I intend to write more about the issue involving the Boston Public Schools and the unwanted federal intrusion into its business but for now let me tell you about what has been trampling around in my mind. You know there is a Youtube by two black students at Boston Latin School (BLS) complaining about the racial atmosphere at the school. As part of the video one student, Kylie Webster-Cazeau, gave as an example of their complaint: “When you’re the only black student in your AP US history course and when slavery comes up, they all turn to you.”
To continue reading go here.
Yep … 57 … and got the scars on my head and body that show I never missed anything that was not meant to be. Asinine cracks aside what is chronologically determined is that experience is The Great Teacher . Just BEING THERE does not guarantee you your ” Bona Fides. ” I would easily bet I have been drenched in more blood and violence, covered head to toe in blood, in my lifetime than you have been in yours. But so what , and who knows. You strike one as also a rather salty character. I do not begrudge you your experience ; you know naught of mine. Read between the lines . BOOM …Shaka Laka Laka ….. 🙂
The Black Middle Class burgeoning and cohesive, strong and proud in its own intense self-identification, and serving as a moral and spiritual exemplar to its People, was culturally murdered by the infantilizing of Black citizens with the ” Crumbs From The Table ” programs of the Great Society ; In particular Affirmative Action. One does not need to have steeped themselves in the genius of James Baldwin or Zora Neale Hurston to understand the genius of a Race that would have risen on its own terms without the nagging doubt created in the minds of American Society that Mr. Charlie gave the leg up. The bootstrapping was well underway before guilty white liberals decided that ” They ” knew what was best for their Black fellow, and equal, citizens. Civil Rights was a Black Power successful Movement .
The strokes are broad, but the picture clear. Divide and Conquer is the affluent white liberal political mantra. Screw pooe whites and give some scraps to a token Black Middle Class while the overwhelming number of Blacks are still as economically shut out as their ” Crackah’ ” counterparts. This is the insidious pyramidal social formula designed to keep the plutocrats … ” Plutocrating ” … As Eugene Debs said once, ” I do not want to rise from the ranks. I want to rise with the ranks. ”
Form line, Order, Link arms, and March My Bruthaaaa ‘ !!! 🙂
The objective of decades of affirmative action has been to build a black middle-class. The program has succeeded admirably, but, still has a way to go. The African-American middle-class can now afford to educate it’s children. That financial security also gives middle-class black kids the free-time to participate in social-activism. It’s truly admirable that privileged African-American kids haven’t forgotten about the black folks that haven’t made it. Everyday, and, in every way, these young people are a credit to our society.
★ Screwed a lot of * poor and lower middle class whites out of jobs and educational opportunities……
Affirmative Action is antithetical to the honest reward for merit which is every American’s right. It is an outrageous system of reverse discrimination. It has screwed a lot of pppr and lower middle class whites out of jobs and educational opportunities that their hard work and achievement merited. It is an obscenity.
” Crusty Old White Men ” is the new ” Nigger ” I would never call a Black man a nigger, and I do not expect to be liberally called ” Crackah ” or ” Crusty Old White Man ” or any other denigrating epithet. Celebrate your own experience, but not at the expense of your fellow HUMAN BEINGS. We all have a space where the ” quirks ” don’t shine. So sit on yours and I will sit on mine. I am 57 . Spare us the condescension.
57? You missed everything by a decade! It’s nice to read about, though.
Lol.
Anyone who has been caught in cross-town traffic on the way to Electric Lady Land knows exactly what I mean.
MS Free and JKM get an honorable mention. Some quirks in their posts tell me they weren’t around for the sixties, and. cannot be held responsible for the tumult of those times.
Wa-llahi! Except for me, of course.
The black kids you complain about are the products of affirmative action. They are the children of the African-American middle class. Instead of bitching about them, you should celebrate them. Sometimes, I think only crusty old white men comment on this blog.
Crusty, sceptical young white men, too.
Elmer:
Do you know Brian Burdiak? He, and, I, went to grammar school, and, Iggy, together.
