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I eschew Orlando Patterson's assertionsSubmitted by Prometheus 6 on March 26, 2006 - 9:49am.
on Race and Identity Having learned patience the other by reading Marriage Is for White People, I approached Orlando Patterson's A Poverty of Mind with trepidation.
...and a little hope. Trepidation won as soon as I saw him discuss a common problem as though it were specific to Black men: the fifth paragraph of a three page article..
Prof. Patterson is, perhaps, too focused on Black folks. He seems unaware that this is not a race-specific phenomenon. I'm...sorry. That was the wrong link. This is where you'll find the Washington Post article I quoted. That first link was to some crank that wrote for the National Review in 2001.
Experts that don't bring the right level of analysis to the data are part of the problem regardless of their intent. Prof. Patterson knows this, as later in the editorial he says
Let me also say a man in his position using the deactivation of the legal machinery supporting Jim Crow as evidence of cultural change is...disingenuous. That cultural battle continues to this day. Interestingly enough, I was talking to my mother about all the folks she knew that moved back down South, all our relatives that moved back down South. For the most part is is a movement back, and I had to ask why they went back to what they left years back. Racism, of course...basically they'd rather have it in their face where they can see it. That's anecdotal; take it for what it's worth. There were a few unworthy strawmen before the Jim Crow disingenuousness that I continue my tradition of disregarding. I do note, however, that in general I prefer to see assertions being supported. Shooting down arguments against an assertion , essentially implying that "I'm right because there are no other alternatives," only convinced those that are already on your side.
It was always anecdotal.
...which you can take for what it's worth.
Be clear. The reason for their disconnection is that we were never connected...were actively severed and the severance is defended to this day. Asserting that young Black men are unaware of mainstream culture is just bizarre while also asserting their own culture consists of no more than fulfilling the mainstream culture's entertainment needs.
THIS IS NOT THE RESULT OF ANYTHING BLACK AMERICANS HAVE CONTROL OF. Your model is The War on Drugs. Get the consumer...dry up the demand to dry up the supply. i second Ourstorian's compliment.
it's interesting...Patterson wasted all that column space on a plea to examine the culture of the minority group. At no point does he ever direct his piercing gaze towards the goings-on of the majority culture. i eschew (i like that word, p6  ) these faux academics who trade on the semiotic power of their skin color to deliver encomiums praising the mainstream culture while denigrating their colored brethren (and sistren). did y'all see the article on Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome on alternet? it looks like the author builds a similar analysis to Patterson, but much more complex and less willing to completely rest on "culture of poverty"-type thinking. i was tempted to dismiss it, but read the interview (trepidation and hope, or course) and i might actually pick up the book.you would think that Patterson, a sociologist who's written about slavery (no, i haven't read his book) would understand this simple fact: 45 years of false starts and weak promises isn't nearly enough time to raise blacks to the economic and educational level of whites. it's also not enough time to erase the mindset of whites who built elaborate institutional edifices of white privilege and white supremacy in order to support slavery and Jim Crow.re: the return to the south i might have written this before; i've met with Jim Loewen a couple of times here on campus and had the chance to speak with him. His most recent book on sundown towns brought forth an interesting point: that most of them were in the north and midwest - NOT in the south. having lived in the midwest for a few years, i can understand why black people don't like it here. these people will smile in your face and work behind the scenes to put you in your place. eschew (i like that word, p6I picked that word because it's real popular with Harvard dudes. I first ran across it in an article by Randall Kennedy, in which he says "I eschew racial pride because of my conception of what should properly be the object of pride for an individual." It was an unusal enough word that I noticed it, one of those words you write but never actually say. Most recently I find it sprinkled liberally though We Who Are Dark. Asserting that young Black men are unaware of mainstream culture is just bizarre while also asserting their own cluture consists of no more than fulfilling the mainstream culture's entertainment needs.
One of the reasons I liked and was entertained by the movie Crash is that it revealed over and over again in the high octane verbal exchanges between the characters portrayed by Lorenz Tate and Ludacris just how keenly aware that young black men are of mainstream culture. Paul Beatty did the same thing in his novel Tuff: A Gangster's Life when he has one of the characters Chilly Most from Flatbush, a drug dealer, firing off this verbal fusillade when he hears the city’s mayor taking credit for the lowering crime rate, “The mayor think rhyming sound bites, community policing, and the death penalty going to stop fools from getting paid. Don’t tell me, a criminal, eight credits shy of an associate’s degree in criminology, that stupid slogan ‘Stop the heist, love Christ,’ a cop on a moped, and the gas chamber will make you think twice…if the city is so safe, why the mayor still traveling with nine bodyguards?” The structural factors in post-slavery American society are laid out carefully in the ORIGINAL work on "cool pose" by African American psychologist Richard Majors and sociologist Janet Mancini Billson. Their book, Cool Pose: Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America, was published in 1993 by Lexington Books and can be found on amazon.com used for a few dollars. As the co-author (Billson), I have been amazed how the concept of "cool pose" has entered the language of discourse in race relations and in discussing the fate of young African American males. My later (1996) book, Pathways to Manhood: Young Black Males Search for Identity, contains an entire chapter on "the cool guy." Always, we take a structural rather than a psychological approach.
I too recognize the phenomenon of "cool pose" but disagree with Prometheus and the Prof on the why of it. black kids SAY they have great self esteem in much the same way George Bush says things are good in Iraq. Everyone knows t's not true, but admitting the alternative would compel a serious and perhaps humbling re-appraisal of what we're all about. Kids are both terribly fragile and terrifically resilient. And when they speak you sometimes have to read between the lines.
Viretarmis, we do indeed disagree.
You don't really think 14 year olds give a lot of thought to "what we're all about," do you? And what would you say it is that we're "all about"? "Joblessness is rampant in Latin America and India, but the mass of the populations does not turn to crime." says Orlando Patterson. How about that? I don't know about India, but having lived in several countries in Latin America, I can tell you CRIME IS RAMPANT IN LATIN AMERICA, ask any Latin American! Everybody's either been assaulted, pick-pocketed, robed, or kidnaped, you name it. If the poor don't turn to crime it is probably because the Church has convinced them that they will burn in hell, bla, bla, bla... I eschew white american culture and I am neither black or male. Why do white people always assume we want in on their stupid excuse for a culture? If it wasn't for the rampant joblessness and crime in Latin America, I would move south, way south.
