Kay Hymowitz, writing for City Journal, wrote an intriguing (and long) article about why black children have problems academically, and lays blame on parents. That’s intuitive to most of us, I’d guess, but Hymowitz discusses some of the differences between middle-class and lower-class parenting styles.
She begins the essay with background on Bill Cosby’s infamous and public chastisement of lower-class black parents and their lack of parenting skills, backed up with statistics. She discusses the failed promise of the billion-dollar drain known as Head Start and crosses over into taboo territory: poor black kids do poorly in school because they have bad parents who pass on a culture of poverty. Hymowitz writes:
In middle-class families, the child’s development—emotional, social, and (these days, above all) cognitive—takes center stage…In The Family in the Modern Age, sociologist Brigitte Berger traces how the nuclear family arose in large measure to provide the environment for the “family’s great educational mission.â€The Mission, as we’ll call it, was not a plot against women. It was the answer to a problem newly introduced by modern life: how do you shape children into citizens in a democratic polity and self-disciplined, self-reliant, skilled workers in a complex economy?
Sorely lacking in lower income families is this sense of Mission. The children, sadly, are not the focus of the family unit, especially when there’s no father around.
Before black liberal readers have a collective cow, let me offer my qualifications for making such a statement. I observe the phenomenon every day, and members are my own family qualify as “lower class” as it pertains to lack of focus on a child’s development. I see and hear the way these parents talk to and treat their children, and I hear what others say about what they’ve observed. I am well qualified to offer an opinion on this subject.
Some of the anecdotes Hymowitz presents are sad. For instance, we all know that talking to children, even babies, helps their cognitive development. When told to talk to her baby, one mother said, “Why would I talk to him? He can’t answer me.”
Although a Ph.D. isn’t required for such assessments, an academic came up with a theory called “natural growth” to explain some of the differences between middle-class and low-income parents:
Natural-growth believers are fatalists; they do not see their role as shaping the environment so that Little Princes or Princesses will develop their minds and talents, because they assume that these will unfold as they will. As long as a parent provides love, food, and safety, she is doing her job.
It’s cultural, or more accurately, sub-cultural. Lower-income parents, in general, don’t help their children develop talents or equip them with skills necessary to be productive citizens. Part of the reason is that generally, children from lower-income households are raised by the mother and no father, at least not one living with them, and her time is sub-divided between working and/or playing. For whatever reasons, these mothers either don’t understand or care about the Mission. Consequently, their kids receive only the most basic care — food, shelter, and clothing.
Not all poor parents have this mindset. There are exceptions. A university professor conducted a study by sending trained observers into poor black households with high- and low-achieving children. He found that parents of high-achieving kids “get it”:
These parents, usually married couples, imposed routines that reinforced the message that school came first, before distractions like television, friends, or video games. In the homes of low achievers, mothers came home from work and either didn’t mention homework or quickly became distracted from the subject.
In my opinion, television viewing by children of any family income level should be drastically restricted or eliminated altogther. But I guess the electronic babysitter is too valuable to give up.
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This is so true. I left the neighborhood years ago. Every now and then I hear from my friend who lives there. Her brothers baby mama: never cleans her house, never cleans her chidlren up, cuts their hair, she calls the seven month old a “little mother f—-r”, she doesnt read or play with them, she doesnt work or go to school. She smokes weed, has unprotected sex, and hangs out with different guys. His other baby mama used to sell herself. Also a woman in her thirties has never taken care of her children: they are never clean, they go places smelling like urine, they have no toys or books. These two women talk to and treat their children as if they are a distraction and an intrusion. Its sad. And to see black liberals embrace this lifestyle as if this is “authentic blackness” is sad. My husband came from a bad community but his mother even without his father their parented him disciplined him and made him do his schoolwork. MY husband is the youngerst manager in his field of work being groomed for another promotion. White racism doesnt cause blacks to be in jail and have their babies out of wedlock. I had both of my parents I wonder how I turned out ok.
