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[SonnyBoy]

If you truly study this issue, the fatherless home definitely stems back to slavery when they were breaking up the family structure and the mother became the matriarch. That’s where this whole idea of the mammy came from, which was a way for white society further emasculate the black man.

I mean, that's if yall REALLY wanna talk about the root cause of this issue. Keep blaming rap music though, that'll fix it. LOL

 

[goodfella]

The most recent unemployment data shows black males leading the pack once again with an unemployment rate averaging between 16% and 18%, over double the unemployment rates for white and Asian males, and higher than the female unemployment rate across all ethnic groups.

My God.

For a bonus piece of data, black males are also dropping the ball with regard to parenting. As of 2009, 67% of black children in the U.S. are raised by a single parent, and in nearly every case it's a single mother.

Ok, that's genuinely shocking.

 

[ReBurn]

Is that supposed to make me feel better? Honestly I have NEVER seen an article posted about black people in OT that was positive, not even once. Every single one that gets posted here is negative.

So affect change and post some.

 

[SmokyDave]

Is that supposed to make me feel better? Honestly I have NEVER seen an article posted about black people in OT that was positive, not even once. Every single one that gets posted here is negative.

So, post one?

Tbh, what does GAF even know about Black people, from what they see on TV or WSHH?

Yeah, black people are like polar bears or something. There's no way that 'GAF' has ever met one in real life, I bet that 'GAF' just pretends to have black friends.

 

[piddledy]

Tbh, what does GAF even know about Black people, from what they see on TV or WSHH?

And I'm surprised more people aren't made squeamish by being forced to generalize about an entire race in a country of 300 million.

 

[DrFunk]

So, post one?


Yeah, black people are like polar bears or something. There's no way that 'GAF' has ever met one in real life, I bet that 'GAF' just pretends to have black friends.

Wouldn't surprise me at all

 

[dave is ok]

If you truly study this issue, the fatherless home definitely stems back to slavery when they were breaking up the family structure and the mother became the matriarch. That’s where this whole idea of the mammy came from, which was a way for white society further emasculate the black man.

I don't buy this. It's easy to blame history for something, its hard to actually stick around and be a father.

 

[BruiserBear]

have a fair number of friends (all female, oddly enough) who are teachers in NYC who are exasperated by this, since they're nearly unable to get through to their students. the issue is cultural, compounded by peer pressure and the absence of quality parenting.

THIS is the core of the problem. You could throw billions at this and it's not going to change until things change in people's homes.

I feel like many black people want to live in a black world, surrounded by only black culture. I've had many black co-workers over the years who only seemed interested in black music, black movies, and black television shows. Everything else was irrelevant.


However, every white person I know loved the Cosby show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, 227, Sanford and Sons, etc. I knows tons of white people who love musics from lots of black musicians, movie stars etc.

 

[open_mouth_]

So honest question: what happened to the optimism following the civil rights movement?

That was a step in the right direction, but in addition to that step, you need to continue the momentum in that direction to reach lasting change... as history shows, the movement slowed to a crawl before being completely tripped up and derailed.

 

[Veidt]

Fix family dynamics.
Fix gender roles.
I honestly believe that gender roles should be a taught thing in school.
Not meaning that 'women do this', 'men do that'.
But in the sense that children of both genders don't have to aspire to the things that the media and peer pressure constantly burdens them with.

 

[Londa]

I could think up situations as to what would improve family life and success for blacks but instead I'll just say what I will do to help out the black community. I plan to become a mentor for one or more young black female's, possibly in my mid 30s or 40s.

I think that if each person did their part, things would get better. Part of the problem is when some black people get successful they forget about the problems hanging over the black community as a whole and just worry about their success and happiness. Sadly, there is a lot of selfishness going on.

 

[AiTM]

If you truly study this issue, the fatherless home definitely stems back to slavery when they were breaking up the family structure and the mother became the matriarch. That’s where this whole idea of the mammy came from, which was a way for white society further emasculate the black man.

