SeeNew goes into more detail on current events or scientific ideas than even post-grad courses require,
Reggie is comical and conversational - while each point of view comes from someone Black, the focus is not on being Black.
Most people don't care about race to the point where everything revolves around race.
Most people just do what they do and sometimes ones race plays a role in determining his ability to perform such duties.
"Race" is not everything.
Most people agree that having an education helps when it comes to getting ahead.
But what is it to be 'educated' - and when is it just having a group of people able to repeat establishment approved memes?
(Hint; If you're not always learning or thinking, you're probably being left behind.)
If every Black person had a PhD in African American Studies from the current system of HBCU's - would every Black person be educated to the point of full employment?
I have no problem with HBCU's but IMOHO they may limit ones pool of resources.
If a kid grew up in the hood, always lived in the hood, always went to hood schools and then went to an HBCU - how well would that kid be prepared to compete for jobs or contracts on a national or global level?
(If a Black kid grew up in the suburbs, an HBCU would be a good place for him to learn that he is nothing special. That there are thousands more like him. An HBCU would enable him to understand that there is no fault in being Black.)
People associate with those which they have the most in common.
Many people complain of cronyism, but this happens on all levels of society.
People tend to favor those they know.
If the only people that know you are people from the hood - all of your cultural, social and financial benefits will come only from the hood.
This is fine.... if you want to stay in the hood.
Many people complain that they didn't get this contract or that job because they are Black.
This might be true... to a point.
Back in the day, I had a job interview at which I spoke of little more than correcting the slice on my golf swing.
The guy had a Pebble Beach hat tossed on an office chair which signaled to me that he may enjoy an occasional day out on the links.
"My girl lives at Spyglass.", I said to the guy.
"Really? Do you get out much?", he asked.
"About once a week... but I suck"., I answered.
"Dude, my slice is so bad that I end up at Spanish Bay.", I continued.
"I'm alright in tennis, I swam on a swim team for about eight years, but I can't seem to get a decent golf swing.", I said.
We then went on to talk about Hawaii, Hip Hop v. Alternative music, architecture, clothing designers..., everything but the job.
When employees and other applicants walked past the office and asked "You're thinking about getting John?", the big boss came down for a personal interview.
"Did you grow up in an affluent area?", the guy doing the interview asked.
"Sometimes.", I said as I gave a quick run down on my upbringing.
"Interesting. Cool.Okay.", the big boss said as the interview went on for about an hour an a half. (The interviews were scheduled for fifteen minutes each.)
He asked simple questions to which I gave clever but concise answers.
I knew that I could have this job just because these guys could see me being around them without having to make excuses for any social faux pas an Affirmative-Action hire might make.
These guys saw me as being one of them just because I had enough in common with them.
If you're Black and all of your education is in the field of "How to Be Black", you're probably not a viable candidate for many things other than being Black. (And there are 39 million other people in America who can do that.
22 comments:
This gave me a little chuckle. So the reverse of a white boy growing up around only whites and not having any interaction with other groups is just fine... because he's part of the masses and automatically is accepted?
If a Black person had a proper education in African American History they would realize that they don't need to fit in at all. The Asians do it and the Jews(if you count them as non-white)Just like I advocate just make money and the need for the masses disappear altogether. So it's not a negative to know "How to Be Black" As maybe if everyone knew how to be black they wouldn't believe that white people have that much power.
Maybe your interview was really to see if you were more like them and if you weren't they weren't going to let you in. I don't know how advocating that Blacks should learn whites is a benefit so we can get in or fit in.
Most Blacks are viable at being Black and building Black societies. And if there are 39 million more capable of doing that then we have limitless potential.
I agree it's not about race until one race says you have to be like them in order to prosper. Then it's in the best interest of the excluded race to build itself up to protect itself from those who say they aren't racist but have racial practices and try to convince you that it's normal.
Superb piece Uncle John, right on the mark.
I received my son's final 6th grade report card this past week, and he got straight B's broken up by one A.
His homeroom teacher and middle-school math instructor, is a senegalese brother rated the very best math teacher in the state of Missouri - based on measured student results for the past 6 years - brah'man say my boy has exceptional potential in mathematics, if he will only apply himself a little bit.
So our challenge this summer and all next year, is to help him flip that switch to get him to compete with himself for higher achievement in mathematics. If we can get him to apply himself diligently and hard in this subject, everything else is gravy.
I know a cat from Cali named Rick Flores who was everything you've described yourself as being over time. Dood excelled at math but you'd never know it or guess it in a million years because of his easy likability and frat boy swagger. He's a partner in a large and influential venture capital firm on the east coast now.
