Prometheus 6

you've really flipped this thing to the position from which it should be viewed. on forbes.com, the number 3 most frequently e-mailed story is about the "achievement gap" (properly named the access-wealth-inheritance gap). nice job.

Every unsupported and unsubstantiated assertion made about us needs to be flipped on its head and revealed for what it truly implies as opposed to us being dragged into absurd debates that are used by cable television channels to fill programming needs or provide opportunities for Kneegrows working in the bowels of so-called conservative think tanks to get some space at the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal or Salon.com. 

folks could save themselves alot of time if they simply didn't respond to certain questions - and posed the appropriate counter - whether as another question or as an answer. one thing you'll be hard pressed to find on tape is malcolm x answering a question directly as posed by media - most of the time, he redirected the question, refuted its premise and established the ground of his argument. that's the way to do it...conceding the validity of questions is something that children do because they don't know any better.

Shelby Steele, in his own unique, tormented way, was on to something. IMO, white folks are, for some odd reason, surprised that blacks use the N-word, even though there is, undoubtedly, a long history to it. Likewise, whites have seen black folks "shame" and, for some reason, find it strange that black folks trip on nerds too. Now, all it took was for One black person to Drop the "acting white" line and we have the makings of a black cultural crisis and the continuation of this myth that blacks are somehow culturally isolated, uninfluenced and not impacted not only by the larger society's anti-intellectualisms.

Yes, the minute blacks hint at what has been historically and currently supported by the way American society has been structured (when were the promises of Brown v. Board fulfilled? and when did equality in schools happen?), it's time to act like this is something new and act like there is something wrong with blacks who express any sentiment like it, no matter how historically (and presently) factual. It's undeniable.

I'm just saying...

There was never a significant discussion dealing with Jesse Jackson Jr.'s idea of a constitutional amendment ensuring an equal and high quality education but anti-gay marriage amendments are/were primetimed.

Black folks aren't supposed to talk about where American priorities and how they come down, often along racial lines. Now that whites are privy to certain conversations and sentiments blacks have that segregation kept them from, any and every possible thought a black person has that finds its way into the media will be turned against blacks and nothing will be mentioned as far as the role the larger society places in shape those attitudes - no matter how historically founded the "acting white" thing is from an institution standpoint and from a black identity crisis perspective.

Did I say identity crisis? For some reason, no one ever wants to ask if the person accused of "acting white" actually was. And this is for all the Infidel Guys out there: there is dialect, slang, accent and lisps. Lisps are the product of an identity crisis or some other related personality or perception issue. And there are black people today who overpronounciate to the point of lisps-laden accent who make you wonder.

But counter questions and complexity are supposed to be absent. None of that stuff fits the agenda or the mindsets of those exaggerating the extent and degree of cultural dysfunction in the black community.