News-Record.com

"Black leaders should reject victim attitude"

Some have, and for their rejection of the herd mentality have been ridiculed relentlessly by the race pimps who's only claim to fame and fortune is keeping their brethren downtrodden and teaching their youth that all their woes are the result of "racism".

...abetted of course by guilt ridden white liberals who have zero confidence in people of color to care and provide for themselves.

"Reject victimhood and those who espouse it."

Serious training in victimhood as a mindset did not get under way in the U. S. until the late 50s and early sixities --- ironically, just as Jim Crowe barriers/degradations were crumbling.

The absence of training in victimhood may have been one reason those earlier black communities --- 50s and earlier --- were stronger than today.

Below are excerpts from a review of The Price They Paid: Desegregation in an African American Community (Vivian Gunn Morris and Curtis L. Morris, New York: Teachers College Press, 2002).

The Price They Paid is a study of a black high school in Tuscumbia, Alabama, closed because of desegregation:

"...desegregation policies disrupted a symbiotic relationship that once existed between the black community and black schools and educators....black people in Tuscumbia...felt the sting of racism...Yet...the African American community worked collectively to ensure that the school met the needs of black children and functioned in the overall interest of the black community. As elsewhere throughout the segregated South...the black people of Tuscumbia donated land to build the school, and offered their time and other resources. Moreover, while white policymakers and district leaders imposed a curriculum that reflected an industrial model [vocational education]...the school leaders at Trenholm High School resisted this imposition, and embraced the classical or liberal educational model."

"Unlike many scholarly accounts of segregated black schooling, which focus on the disparities in resources between black and white schools, this account of a black school community focuses on black agency in the midst of legalized racial apartheid....Like many black schools of its day, Trenholm played an integral role in the black community. Black educators created opportunities for black children to display their talents, leadership, and speaking abilities, and also imparted a sense of responsibility to the children...."

* * *

Biographnical aside: My aunt grew up four blocks from Hickory's bthen lack high school, Ridgeview High. Ridgeview High was known statewide for its band and its football team. I once spoke at length with a 1952 Ridgeview graduate. "It was a wonderful school," she said. The community "never recovered" from its closing."

That pattern seems may have been repeated throughout the South --- at least if two other examples I'm aware of reflect the norm

Without victimhood, why would they need the white liberals to save them?
The black's pride has been ripped away from them by white liberals who need victims to remain needed.
With victimhood for one comes power for the other.

“There is nowhere else in the world where blacks have more opportunity than in the United States of America.” That’s a very arrogant and condescending statement. Are you speaking from experience? Canada has one less black billionaire than this country does. In 2002, Paul Boateng, became Britain's first black cabinet minister. So, blacks do have opportunities in other countries. Maybe you are myopic in your outlook.

Mr. Shuford, your comments are disingenuous at best. Yes, there were segregated black schools that were good. But, they were the exception, rather than the rule. That’s what Brown vs. The Board of Education was about. Separate. Not Equal. Today, black students go to schools that are more segregated than they have been since 1968. 1968! Dudley High School is a good example. And usually, the word “magnet school” has to be slapped on a predominantly black school to make it more palatable to white parents. And then, that does not have the integrative effect that school boards want.

Bill Cosby is not discounting racism. He is acknowledging racism’s impact, but, he is also saying to go forward and not let it cripple you. Sure there were black communities during the 40s and 50s that were very positive and thriving. You have to remember that because of covenants and segregation, there were very few areas that blacks could live. So, you had an area like the one near A&T, where you had college administrators and professors, who lived near doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses and every day folks. This community also had its own businesses. The community was self-sustaining. And think about the positive effect that this would have on a little black child to see the NC A&T president at the local store or the local church. When segregation was lifted, these black professionals could move anywhere that they could afford, and many of them did. They moved to Irving Park and they moved to Grandover. What’s left in their old community? Those people who could not move because of finances. What do you think that does to a person’s psyche? There was a psychology experiment that was used to bolster the Brown case. It involved little black kids being given the chance to pick between a black doll and a white doll. Most of the black children picked the white doll over the black doll. They thought that the white doll was pretty and the black doll was ugly. It was the same doll. The only difference was the color. These black kids grew up to be adults. If you think that you are “ugly” as a child, you are probably going to grow up and think that you are an “ugly” adult. You can’t expect blacks to have endured 348 (243 years of slavery plus 105 years post slavery unitil 1968) years of being “ugly” and then suddenly feel as if they are swans.