I mean, that's if yall REALLY wanna talk about the root cause of this issue. Keep blaming rap music though, that'll fix it. LOL

So its ingrained in the black mans DNA to run from his children, something the evil white man bio-engineered hundreds of years ago? Is that what you are saying?

 

[The Incarnation]

When you haven't got a Father around or even a good teacher for that matter expressing their disappointment in you (When you do something foolish), you grow up having no one to please other than your peers, and thus don't seek improvement in other areas.

IF your social circumstances aren't that great then you're pretty much fucked.

 

[JGS]

Tbh, what does GAF even know about Black people, from what they see on TV or WSHH?

Black Gaf overall is doing good anyway (I think) so the simple fact we don't see issues amongst them(us) is not a bad sign.

News articles about black people that aren't Obama or celebs are often negative. It not really the fault of the thread maker nor should it be the intent to have our heads in the sand when the evidence is overwhelming.

 

[BruiserBear]

If you truly study this issue, the fatherless home definitely stems back to slavery when they were breaking up the family structure and the mother became the matriarch. That’s where this whole idea of the mammy came from, which was a way for white society further emasculate the black man.

I mean, that's if yall REALLY wanna talk about the root cause of this issue. Keep blaming rap music though, that'll fix it. LOL

If you truly study this issue you'd see you could not be more wrong.


In the 50's/60's, black families were every bit as tight as white families. Somewhere around the beginning of the 70's things changed, and have only gotten worse since.

 

[ScOULaris]

Sociologist, Elijah Anderson created this book called the “Code of The Streets,” which explains black youth in the inner city. In the article you will find that black youth are often left to fend for themselves due to the absence of their father and often times their mother due to the moms working 2-3 jobs or being addicted to some sort of drug/s. The males are left to completely be on their own with no social controls/structure. A lot of times, they have to take care of younger siblings or the men in their neighborhoods become their role models, which leads them to take other routes that don’t include school.

There's no question that inner-city schools bring the average down for the whole demographic, but this seems to be a socio-cultural problem across the board. Even in suburban schools where most of the black students have a healthy home life, black students graduate the least and have the most discipline issues. I work in Florida, and there is currently a class-action lawsuit against my school district accusing schools of suspending too many black students as compared to other ethnicities. They are essentially claiming discrimination when the reality is that more black students are doing things that get them suspended. My wife and I both work at high-rated schools in upper-middle class areas, and go into any low-level remedial classroom and you'll see that the majority is made up of black male students.

So honest question: what happened to the optimism following the civil rights movement?

I've always wondered about this, but I guess the answer is right in front of our faces. The shift to civil rights for African Americans was a profound but gradual one. As the black population slowly found itself having more and more freedoms, it began to more freely adopt its own subculture. Unfortunately, since most African Americans were starting from the bottom (economically), a lot of them wouldn't be able to achieve the same things that others who had generations of freedom and education on their side. Of course, you also had lingering racism affecting things for a while there and the black community's desire to differentiate itself from the idea of the White Man.

So starting from a low point + trying to do things differently from the traditional "white" way of life (Education, Higher Education, career advancement... etc.) = a downward spiral that must make former civil rights activists cry themselves to sleep at night. I watched a documentary once about the first integrated school in the U.S. and how it has basically become socially segregated all over again. Not because of any regulation on part of the school, but rather the black students and white students naturally stuck with each other. One of the women who once attended the school during its early integration days and who put her well-being on the line in protest of the segregation was very disturbed by the backward progress at the school. You could sense her grief when she talked about the current state of things as compared to the envisioned progress after the civil rights movement. Pretty sad, and there is probably a whole generation of elderly black former activists who weep for the black youth of today.

 

[Londa]

If you truly study this issue you'd see you could not be more wrong.


In the 50's/60's, black families were every bit as tight as white families. Somewhere around the beginning of the 70's things changed, and have only gotten worse since.

It's called drugs and gang violence.

 

[ChocolateCupcakes]

So honest question: what happened to the optimism following the civil rights movement?

