First let me apologize for the delay in posts – blogger’s block and an insane work schedule were working against me. Anywhoo, we’re back! Without further ado, here’s SASSY’s take on CNN’s Black in America : Black Women and Family.
Rand Family piece – I wish I could say I was surprised about the White great great grandfather and the white side of the family, but I can’t. The white and black sides of the family meeting was really kumbaya for me, but I know who this program is geared to and I know that CNN needed to ease into the issues.
Now for the meat! Black children and our education system. The statistics are soo disturbing – 50% of black students graduate in 4 years. One student every 26 seconds drops out of high school. I am happy they paired our difficulties in education with success stories – there was touching scene of a family dropping their child off at college – the fifth of six children.
“The achievement gap between black and white students is appalling.” You said Soledad.
The programed followed a school that pays students for good well in school. I understand incentivizing education, I really do, but in my day (yeah i know that sounds so old) we just did well in school because we knew it would help us in the future. Of course children who are getting paid to learn are going to do well, but shouldn’t children to well in school simply because they value their future? I wonder what happens when the program ends. Will their love for learning die or will they continue working hard to get the best grades? I guess we’ll find out in two years when the evaluation is released.
I like Roland Fryer, I think his efforts are sincere. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mr. Fryer before and he truly believes that by incentivizing education he will prevent children from dropping out, joining gangs and other trouble black children find themselves. I guess desperate times for desperate measures.
Black people and health care – speak on it. The emergency room shouldn’t be our doctor’s office. We often wait until it is too late. We don’t have health insurance and even some of us that do don’t go to the doctor’s office as often as they should. We are more likely to die from chronic diseases than white people. I understand the trust issues we have from the Tuskegee experiments but we also need to take care of ourselves. the lack of healthy food. I can attest that living in New York City there are only certain supermarkets that sell fresh produce and if you’re looking for organic food, forget it. It’s not accessible and it’s not affordable (especially in this recession)
I really wish they would have spent some time talking about mental health but there is only so much you can showcase in 2 hours.
The black middle class, an often ignored segment in the Black population, got about two seconds of air time. whomp whomp whomp. i loved it when Dr. Julianne Malveux (president of Bennett College) said, “Most of black people have not been arrested … most of black people do not engage in pathology.” Thank you!
fatherless families - Ah a subject I truly adore, I can go on for days about families without fathers. Here’s the synopsis: single mother, two jobs, five kids. This was described as the rule rather than the exception. Nearly 70% of black children are born to single mothers, that’s a fact. The importance of two parents cannot be denied, children who grow up in stable two parent households are more likely to graduate, less likely to become teen parents, you know this story.
“If it’s between living the life I want to live and getting married… I dunno.” – Chris Turner
the Single Black Women piece – educated, financially independent, single and black, sure that sounds about right. they say black men are intimidated, uhm, i buy that… a little. women are not meeting men on their level. Dr. Malveux broke it down like this “education, economics and incarceration” – and there you have it. We are in competition with so many other women – ok that sounds about right. The stats: 45% of black women are not and have never been married. That number scares me. The solution – the something new way – may be dating outside of our race.
HIV/AIDS, i’ve been waiting for this for 2 hours. AIDS is an epidemic in our community. We account for nearly 50% of all AIDS cases in America. We’ve got to get control over this disease and quickly. We need to start having safe sex. We need to get tested. We need to start talking to our sexual partners and ask those difficult questions. AIDS is the number one killer of Black women between the ages of 18 and 24.
Violence in the black community. There was nothing new in this story, just depressing stats and images of Black men in the emergency room. It was frustrating to watch the doctor try to convince a man who is in the hospital after having been shot/beat up/whatever to join a program to better his life. The number one cause of death for black men from their teens to 30 is homicide. We gotta do better
I loved that the whole special featured one (really big) family. I’m not sure why Black men are separated from the Black family… ok i do, but that’s another post.
Oh and the spoken word intros, please stop. Those are my thoughts on the special, what are yours?
peace,
e.
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AS a physician I see many, many black women in their 20’s and 30’s who would like to get married but can’t find a black guy that they think would stay around for the long haul, be faithful, and keep a job. Some of these women are accomplished and some have yet to find there way. However, the biggest fear expresed to me by many of these women is that they will end up a single mother. I think that that is the most important issue.
