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I guess we can agree to disagree on the idea of looking to consult West Indian educators, foreign-born blacks living in the U.S. etc.
Keep in mind that the Harvard statistics encompass *children* of foreign-born blacks--many of the kids themselves were born *here*. Yes, their parents provide a different cultural approach to child-rearing, but the kids have nonethless grown up in *American* society, with all of the same distractions as any American kid. And somehow, they are able to achieve on a higher level than the average American black student.
What we are seeing with these children is not the operation of West Indian/African cultural practices in their native context--we are seeing an *adaptation* to the American milieu. The fact is that these people have had to make adjustments in order to raise their children here, and I think that there are things that we can learn from that.
Due to differences in the history of slavery in the (particularly English-speaking) Carribean vs. the U.S., these people have developed a *system* of education in their home countries that is optimized to produce competent, responsible individuals. We have never been able to develop a similar system here because for hundreds of years, whites have taken great pains to sabotage our efforts to develop a competetive system of education.
This is the 'dirty secret' behind American blacks' ambivalent stance toward education. Given the fact that it was denied to us for so long, many of us have developed this sort of defensive reaction to education--'I don't need no white man's education...' This self-defeating defensive attitude continues to the present day, despite the fact that many blacks who do it today don't even know where this attitude actually comes from in the first place.
Of course, it is the height of hypocrisy for white people to turn around now and wonder why we aren't competetive, considering the historical context, but we don't have any choice but to try and get ourselves together.
In my opinion, we need to consult with these foreign-born blacks, because they have successfully adapted their educational values to American society. I'm not suggesting that we try to transplant the Carribean approach to education wholesale; indeed, the immigrants themselves haven't done this. What they have done is *adapted* their traditions and values successfully to an American context.
We are going to have to do some adapting of our own in the near future, or many of us are going to perish. The mainstream black American culture is going to have to change *profoundly* if we are going to continue as a people--I don't really think that this is debatable.
I think that many people are too caught up in being personally offended by what Cosby said, and they miss the point that the guy obviously cares. I mean, he's a *billionaire*--he doesn't have to deal with *any* black people (other than his wife) if he doesn't feel like it. He doesn't even have to *see* any if he doesn't want to.
Believe me, it would be very easy for him to just walk away from the situation and say, 'fuck those niggers--they're just no good, and that's the end of it.' But this is not really what he said. I think the man wanted to light a fire under people's butts, especially since he is getting up in years, and doesn't know how much longer he has to be here (not like any of us know how long we have either).
There are many other prominent blacks, (particularly certain individuals in entertainment and music industry circles) who are silent in the face of all of this cultural chaos amongst blacks. They are silent, in certain cases, because they are making money off of their own people's confusion and misery, and they are much more worthy of criticism than Cosby, as far as I'm concerned.
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