Entitlement happened.

 

[BruiserBear]

It's called drugs and gang violence.

OK, but why did that suddenly strike the black community around the beginning of the 70's? Because prior to that the social divide among races was far closer than it is today.

 

[SonnyBoy]

So its ingrained in the black mans DNA to run from his children, something the evil white man bio-engineered hundreds of years ago? Is that what you are saying?

The emasculation of the black man was engineered during slavery. The emasculation of the black man is still an issue in black society. But yall can keep blaming rap music.

I'm not saying that every issue that plagues blacks is coming from slavery. But that is the starting to point and to ignore what was done, does not give u a complete understanding of what's going on today.

 

[SmokyDave]

If you truly study this issue you'd see you could not be more wrong.


In the 50's/60's, black families were every bit as tight as white families. Somewhere around the beginning of the 70's things changed, and have only gotten worse since.

The birth of Crack and its associated violence filled economy?

Was that the 70's?

Edit: Beaten by Londa.

 

[spindashing]

I knew that the numbers would be low but I had no idea they would be that low. Pretty depressing, if you ask me.

Tbh, what does GAF even know about Black people, from what they see on TV or WSHH?

I've personally never met "the black people." They could be a myth but apparently there's always something wrong with them.

 

[Londa]

OK, but why did that suddenly strike the black community around the beginning of the 70's? Because prior to that the social divide among races was far closer than it is today.

cops and the government releasing it on the streets targeting it to the black community.

 

[Shanadeus]

1. What is the most significant contributing factor here?

Perceived notions of what black males should be/are both within the black community and outside of it.

2. What, if anything, can be done about this?

Multiple-approach measure; targeting both the sub-standard education in the areas with most black people, more job-opportunities for both educated/uneducated in these areas created either directly by the gov or indirectly through incentives or anonymous interview measures, and removal of the black month in american education - making it part of the general education so as to better legitimize the notion that blacks are part of america.

 

[dave is ok]

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dXxfjtLiNqc/RxYmNHbacVI/AAAAAAAAAiw/qLg9NpruIQs/s320/Bill+Cosby.jpg[img][/QUOTE]


What is that picture supposed to be?

I can't see shit on my end.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

Anti-intellectualism. Performing well in school is sometimes seen as 'acting white' and therefore terribly uncool. I'm sure there are a million other reasons.

67% coming from single parent homes is a crazy number.

Coming from a single parent family who lived in (at the time) one of the ghetto places in London, where my sister is a teacher (30, BSc + MSc), mother is a retired social worker (66, BSc + MSc), older son = sales area manager (36, no further education after college) and her younger son (me) is a sysadmin (26, BSc + MSc), I can say that that most of the 67% of single parent families need a much more stronger force of parenting and a stronger understanding of the importance of education.

Myself and my bro were the black sheep, suspended from school, fights/assaults, robberies, kicked out of the house, etc, we both believe that ultimately letting mum down was our biggest antidote for failure (or success, you know what I mean!). She always helped us, although not financially as we were pretty poor. But as we slowly grew up we kinda understood our ways were not right by looking at others around us, uncles and aunties, etc. I finished GSCEs with 4 D's as my highest marks, but I saw my mum doing her best in education at about 50 years old and it pushed me further to try and achieve my best in a education and in my career. At that time my brother had made the turn around so I looked up to him as someone to be like. He got the car, the woman, the job and all legitimately...so I felt like that's what I want to be like. From there I hit college, then uni, then got the grad job, started earning some cash, went back to do my masters. From here on our I feel more motivated and I will definitely pass that down to my kids. A positive trickle

From here I think that we need to place a stronger understanding on the importance of self worthiness. It's a negative trickle effect from living in a slum, being around people who have a mentality of wanting to stay in the slum, which in turn means they don't care how they carry themselves in everyday life let alone education; something that so many can easily cop out of nor do they care about the people around them

The importance of education needs to be drilled into the youth from a younger age and the association with education and success needs to be connected and well advertised. I am a HUGE hip-hop fan but I don't think enough of these guys are telling kids to go the proper route to being successful. They see Rick Ross shining and driving these cars and think what he says in his songs are true: "you can be where I am by doing illegal things in the hood". We need stronger and more loud role models sponsoring school activities rather than the latest alcohol drink, or large booty woman

There's so much more, I probably haven't even made my point well enough, but at work right now.