I had been eager to watch this “documentary” for a couple of weeks now, but I must admit I’m disappointed. CNN played only lip service to the black middle class family. The black middle class has considerable problems and struggles, and no mentioned was made of the black upper class. The special continued the perception that all blacks are urban, poor, and uneducated. Dr. Malveaux stated that the entire range of our story needs to be told, and then CNN continued with the same old, same old. I’m severly disappointed. I understand its only a two hour program, but a little discussion about how blacks of different economic statuses relate or don’t relate would have been great.
Are you kidding me!! Are albinos with the negro lackeys, still trying to push that class nonsense. ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE DISRESPECTED AND DISENFRANCHISED, UNTIL THE FAMILIY ORDER IS PUT BACK IN PLACE. That is, the man is allowed to work and support his family. Caucasian built their wealth off of
murdering, stealing, raping,
pillaging and plundering.
Afterwards they pass laws that say
anyone doing as they have done
shall be jailed, tortured or given the
death penalty.
I was waiting for an examination of pay disparity in Corporate America,middle class issues,and solutions.
It was an okay piece.
I just wish more middle and upper middle class families were featured.
Marriage is a bygone custom. The ring is a receipt, a symbol of ownership. We don’t need marriage in a civilized society, we don’t need to be possessive of one another to feel love for one another. Marriage is mutual slavery.
I’m sorry, but Soledad O’Brien was not a good fit for this series. She seemed uneasy, self-conscious in her questioning last night, in particular when she asked the “depressed” unwed mother of four about her “choices.” O’Brien is a Harvard graduate and one of her parents is from Australia. She seemed to have a problem connecting with people who are not in her income bracket.
As a black man, I believe we are over complicating a problem that is pretty simple. It is Education, Economics, and Incarceration that shrinks the pool of black men for black women to find. Its that simple to me. Also, I would like to add that every single issue that is discussed in this series is an American issue, it just hits the black community harder. All of these issues also have to due with poverty and if we are going to have a chance of solving them, we need to deal with poverty in a way that means real change. That needs to be priority number one.
The “Black in America” documentary is just more garbage put out there to make black women and men look bad. notice how no other ethnic group in this country is ever constantly being put on public display (and lied on continuously)? where is “white in america” or “cambodian in america”? i guarantee that there is small chance of ever seeing that. and if by some miracle you did, you would only hear great, positive, family-oriented, economically sound stories. Please – give me a break! racism by any other name.
I missed the documentary last night, however I do have concerns about the documentary in and of itself: Why now?? Are we (America) now interested in showcasing black oppression and black success only because we (America) are facing the possibility of a new “American” Dream (meaning Barak becoming president?
More importantly, what will happen to the interest in being black in America if Barak does not get his victory?
Its all about grassroots ya’ll, if we are not seeing what we think should be showcased then more action needs to be taking place instead of just conversation, which is basically what the series is: conversation.
The Black in America series is a ploy by CNN to garner more black viewers and generate buzz for CNN –look how many bloggers, websites and radio stations are talking about the series–good PR for CNN. I do commend them for the effort to reach out to black viewers. I am as Bryan mentioned above dissapointed in the series though. It’s the same narrative: poverty, family disfunction and despair. There is a richer and more colorful story that could be told. Plus what about the 1st and 2nd generation “Blacks in America” from the Caribbean and Africa? 25% of the growth of the black population between 1990 and 2000 was due to people from Africa and the Caribbean. But you won’t here about their stories or struggles. Being Black in America is more diverse and complex than CNN has time to fully capture.
Well everyone else has addressed the other points, but as usual, everyone forgets to analyze … you guessed it, education. It’s interesting because we just let this man get away with murder when he talks like that. An economist talking like he’s gotta pay a kid to learn. In a time when we would pay for a better education, we now see children getting paid to learn? Gross.
I’ll definitely blog about this soon, but let me just say this: education only stands to get worse when we would rather treat our children like consumers than producers. Just saying …
frustration
E,
What was the stat about Aids and Washington DC?
I agree 100% with Jose. There are other ways to make change and trying to “buy” the problem isn’t it.
Barbara and Jose, what would you suggest as an alternative to $$? No critique here, I’m interested in your educational methods for reaching kids.