P6...good work. I think Patterson's work requires a comparative analysis. It seems to me the test group would have to be subjected to significant erosions of military, economic and cultural cohesion...and still residing within the borders of that same erosion...at the same time their "host" was at their peak. I can't think of a group that fits that description off hand, but it seems to me that that's the place to start. Of course, I don't believe his analysis would hold that level of scrutiny. I think 14 year olds think deeply about some things...you wouldn't hear it unless you talk to them and ask and listen. They have opinions about most events in the world. Heck, they should. Prior to the 19th century, there was NO SUCH THING as an adolescent and they would have been expected to carry their weight in the world - working all day, fighting in a war, or doing some other task that required much more than we ask today of our GAMEBOYS. Infantilization of youth has made them needier and more vulnerable to predatory adults looking for a buck (as an incompetent teacher with shi!!*@$# credentials and minimal skills; as publishing companies peddlin' dumbed-downededed books' for chirren; as sexual deviants; as drug dealers recruiting couriers; as CBO/AAU coaches looking for new rims for sendin' the next Ray Allen to UCONN). the child outside hides the man inside(and VICE VERSA)...a listening "I" can reconcile the two and see the pain - and the facade. "Yo, Sun!! I'll FUKC YOU UP!!" "I need a hug." Which is really real? Which is really real? I think 14 year olds think deeply about some things...you wouldn't hear it unless you talk to them and ask and listen.Yeah, but did you read that? Everyone knows t's not true, but admitting the alternative would compel a serious and perhaps humbling re-appraisal of what we're all about.14 year olds are busy appraising, not reappraising. I think this process is evident when you are in relationship with young people. When I do leadership development programs or other activities intended to support youth and share with them my perspective and experience - I see what I perceive to be introspection and reappraisal and humility. The proud, haughty rude bwoy disappears in the face of a genuine connection - and looks inward to measure how they can approximate - replicate that which they see in front of them. I would argue that imitation as the sincerest form of flattery is a prerequisite for reappraisal. Imitation stems from a desire to change one's standard operating procedure in favor of another. I don't want to suggest that any of this is easy - or that one positive steps are made, they are always maintained...simply, I believe that age is not the determining factor. Los Angeles community activist James Clement posted the following pithy assessment to the Black Conservatives list today; "We survived in the period 1865-1965 without any real civil rights legislation. Soon as we got bused and integrated, the drive to succeed collectively diminished. We should study the affect busing had on our collective "black"psyche. Busing exposed the truth of our citizenship to us at a young age. We became fully aware of our second class citizenship. We took material worth and our parental job status and allowed it to condition us to think we were worthless and inferior as people. We became clowns to the richer more affluent white students. Ghetto bred clowns who were begging the legal system to be near them. That plight made them feel superior, and made us look inferior. since 1973, the once referred to "Negro" became fully integrated and fully full of low self esteem. Busing was the worst thing to hit black America. It made some of us feel inferior. It told us that more money equals more status. We became obessed to make it materially. We saw our Black heroes marginalized, our black artists ignored. We became fully aware of the dislike of us and our culture by the majority whites. Busing destroyed black america." I found little with which to disagree here..., We took material worth and our parental job status and allowed it to condition us to think we were worthless and inferior as people.That's nonsense. Absolutely backward. Human beings take material prosperity as a good thing. We became clowns to the richer more affluent white students. Ghetto bred clowns who were begging the legal system to be near them.We were always clowns to them. See: Stepin Fetchit, Rochester...Mark Twain knew where "the real nigger-show -- the genuine nigger-show, the extravagant nigger-show" was found. I'm no fan of busing, because it put our kids totally at the mercy of folks who had no intention of educating them, but the rhetoric your friend uses to support his position requires seeing Black folks as having radically different reaction that the rest of the humans. "That's nonsense. Absolutely backward. Human beings take material prosperity as a good thing." I think James was referring to the invidious comparison made by black kids sizing up our material lack with the material superabundance observed first hand in white suburban schools. I didn't have any idea that I was poor growing up. When I started going to that John Birch Society private independant school back home, and was one of 3 poor black kids in a sea of smug, wealthy, condescending white, were it not for my overweening self-love, I too might have succumbed to feelings of "depressed" self worth. As it was, I found solace and mastery in superior intellect and implacable cruelty. I made it too painful for anyone to try to lord it over me cause I was po. Not only, but I would straight up pre-empt even the notion of trying it. The other two brothers didn't have it like that - and they were both psychologically crushed at that school, as in permanent, no saving throw, no redemption and recovery of self-love, crushed. As an ironic aside, one of my associates was talking about the JBS today, and looked it up on the wiki - I kid you not, I had no earthly idea that Fred Koch was a frikkin founder of the JBS. At that school, which Koch also founded, I was actually immersed in the fountainhead of JBS pedagogy and cultural orientation and survived and thrived. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that which does not kill you makes your stronger..., The John Birch Society was established in Indianapolis on December 9, 1958 by a group of twelve "patriotic and public-spirited" men led by Robert Welch, Jr., a retired candy manufacturer from Belmont, Massachusetts. Another noted founding member was Fred Koch, founder of Koch Industries, currently the largest private corporation in America. A transcript of Welch's two-day presentation at the founding meeting was published as The Blue Book of the John Birch Society and became a cornerstone of its beliefs, with each new JBS member receiving a copy. "According to Welch," writes Political Research Associates in its analysis of the Birchers, "both the US and Soviet governments are controlled by the same furtive conspiratorial cabal of internationalists, greedy bankers, and corrupt politicians. If left unexposed, the traitors inside the US government would betray the country's sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist New World Order managed by a 'one-world socialist government.' The Birch Society incorporated many themes from pre-WWII rightist groups opposed to the New Deal, and had its base in the business nationalist sector…"[1] I think this process is evident when you are in relationship with young people.I'm not going to argue with that. But Viretarmis said Black youth are fooling themselves when they believe their self-esteem (which is something I'll eventually rant about) increases when they get positive feedback from their "cool pose." Absent intervention, they (like most adults, come to think of it) gravitate to that which feels best at least energy expenditure. That's pretty much the definition of "good" around these parts--more for less expenditure of energy or less expenditure of energy to get the same thing. It's really hard for young Black folks to get props more substantial than "You speak so well." Of course props for style feels good. I think James was referring to the invidious comparison made by black kids sizing up our material lack with the material superabundance observed first hand in white suburban schools. Still nonsense. That predates the civil rights movement by more than a century. You know what, though?