This is a really interesting post. I’m going to read the article and I’ll be back. And like you LaShawn, I see this in my own family as well.
My mother is the oldest of 7, and she and 2 other siblings went to college. Of the three, all their children are college educated or currently in school. I have an undergraduate degree and MBA in finance, my baby brother is about to begin his junior year studying architecture. Of my uncle’s 2 children, one has a degree in marketing and the othe is a freshman studying accounting. My aunt has no children but has a degree in marketing. The other 4 work blue collar positions and earn decent livings but none of their kids went to college at all and several got pregnant early.
Your comment leads me to an important point, Tiffany. Is the “baby mother” syndrome mostly a modern phenomenon? It is, in my opinion.
“Poor” doesn’t necessarily mean “ignorant.” The distinction is “working poor” or “honorable poor,” I think to term used to be, and the “underclass.”
I lay blame on the outrageous growth of the welfare state for the underclass. My mother’s parents were poor, but she was raised to be decent and productive.
“Poor†doesn’t necessarily mean “ignorant.†The distinction is “working poor†or “honorable poor,†I think to term used to be, and the “underclass.â€
There. You. Have. It.
The blurring of the two is what makes “discussions” about this so hard. THIS is why Dyson is trying to “break his foot off” in Cosby. Cosby blurred the line of distinction.
Dyson blames the “Black boo-zwaaa-zee” middle class and he’s off base.
The article you pointed to is most on point. I heard her on the radio and she did something that most people refuse to do: she stayed on issues of class for the most part. By doing so, she irked the talk show host because he wanted to make it more racial.
I can show you people who are poor who “speak the king’s english” better than Alan Keyes. A friend’s son was reading by 4.5 years.
LaShawn, this is not relegated to “poor black families” Poor white children suffer from the same lack of attention. I too am qualified to speak on this subject. My cousins (nearly all of them) value their personal time more than their children’s development. The electronic babysitter takes the place of family togetherness. These children are poor performers in school and will be in society. There is nothing racial about this study. It is cultural, pure and simple, and spans all races.
Although I am white, I grew up in pretty poor circumstances. My mom was a single parent, and had both myself and my sister to raise on a pretty low income. We had to move a lot because the rent was always getting beyond our means, and we didn’t always eat very well (although we never went hungry).
However, my mom did all the things mentioned in the article: she not only read to us but encouraged us to read on our own, and she bought us books she could ill-afford (usually at garage sales). She would take us on “nature hikes” in the summer through the neighborhood, and prompt us to say the names of different kinds of animals, flowers, and trees.
We also had an extended family of aunts and uncles who were very warm and loving, and we had our church. Although I am now an atheist, I remember my old Methodist church fondly: the covered-dish suppers, the summer picnics, the little Bible plays our Pastor encouraged us to put on. (I got to play Samson pulling down the Temple of Dagon!)
In short, even though we were poor, we were *stimulated* and *challenged*. Both my sister and I could read before we even started school, and we both had hobbies — I put together puzzles and had an Erector Set, and my sister was into watercolor painting. It was only after I was grown up that I appreciated the sacrifices my Mom had to make in order to buy us those things. And why did she make those sacrifices? It’s too simple to say “because she loved us”; it was that, but it was also because she wanted us to grow up to be good, decent, and self-sufficient people.
And we didn’t even *have* a television until I was eight years old or so (pretty unusual in the mid-1970’s)!
While it diverts focus to try and address all reasons for an issue at every conversation, I won’t blame the parents for all of the child’s behavioral woes. PRIMARY shaping influence, certainly, but not total. How many parents have done “all the right things” and still produced criminals? How many have done “all the wrong things” yet produced overacheivers?
I see what some parents do and I cringe. I know that they dramatically increase the odds against their child by ignoring them, or by treatin gthem with outright hate. (The jury is out on which is worse.) I know of a local boy who watched his mother stabbed by his father. This boy shines when his mentor is with him regularly. He falls away with less time spent together. Who knows how he will turn out? A similar situation produced L.L. Cool J.