That's the path I'd like to see my son take. Outgoing, easy going, beloved by the ladies and friend to everyone he meets across the entire french and english speaking world, with a PhD in mathematics fueling his value proposition and ultimate access and exposure - wherever his deft social skills finally wind up taking him.
Nah uh, FreeMan... the white kid will also suffer unless he lives a completely isolated life. American demographics are changing to the point where knowing ones own culture is an asset but knowing ONLY ones culture is a liability.
@ SeeNew - Dude, I'm trying to get my young cousins to be the same way. Who wants to live a life filled with hurt and bitterness?
@UBJ - Yeah the demographics are changing but the same group holds the positions of power. So who cares about the guy in class with you in High School. We're talking about power here and if one group says power looks and sounds like us then demographic changes just gives them the chance to discriminate against Mexicans, Blacks and Asians.
Until these minorities have a real stake in the country they'll be the same as what's going on now in the South. A whole bunch of Black folks working at Chick Fil A but no Blacks in higher positions. Yay diversity now we can have Mexicans giving us chicken sandwiches with a pickle on it too.
Also, no one is hurt and bitter LOL as much as people see a CON and decide to call it what it is instead of saying it's best if we accept it so we can move forward. I don't know how knowing one's own history somehow handicaps them in life as much as I think it will empower them. This same empowerment will likely lead to less racism as they have proof that these guys aren't who they say they are.
So call me bitter but not hurt but damn I know so much about my race that I can be productive and still combat bigotry! Damn I'm talented. LOL
I didn't say YOU were bitter or hurt - it was a generalization.
Knowing ones history is the foundation - knowing how to aply it is the larger goal.
Most people don't care about power - only the power which affects them.
If a guy can gain power of his own life he'd be a lot better off.
Being able to tell Warren Buffet how to invest has less effect than does being able to tell ones suppliers when, where and what one wants.
You and I both know that we didn't go to school in Mozambique to learn from those from Africa to be able to compete in America - we went to American schools so we could learn the American rules so we could use these to our advantage.
I know you weren't talking to me in particular. I just decided to run with it.
We west to American schools because we had to and to become socialized. School just conditioned me to get rewarded for fulfilling expectations of someone else in power. This is no different than a seal that claps for a fish.
Ones culture can teach them a different way of thinking combined with the propaganda to manipulate people. If it wasn't for my separate upbringing, the street and being good at school I would be any other old Nerd who is happy to be smart in Math. Instead of learning to use my knowledge for myself I would've been happy to be pimped for the sake of recognition and BS awards.
Which is the point of the Adidas>Nike>Under Armour>Adidas post.
Now you realize that Most kids at Morehouse didn't come from black neighborhoods right?
Its a bit more like a Mormon back east sending his kids to BYU. It would be nice to have some time in a place wher the kid isnt the "only one".
Odds are, any black kid outside of a few pockets in America, there will be no shortage of "experience" with whites.
I have much less issue with an HBCU than I do our own dinner tables.
When TSHTF, what use is an afrodemic "scholar" - or for that matter - the entire institutional infrastructure of afrodemic scholarship?
How many jobs has this sector created?
Right about now, the most useful thing an afrodemic scholar could do for me is to put together a comprehensive program in grandma-tech studies - cause grandma-tech got folks through some exceedingly rough times, the kind of times folks find themselves in today and that they honestly don't know how to deal with with pluck, ingenuity, and dignity.
@Brohammas - I realize that and I agree it's like sending them home for a second. I grew up in a all Black neighborhood and when I visit HBCU it is a great opportunity for someone like me to see that all Black people aren't the way I saw them. It would've provided role models and gave me different experiences in my own race.
@CNU - When has a European Scholar produced jobs? That sector doesn't produce jobs it just educates. There isn't a job for a history major in this world except maybe librarian. So GTFO with a producing job angle.
Just because you don't see the value doesn't mean it isn't valuable. You talked earlier about getting your son to be a mathematician and become a likable person. Now I see that as a waste because what's the use of having all that knowledge just to be at a damn job. What the use of having a gun just to show other people you accumulate them.
It's always funny to me that we as Blacks can learn all this European history and then turn around and say ours is useless. If it wasn't valuable why would we have History class our whole life? Someone must think it's important and just because you can't see any redeeming value ....just think about who you count as your heroes. All the propaganda in your head right now is because they pushed their history on you and of course you see it as valuable because to you it's a benefit to know the masses and blend in.
There is a value in knowing oneself. The jews know theirselves and their history and so do the mormons. I don't think the Mormon faith produces jobs from the masses either but they still learn. And in their group there are scholars who teach their history to their own. Maybe we just need a scholar who writes books detailing our history or children books introducing our history. Maybe that's the value and since no one is doing it the value is being rich from providing this to 42 million Black folks.