The Birch Society incorporated many themes from pre-WWII rightist groups opposed to the New Deal, and had its base in the business nationalist sectorI'm not at all sure you escaped unscathed. I think that it was a combination of factors that grew out of the activity of busing that contributed to the feelings of inferiority and displacement experienced by black students. When black parents, who really didn't know any better, allowed their interests to be represented by the NAACP and other rabid integrationists they did not realize that by permitting their children to be bused to remote locations they were effectively relinquishing social, political and community control of both their neighborhood schools and the schools outside their neighborhoods where their children were bused to.
I think this process represents a classic example of the failure of black leadership to think through an issue and then to do what was in the best interest of the community. Many of them foolishly believed that if they could somehow use the busing issue to force white people to send their children to substandard schools that whites would force the system to improve the schools. They did not realize that white people were not going to expend their precious political capital to make schools in predominently black neighborhoods better. Whites chose to move and used their political capital to make good suburban schools even better. The black community, led by a myopic and muddleheaded leadership class, expended its political capital in a quixotic quest for integration instead of organizing and demanding that the schools in its community be improved. What black people should have been doing is voting against any elected officials - white, black, green or orange - who did not support their efforts to improve schools in the black community. Let me go further, blacks should have systematically voted against any school bond measures at the local and state level that did not include specific plans for upgrading and improving schools in poor communities. The NAACP should have been using its resources to organize black communities instead of becoming addicted to the legal system. What we did instead was to listen to chuckleheaded ministers and other dullards and hustlers in our community who were looking to advance their own careers and demonstrate their belief in the sanctity of a false and hollow form of integration. (Note: I am not referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here.) No other group of people in America have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to ensure that its children received an education and then gave all of that up seemingly overnight for so little in return. I'm a 46 year old white male who teaches in a Midwest juvenile prison. I agree with the comment that the author unfairly focuses on young black men. What I believe I see is the lack of DAD. Not just any guy. But DAD. BIO DAD. Skin color is really not the issue. When you don't have your dad around, it is very hard. My students ages 15-19 are starving for attention behind that cool pose. They don't care what color a man's skin is. If they believe that you are sincere, they will follow your every word.
I agree with the guy in the juvi prison. One thing about the busing issue: it seems to me that black folk understood this issue perfectly well at the outset - and that white folks were actually the principle advocates of busing. Why? Busing was the cheapest economic and political compromise that could be designed. Busing shifted the burden imposed by segregation and disparate real estate values (and municipal services) to the backs of children. It shifted the fight for competent teachers away from agitation against entrenched teacher's unions to the backs of children. It shifted the onus of responsibility for rejecting cultural assimilation from adults to children who were encouraged to succeed in their new environs. I certainly don't believe that black folk overlooked the irony, even lunacy, of sending their defenseless babies into the belly of the beast. I believe this system's beneficiaries and their accomplices have fashioned an oft-repeated narrative that is light in the intellectual loafers. I think that black people understood the purpose of busing in terms of how the goals were explained to them. I don't think they grasped the implications and consequences of the process once it became operational. White intellectual elites might have favored busing but it is safe to say that middle class and especially working class whites were nearly unanimously opposed, sometimes violently, to busing even when it entailed only transporting black children into predominantly white neighborhoods and schools. The racist pandering of Boston School Board members like Louise Day Hicks and the white riots in South Boston and Charlestown may have garnered more public attention but there was resistence all over the nation. Chinese parents in San Francisco, for example, took to the streets to protest having their children bused from Chinatown to what they perceived as black or Latino neighborhoods.
In hindsight black people's discussions and writings about busing certainly reveal an understanding of the complexities of the isue but there is scant, if any, historical records indicating that at the time there was any significant or large scale acknowledgement by black scholars and other members of the black elite regarding the social, poliitcal and economic costs of these forced integration efforts. The architects and primary movers in this effort were the lawyers affiliated with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I agree that ordinary, everyday black folks (drylongso) were acutely aware of the contradictions raised by having their children sent into these hostile racist environments but I believe that they felt too constrained to call a halt to these misguided experiments especially when their so-called leaders were either proponents or kept silent about their own objections. I think that one of the unintended consequences of busing is that it revealed to too many black children at a critical and vulnerable period in their development that their parents were powerless and either would not or could not do much to protect them.
Not nonsense at all. Of course there was invidious comparison before the civil rights movement, but there was no confusion about crossing over to those imaginally empyrian pastures of materialist monist consumption...., no integrationist, assimilationist delusions, and a more unitary, if only because topologically consolidated, sense of community. The unitary strength of black community - and all that that entailed - cratered because of the repressed longings of black folks to get to the mirage of that greener grass and colder ice.
True dat. Useless eaters should starve..., amen, amen, amen, to everything PT has said on this thread..., woe unto those parents who relinquised their guardian role and put so much on the backs of their defenseless children dispatched into the belly of the beast, case studies in irresponsible uselessness...., I'd retroactively snatch the food right out of their gaping mouths if I could!!! True dat. Useless eaters should starve...,And I should rip out your appendix with a rusty fork. This is why we network, can ally on occasion but will never be partners. You are far, far closer to the Black Bill O'Reilly you once accused me of being (HA!) than I could ever be. Still, one love, nahmsayin'?