Funny how the first three responses come from some of the most "narrow minded" individuals.
Here's your sign!
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This might prove interesting to some out there who still don't "get it":

March 31, 2008
Forget Rev. Wright: Condi talks tough about race in America

Sen. Barack Obama has called for a national discussion on race in America, and one of the folks who sure didn’t hold back when asked was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a discussion with the editorial board of the Washington Times on Thursday, Rice called racism a “birth defect” of America, and said that black Americans have loved the nation even when it didn’t love us.

The Times reported:

“Black Americans were a founding population,” she said. “Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That’s not a very pretty reality of our founding.”

“As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, “descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that…”

“That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today,” she said.

Rice later said: “America doesn’t have an easy time dealing with race,” Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have “endured terrible humiliations.”

“What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn’t love and have faith in them — and that’s our legacy,” she said.

Wow, was all I could say to that.

What was even more stunning was the relative lack of coverage on this issue.
I was told CNN’s “The Situation Room” did a piece on her comments Friday. But when I surfed the Net to see follow-up stories in other papers, it has pretty much been ignored, except for some briefs.

Why would the mainstream media be so dismissive of Rice’s comments? Imagine if Rev. Al Sharpton or Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said such a thing. Do you think they would have gotten ripped?

The fact of the matter is that Rice was right on the money with her comments, and should be commended. She spoke honestly and openly about the issue, and deserves credit for speaking the truth.

I just wish my colleagues in the media would do a better job at advancing the issue of race in America and our sordid history.

We went bonkers about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but when Rice, the nation’s chief diplomat, spoke truthfully, it barely made a ripple.

- Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor
www.rolandsmartin.com
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Guess neocon and Tom Shuford would say she's just playing the "victim" card.

Two substantive posts by Conundrum and TLC.

Briefly, as my time is limited today, Conundrum, I said that the absence of training in the victimhood mindset may be ONE reason black communities were stronger in the 50s.

No doubt you are right that the ability of black professionals to move out of the black community after the civil rights revolution, was a major factor. But I'm not sure that was the whole story. Related --- and also having a big impact: Black schools were closed for desegregation purposes. Schools --- particularly high schools --- tend to be centers of community life. Losing the "heart" of a community (and all the teacher role models living near the schools in the neighborhood) can have all sorts of unintended undesirable effects.

* * *

Kenneth Clark's "doll studies" have been debunked --- rather thoroughly I gather --- by later researchers. One flaw of which I'm aware: The bulk of the data indicated black children were less likely to choose white dolls if they attended segregated schools --- at odds with the theory than integration theory. Clark used a single very tiny study that supported his political objective:

From Wikipedia:

"After Brown v. Board, the findings of the doll studies were more carefully scrutinized and heavily criticized as unfalsifiable. As Garfinkel notes in his Social Science Evidence and the School Segregation Cases, 'Clark had no rigorously obtained data whereby he could systematically connect the broad effects of discrimination on personality to the school segregation in these cases.'[4]

"Clark had even found evidence which contradicted this conclusion: 1) He found that more black children in integrated schools preferred and would rather play with the white doll (see table below)."

"He also found that after black children entered segregated schools, they approved more highly of the black dolls.

North(integrated) South (segregated)

Prefer to play with white doll 72% 62%

White doll is "nice" 68% 52%

Black doll is "bad" 71% 49%

"While the interpretation of this data is complex, it does not on the face of it support Clark's connection between school segregation and doll interaction."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Bancroft_Clark

* * *

On the Condi Rice comments:

The "birth defect" metaphor is stikingly apt, but other than than I see nothing remarkable in her comments.

“That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it..."

On the contrary, it almost seems that all we do is talk about race and "it's continuing relevance."

