot of African-American crimes. They were just informing us about it. It needs to be addressed."
Nelson captured both the need and the contradiction. The facts genuinely point to a problem in the black community -- but are there no drifting white boys who dismiss school and family to embrace crime, drugs and gangs? And if school organizers are being surgical with their message, why include ALL black males, some of whom are already model students?
White males (and white and black females) face obstacles to success, too -- often the exact same ones facing black males. What specialized, better-life assemblies will be organized for them -- or does BISD not care for them equally?
We keep getting dragged back into the trap that the color of our skin defines who we are, often by people who purport to seeking a world where we are judged by the content of our character.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Black and White: West Brook's black male-only event raises eyebrows and hackles
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34 Gator-baiters:
I suspect the people who held this conference had taken a look at their school dropout rates and decided to address the most highly represented group. Port Arthur schools should probably do the same thing, except they should include the girls. Separating the genders for a confab such as this seems like a good idea. If you had lived 16 or 17 years and no one in your home ever told you NOT to drop out of school. NOT to have unprotected sex with anyone, NOT to take up the thug life as a lifestyle, and DO learn how to adjust to the things life will expect of you, how could that be a bad thing? There is pretty good evidence that indicates lack of information at home is leaving these young men and women with a big stupidity quotient.
We have teenagers who have working or absent parents and these kids are left to gather ideas about life from Tv, YouTube,Myspace and internet prowling. If no one ever teaches them that they will have to work for income, get married, support their family, not do drugs or anthing else that will land them in the pokey,why not let a pro-active school do it in an assembly?
Sounds like a good idea to me. I do think all the students should have been included and maybe they will some day soon. What's the downside?
BISD is the main reason why Beaumont will never be more than it is and why it will decline further. When your public school system goes, so does your city. People who have their kids in the private schools should be concerned as the effects of a poor public schools system have ramifications much further than simply schools in a community. Those in administration and on the board should be ashamed that they don't demand more from themselves.
This would not happen in Vidor
This would not happen in Vidor
No good deed goes unpunished.
We see the consequences of not having programs such as this. Google the stats on crime among young black males in this country and then offer criticism.
At least West Brook is concerned about the problem and is offering help. Do the critics have a better plan?
anne asked "WHATS THE DOWNSIDE?" Are you kidding me? Reverse this, if whites had a program, any program, that excludes blacks and people would have a STROKE! Al Sharpton, Jesse, Quannell X and all the other hate filled punks would just blow up, and CNN, etc. would bi here with cameras rolling. There would be lawsuits out the gazoo, and black mobs in the streets. Geeze, think.
They should have given this lecture in middle school. High school is too late.
In my day they did separate genders for the lecture no one wanted to attend or hear...no one seemed to have a problem with it. I'm sure most parents were relieved that they didn't have to explain the birds and the bees.
The problem with parents these days is they either don't give a damn about their kids or they try to micro-manage the kids lives.
It's not the first time that they've had targeted assemblies.
My thoughts are scheduled to be posted on the horribly neglected Through our eyes at 2:00 PM.
Some of you are crazy! A program created to help the future is a bad thing? So WHAT if whites would get chastised for doing the same thing? That's not a problem that any of us can deal with. It's a double-standard. But don't blame the teachers at West Brook for hating what they've been seeing in the recent decades. Violence, Crime, Drugs. Yes, every race goes through it, but don't be blind. Black americans face these problems more often because their culture breeds it with the music, fashion, and thug life. If it can be curtailed, by all means do so! Don't bastardize it by saying "White people would get hell from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton."
What the young black men need most is advice on coping with the future they will have in prison.
It is a good place for them.
Sounds to me like these folks were genuinely trying to help at risk students. When I was in school, girls were seperated out from boys to have a "becoming a woman" confab. Doesn't anyone see these boys might find it easier to be open and talk away from white boys or from girls? There may be other groups they need to pull out and focus on, but don't beat them up for attempting to take a positive first step. As far as including boys that didn't seem to be at risk in the meeting, they may have had insights to offer the others. They could be seen as peer role models.