What an impoverished imagination you're displaying this morning P6! That black Bill O'Reilly characterization hangs on three points which I hardly believe you'll dispute; 1. Bloviation 2. Insistence on controlling the rules of engagement 3. Belief that you're looking out for the folks It would be far more accurate to describe my outlook and behaviour as black beowulfian...., I believe my point was clear. Don't get lost in the details.
Y'all funny...by the way, cnu - you've got 1 and 3 on lock as well. And that's cool. It's kinda funny to hear P6 get called out on the first one. I don't get that so much from him, but maybe I'm getting the GHWB filter, ya know - kindler, gentler. Anyway, I think ptcruiser and I are on the same page. I certainly believe only the "integrationist elite" would have pushed such an approach - but I also know that I can find recordings of speeches by black leaders (including Minister Malcolm) on the inherent problems of busing. I don't know how widely the experiment was tried in Boston, but the extent to which you send your babies to the enemy and don't expect a mental enema is the extent to which your own labotomy has been completed. Moreover, with respect to the opposition of middle class and poor whites, their opposition to busing really would have paled in comparison to a government engineered effort to radically integrate neighborhoods. Imagine the Democratic party without the teachers union...if politicos had pressed on that side of the issue, the teachers would have jumped ship - and made the labor concessions needed to ingratiate themselves to the 'Publicans 40 years ago. That would have led to really socio-political fracturing that included more than "education." It would have included real estate, municipal agreements with unions, contracts, the emergence of the public sector in education - and by extension subsidized land, and much more. you've got 1 and 3 on lock as well....and since the accusation took place on a mailing list which I have no control of, number 2 is is just false. I DO control my own space, but that's a carryover from real life. I don't get that so much from him, but maybe I'm getting the GHWB filter, ya know - kindler, gentler.In fact, it's been cnulan getting the kinder-gentler treatment. Like I said, one love. I don't know how widely the experiment was tried in Boston, but the extent to which you send your babies to the enemy and don't expect a mental enema is the extent to which your own labotomy has been completed.Boston is still tripping.
"...but I also know that I can find recordings of speeches by black leaders (including Minister Malcolm) on the inherent problems of busing."
True but these weren't the black leaders that everyday folks would have been listenening to or who would have had an opportunity to be heard through the mainstream media. I don't know how widely the experiment was tried in Boston... It was wide enough for white folks to assault buses filled with terrified black children and in a grusomely famous incident that took place on Commonwealth Avenue a young black man was assaulted and beaten with a flag staff that still had the American flag attached to it. if politicos had pressed on that side of the issue, the teachers would have jumped ship - and made the labor concessions needed to ingratiate themselves to the 'Publicans 40 years ago. That would have led to really socio-political fracturing that included more than "education." It would have included real estate, municipal agreements with unions, contracts, the emergence of the public sector in education - and by extension subsidized land, and much more. This is an interesting point although I am not entirely sure how you made the leap regarding the teachers jumping the Democratic ship if the feds had actually pushed for integrated neighborhoods. Please explain more. There is a subtle and continually overlooked aspect of the historic case Brown vs. The Board of Education case. Mr. Brown, the plaintiff and father of Linda Brown, brought suit against the school board because his children were prevented from attending the school that was closest to the Brown's home because of the color of their skin. Mr. Brown did not bring suit on behalf of his children because he wanted to have his children bused out of their neighborhood. The school for colored children was located further away from their neighborhood than the whites only school.
Well - let's take a look see. High-money districts in New York State and elite private schools pay/charge as much as $18,000 per student per year. That translates to about 6 schools serving 500 students (with room to spare). Educators love small schools - so you could get 12 schools of 250 students and still have a nice bit of change left over. Of course, if you believe that $$ makes no difference, you could do a middle road job and hit the shorties off with about $12k. That would get you 20 schools of about 248 students. If it was a middle school, you could have grades 5-8 (4 grades, 4 sections = 16 total classes and an average class size of 15 students (right at the number recommended by leading experts). If you hired a grant writer and brought in some federal and private money, you could easily bring in another $300-$500k. And if you did them at once (with the idea of a sort of regional campus network), you could probably get a break on the real estate - especially if it was city-owned. I don't think Boston is ready to put 20 schools like that in the hood. But ya nevah know.
Teachers are locked-in to the Democratic party, by and large - at least in New York. The union leadership has been essential to the re-election campaigns of many Democrats. Teachers often constitute the single largest municipal labor union in a city or state - in some instances they have over 500,000 members. As such, they flex considerable political muscle. Most of the membership consists of two collectives that benefited considerably integration due to proximity to power: women and jews. As part of Big Labor, they were at the heart of Democratic political strength in the second half of the 20th century. The question of busing arose (and remains prominent) due to two issues: forced exclusion from public facilities/resources AND the relative underperformance of schools serving poor black folk. The second issue predates and has outlived the first issue - though it's arguable that black schools did a tremendous job in the South from slavery through the early 1950s. that's another discussion. The teachers union would never have embraced positions that addressed the second issue. As such, it means their position on busing was largely irrelevant. Why? Laundry list in no particular order.