 

[ScOULaris]

What is that picture supposed to be?

I can't see shit on my end.

It's just a picture of Bill Cosby in big black sunglasses. Don't ask me. *shrugs*

 

[DrFunk]

I think the most distressing aspect about this image is the fact that his comments actually upset many in the black community...it was quite a sight.

Truth hurts.

 

[BruiserBear]

cops and the government releasing it on the streets targeting it to the black community.

I hope you're not being serious.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

 

[dave is ok]

It's just a picture of Bill Cosby in big black sunglasses. Don't ask me. *shrugs*

He went on Oprah and dished out the following statistics in 2007:

1. At least a third of all homeless men are African-American.

2. African-Americans make up 12 percent of the general population, but they account for almost half of the prison population.

3. According to the U.S. Justice Department, 28 percent of black men born today will go to prison in their lifetimes.

4. Black youth are six times more likely to die of homicide than white youth and seven times more likely to commit a homicide.

5. Homicide is the leading cause of death among African-American males ages 15-29.

And was promptly ostracized by the black community for calling attention to these issues.

 

[Houston3000]

There was a thread a little while ago about an article that had similar trappings. This article was suggesting that there's an issue of successful black women intentionally avoiding men outside of their race for social reasons - since black women are statistically, on average, more successful than their male counterparts this usually led to very imbalanced marriages. There's still a strong stigma amongst the black community against interracial relationships, especially when it comes to black woman. I think that if that stigma was abolished there'd be an overall decrease in these negative statistics... at least to some degree.

Successful black women should just be marrying successful black men - if they can't do that then marry a white man, an asian man, whatever. Don't settle for some "gangsta thug" just because he's black as well. Basically, let the under-performing be weeded out naturally... that's not to say don't help who's already here but change the trend. Unfortunately a large part of the African American community is under the impression that they need to keep their blood "pure" so that they're "pure" black population continues to grow.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

1. What is the most significant contributing factor here?

Perceived notions of what black males should be/are both within the black community and outside of it.

2. What, if anything, can be done about this?

Multiple-approach measure; targeting both the sub-standard education in the areas with most black people, more job-opportunities for both educated/uneducated in these areas created either directly by the gov or indirectly through incentives or anonymous interview measures, and removal of the black month in american education - making it part of the general education so as to better legitimize that blacks are part of america.

This too

We never learnt a single thing about black culture in 5 years of school (in UK it's 11-16, not too sure what that is in USA)

 

[Londa]

I hope you're not being serious.

why do you say that?

I think the most distressing aspect about this image is the fact that his comments actually upset many in the black community...it was quite a sight.

Truth hurts.

do you have a link to this video?

 

[The Incarnation]

Love to hear an opinion of a Black African by the way, instead of the western views.

Because I view them over here and I don't see these problems, nor do I hear them complaining about Ghanian women or men this and that.

 

[Londa]

Love to hear an opinion of a Black African by the way, instead of the western views.

Because I view them over here and I don't see these problems, nor do I hear them complaining about Ghanian women or men this and that.

The OP is not talking about Africans its talking about Black Americans. Its an American issue.

Maybe there should be a thread about African culture. I would read it.

 

[CajoleJuice]

Short black males must have it especially rough.

 

[ScOULaris]

Love to hear an opinion of a Black African by the way, instead of the western views.

Because I view them over here and I don't see these problems, nor do I hear them complaining about Ghanian women or men this and that.

Africans have nothing to do with this conversation. We're not talking about something inherently wrong with anybody who has black skin, but rather a cultural problem associated with the African American population in America.