The young man in the article was exactly right though about everything being reversed if they had addressed all white males alone. There's just too much hypersensitivity to old, bad crap that happened. If you are too scared of snakes, every single pine limb on the ground in the woods will look like a rattler to you.
What I want to know is why don't they ever have the phone company come in and teach these kids (all kids) telephone ettiquet anymore? They use phones more than ever these days, but very few seem to know the proper way.
I agree with BISD.We need to go back to the ways that work! Like WHITES ONLY AND BLACK ONLY!Where everything was understood!People knew there places! That way when BISD has there little Junior Panther Party The Whites can have there little David Duke Gospel Hour and Everyone is happy!Heres a QUOTE ( Why cant we just all get along?) By the other King!Working on a chain gang was there main topic at BISD Meeting!INNE MINEE MINNEE MOE!Who will be elected noone knows?
I agree with BISD.We need the old ways back! LIke Whites Only and Black Only!That way when BISD holds there monthly Junior Black Panther Party noone will be upset A good Quote by a Drunkerd ( Why cant we all just get along?)By the other King.Just as popular if not richer but done pissed off his money.
I love these idiots who feel the need to explain their literary references.
Hey, Benjy: I sorta saw it the same way. I am left wondering if he actually read the novel, or did he only see the movie.
It doesn't matter what you do, if it involves blacks there's gonna be "racism". I'm still waiting on the boycotting of black colleges.
I grew up in SE Texas, and whenever I come home I see that the racial divide is still there (along with a lot of the country). This area doesn't need another reason to have racial tensions. No state run school should be segregated in any way! This could have been done off campus. The article also brings up the comparison of all girl meetings to all African American meetings. Is Beaumont ready for the gender identity argument as well?
Come on, people! Cut some slack here. You are dealing with a race of humanoids which is 500,000 years behind in evolution.
Do some research on the "Out of Africa Theory,” which, for obvious reasons, is not widely disseminated.
When you match their superior physique with the superior white brain, you have one hell of a race --- which is probably in the cards for both races.
When it comes down to physical beauty, the black females are head and shoulders above white women --- a fact being recognized by more and more white males.
Besides, they could really teach white women a thing or two about screwing.
Soooooooooo -- if we keep 25% of black males in prison during their prime breeding years, we kill two birds with one stone.
Get it, Tom Robinson? Kill two mockingbirds with one stone!
Gee, a more dour view of humanity than even I can muster.
I bet if we could pop the top on your cranium, "Charles Darwin", it would be one ugly sight to behold.
Tell ya what, S. Let's pop the top of yours first --- since it's your idea. If you care to offer something substantive (which should be a first for you) then goes for it.
As usual, you offer nothing but criticism --- and a few fancy words. Do you actually know the meanings of those big words you enjoy tossing about?
S doesn't understand that when you attack the messenger instead of his message, you display a very shallow intellect.
It makes no difference how many big vocabulary words you lay on us.
as long as he puts somebody else down he thinks it makes himself look important and more intelligent than he really is. he dont know when to shut up.
To address Thomas Huxley directly:
What big words?
Cranium?
Humanity?
I'm so sorry that those rather ordinary words challenge you. Perhaps you should sue the school district who was responsible for your education.
To "anonymous", you are ridiculous. What does that mean "I attack the messenger and not the message"? They are one and the same. Is that some kind of "politically correct" nonsense?
Eric: I am smarter than you are.
In fact, you three nitwits don't recognize ideas that are in nature Nazi thought.
I guess Mein Kemf would be a "good read" for you three buffoons.
You can try and intellectualize racism but it still makes you a racist.
And, in this case misogynist, as well.
Really, S. No one but yourself gives a shit.
You are one messed up dude!
Oh, really?
Three people defend your disgusting statements that are on a blog on the internet for all the world to read and you say no one but me "gives a shit".
And you sign your post "darwin, et al" like you speak for the whole chorus of buffuni in question.