Tenure and Seniority. Once teachers have been at the game awhile, they earn the right to transfer to higher-performing schools. This perk, too, has only recently been effectively challenged - and typically by Republicans. The Democrats didn't dare raise this challenge - for want of losing their base. Seniority means getting out of the hood and into a quiet suburban school where you can get a bump in salary and rocket to retirement. If I did rank the schools, this would have been #1. Interpersonal Angst. While it may or may not be true that teachers, as a group, are more "liberal" or whatever, it is also true that there is no collective of white Americans that has demonstrated a desire to live next to black folk. In other words, if black folk want to integrate, some coercion must be involved. If the teacher's union did endorse busing, there would have been some serious interpersonal angst. You might be fine with it - but it doesn't mean you spouse or your neighbors or your doctor or dentist or grocer is fine with it. Just as white middle-class Boston congealed around anti-black venom, teachers would not have risked the isolation of that position. Albert Shanker and the AFT did not endorse busing. Simply, busing may have been intended as a shoe horn to other issues, but it didn't have the drastic long-term effect on the daily life of teacher's that these other areas might have had. The switch to the Republicans, in my mind, would have been on. It may not sound like much, but the Democrats (especially in New York) are notorious for caving to the teachers union. Here we have a group that's received a 33% raise in the past five years crying woe is me - and the transit workers can't get a cut of the MTA $$. It's all about proximity to power and affiliation - and the teachers have a political party of their own that wouldn't dare cross them. hey y'all...sorry that damn post was so long...it's been awhile...i'm rustier than a mug!! one final note...the emergence of Republican mayors in American cities have really accelerated attacks on teacher quality, attempts to limit tenure and efforts to privatize schools. Bloomberg is doing what could not have been done in this sector by a Democrat. It's not all good, by any stretch, but it's interesting. hey y'all...sorry that damn post was so long...it's been awhile...i'm rustier than a mug!!
I don't own the site but I greatly appreciate you taking the time to offer the analysis that you did. More importantly, I think what you wrote is absolutely on target in every respect. sorry that damn post was so long...it's been awhile...As long as folks don't use the comments as a blog, it's cool. Even that's okay once in a while if you get deep enough. Public Education 101: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know
"It strikes me as odd, and insensitive, when a middle school aged student is assigned to a regular 4th grade elementary classroom. Such a student has already been identified as a struggling learner - one who is not a chapter or two behind in a subject, but is lagging several years behind other students the same age. We have fallen deep into the cracks of public education with such a student. If we truly want to help this child, then the child should not be continuously assigned to the same type of regular, general education classroom the student has already repeatedly failed. We need to try something different, to give this student a chance to catch up. Some type of "alternative placement" setting is needed for such a student. Simply put, how many times are we to mindlessly send these kids back into the same regular classrooms they have already repeatedly failed?" I lifted this quote from today's edition of the Black Commentator. The link to the full article is above. T3, given your knowledge of this subject and attention to the phenomen of republican mayors and other contextual pressures on public schools, (NCLB) what do you think about t the emergence of funded and privatized behavioural intervention funnels? In schools in the KCSD, for example, there is something called BIST that spills out into the larger Ozanam. Over two-dozen black parents, primarily of boys, that I've interviewed have indicated to me that BIST and Ozanam are quota and profit driven respectively - and that they feel that their children have been profoundly dis-served by school policies and procedures that channelled their children out of the classroom and into these alternative contexts. My first hand surveillance of these organizations has not led me to any firm conclusions yet concerning their underlying motives, however, the consensus of opinion I've garnered to date indicates a belief that one of their primary operational objectives is to assist schools in removing children who have not/may not perform well on the standardized tests. In KC, performance on those tests is directly correlated with school accreditation, so there is a strong incentive to game the use of these services in such a way as to result in the elimination of low and potentially low-performing kids from the school's rolls. As a died-in-the-wool opponent of ritalin and drugging children autistic spectrum and allegedly autistic spectrum children - I'm now led to wonder about all such alternative funnels in the context of standardized testing and the incentive structure under which public schools are now compelled to operate. Where were all these ADHD and behaviourally challenged children back in the day? i'm going to veer back to orlando for a second. the first time i encountered him was at a panel on race at michigan. we were talking about the rise of black studies as a discipline, and he remarked that black studies was a direct product of the civil rights movement RATHER THAN the black power movement. a stance i thought was wrong on its face. then, in doing some reading for a book project on hiphop i'm working on, i read about an instance in which he says in a public forum that until rap there is NO HISTORY of political protest in black music. marvin gaye? the last poets? gil scott heron? patterson not only does not know much about black american life, i'd argue that he feels a great deal of disdain for black american life and culture. (edited to add) Patterson's comments are especially problematic given today's article on boys in THE WASHINGTON POST. OH, yeah...I am not ignoring that article.
cnu: They were pounding on folks in the stairwell or pissin' on the toilet paper in the bathroom or mackin' wannabe hoes or cuttin' jokes in the back of the class or cuttin' class or spendin' all day in the resource room - it's amazing what the memory recalls with a bit of prodding. Yep, that was some junior high school. Anyway, I'll have to get back to you on that BISTnis. I haven't seen many private sector interventions in public education that have worked for children. FYI...I bought the books from Gatto that you linked to back in the day. His insights and my personal observations/interpretations suggest that in the areas of textbooks (development, design, pricing, content, etc.) and charter schools, the private sector can significantly undermine the aspirations of parents and children. Textbooks have been dumbed down for decades. The size may increase - just as the color illustrations and the cost go through the roof - but the real educational value of the book declines. Textbook companies that peddle curriculum have considerable influence in schools and considerable culpability in the ongoing intellectual malaise in the nation. I certainly believe that children are brilliant in their areas of interest. More pictures and less challenging language or sample questions will not generate that interest. Dumbing down books, jacking up prices and gouging schools with crappy products is one way of getting over. Many charter schools have a similar MO. I know of a school with more than $1M on the books that is not being used on students...I'm sure it will be used somewhere... I'll read up on the programs in KC - first I've heard of it. I'd be interested to know if the program exists in