One of the reasons why I needed to take a break last week from writing was because of my mounting frustration with the people I love so dearly. I cannot tell you the amount of discussions that I have both heard and read from us that showed just how little we know about the world around us outside of those issues that deal with race.
I know, I know, whites and other races are just as guilty. But for now, I do not want to talk about them—I want to talk about us.
I was not at all surprised with the recent findings of Washington Post columist Eugene Robinson…
Was the levee break that precipitated the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina the result of some government conspiracy against blacks?
A Washington Post columnist says he’s amazed by the large number who believe such a notion.
“I was stunned in New Orleans at how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction that somehow the levee breaks had been engineered in order to save the French Quarter and the Garden District at the expense of the Lower Ninth Ward, which is almost all black,” the Post’s Eugene Robinson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“These are not wild-eyed people. These are reasonable, sober people who really believe that. (more…)
Nope, not surprised at all.
Hey let’s face it. Just as whites have a history of mistreating us as a people, we have a long history of not trusting them. That is why we will give credence to such a claim. What is disturbing to me is the amount of “intelligent” black folk that will give credence to such a claim without caring about or wanting to see the evidence to back the claim. This isn’t the only conspiracy regarding whites we have embraced without a demand for solid evidence and proof. Claiming “racism” has become our convenient replacement for critical thinking and reasoning.
In 1999 the U.S. Department of Education put together a report entitled National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This report provides an exhaustive assesment of the educational performance of American school age children. There was one particular part of this report that stuck out to me…
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The ability to read and understand complicated information is important to success in college and, increasingly in the workplace. An analysis of the NAEP long-term trend reading assessments reveals that only half of all White 17 year olds, less than one-quarter of Latino 17 year olds, and less than one-fifth of African American 17 year olds can read at this level.
By age 17, only about 1 in seventeen 17 year olds can read and gain information from specialized text, for example the science section in the local newspaper. This includes:
* 1 in 12 White 17 year olds,
* 1 in 50 Latino 17 year olds, and
* 1 in 100 African American 17 year olds.
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Because most lifetime habits are formulated in our pre-teen/teen years, this is not only bad news for the nation as a whole, but specifically very alarming to the black American population. Combine this with the fact that TV viewership among blacks is much higher than that of non-blacks in this country and you have a population that is heavily influenced not by critical thinking, but by emotion fueled by audio/visual media.
Critical thinking is a skill that involves taking all the pieces of an issue into consideration so that a solid opinion can be reached. Thanks to self-appointed “leaders” and politicians, much of the “critical thinking” that takes place in the black community can be sadly divided and minimized into two groups: Democratic (the larger of the two) and Republican. This leaves very little room for objective thought. What makes this especially dangerous is that loyalty to race is blended in the discourse between the two groups (because black Democrats overwhelmingly outnumber black Republicans/Conservatives, most of the “dis-loyalty to race” accusations tend to come from the Democratic school of thought (some black Conservatives have been known to play this game as well) . Because black Americans tend to vote a Democratic ticket, much of our outlook of the world around us is formulated by the Democratic ideology. A blaring example of this can be seen in much of our news media.
Black print media: Echo Chamber of the Democratic party
I have been particularly saddened about black news media lately. Instead of providing insightful, well-researched coverage on national/international issues, the black press has reduced itself to a rag that gives headline coverage to anything that demonstrates violations against race or class. Because of this, it should not be a great mystery that members of the black press are not asked to participate on Sunday morning political talk shows. Although these things are very important, the world around us should not be viewed through these two lenses. By using these “lenses” we inadvertently filter out other national and global events that require much greater attention.
Here are some examples of how this “Democratic” perspective permeates our news media:
Hurricane Katrina coverage
Many news agencies and even blogs were quick to provide readers with information that exposed the kinks in the chain of command that hampered the relief effort. If you were a person that really wanted to know the truth without the spin, you would have been open to the fact that it was both Democratic and Republican politicians that dropped the ball on this issue. You would not have known that if you paid close attention to black print media. Instead of taking the road to inform readers of all the pieces that made up this situation, many in the black press decided to side with the prevailing party in our community and use the whole incident as yet another example that Republican=racist. I found no mention of Mayor Nagin’s mistake for not following his own hurricane evacuation plan or any mention of Governor Kathleen Blanco’s failure to deploy the state’s own resources to save the lives of many New Orleanians. History tells us that this would not have been true if both the mayor and governor had been Republicans. Dismissing the whole incident as another case of racism make it extremely difficult to inspire critical thinking that may lead to a much different conclusion.
Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
Another case where our media allows politics to dictate what our community should and should not know is the recent scandal involving aides under Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who lifted the Social Security number of Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R-MD) and fraudulently accessed his credit report. Again, history tells us that if Steele had been a Democrat and Schumer had been a Republican that the black press along with groups like the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP would have raised pure hell over the incident.
You will also see the damaging effects of viewing the world strictly through the lenses of race, class, and political stripe in areas like the public school system and local government.
For years the public school system in many densely black populated areas has underperformed in comparison to “other” school districts. While many would be quick to point out that the problem is a lack of black teachers, what is rarely discussed is the quality of both the teaching and administrative staff. Although a black teacher can teach from a perspective that is familiar to black students, if the teacher himself/herself barely made it out of college due to grades, it would be almost impractical to expect students to make great strides academically. A critical thinker would realize that having a black face in front of the class is only a small part of the issue.
The same applies to how we pick our local government officials. Just because a person is a Democrat and/or black does not automatically mean that the person is qualified to do the job they have been elected to do. The evidence of this can be seen in many large cities across America as a good percentage of them are governed by mostly black administrations who are of the Democratic persuasion. If being black and a Democrat are the only meaningful qualifications that determine weather or not someone is fit serve in public office, we would not see the levels of crime, poverty, local government scandals, etc. that we see today in many of these cities. A critical thinker would look beyond the party line rehtoric and ask probing questions of potential candidates for public office. But in order to ask probing questions, one has to be familiar with the duties and responsibilities of local government.
If you were to ask most black Americans who they would consider as the greatest president in recent history, in most cases the response would be Bill Clinton. Follow up that question by asking “Name 10 reasons why you consider him as the greatest president in recent history?” and you will be lucky if many could name at least 2 things that are not related to race.
We have allowed self-appointed leaders, activist groups, politicians, and mainstream media to dupe us into believing that we are a bunch of helpless individuals who are in need of a leader that will speak on our behalf. We are not animals, this is not the jungle, and we do not need a Tarzan! Many of the people that we celebrate in black history had to be critical thinkers in order to make history. How dare we shun individuals within our race who choose to think outside the realm of political affiliation, race, and class. This has less to do with political pursuesion and more to do with giving ourselves and our children the license to view the world without the filters of failed tradition.
Sphere: Related Content
September 26th, 2005 at 9:06 am
I’m glad you’re back.
Thinking of the portion of this entry that dealt with critical thinking.
The numbers you gave for all were pitiful.
Granted that those given for the black community were far worse.
I’m wondering if the serious decline over-all (not just among whites, blacks or latinos) doesn’t have more to do with parenting than anything else.
As I watch the society around us it seems to me that not many parents take much interest or control in what and how their children are learning.
Or in many cases even IF their children are learning.
That in mind, I’ve never even considered that whites, blacks or latinos might in fact raise their children in seriously different ways. I wonder after reading this if in fact we as Americans haven’t purposely socially segregated ourselves so much that we even raise our children different.
That is raise them in a different manner to produce different results.
At the same time I have noticed that world-views seem to often determine how we raise our children and what kind of results we might be looking for.
Most of my fellow Christians I know no matter what their skin color may be raise their children in a very similar manner.
While those I know who are not Christian raise their children with very different view attitudes as to what kind of men and women they want their children to grow into.
As a Christian I raise my children in hopes of them becoming God loving and honoring men and women as being most important.
Education and possible careers being secondary.
While among those I know who are not Christian seem to look first towards careers and money achievements. Many I know don’t seem to give any consideration as to what kind of men and women they are producing.
I just wonder if the results of the numbers you gave could be the result of a mix of both world-views and community views and if one of the two doesn’t in some communities have more influence than the other.
One other thing that might be in the mix for the over all numbers I think is that Americans as a whole seem to think that they are owed and deserving.
That life should be struggle free and when it isn’t that their struggles are the fault of someone else which in the end make for laziness and lack of drive, motivation, and effort.
September 26th, 2005 at 9:58 am
“One other thing that might be in the mix for the over all numbers I think is that Americans as a whole seem to think that they are owed and deserving.
That life should be struggle free and when it isn’t that their struggles are the fault of someone else which in the end make for laziness and lack of drive, motivation, and effort.”
Keith, You say a mouthful with that last paragraph. I concur, too, with Christian principles (if not bonafide Christian teaching) being an important factor in successful families and therefore successful children.