You think you are superior to some dumb redneck that (perhaps unintentionally) ironically uses the title "To Kill a Mockingbird" to preface his racists remarks but in fact you are probably the vilest of the two...
What a pat world you live in....
To the self-proclaimed smartest person in the room:
That's "Mein Kampf," not "Mein Kemf."
To directly address S.
Aside from attacking individuals with your poisonous rhetoric, what have you contributed to this discussion? Nothing.
You choose your words as weapons, rather than their ability to express ideas --- of which you have communicated none.
You are reminiscent of the high school debater who savages his opponent with words he doesn’t fully comprehend.
The "S" stands for "savant". As in "idiot savant". For your own mental health, someone needs to confiscate your dictionary.
Hey, Sssseeeeh!
We have all been there. You are frustrated with your job, the wife has filed for divorce, and you come home and start drinking (and smoking).
After that 5th glass of Gallo's fine table wine, you become bullet proof and Teflon coated.
Only I don't think this guy was drunk. Either way, he needs to keep taking the meds prescribed by his shrink.
Hey dictionary man! Look up "meg·a·lo·ma·ni·ac" in your Funk and Wagnalls.
Retarded lizard!
S, just so you know, I find your comments entertaining. People who don't catch your sarcasm or are offended by your intellect aren't worth worrying about...
And I often feel the same way you do, I just don't always blog it in.
What else are blogs good for if not to stir things up? And you do a great job of that! Blow these misogynists off (and by the way, I got that, too).
An idiot savant does not need any LSD.
Benjy, I said I was smarter than Eric which would probably only require an I.Q of over 100.
However, I am really distressed that I mangled the title of a book, especially great literature like Hiltler's autobiography...
...and we still have the election season to look forward to, msd!
Yes, kids of any race can end up doing drugs, going to jail, etc when there's a lack of "parental" involvement... whether that comes from a parent, aunt or uncle, grandparent, or some other adult in their life. But I don't think white kids, in general, face quite so many negative cultural influences. Even taking any of the "what the media teaches kids" argument out of it, there are many black kids in school today who, no matter how intelligent or talented they are, are getting the message that they'll never do any better than various siblings, cousins, and other relatives who have been in and out of jail, or been living on welfare for a couple of decades while being married to someone who goes in and out of jail. And if the lecture was on statistics within the black population, and what causes so many people within one racial group to make such bad choices in life, then I can't see why students of any other race should be there. If the lecture was just on statistics on crime, drop-out rates, etc without addressing any particular segment of the population, then I'd wonder why only black kids were targeted with it.
I'm only 30 years old, and I remember being friends with a black girl in middle school who was teased relentlessly by other black kids because she "talked white". Her mother had taught her to respect herself and her education by pronouncing words properly, and other black kids did their best to make her feel she was doing something wrong that way. I also remember a black student who sat next to me in algebra (at West Brook, in fact) and could do the math with nearly no effort. He was a kind person who cheered me up when I got frustrated with the work, and he did his best to explain things to me a little more clearly so that I could do the work, too. Outside of the classroom, he didn't "act like he was smart". He was a completely different person then, so as not to end up being ridiculed, and I saw on the news that he'd been arrested for being involved in an armed robbery a few years after he graduated.
Most white kids I've known don't face being ridiculed for being smart. In most cases I've seen, if they come from a family that hasn't achieved much overall when it comes to education and good jobs, that "smart kid" is seen as a ray of hope in the family. That makes a big difference.
Attitudes like "high school is too late for this" and "they just need to be prepared for their life in prison" don't help do anything about the problem. They just feed the problem. My husband is from Camden, NJ, and that's exactly what he describes happening there. It's the "most dangerous city in America" because very few care about education and improving their life. Very few care because no one is encouraging them to do it, and don't respond well to someone who does want to do better. He joined the Marine Corps to get out and give himself a chance in life. I'd really hate to see my home, SE Texas, come to the point where people feel the only hope is leaving.
To Nyx (spoken as an idiot savant while smoking pot): Nyx, baby, it has often been said that there is a novel in each of us --- in which case, I reckon you just wrote yours.
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