I came across an interesting article that apprears to be a variation on this theme. Gregory Moore, author of “It’s Africans, Not African Americans That Are Appreciating College Education”, writes:
With the NBA season being about a month or so away, I thought it was interesting that while searching through the various sports resources at my disposal that I actually came across a story that seems to put more credence into my argument that the young African American kids in this country look at professional sports as a God-given right where as other kids from ethnic backgrounds see the college education as a privilege worth striving for. No more was this ever present than on Friday when I was combing through said resources and came across a story from Sports Business Network entitled, “Young African Men and their NBA dream”…. (my emphasis)
I know I sound like broken record, but some black children’s unrealistic expectations and sense of entitlement toward college (and life in general?) are direct consequences of the current state of our educational system (dismal) and the existence of skin color preferences (immoral).
There is good reason why success stories from Africa are finding their ways into the sports pages that we read. There is a climate in that country that goes beyond anything that could be dreamt up by the naysayers of the ghettos. While many of our African American kids are dealing with drugs, poverty and other social ills, kids from Africa, like Diop, are trying to escape the realities of abuse, HIV and other ills that are killing off Africans at an alarming rate. For them, getting to the United States is literally a life or death situation that many have no fear of trying to accomplish. To these African individuals, obtaining the college degree is more important than basketball.The social climate here in the States is alarming because thanks to the media, what many African American kids see is a skewed view of reality. The Carmelo Anthonys, LeBron James’ and others are anomalies in a sea of sports tragedies….
It’s not that African American basketball players don’t see the vision that African ball players see. With this society showing that everything is about the bling-bling, the ball players who you see on the playgrounds these days do not understand the vision because to them education isn’t an important aspect of their lives. That ladies and gentlemen is the tragedy facing the African American community but maybe there will be some hope coming from across the pond.
Some people might be surprised to know that college is a privilege and not a right. Food for thought.