NYC. kenyatta: nice work of OP. I didn't know he was that much of a buster. My real take on his piece comes down to security. Cool pose is about security as much as it's about anything. If you're a nerd you'll get taxed - unless you can back people up off you. Most nerds can't do that - so rather than get taxed, folks don't own their inner nerd...everybody has one (for me, your inner nerd is something/anything where you have a disproportionate interest/expertise/and affection...it can range from Star Trek to video games to porn to football to whatever). Anyway, when a kid tells you they're not interested in anything - it's a lie - it's a cover - and in many cases, it may essential to their physical well-being. When I was a kid, everybody was into videogames - Space Invaders, Defender, Asteroids, PacMan, etc. Today's youth are still interested in that stuff - but what if you're interested in the SCIENCE behind the game or the SCIENCE implicit in the game. Would you rather play Asteroids or design a program to navigate a random asteroid field or become an astronaut. These are decidedly not cool in a lot of places. And that is about more than anti-intellectual...it's about style and about security because if you can kick everyone ass, you can read your physics books on the court between games - and if you're gettin your mack on, you can be as nerdy as you wanna be. I think it all has a lot to do with that very fundamental principle of strength (physical and interpersonal) that comes from authentic mentorship...in the absence of mentorship, one is more likely to "go with the flow" which is generally NOWHERE. So, it's not like this is some huge unsolveable mystery. It's kinda semple. The Eisenhower Blues
Hey everybody I'm a talking to you I ain't telling you jealous It's just the natural truth Oh oh oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Thinking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do? My money's gone, the fun is gone The way things look I can't be here long Oh oh oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Thinking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do? Taking all my money to pay the tax I'm telling you people the natural facts I'm telling you people, in my belief I am headed straight on relief Oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Thinking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do? I ain't got a dime, ain't got a cent Ain't got no money to pay my rent She wants some clothes, she wants some shoes I'm telling you people I don't know what to do Oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Talking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do? Taking all my money to pay the tax I'm telling you people the natural facts I'm telling you people, in my belief I am headed straight on relief Oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Thinking about me and you and what on earth are we gonna do? Oh I got the Eisenhower Blues Talking about me and you and what the hell are we gonna do? The lyrics to this song, which was composed and recorded by the late blues guitarist J. B. Lenoir, earned the record's distributor , Phil Chess of Chess Records, a visit from FBI agents who tried to "persuade" Chess to pull it off the market. I don't know if Dr. Patterson has a disdainful attitude toward African American culture or if he was misquoted but black folks have always used the medium of song to express their displeasure with current events etc. Sometimes I wish that guys like Patterson, Gates, West, Dyson etc. would back-off and not allow the media to use them as so-called experts or authoritative voices about all aspects of black culture. Here is a link to several other "protest" songs that J.B. Lenoir wrote during his lifetime. I read the article in the Post. I think this may eventually come back to the divorce rate and a generation of boys being raised in single parent households. Fathers typically provide the type of direction that this article suggests are missing. Biology doesn't preclude mothers from setting it out, but fathers tend to go there fairly easily. I haven't seen that movie, but I know that Terry Bradshaw's in it and I'm sure his father would have put his big ass in the street if he tried to roll back to the "crib." Dr. Welsing always says there are five "classes" (I can't recall the specific word she uses) in the human family: man, woman, boy, girl, baby. Babies live in cribs and require the care of men and women and "their boys" and girls for survival. I wonder if there is a way to quantify the physical impact of separation on a family (ie., health, mental health, etc.). I'm sure cnu has something. If they backed off, how would they "earn" a living? All of them already hold tenured faculty positions and Gates' wife runs a successful landscaping business. I don't think any of them would have a problem getting three square a day and a warm place to sleep if they sometimes referred reporters to other blacks who just might know more about a particular issue or field of study.
Three points:
1. Patterson wasn't misquoted. I don't have a great deal of time, or I would have produced more anecdotes...all of them at MOST second hand. I attribute it to his background. If you have the time do keyword searches on Patterson to see what else he's said. He knows that racism exists, and in this way is different from a Shelby Steele say, but he believes that black American culture is inferior. 2. Patterson has an invested interest in promoting his views about African Americans. It isn't just about establishing his point of view as the "right" point of view. It's about accumulating status and prestige. This is also why Gates, Dyson, and West, none of whom have actual expertise in studying contemporary African American life, continue to behave as if they do. 3. Gates is no longer married. 1. This is a flat medium so it is difficult to convey nuance. I didn't doubt what you read. I just found it astounding that someone of Patterson's eurdition would make such a statement because if he has read as extensively as he leads us to believe then he should know that black Americans have always commented about politics and current events in their music. The other reason I was taken aback is that Patterson is a jazz fan and I assumed that given his age etc. that he would be well aware that jazz musicians and by implication, blues musicians, keep their ears attuned to current events.
2. I'm so old school that I thought that being a tenured faculty member at the world's most prestigious university, writing award winning scholarly books, getting paid well over $100K, and being recognized when someone sees you walking down Brattle Street in Cambridge were rewarding enough in themselves. I keep forgetting that human beings always want more even when they don't deserve more or need to have more. If the prestige and status that Patterson and his colleagues have accumulated to date is insufficient then that does not give us much reason to be optimistic about black scholars. (I'm even starting to notice a whiny tone in Gerald Early's writings. A piece that he recently wrote about Muhammad Ali for the Times Select section of the New York Times was especially sour. I got so annoyed after reading it that I posted a review that I wrote for Emerge Magazine five or six years ago of a book he edited titled The Muhammad Ali Reader as a way of reminding Early that he once held Ali in a little higher regard whatever the man's faults and excesses.) I sincerely hope that you and the generation of scholars you know avoid that trap. 3. Do you mean that Gates' ex-wife wouldn't give him a meal if he needed it?  1. I think much of the deal with Patterson can be traced to his heritage. Patterson is from the West Indies, and there has historically been tension (really on the east coast...ain't that many west indies folks in places like gary, ind.) between african americans and caribbean americans. this tension influences his writings about black americans. and causes at the very least "blind spots" in his analyses.