Many problems facing the poor (of every color) center around the comfort afforded by the various programs aimed at eradicating poverty. A “guaranteed income,” from the government is attractive, because one doesn’t have to worry about layoffs or downsizing. Add to this the annual bonus at tax-time, and living below the poverty line and working a very low-paying job actually affords one a good deal of disposable income. To most families depending upon assistance to make ends meet, the absolute worst thing that can happen is that they earn enough money such that they don’t qualify for the benefits. That’s where the focus needs to be, IMHO. When those just above the poverty level are taxed to death, slipping below that line is a winning proposition. The programs have their place, to keep people from falling into a crisis situation where they haven’t enough money to feed their family, but it should be a safety net that’s only effective and comfortable for a short-term help.
One difference between the poor black communities and their white equivalents are that because of the trials experienced by Black Americans through slavery and the Civil Rights movement, there is a spirit of comraderie that politicians have learned to exploit. By passing laws that grant benefits to persons below the poverty threshold, then actively disseminating information about these programs through the black communities (especially in urban areas), unscrupulous politicians have learned a legal way to buy votes, knowing that black Americans frequently vote in strong blocs.
Here in the South, the phenomenon is particularly obvious. I’ve personally seen white politicians making concerted efforts to visit every black church within their district (I’m talking county and sub-county district races), leaving a substantial donation with every church. Then another round is customarily made to visit many of those churches when their special meeting is called on Monday evening before election day. It’s a vile practice, but it is legal–and effective.
September 26th, 2005 at 11:22 am
Thoughtful.
September 26th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Parenting does play a huge part in this issue. The main reason why I did not mention it (I’m still glad you did) is because unfortunately we are dealing with the aftermath of the situation (meaning that telling grown folks who did not have “good parenting” when they have already reached adulthood is almost a moot point). All we can do at this stage is #1. keep preaching the message of the value of not basing our views on hearsay. #2. Encourage these same adults not to pass down these bad habits to their children.
September 26th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Great observation concerning the lack of critical thinking skills in our community. I think there are a number of cultural issues that we have to confront if we are really going to elevate the level of skills we will need to not only survive, but also to prosper in the 21st century and beyond.
I disagree with one of the comments made about those who teach their children to be “good Christians” and those who do not. I believe that part of the problem is that we apply critical thinking skills in regards to our faith, and nothing much else. We believe that if we follow the Bible, everything will be ok. If we participate in, and are devoted to church, then that is all we need to do.
I am not dismissing the importance of faith, nor am I not mindful of the historical role of the church. I am simply saying that we must keep our faith AND learn about the world around us.
For example,the other day I was having lunch with a group of people, and the subject of race came up. I pointed out that race was a social construct conceived by Europeans in order to justify slavery and colonialism. My comment was met with stares and I was told that there have always been race and that we were the children of Hamm. Now I was trying to make an intellectual argument, but my fellow African-Americans were not going to hear anything about anthropology and sociology.
They are not dumb, but being a “good Christian” and adhering to the word, precludes almost all intellectual pursuit beyond the Bible. How are we to begin to approach tackiling the issues that confront us, if we have a virulent string of antiintellectualism rampaging and replicating itself throughout our community?
The truth of the 21st century is that African-Americans are competing not only against those within the U.S. , but also those around the world. Call it globalization or whatever you will, but our world view can no longer just be local and national in scope. The old Black-White paradigm of the 20th century is no longer viable.We must be aware that what happens in Asia, or South America, or Africia, can have profound impact upon the present and future. We need to be conversant ..at least at some level….about economics , geopolitics, hard sciences, etc…
I am not saying to abandon faith. I am saying that we have to refocus and reform our communities. There will always be a place, and a role for church. For example, why don’t we use our churches as centers of economic development…beyond that of our particular church? How many times have we decried the presence of Asians and others in our communities, yet we never seek to duplicate the processes that lead to them being there in the first place? Most are there because Asians and other communities pool their money and invest in their people. Those people then will work night and day, 24/7 if they have to, in order to rise above their station and they insist that their children succeed academically. Why can’t we duplicate this?
How about dispensing micro-loans from the church or other civic organizations? The NCAA is losing it’s relevance to a younger generation; nothing would revive it quicker than to add some type of economic development agency to it’s mission.
Of course, there will be those that say that we are too poor as a community. To that I say that we have disposable income approaching 900 billion and growing collectively! Yes that’s right, though African-Americans grossly lag behind the economic clout of our white counterparts, we still have enough resources to make some improvements without the help of others. Our mindset is that we are poor, that is true relative to white America. But our amount of disposable income is greater than all but about 9 countries in the world! Hell, we have more money than Mexico, and almost as much as the entire continent of South America. Think about that for a minute.