 

[JGS]

2. What, if anything, can be done about this?

Multiple-approach measure; targeting both the sub-standard education in the areas with most black people, more job-opportunities for both educated/uneducated in these areas created either directly by the gov or indirectly through incentives or anonymous interview measures, and removal of the black month in american education - making it part of the general education so as to better legitimize that blacks are part of america.

There's no real reason to do 2. It also implies that job creators are racist which isn't necessarily true. At this point primary blame rests on the balck community whether it's through their leaders, their actions as parents, their views toward education, or their attitude about what a good job is.

The Black History month would technically not be a bad idea exept that a large portion of history would involve simply addressing how white people dealt with civil rights. When schools don't even have time to go into detail about every president, they aren't going to devote more time to William Douglas. Basically, we will know blacks accomplished something but we will not familiarize ourselves with the names beyond Martin Luther King Jr.

Basically American History is white history so a month to reflect on the accomplishments of blacks is still kind of needed so as not to be swallowed by the rest of history. Maybe they could pick a day a week to adress Black history or something, but it needs to be distinct for now.

 

[DrFunk]

why do you say that?




do you have a link to this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sP7iBR96lo

Edit: actual speech was here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGqlrVmVULc&feature=related

 

[Joel Was Right]

It's a multi-facted problem. The biggest factor for academic achievement/excellence amongst young people are their parents, but this is difficult for a family with low income and a single parent to push upon their children. It is especially difficult when there is a youth culture that undervalues and even ridicules the use of intellect for anything other than 'easy money' - breeding an environment where they are more familiar with tales of prison life, police abuse of power, drugs and where to get weapons than they are Pythagoras' Theorem.

In short, there are too many negative distractions and influences that draw these kids away from classrooms. All their friends are outside on their yard and hanging out at night. They see some with Range Rovers, jewellry and money and they got that without an A grade or certificate. The pursuit of that, over their faltering school work, is naturally deemed more favourable for their prospects. This lifestyle is then glamorised and validated through hip hop, the hustle - not the bachelor degree - being the goal to a better life.

The problems are not at school but away from it. That is where the solution must be found. It's too easy saying the mother needs to do more. My only suggestion is that these kids need to find learning enjoyable from a young age so they don't lose faith in themselves or the value of an education, because ultimately that is what leads them to the streets.

 

[crazy monkey]

Love to hear an opinion of a Black African by the way, instead of the western views.

Because I view them over here and I don't see these problems, nor do I hear them complaining about Ghanian women or men this and that.

Students in my class from AFrica( congo, sudan and botswana ) All three were amazing. One is becoming doctor other two are in engineering. Guy from congo was so down to earth and amazing friend.

 

[Bleepey]

Man SSJgoku i don't know what his proper name is and i could post so many videos on this but anyhow here is my 2 cents on the issue. I think there needs to be an importance of family, stable structure and parents in the home who give a shit. More shit like this.. I feel what is needed is a change in culture and family. I remember lookiing back at my time in secondery school and finding it funny that the strereotype was that black guys underperformed because at my school, Nigerians were the best performing group (according to my headmaster) and the Ghanians were not too far ebhind. Pretty much every Nigerian in my 6th form in their A levels did 2-3 subjects out of the 4/5 we chose that were either science, maths or economics. The reason was that our parents mostly gave a shit and there was an importance of education.That said there was still the same bullshit about acting white cos someone was corny or whatever. Shit's fucking regressive as fuck and you'd hear that shit form people who'd go on to get top of their class at medical school. i think at times middle class kids who said shit like that were over-compensating in a way to make up for the fact they lived in middle-class backgrounds and /orthey watched too much fresh prince. Looking abck at the Fresh prince episodes i remember how in the later seasons the acting white shit seemed to stop after a while probably because the creators and producers started to seethe problems that sort of attitude could have. But anyhow i keep going on the tangets that leave my psots a barely coherent mess.