DF, I appreciate the nod, but there is a wealth of books written to, for, and about black history. The problem is the only ones who read them are the same ones who write them.
CNU, if we had more afrodemics actually communicating across racial lines, especially in politics, then the mass of white people might have half a clue why a black person can, or would, flirt with "socialist" ideas and not need to make knee jerk comparisons to the USSR.
Marxism and modern advocacy for thosein poverty is NOT the same thing, but it may take someoene with some African-Americana knowledge to parse that out... I wish someone would.
lol,
DF - you trying MUCH too hard to make a case where none exists.
There are three generations of uneducated, unemployed, and largely ineducable ignants - TODAY - where 60 + years ago even the uneducated knew and strove to be respectable, self-sufficient, and/or employed.
Now I'm not arguing that afrodemic scholarship is the root cause of all these ignants, rather, I'm stating the obvious fact that afrodemic scholarship holds no solutions to the problem what.so.ever.
As far as all the rest of your infantile gas goes, son, I've forgotten more about this subject than you.will.ever.be.able.to.learn - so it's not even a question of whether I value the knowledge and information, rather, it's simply a case of being objective about how much it's worth as a practical matter.
As a practical matter, a multilingual holder of an advanced degree or advanced degrees in higher mathematics will be self-sufficient, employable, and employed wherever he finds himself worldwide.
A holder of an advanced degree in ANY afrodemic subject matter will simply find his silly ass in debt and looking for a job at Walmart or Chik-Fil-A..., that era is over and collectively speaking, Black folk in America have scant little to show for it.
CNU, if we had more afrodemics actually communicating across racial lines, especially in politics, then the mass of white people might have half a clue why a black person can, or would, flirt with "socialist" ideas and not need to make knee jerk comparisons to the USSR.
Marxism and modern advocacy for thosein poverty is NOT the same thing, but it may take someoene with some African-Americana knowledge to parse that out... I wish someone would.
Brohammas, that's the majority of what most practicing afrodemic scholars do nowadays, Take for example my friend Prof. "Chauncy de Vega" http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2011/05/trying-to-cut-promo-whiteness-talks.html. Along with outreach, there is of course the professional striving for increasing status as "public" intellectuals.
But actually trying to educate and explain things to a mass of people who have bought into a simplified and propagandistic reference frame is a Sisyphean task.
In addition to that, there is the full Oprah Winfrey effect to contend with, as well. Here's the problem as my friend ProfGeo pointed out during Black history month. http://theothertwofifths.blogspot.com/2011/01/everyone-should-post-mlk-item-heres.html
Black Americans have in the main come down on the side of militarism and materialism instead of the Christian humanism preached by MLK. The era of the "least of these thy brethren" moral high-ground formerly occupied by Black folk in America has been over for a couple of generations, and nothing and no one more clearly signifies that than the Hon.Bro.Preznit Double-O-bama.
Not only has contemporary advocacy for those in poverty fallen into disfavor, notice Newt Gingrich's slander of Double-O as the "foodstamp president" - contemporary advocacy for creativity, scholarship, and performance has fallen by the wayside, as well.
@CNu, I am aware of the blogs you cite and the people,I have a diversified blogstalking portfolio, and while I cede the point that most practicing afrodemics appear to be attempting cross-cultural communication... I say "eh, only sorta."
The wealth of information and scholars or bloggers writing, do so for theinterested and the listening... which is not always the demographic most in need of learning.
Yes this is normally the case with any group in need of learning on any given subject or issue, but with black white race relations in America, the unneducated mass plays a HUGE role in the reality of the nminority.
Simple example: the very term "white privelege" being used at all.
Any white person who needs educating will not understand the term as you and I do, and whill absolutely resist and resent the term. Why? because they are blind to the privilege. Most white folks I know are in fact working very hard to get by (just like most black folk I know)and they in no way feel like they enjoy privilege. that word in their (our) mind connotes a silver spoon and Rolls Royce. So when one says "white privilege" white dude thinks spoiled and easy living, which is not them.
So they resist and defend.
If I really wanted to teach and reach this person I would choose a different vocabulary that doesnt raise the automatic wall, but communicates the same message.
There is a market for that. I know so because I livei n that market and promise you NONE of the folks I know who need it have ever heard of the people we are talking about.
... yet sadly they all know Jesse and Al.
I fully agree with you Brohammas - and I fully believe that the Koch/Murdoch complex is not only well aware of the facts you describe - but has also spent years carefully architecting a framework for seizing political advantage based on the facts you describe.