If we had better critical thinking skills we would already be aware of the economic clout we posses now as well as what we could do ourselves to improve our own lives. No need to wait on whites or anyone else to understand, like or love us, no need to worry as much about the political party in charge. Of course this would mean a loss of influence for many in our community who now hold more esteem than they deserve.
Hopefully one day we will value intellectual pursuit as much as, hopefully more than, we value atheletic , and entertainment pursuits. There would be nothing better for all of our souls than to not just survive, but to prosper as well.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
Good read. I enjoyed this piece until I got to the comments and read the “christianity” crap. Christainity is the first thing we need to shake out of if we as blacks are to ever become critical thinkers and empower ourselves. I don’t know how many times I have seen ideas get torn down because in the end “God is going to work it out”. We need to let that slave religion go. Whites haven’t got where they are because of Christianity; they have gotten were they are for thinking outside the box…and placing others in the box. While they may talk the talk you could go from the past to the present all ways in which whites have violated the word of God. Until Christianity is questioned openly in the black community nothing will change.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
Just a comment of the most heartfelt encouragement. Proud to have you as part of the same species. A lot of times you may feel like you’re just a one man show, but know that there are countless others fighting the same fight and sweating the same sweat.
Keep it up.
-Joke
September 27th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Bob,
I don’t understand how Christianity is a threat to black people.
Your ‘God is going to work it out example’ demonstrates you to be fairly ignorant of Christianity.
It isn’t as though we Christians of any skin color just sit and wait for God to do everything for us. It isn’t as though Christianity teaches this either.
Joke,
you have an excellent blog.
September 27th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
In my earlier post I meant to refer to the NAACP not the NCAA. Sorry about that.
September 28th, 2005 at 3:52 am
[...] other people worldwide saw on television (remember what I said the other day about how our opinions as a people are largely influenced by what we see and/or hear?). Kan [...]
September 29th, 2005 at 8:49 am
First,
“They are not dumb, but being a “good Christian†and adhering to the word, precludes almost all intellectual pursuit beyond the Bible.”
Then,
“Christainity is the first thing we need to shake out of if we as blacks are to ever become critical thinkers and empower ourselves.”
Um, Wrong; and WRONG.
Both of you have demonstrated your profound ignorance of the teachings of Christianity. CW says the story about the Good Samaritan is about helping others, but CW would be wrong. It’s about helping people whom you are trained by society to despise, recognizing them first and foremost as your fellow man, and ignoring their social, racial, or political differences in their time of need.
True enough, the Bible teaches “proper” ways to behave as a slave or as a master, because there’s no inherent shame in slavery. It’s abuse towards a fellow man that the Bible condemns, and it’s just as wrong in the context of Business or Politics as it is within the confines of slavery as an institution. We have deemed (and rightly so) that slavery’s treatment of human beings as property does violence against the Christian principle of the dignity and worth of the individual, so it’s been eradicated in our society, but to call the Bible a book of a “slave religion” because it speaks of being a Godly slave or master does the message of the book (and by extrapolation its followers) a grave disservice.
Bob, how about questioning the “gospel” of entitlement and government dependence? It’s doing a lot more harm to the black community than is Christianity, and it has a much stronger following.
Sebastian, you too, have a misconception of the Bible’s teachings. It does not require us to put logical thinking and scientific pursuits on hold, it simply requires that we adhere to certain presuppositions about the God who created our world. The proper position of the Christian is to grow both spiritually and intellectually, all to the Glory of God.
October 1st, 2005 at 10:12 pm
Bo,
First, my comments were not about the Bible. So before you go about stating that I am profoundly ignorant in regards to the Bible may I suggest that you at least wait until we are commenting directly about the Bible itself and then you might have an actual foundation to judge my knowledge?I don’t believe you know me so how you can conclude what my level of knowledge is about the Bible shows that you prove the point…..that critical thinking is essential!
In fact, the topic….the need for critical thinking…never appears anywhere in your comments. Why?
I would invite you to reread what I wrote, and I think Bob as well, and respond to what was actually said. For example, I offered a proposal to enhance the role of the Church in our community, now that is hardly something someone “ignorant of the teachings of Christianity” or our history would propose.
Hopefully you’ll reread the comments, crtique those comments in their proper context, and we can make some positive progress instead of playing the I Know The Gospel And You Don’t Game which really serves no useful purpose to all parties involved.
As a Christian, I will forgive you for personal attack.