Another thing i remmebr, my old chemistry teacher was really pissed off with a black MP who said the reason was because there were not enough black teachers and too many old, white, women teachers were not able to properly motivate young black boys. My school had no black teachers throughout pretty much my whole time there. Like none and yet Nigerians and Ghanians still did very well. In my time there was at least one black college captain and probably a couple more vice captains. I don't buy the argument for a "lack of black teachers" or lessons not being black-centric enough. It's parents, attitude and company that you keep that are the main reasons.


A good example of this was a guy I remember that lived about 5 minutes from me. We both came from similar single-parent backgrounds and we were in the same class for the first year. We competed a lot in the first year academically and we got similar good grades and we were moved to the top set in the second year of secondery school. He then started to fall off. He started to hang out with guys who were more into the street shit than academics and he underperformed greatly in his GCSE exams. I am almost certain he's got a criminal record and i doubt he went to uni. I on the other hand am now doing my masters at a great school but in a lot of ways it's kinda sad what came of him. I saw him on a night iout and i told him that i was doing my masters and he was happy for me but i didn't wanna ask him what he was doing cos i feared if he answered honestly i would not like the asnwer i'd hear. In some ways i am kinda happy my mum was overprotective of me and i was never allowed out to anywhere but church and the library during my teens but i saw quite a few guys fall off. I know one guy who was from a really upper-middle class Nigerian background and i don't know what the hell went on there. His parents were educated, he came from a upper middle class background but i know he fel into soem dumb shit. My little brother is a straight A student at present but at times i am really worried about him. I need to give him a long lecture or two when i can.

EDIt: It seems that in the US Africans do better than Asian Americans and Nigerians do pretty much the best.

Education

Estimates indicate that a disproportionate percentage of black students at elite universities are immigrants or children of immigrants. Nigerian immigrants have the highest education attainment level in the United States, surpassing every other ethnic groups in the country, according to U.S Bureau Census data. [4] Harvard University, for example, has estimated that more than one-third of its black student body consists of recent immigrants or their children, or were mixed race.[5] Other top universities, such as Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Duke and Berkeley, report a similar pattern.[6] As a result, there is a question whether affirmative action programs adequately serve African Americans who are descendants of American slaves.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Americans

 

[talisayNon]

Tbh, what does GAF even know about Black people, from what they see on TV or WSHH?

I learn about black people through GAF- so they're nerds that love anime and never get laid.

 

[Londa]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sP7iBR96lo

Edit: actual speech was here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGqlrVmVULc&feature=related

Thank yoooouuuu

 

[BruiserBear]

why do you say that?

Because I believe that is an absurd conspiracy theory that belongs with the likes of "they blew up the New Orleans levees to flood the black neighborhoods".

 

[Joel Was Right]

Love to hear an opinion of a Black African by the way, instead of the western views.

Because I view them over here and I don't see these problems, nor do I hear them complaining about Ghanian women or men this and that.

The ones who didn't grow up here are the complete opposite in attitude, unsurprisingly. They are often very humble and incredibly hungry to learn, perhaps, because they know better than most the link between education and salary.

One guy I know does his a full time BSc whilst working 30 hours a week. On his lunch break, he would come to a lecture and after it was over, go straight back to work. It made me feel ashamed of myself to be honest.

 

[Lebron]

Waiting for SSJ to come in and blame black women.

bwahahaha

 

[Mammoth Jones]

We're behind the curve culturally. I mean, let's be real. The clock for black folks in America started ticking in 1964. Prior to that, there was an insane amount of social limitations in terms of what a black person could aspire to be. Where they could work. What jobs they could have. Where they could go to school. I know some people don't like history being brought up, but we do not live in a bubble where the past didn't impact out present. So I'm not going to pretend that centuries of being denied education/employment opportunities in the very country you're trying to live in isn't going to take a toll on a group of people. It's also a problem that existed for many generations. It stands to reason it's going to take a few generations to fix.

Throwing money won't fix it. As my momma told me when I was a kid..."You have to remember, you're black. There's just things people are going to assume about you because of the color of your skin. You're going to HAVE to work twice as hard for half as much".