>okay, i don't believe in this...but
>i do believe in a
>culture of underachievement, where cats
>on the honor roll are
>looked at as clowns instead
>of success stories...

I will readily agree with that. And it's not just something that happens in so-called poor schools. Many of the middle class African Americans I met in college, the "talented tenth", were all ridiculed by their black peers throughout school. This was in addition to the day to day identity struggle as well as dealing with Majority-America.

>i think out-of-wedlock births and violent
>crime might be more attributable
>to a culture of "misplaced
>masculinity", where cats judge their
>manhood by how many girls
>they've bagged or their ability
>to handle violent confrontation. has
>nothing to do with poverty,
>if you ask me.

Again, I agree. The out-of-wedlock births and violent crime are also part and parcel of middle and upper class life. But because these folks have the resources to address these things it is not as much of a visible problem. Like if there was a shooting at most rural or inner-city schools, there would not be grief counselors coming out of the woodworks to console the student body.

An aside from this post, just commenting on the thread in general. It seems there is an almost "blame the victim" mentality from the responders.

Personally, I see many problems of poor neighborhoods as being mostly structural in nature. Whether or not someone is hard-working and looking for every opportunity is irrelevant when it comes to changing class positions. A lot of the proposed solutions often address individuals but not a whole class solution.

What black folks have to ask themselves, is how do we fund our schools when white folks do not want to live near us or locate their major businesses in our neighborhoods?

What steps do we as a people take when even our local governments are inable to help us?

peace
k. orr
house of phat beats