I watch men jump from bed to bed, producing children that they don’t take care of and bragging about it. I watch the women who let them. I watch the innocent children who didn’t ask to be here. I watch as many use this as a reason for baby murder, rather than invest inthe adults and teens by teaching them not to lie down with every Tom, Danita and Barry in the first place.
I watch as so many lay blame. I then watch when my best friend comes to me in tears beause she has so many young Black boys who are literally begging for a mentor and she can’t get men to respond with a whole few hours out of their week. I know that not everybody has time, but certainly more than are doing so.
Every body is so quick to blame, but where are the people putting their precious free time aside to help?
Church?
School?
Community Centers?
The kids in my family most likely to fail are exceeding everyone’s expectations. Those most likely to succeed are quite average. Me? To be honest, based on what I know myself capable of I think I’m riding the fence…and that ain’t nodody’s fault but my own.
For so many years we’ve asked “why?” The answer lies in the mirror.
“For instance, we all know talking to children, even babies, helps their cognitive development”—-LaShawn
I’ll say. When parent reads to baby, it stimulates baby’s ears (the aural-ear canal). We need to become a nation of readers, and that starts with parents reading to their children.
I’m so lucky my Parents, and Grandparents read to me constantly, and not just any ‘ol material. We had versions of children’s illustrated classics, so even before I entered grade school, I knew Jane Erye, Little Women, Tom Sawyer, Wuthering Heights etc… —From the children’s illustrated versions of all those.
I say go beyond just talking to your kids. Read to, and homeschool them.
Can you imagine what would happen if the Black Community were subsidized to homeschool their kids? —- Instead of subsidizing Black mothers to join the workforce and leave their kids in daycare.
20 years of working mothers, and daycare, hasn’t yielded very good results for our nation’s youth.
The Teachers’ Unions and Educrats don’t want to hear that, though.
Unless I’m dense, I’m not following your analysis. Most newly arriving immigrant families become part of the lower socio-economic strata of society. Many remain there for more than one generation before they get out. Yet, most of them, as I understand it, do not raise their children with the attitudes you’ve given voice to in your post. Why? What explains this disparity?
Since it can’t simply be that being poor or living in a lousy neighborhood causes one to act incorrectly when raising children, something else is missing form the equation.
How can we explain this persistent self-negativism in a valid way so it may be addressed properly. I don’t accept the legacy of slavery or the legacy of generations in poverty as an answer. These immigrants are not arriving here from their former society’s upper crust and are not bringing with them untapped trust funds to tide them over till they are established in the US.
An answer needs to be found and voiced and solutions need to be applied ASAP – for economic as well as moral reasons. This should NOT be allowed to last another generation without dramatic positive change.
John, if your question is in response to my post, I agree. I don’t accept any “legacy of slavery” nonsense myself. I think the problem with black children and academics is sub-cultural. I’m going to get lynched for saying this, but part and parcel of the black underclass and sometimes the black sub-culture in general, is that a commitment to education, not just lip service about education, is deficient.
For the record, “Oddy” hit it right on the head. The arguments made were applied to black families, however as I have always maintained, the problems that ‘plague’ black folk aren’t born out of race, but of economic standing.
There are less than 40 million black people in the US. Assuming 25% are ‘poor’ (Booker has it as 24%) that’s 10 million men women and children. Contrast that with the 187 million white people in america and their roughly 10% poverty level and you have 18 million poor whites. Seems to me that this is a problem that effects twice as many white people than black.
However, the article is directed at poor blacks, which in a colorblind society, I take issue with. If poverty effects nearly twice as many whites than blacks, wouldn’t this study have been better directed at white folks. or at least shouldn’t the antecdotes have included white folks. Oh, it did. the ’soccer mom’ reference.
I believe in Bill Cosby and what he said. I am uncomfortable with, however, the media’s rush to make poverty, particularly generational poverty, a black thing.
Oddy, Stephen,
Exaclty. There are plenty of “bukra” and “po white trash” out there that prove it isn’t just a skin color issue.