“Recent campus race-related demonstrations are often bizarre. Clearly, there are no rational, cost/benefit explanations for this agitation, especially considering that many student protesters are allocating time better spent on academic pursuits. Do black Cornell University protesters honestly believe, for example, that forcing their school to drop the term “Plantation” from Cornell’s botanical gardens name will help campus blacks? (This demand was part of a seven page compilation of demands.) How about the black law students at Harvard who are currently occupying the school’s student lounge so as to replace Wasserstein Lounge with “Belinda Hall,” the name of a former slave owned by Isaac Royall, a Harvard donor. Will their ongoing occupation somehow sharpen their legal skills? What can possibly explain these time-wasting theatrics?”
http://www.unz.com/article/black-protestors-as-adrenalin-junkies/
Have they never heard of Plimouth Plantation at Harvard?
Matt
I suspect you will see more and more
teachers deal with with the issue of concern
expressed by Kylie Webster by turning to
the website AmericansWhoTelltheTruth
where curriculum are created by the
people represented in the portraits.
engagEd
http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/engaged
Learning through engaged citizenship.
engagEd is AWTT’s new resource for educators who wish to involve their
students in solving the world’s problems.
AWTT has invited the portrait subjects and the organizations that
represent them, their ideas, and legacies, to work with us to produce
simple lesson or activity plans that can be used in middle or high
school classes to build bridges between the classroom and the most
important issues affecting student’s lives.
Above you will find two ways to sort the lessons. With the first, you
can sort lessons into three broad discipline areas: Arts, Humanities,
and Math, Science and Technology. With the second, you can find out
which activities other teachers are using most, or the newest lessons
we recommend you try. For teachers participating in the Samantha Smith
Challenge, these activities offer a great starting point for
introducing your students to the idea that they can solve the problems
they see around them.
Teach your students to think like activists. Show them how to be
citizens in a democratic society. Engage them in the solutions for
real world problems. Browse through these unique lessons and connect
your students with the committed changemakers working for economic,
social, and environmental fairness throughout the United States.
Learning To Think Differently About Difference: A Lesson Plan by Alice
Rothchild
When we learn about people who are different from us or conflicts and
wars in other parts of the world, we see these people, conflicts, and
wars through the lens of our own societies with our own assumptions,
preconceptions, and language. Often our media reinforces these
assumptions through language and point of view and fails to challenge
us to think “out of the box” which is the first step in imagining
creative solutions and actions that can lead to greater understanding
and resolutions of controversial issues.
For example, discussions around Israel/Palestinian often trigger
heated emotions that come from the legacy of the Holocaust,
anti-Semitism, the treatment of the indigenous Palestinians, and the
narrative that major powers and mainstream media use to
read more…
Are Human Beings Naturally Violent or Naturally Peaceful?: A Lesson
Plan by Paul K. Chappell
Are Human Beings Naturally Violent or Naturally Peaceful?
If human beings are naturally violent, then we will continue to have
wars. If human beings are naturally peaceful, then world peace has a
chance. Let’s explore the possibilities.
read more…
Free Schools for Free People: A Lesson Plan by William Ayers
How can we make free schools for free people?
Schools are mirror and window into society—that is, schools always
reflect and reveal their host communities: schools in a theocracy
teach reverence; schools in an ancient agrarian community teach
cultivation and animal husbandry; schools in an
read more…
How To Know if Your Water Is Safe: A Lesson Plan by Diane Wilson
Is your drinking water and the water you swim in safe?
In 1972 Congress passed the “first” Clean Water Act. It stated that
the US waterways would have ‘zero emissions’ by 1984. That goal was
not met.
read more…
How War Can Be Abolished: A Lesson Plan by David Swanson
The Abolition of War
In a December, 2015, U.S. presidential debate, a moderator asked a
candidate whether he could serve as Commander in Chief and defined
that as being willing to kill innocent children by the thousands. In
1996 the U.S.
read more…
Connecting through Portrait Drawing: A Lesson Plan by Tilly Woodward
Connecting With The World and Its People Through Portrait Drawing
This lesson for a middle school art class that combines drawing,
interviewing, writing, presentation and reflective discussion.
read more…
Matt’s first Zen Blog.
Being and Nothingness
In other news
Link du jour
What do convicts do when
they get their PhD in Criminology?
They peer review articles for the
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
http://www.jpp.org
Matt:
Please fix so I read your entire column. Thanks.
[email protected]
Doug:
I think it is fixed now but bear with me while I try to do something a little different. Thanks.
“To continue reading go here.”
However, there is nothing relevant “here”, with the most recent posting from 3/8/16.
Ed:
Thanks – in doing this stuff I’m really beginning to see I am unable to chew gum and walk at the same time. I have to do a better job. It has been a very confusing day.