Jose/Barbara:
It seems like you’re oversimplifying Fryer’s position re: paying students. This incentive program is taking place in a specific social context, one in which poor students with substantially fewer resources are lagging in achievement and just as likely to drop out as to graduate.
You might want to consider thatpoor students’ relationships with institutional education will necessarily be different from those of middle class and affluent families.
Why? Because when everyone around you has gone to college and you have the resources to go to college, there’s a feedback loop regarding social expectation. That’s part of the incentive. And y’all seem to be fronting like the incentives in educations are not PRIMARILY economic. Those people aren’t doing well in school just out of a desire to be ‘excellent,’ but because in their lives doing well in school dictates the kind of colleges they can go to and all the stuff that attends that.
While y’all are busy wagging your fingers, you’re ignoring the economic realities of poverty, and how they influence the decisions people make. My concern isn’t that Fryer is paying students to do well —it will probably work for the kids on the economic margins — but that doing well isn’t enough to matter. Even the best students at those schools will struggle to keep up at four-year colleges (if they can get into them at all) because they’d been so shortchanged in terms of social and pecuniary resources.
Leah –
I missed this particular segment on paying students to learn, but I did find it odd. I can’t say that I really have any developed educational methods for reaching kids, but as I respond to what G.D. has attempted to call me out on, I can tell you what I think could have helped me back when I was in high school fighting to get an education as a “poor” youth.
G.D. -
As I have just stated, I grew up in a poor neighborhood and went to poor schools from grade school through high school so I firstly don’t need you to educate me on the affects of poverty on children’s ability to get an education, and not just an education, but a GOOD education. That’s first and foremost. And let me also add that I hope that you don’t take this as a vicious attack, but just know that the points that you raised have fired me up so now I must let loose on you…
So you said:
“And y’all seem to be fronting like the incentives in educations are not PRIMARILY economic.”
I would say that I know that the incentives are economic: Schools get paid when students are present in class. The higher the education that one receives, the higher the wage they will have the potential to earn later. So, because there is an economic incentive all the way through education you fill that it is a good idea to provide students with an economic incentive as a way of opening up resources to them in the future?
When I was fighting for my education back in jr. high and high school I don’t think I would have responded to being paid to learn, what I would have responded to was my teachers being paid to teach me. Perhaps if high wages are paid to teachers who teach in poor areas then they will be more inclined to stick around and actually support students in obtaining an education that is of quality. Why the hell should one go to school if one is not challenged? Why should one go to school if when one gets to school one’s teacher has left in the middle of the school year because they were offered a better opportunity at a “better” school?? This was the reality of my childhood. If we are going to stand behind the economic incentive in education why not give the communities that these schools serve an economic incentive? As I said, I would not have been interested in being paid, but instead interested in being able to have someone help me with my homework (ie, having a community center, after school programs, tutoring, etc).
You said:
“Because when everyone around you has gone to college and you have the resources to go to college, there’s a feedback loop regarding social expectation.”
I agree with this and I also agree that THIS is not the reality of the environment of children living in poverty, but it could be. If we did have the community centers in these communities and then actually have folks who have been to college come into the neighborhood, or better yet, have those use to be members of the community and have made it out to actually come back and add their knowledge and resources then that would make a difference as well. It sure as hell would have made a difference for me to have seen someone who was already where I was striving to be come into my neighborhood and reach out.
And lastly, you said:
“Even the best students at those schools will struggle to keep up at four-year colleges (if they can get into them at all) because they’d been so shortchanged in terms of social and pecuniary resources.”
I agree with this as well. Why? Because again, this is MY reality: I was raised in poverty, graduated from high school, and will be finishing up my B.A. at UC Berkeley next summer (which took 5 years). Yes, it has been a challenge due to the fact that I DID NOT get the best quality of education from my schools although I graduated with honors!! But you know what, I’m making it and when its all over I will be able to say I MADE IT and I will then make the effort to go back into the community that damn near failed me and try to make sure that somebody else makes it because THAT is how you change lives, NOT by offering someone a meal in exchange for something that they should already be receiving!
Barbara: At what point did I suggest that incentivizing school for poor students precluded also shoring up the infrastructures of those schools? There’s no magic bullet here.
And while ‘paying for good grades’ may not have worked for you, do you think that it couldn’t work for anyone? Even the kids in the doc who said themselves that it was a motivator for them?