Mr. Shuford, let's assume that Clark's statistics are correct. Just, the simple fact that 71% of integrated black Northern students and 49% of segregated black Southern students would describe the black doll as "bad," shows you the mindset that these children held towards themselves. If white children had been subjected to the test, do you think that you would have seen the 71% and 49% figures associated with a "bad" white doll? Just the simple fact that black schoolchildren in the South were kept apart from white schoolchildren, that alone would do irreparable damage to a child's mind. And just to illustrate the point, I recently came across a statistic that said that 60% of black children could not swim. The figure is 30% for white children. The disparity in part, is due to the fact that a lot of the black parents lived in cities and towns in which the swimming pools were segregated and pools were not built in a lot of black communities. Also, the black parents held a fear towards swimming. Which I am quite certain was passed on to their children. Imagine how something more substantive than swimming, say education, could be effected by disparities.

Conundrum,

Even if Clark sought particular results with his study and conducted it to make sure he got those results, I suspect even a strictly neutral researcher would have come up with data indicating some degree of preferences for the "white dolls" --- though not to the same extent.

The reason? Bias towards "lighter" skinned African-Americans WITHIN the black community has long been an issue. Black children would have absorbed this bias.

What to do about the low self-esteem which seems indicated by the doll studies is the harder question.

Clark had a solution in mind. Thus, he did not report data that showed higher black-dolls-are-bad preferences among black children in integrated schools than those in segregated schools. Such data would have been inconsistent with his political agenda.

Was Clark's a noble deception in the interest of the greater social good, integration?

I tend to think not. I wonder if we, blacks and whites, would not be further along today, academically and socially, if radical solutions like cross-town busing to achieve racially balanced schools had been altogether avoided --- and, thus, so many neighborhoods and communities, black and white, had not been torn apart.

In your earlier post you wrote:

"Today, black students go to schools that are more segregated than they have been since 1968. 1968!"

For that we can thank Kenneth Clark and the clumsy social engineering his (and other*) flawed research inspired.

*Most notably, the research of James S. Coleman, of Coleman Report fame:

New Coleman Report
TIME MAGAZINE
May 23, 1975

Much of the thrust toward school desegregation was provided by the 1966 Coleman Report, which demonstrated statistically that black students learn more in integrated classrooms. Now the author of that report, University of Chicago Sociologist James S. Coleman, has completed another study on school integration that is likely to be as controversial—and perhaps as influential—as his first. Coleman's conclusion: "Programs of desegregation have acted to further separate blacks and whites rather than bring them together."

The blame, says Coleman, lies largely in the forced massive busing of students in big cities. When confronted with the possibility that their children will have to go to school with large numbers of blacks, many middle-class white families move to the suburbs or head for private schools. Says Coleman: "Busing has subjected middle-class white parents to things that they don't want —the possibility of lower reading levels and greater discipline problems in their children's classrooms."

Coleman's latest study, sponsored by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, analyzed racial data and trends in U.S. public schools from 1968 to 1973. When only small numbers of well-behaved, well-scrubbed black children were involved in busing, Coleman says, white parents did not resist too much. Indeed, busing has continued to work well in some smaller school systems. But when busing began to involve large numbers of low-income blacks from big-city ghettos, whites started to move away. Apparently confirming what opponents of forced busing have maintained all along, Coleman says: "Busing does not work."

CONTINUED AT LINK:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913200,00.html

Shuford,
Take a moment, breathe in and breathe out. Now close your eyes, and imagine Reverend Wright in his ministerial style, delivering those words.

Point made.

Here's a story in this newspaper I thought was right on topic.

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/NRSTAFF/750269017/-1/news26

Note that two of these kids will get off because their parents are white and affluent. Most likely the third one will do time.

Oh, that's right, there's no racism in America. Everyone has the same opportunity....my ass!

"...imagine Reverend Wright in his ministerial style, delivering those words."

Nah....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE

Dan, you really are showing your inability to reason, or show that you can understand complex problems.

You are custom made for a
soundbite--which explains why your views are so shaped by FoxNews, Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage, Bortz and other off the charts fringe right wing folks.

READ! READ! READ!

Only then will you shake off your protracted sleep and wake up to how the world is, versus how you see it in your 'bubble'.