Are you familiar with Perry Bezanis? What is your reaction to this opinion piece he wrote a few years back?
@CNu - Show me the multi-lingual mathematician that is self employed right now. Put the link up so I can see this person instead of the theory of this person you propose. A man that is employable worldwide is interesting but his skills have him still seeking money from others. What has this person built with this vast knowledge?
What the difference between a person who holds a degree in African American studies and one that holds one in European Studies? I am confident if the same person is versatile they will find their way into some job as a teacher or wherever a History major gets employed.
I always enjoy talking to the intellectuals because even your derogatory statements are funny. I'm adding infantile gas to my knowledge base so I can say it first to the next cat I meet who knows alot about nothing.
@CNu, i was not familiar with that, and now thanks to you I have read one of the most culturally condescending and ridiculous articles ever. Whoever that is who wrote it likes big words and complex sentence structure, and uses both to mask the fact that the writer is peddling a bunch of easily exposed mindless crap.
First, there is an assumed missunderstood definition of what culture is. Food, language, art, etc. There are PLENTY of distinctively African-American foods, arts, etc. that are very marketable and employable. Even the language bugaboo... James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman are obviously black in voice, nad are employable because of their voice.
this was a whack-job hit piece.
It is also historically innacurate. When freedom from slavery was gained, the abandonment of black people was not in that they lacked employable skills, the abandonment was in that they did not receive physical protection. Had black people lacked the ability to thrive the Klan would not have been necessary to enforce white supremacy.
That article is a good example of the need for Africana studies.
i was not familiar with that, and now thanks to you I have read one of the most culturally condescending and ridiculous articles ever. Whoever that is who wrote it likes big words and complex sentence structure, and uses both to mask the fact that the writer is peddling a bunch of easily exposed mindless crap.
Bezanis reflects a sentiment common among folk aligned around the technocracy paradigm shift. If you were to attend a STEM society mtg, makers fair, or any number of other comparable local self-sufficiency/self-empowerment through technology enclaves, you would find such sentiments fairly commonplace.
I would tend to dismiss the retro-to-Booker T. era of linkage in your condemnation of Bezanis and simultaneous apologetics for Africana studies, because in large measure, I don't believe that that was the ni nis pathology that Bezanis was addressing himself to - and for damn sure it's not the bulk of what the afrodemic establishment addresses itself to.
As I said upthread, anybody practicing and professing the canon of grandma-tech - which ran the gamut of self-sufficient made by hand know-how - has my staunchest support and approval. But self-sufficiency, utility, and knowhow is decidedly NOT what is being peddled by the afrodemic establishment.
Now take a minute and tell me what you think about my man Ed Dunn's take on ni nis noir "culture" and whether it's conducive to anything useful.
I always enjoy talking to the intellectuals because even your derogatory statements are funny. I'm adding infantile gas to my knowledge base so I can say it first to the next cat I meet who knows alot about nothing.
lol,
DF - you do realize that you managed to unintentionally insult yourself here, right?
Show me the multi-lingual mathematician that is self employed right now. Put the link up so I can see this person instead of the theory of this person you propose. A man that is employable worldwide is interesting but his skills have him still seeking money from others. What has this person built with this vast knowledge?
I'll go you better than you asked for and give you a pair. Here's one you've never heard of James Simons, and here's one that everyone knows George Soros.
As for the rest, well..., contemporary common sense and just the barest amount of real-world access and exposure would have you know that Wall St. has been comprised of quants and hackers practicing and perfecting game theoretical approaches to profit extraction for the past 25 years, ever since the advent of affordable computing power and networks entered in a big way into the mercantile sphere. It would take you some time to go through my deconstruction of crime and criminality perpetrated by Goldman Sachs, but this article goes directly to the heart of the who/what/how these things are being done and who is doing them.
As far as the shape of things to come, the absolute necessity of advanced quantitative skills is only increasing with the advent of computational genomics - now you not only require the technical skills of a mathematician/computer scientist, in order to be most highly effective, you'll need the stereochemical visualization skills of an organic chemist or materials scientist, as well.
@Cnu - Nope didn't realize I insulted myself at all. I guess I'm not that smart. It's hard to feel embarrassed when you don't care what another thinks of you. Oh well. LOL
But, I do appreciate the fact you listed Simons and Soros. I was looking for a younger man who had this knowledge and was independent before needing Viagra but I'll just assume they are there.
Nope didn't realize I insulted myself at all. I guess I'm not that smart. It's hard to feel embarrassed when you don't care what another thinks of you. Oh well. LOL
trying.too.hard...,
@CNU - trying.too.hard...,
I guess that's what you do when you aren't smart right?
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