Faith No More wrote a song a few years ago, called RV, that sums up the attitudes pretty well. Most of it is spoken word, the chorus sung.
Backside melts into the sofa
My world, my TV, and my food
Besides listening to my belly gurgle
Ain’t much else to do
Yeah, I sweat a lot
Pants fall down every time I bend over
And my feet itch
Yeah – I married a scarecrow
I hate you
Talkin’ to myself
Everybody’s starin’ at me
I’m only bleedin’
Someone taps me on the shoulder every 5 minutes
Nobody speaks English anymore
Would anyone tell me if I was gettin’ stupider?
I hate you
Talkin’ to myself
You don’t feel it after awhile
You take the beating
I’m a swingin’ guy
Throw a belt over the shower curtain rod
And swing – - -
Toss me inside a hefty
And put me in the ground
A drink needs me
I don’t
I ain’t about to guzzle no tears
So kiss my ass
Newscasters, cockroaches, and desserts
I hate you
Talkin’ to myself
Everybody’s starin’ at me
I’m only bleedin’
where are the kids?
maybepregnantorondrugsoronwelfareontopoftheworldonthehonorrollonparoleontheDodgersonthebackofmilkcartons-
onstakesinthemiddleofcornfieldsoncoversoffuturehistorybooksonoldlady’smantleswalkin’onwaternailedoncrosses
I think it’s time I had a talk with my kids
I’ll just tell ‘em what my daddy told me
YOU AIN’T NEVER GONNA AMOUNT TO NOTHIN’
I read an interesting article on this subject recently and the author called it “emphasizing the redneck culture”. I wish I could remember who wrote it!!
The point was that the black urban (hiphop)culture that is being so celebrated these days is destroying the future of black youth. The author states that the hiphop, gangsta lifestyle is merely another copy of the same redneck culture that dooms poor white kids that are trapped in it by their family upbringing and it has the same end result: perpetuation of failure, despair, substance abuse, and poverty.
Both cultures are the glorification of ignorance, stupidity, crime, violence, and instant gratification. Living for nothing but today and satisfying one’s own ego and gonads.
I think the Bible calls this purest essence of evil.
Dear La Shawn,
You made some good points in your post here, as did Kay Hymowitz.
But I must disagree with part of what Ms. Hymowitz has to say about Head Start. She wrote, “Poor kids would get a concentrated injection of middle-class child rearing in preschool, and they would start school ready to learn, to achieve at the same rate as their better-off peers, and eventually to live as well as they did. Except it didn’t work out that way.”
That’s partly right and partly wrong. Yes, one of the purposes of Head Start is that children start school ready to learn. Yes, a goal might be to achieve at the same rate as other children. But Head Start does benefit children a lot. Even if Head Start desn’t bring their achievement to the exact same level as all other children, it is still a success, not a failure.
Ms. Hymowitz brings up an anecdote of a 21-year-old mother of a four-year-old. The mother had been a participant in Head Start at her own preschool age. From the fact that this woman became a teenaged mother (we don’t know if she was married or not) Hymowitz concludes that Head Start is a failure.
This is not sound reasoning. Plenty of women who didn’t go through Head Start became teenaged mothers, married or otherwise. Plenty of women who did go through Head Start didn’t become teenaged mothers. One random story doesn’t prove anything.
That this particular woman became a teen mother might not be such a bad thing. I know, we all might think it would be best for her to finish high school, get established in a career, get married, and then lose her virginity with her husband on her wedding night. Well, like it or not, in the real world, it usually doesn’t work out in that exact way. Sometimes women get pregant before they’re married. Most people who comment on this blog think that abortion should be illegal, except possibly to save the live of the mother. So we ought to show this woman some respect for choosing life here, even if we also feel that she should have been more careful in advance. And we also ought to remember that she didn’t get pregnant all by herself, and someone else bears at least 50% of the responsibility. In fact, it’s even possible that this woman was raped. We don’t know.