2. my generation (and i'm now old enough to see the hint of the next generation after me) is still as human as the next. hopefully though we'll be more wise to the game. and yeah, there's always more....otherwise what would we be doing in our offices? 3. given the circumstances of their divorce? no. I wonder if there is a way to quantify the physical impact of separation on a family (ie., health, mental health, etc.). I'm sure cnu has something.I gots nada magne. It's completely outside my personal experience and contrary to my religious precepts. My parents were faithfully married until my father's death in 1986 and I have been married for going on 19 years - 21 years total with the same woman. I think this may eventually come back to the divorce rate and a generation of boys being raised in single parent households. Fathers typically provide the type of direction that this article suggests are missing. Biology doesn't preclude mothers from setting it out, but fathers tend to go there fairly easily.My limited experience disposes to me to agree with this inference. As a practical matter, I can only speculate based on what I've observed in my children's friends and in the children I teach who come from single parent homes. I believe the impact is absolutely devastating. Perhaps nothing influences my opinion about this more strongly than the way in which my 6 year old reacts to the very idea of separation - mind you - this is an idea he's assimilated from outside our home environment. For example, if my wife and I engage in an animated discussion, he gets upset, begs us not to argue, and asks if we're going to divorce. As a child, I don't recall having any concept of divorce at his age - though I knew I was adopted and I knew what this meant. I'm quite certain I knew nothing of divorce per se until I was a teenager. 1. I don't think that black scholars and others who make a living or their reputations off of the lives of black folk have ever given enough attention to how geography affects black people's attitudes and culture. I grew up on the left coast and i'm acutely aware that some of the issues, concerns and problems articulated to me by blacks who grew up on the east coast do not necessarily apply to blacks who were raised in the mid and far west.
I still find Patterson's lack of knowledge about the use of political protest in black American popular music troubling. The traditional calypso songs that are indigenous to Trinidad were often filled with veiled and not so veiled references to then current events and political issues and struggles on the island. In 1937, for example, when the labor organizer and nationalist T.U.B. Butler was being pursued by the British authorities who intended to arrest and imprison him calypso singers recorded more than a dozen songs depicting Butler as a modern Robin Hood and highlighting the Brit's repeated failure to find him. Butler, who died in 1977, was considered a national hero. 2. That must have been a very bitter divorce. I'm troubled too about Patterson. I just chalk it up to his biases though.
I think black scholars pay a great deal of attention to regional differences, and even moreso because of technological increases. One of my colleagues for example, just published an article last year in the American Political Science Review that shows pretty persuasively that "linked fate" (or the degree to which a given black individual believes that what happens to "black people" has an effect on what happens to her as an individual) is a partial function of neighborhood context (the racial demographics, and the socio-economic status of neighborhood residents on average). Another of my colleagues wrote an interesting article on black empowerment comparing los angeles, atlanta, and cleveland. And every regression I run usually has a "southern" variable, because we know that people from the south tend to be much more conservative than people from other regions. Among social scientists this thing is fairly normal. More work needs to be done though to be sure. But the real deal is that you, craig, jamal (t3), and earl, have access to an EXTREMELY LIMITED pool of black scholarship. Unless you knew about my friend's article, and THEN asked one of us to download a copy for you, you'd never have access to it. That type of article doesn't sell and CAN'T be sold to the wider community...if only because it is written in such an academic fashion that no one would possibly want to buy it. I've actually started to do a LITTLE bit of academic review on my own website....because I find it easier to write things for my book using the blogform, and also because I know that not even on blackprof do scholars even present abstracts of interesting work on race, on black life, on politics. I'm not sure if our limited access to the breadth of work being done by black scholars is a problem at all in terms of the writing, work and issues we pursue or comment on. I think there are enough books, newspaper and magazine articles, journals, audio and video documentaries etc. being produced that can be easily obtained and understood. If the work that a black scholar is doing has enough significance it will eventually find its way to a larger and wider audience regardless of its viewpoints. I understand and can reasonably well explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity but I have never read his orginal paper and I doubt if I could understand much of it if I read it.
I appreciate you pointing out to me how often black scholars and others do take into account regional differences among black Americans. I had forgotten that political scientists, for example, often use data drawn from various different regions in order to develop a more comprehensive analyses of their subjects. But the real deal is that you, craig, jamal (t3), and earl, have access to an EXTREMELY LIMITED pool of black scholarship.Fortunately we're motivated prior to formalisms, like the scholars are. I've actually started to do a LITTLE bit of academic review on my own website.Cool, I have to watch for that. I'm not sure if our limited access to the breadth of work being done by black scholars is a problem at all in terms of the writing, work and issues we pursue or comment on. I think there are enough books, newspaper and magazine articles, journals, audio and video documentaries etc. being produced that can be easily obtained and understood. If the work that a black scholar is doing has enough significance it will eventually find its way to a larger and wider audience regardless of its viewpoints.
In most cases it produces nothing more than minor headaches for someone familiar with the literature...but that's my problem, not yours. But keep two things in mind: I was replying specifically to your comment that black scholars don't take regional differences into account. We DO...you just don't see it because you don't have access to the work that we do in this area. Absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Secondly, there is a political economy of scholarship to consider. Take the acting white phenomenon for instance. Roland Fryer's work is emblematic of a wider problem. When folks cover it, they cover the WRONG ASPECTS of the work....and in covering his piece they ignore much better work, like Prudence Carter's "Keepin' It Real" which blows Fryer's thesis out of the water--but then again his own research does the same thing right? The market doesn't somehow select "good scholarship" through the invisible hand, trickling it down to you all. There are political decisions made as well as marketing and PR decisions, as to what the hot ish is. There are political decisions made as well as marketing and PR decisions, as to what the hot ish is. I'd like to know what the concerns are when those decisions are made. The market doesn't somehow select "good scholarship" through the invisible hand, trickling it down to you all. There are political decisions made as well as marketing and PR decisions, as to what the hot ish is.