But this discussion is beside the point. Head Start’s success is measured in that children do, in fact, start school ready to learn, and they do, in fact, keep up with their grade level much better than similarly disadvantaged children who did’t benefit from Head Start. They are also much less likely to fall into a life of crime. Numerous studies have established that Head Start investments pay off many times over in reducing costs of remedial education and in reducing the costs of dealing with juvenile crime. And yet, despite the overwhelming evidence on the success of Head Start, two in five eligible chidren can’t participate, because the program is under-funded. And it’s not like we don’t have the money. A few weeks of the Iraq war would pay for full funding for Head Start for an entire year.
One anecdote doesn’t establish that Head Start has been unsuccessful in reducing the rate of teen pregnancy. But even if it turns out that Head Start has had no impact on teen pregancy, so what? It has been a great success in other ways. George Bush hasn’t found a cure for cancer — does that mean his presidency is a failure?
Wayne-
The article was by Thomas Sowell. You can read it at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050505.shtml
Wayne, I think the author you are looking for is Thomas Sowell. He has a new book out called “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, and I believe his main point is as you described: that black urban culture is derived from that of poor southern white folks.
Anomalocaris, last I heard after about 3 or 4 years you can’t tell any difference between the kids who went to Head Start and the kids who didn’t.
That tells me that Head Start is a waste of money.
Sounds great but just doesn’t matter after a few years.
The other thing it tells me is that our schools are so bad that they destroy even the kids with a good start.
Want to know how to help fix things. Make CLASSROOM K-12 teachers salaries, ONLY CLASSROOM K-12 teachers, non taxable (no state or federal income tax). All adminastrators pay taxes. The states and feds lose very little money. Makes everyone happy.
NEA and teachers unions would fight this unless expanded for admin. They should be called Adminastrator Unions not teacher unions.
Rich white liberals have created a culture of squishness and we all have to suffer for it.
Seems to me that white children are more likely to be spoiled brats. They set the tone, but daddy’s money can buy a reprieve.
This goes much deeper than just not having fathers around. Lots of middle class families are single parent families. Fathers are missing from the equation (or barely there). Yet somehow those kids manage.
Academic issues have some to do with parenting…but that’s not the main problem, IMO. It’s a lack of VALUING education that’s key.
It’s a systemic problem that’s perpetuated more and more often by conservatives. It’s not valued enough to pay for. Teachers aren’t valued. Students aren’t valued. And the parents aren’t valuing it..so why should the kids?
That’s the problem, Carla. They “manage.” They should do more than just manage. That’s one of our problems. We want A LOT, but when it comes to giving to our children what we owe them, we give TOO LITTLE. – Admin
Carla,
Who teaches the children to value education? First and foremost, it is the family. I’ve never met someone I thought was a good parent that didn’t value a decent education. Some might think college is overrated, for example, but never have I found a mother or father worth the title that told their children that primary and secondary school wasn’t worth the time. And what conservative don’t value education and teachers? Many don’t value throwing more money at projects and plans that have shown they aren’t working.
Amen La Shawn! Let a man examine himself first. The real problems are within us. When black people becme honest with themselves, then maybe we can do something constructive to help our people move forward.
When black people becme honest with themselves, then maybe we can do something constructive to help our people move forward.
There are many pointing out problems. There are few pointing out solutions and/or pointing out people who are doing things to solve problems.
Look around. How many “Black conservatives”, for example, point out Blacks who are doing positive things? How many “Black liberals” are doing likewise?
I am a conservative and believe in the welfare state. Yet the welfare state can not explain the black socioeconomic condition. In 1940, the black illegitimacy was nineteen percent, and better than whites.
There is some force, not slavery, and not the welfare state, driving black illegtimacy rates. If knew what it was, I’d write a book and get rich on it.
Evidence that Head Start’s benefits are permanent:
http://www.fightcrime.org/ [This site doesn't have Unique URLs for each page, but on this site can be found:] “Long-term benefits include not only higher graduation rates, college enrollment, and income levels, but also significant reductions in crime. One study that followed more than 18,000 individuals for more than 25 years found lower crime rates among Head Start students when compared to their siblings who had not attended.”