All the more reason why it is important that black Americans need to develop our own media organs and outlets for distributing information and news. I understand the constraints that blacks who are part of the academy are forced to labor under. If your work is not published in those journals that are esteemed by your peers and the professional organizations you belong to it works hard against you in terms of securing a position with a university, eventually receving tenure and obtaining sufficient funds to conduct research. The problem occurs when your research or the opinions you have developed as a result of your work does not square with the prevailing paradigms, ideologies or opinions of those who control access to these professional journals. In the garden of everyday journalism this problem is, perhaps, exponentially greater because of the demands of the market. A president's inappropriate but consensual sexual affair with a White House intern is given far more play by the press than examining another president's claims about why we need to invade and militarily conquer another sovereign nation. BTW, I think you might be right about Patterson allowing his biases to influence his judgments about African Americans but his lack of knowledge about the breadth of black American popular music is, in my opinion, simply the result of ignorance. It could be that that this ignorance grows out of his sense of disdain for African American culture, but, given his well publicized love for jazz, I suspect that he probably does not much care for black popular music. As you know, a lot of jazz fans and critics - too many in my opinion - are real music snobs. (I think this is particularly true of non-black male afficionados and critics many of whom in their hearts, whether they admit or not, would prefer that jazz take its directions from Euro-centric themes and structures rather than from African American themes and structures.) If Patterson has never heard James Brown's recording of "I'm Black and I'm Proud" then it is because he chooses not to listen to James Brown or to take Brown seriously as an artist. Where does the scholar come from? What does his scholarship say? Are his findings controversial? Do they go against the prevailing wisdom in the black community? What is his backstory? Does he have any awards that strengthen his appearance? Can we find (ivy league quality, preferably white) scholars willing to support his claims? Is he mediagenic? These are the types of questions that come up.
But even before that moment, the individual has to have the savvy to send his/her work out there through either a publicist or through the university's PR department. Roland Fryer has the impressive rags to riches story, the right controversial line, the people supporting him, the pedigree, and the people who are willing to support him. I'm almost positive he becomes a household name through PR. Not even the New York Times has a "scholarship beat" with folks looking through abstracts trying to find stories. Hell, Fryer's original work on this subject hasn't even been PUBLISHED yet. It's a DRAFT. I'm almost positive he becomes a household name through PR.There's no doubt about that in my mind because no one had heard of him, then everyone did. If I wanted to set up a "Black scholarship beat," what would need to be done? get an account with a university....or pair up with someone who had a university account. then once every month or so, run a keyword search on the areas of interest. you should get several hits....take the title and the abstract and put it up on the web.
for an added component most of us can be reached by email right now. email the author and ask them to explain the research in "regular language". i thought about doing something like this a while back, but i simply don't have the time right now. Roland Fryer has the impressive rags to riches story, the right controversial line, the people supporting him, the pedigree, and the people who are willing to support him.
One of the things I found interesting in the coverage accorded to Fryar is the peculiar stress the Times placed on his "back story". Whenever I read profiles about black academics and this slant is taken I always get a feeling that the writer and editors are trying to convey an additional message to their audience that goes like this: "Look at this black academic. He (or she) grew up poor in the ghetto without the benefit of a two parent family. They escaped a life of drugs and crime and made something of themselves. More importantly, though, (and this is why we are featuring them in our magazine or newspaper) this successful black man (or woman) thinks that racism is no longer a decisive factor in American society. His struggles have taught him that individual initiative and character are what counts in America today. In addition, although his views may be far outside of the mainstream of black consensus and thought we believe that he is right and that blacks who disagree with him (and us) refuse to recognize reality." kenyatta: all i can say is that you're blessed your validation does not come from white folk. few people in any field can say that...they may act as though it's not the case, but if they do get a bit of recognition, the grin belies the alienation -PULITZER-GRAMMYS-OSCARS-TONIS-NOBELS-KENNEDYCENTER-blah, blah, blah...it's clear to me that the prestige factor is huge for certain folks - but it's made them irrelevant in many respects. in the final analysis, there won't be much legacy to leave...the books of social criticism will remain, but they'll be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of internet porn and online poker sites. two or three generations from now, students with the same intellectual orientation our crew had at U-M will not be reading gates, west or dyson with much interest. why? they're not asking the right questions or posing the right answers - generally speaking. so prestige grows and the circle continues. "Damn it feels good to see people up on it!" - bizmarkie...this is probably the exact sentiment of those university administrators, publishers and national press organizations when folks who might otherwise be considered brilliant begin to parrot and take their eyes off the prize. too many folks have written virtual concession speeches based on their choice of academic focus or publisher or whatever...they caught the vapors. if you haven't already scooped it, pick up the grind date album by delasoul...and that will be that. the grind date is the shit. i didn't tell you, but my book project is basically about hip-hop and american politics. if i get it right, it'll be the first book to actually look at how hip-hop influences the political conceptions of black american youth. the grind date represents an effort that is extremely unique given the rise of corporatized hip-hop.
when my stuff starts to come out, i plan to use JHU's PR department. we'll see what turns out. I am familiar with Patterson's pioneering work on slavery as parasitic behaviour and, therefore, I am floored that he favors a cultural lens to explain black male "deviance". I wonder how he would explain the criminality and violence in post-apartheid South Africa. Here in South Africa most whites will quickly point out that there is a "culture of violence" that explains crime. And, when there is reference to unemployment it is often said that blacks in general suffer under a "culture of entitlement" that expects things to be handed over (this argument is widely used to obscure the structural privileges that keep white wealth largely intact, and by implication to negate the attempt to broach issues of structural reparation/repair). We should see Orlando's drift as nothing new (see Glenn Loury for example). Arguments about the "culture of deviance" are to be found all through race relations literature. Remember when it was common to hear people talk about the underclass and the ghetto - much of that argument hinged not only on structural explanations but also on cultural explanations that would even import further racist assumptions like morality and work ethic (all of which draw heavy on race essentialism). Dr Ridwan Laher |
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"My favorite is Jim Crow, that deeply entrenched set of cultural and institutional practices built up over four centuries of racist domination and exclusion of blacks by whites in the South. Nothing could have been more cultural than that. And yet America was able to dismantle the entire system within a single generation, so much so that today blacks are now making a historic migratory shift back to the South, which they find more congenial than the North."
That's bullshit piled high and deep as only Patterson knows how. There's a Jim Crow renaissance going on in the South right now. The Georgia Legislation passed Jim Crow-era voting laws aimed again at diluting minority voting. Gerrymandering voting districts in the South is also rampant, for the same reason. Rather than examine "American culture," the culture of white supremacy and anti-intellectualism for its role in fostering the behaviors he ascribes solely to black youth, Patterson prefers to think out the "blame black folks" box.
Excellent analysis, P6.