So the benefits extend for more than 15 years, through high school graduation and college enrollment.
On the same page: “the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study of Chicago’s government-funded Child Parent Centers, which have served more than 100,000 three- and four-year-olds. The study showed that children who did not participate in the program were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18, 67 percent more likely to have been retained a grade in school, and 71 percent more likely to have been placed in special education. The children who participated were 29 percent more likely to graduate from high school than similar kids left out of the program. An earlier 22-year study of Michigan’s High/Scope Perry Preschool program showed that three- and four-year-olds from low-income families who were left out of the program were five times more likely to become chronic offenders by age 27 than those who were in the program. Children who were not enrolled were twice as likely to be placed in special education classes and were a third less likely to graduate from high school on time. In contrast, children in the program were four times more likely to have yearly earnings of $24,000 or more.”
Again, benefits of Head Start extend through childhood into adulthood and the start of careers.
I do not know why many non-immigrant blacks have worse educational outcomes. I do know that many immigrant Asian parents emphasize education, make personal sacrifices for the educational benefit of their children, and respect the decisions and authority of teachers. These Asian American children may grow up to be successful by the worlds standards, but without Jesus it doesn’t matter a hill of beans.
Stephen Johnson writes:
>>>I believe in Bill Cosby and what he said. I am uncomfortable with, however, the media’s rush to make poverty, particularly generational poverty, a black thing.”
Stephen, that’s par for the course. Look at who the media is controlled by. You can NEVER rely on accuracy and truth from an institution which has a primary goal of attracting and retaining a 25-54 year old white audience demographic. Expecting an honest discussion on racial issues from the Manhattan Institute is like expecting change back from bank robber.
I’m an African-American liberal. I say that with pride and honor, because I believe in the safety net system this nation affords the least among us. 50 years ago, an under-educated man could work a factory job, and with those wages, he could provide for a family. Today, the under-educated men are still around, but the living wage manufacturing jobs are NOT. Furthermore, those lucky enough to HAVE a manufacturing job have watched their wages stagnate, while the cost of living skyrocketed. These facts transcend skin color. Just ask a retired United Airlines worker if he or she is feeling good about their pension situation. Ask them how much that “welfare state” Social Security check means right about now.
Furthermore, MARRIAGE isn’t the golden goose as presented by conservatives. First of all, 43% of all first marriages end within 15 years.
http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html
Secondly, there is a GENDER GAP, especially among African Americans. Right now, there are approximately 2 million MORE black women than there are black men, and given the relatively small percentage of interracial marriage, the odds of EVERY black woman finding a “suitable” husband is slim to none.
Blaming Hip-hop culture is not constructive either, in so much that AMERICAN HISTORY and CULTURE as a WHOLE is littered with greed, profanity, idolatry, violence, abject-materialism, sexism, and anti-intellectualism.
–Cobra
La Shawn:
Ditto on everything.
Government cannot be a parent – as demonstrated by the failure of “Head Start” and other parent substitutes.
But what really makes me upset is the “parenting instructors” the Government provides for new parents. Like formal instruction in breast feeding. My wife breast fed four children and she never had a class.
Now,the Louisiana legislature will define what food is healthy. This is more of the same “the poor” (in LA this is codespeak for Black) don’t know what’s the best food for their children. So LA Government will tell them.
Fortunately, many like Star Parker have said “enough of this nonsense”- and came into the 21st century; unfortunately, many still long for the “glory days” of the 1960’s.
‘You can NEVER rely on accuracy and truth from an institution which has a primary goal of attracting and retaining a 25-54 year old white audience demographic. Expecting an honest discussion on racial issues from the Manhattan Institute is like expecting change back from bank robber.’
The Manhattan Institute is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. As Sponsor, you will receive selected publications and invitations to Manhattan Institute’s special events.
There’s no point in letting your racist ignorance cloud your perspective.
‘I say that with pride and honor, because I believe in the safety net system this nation affords the least among us.’
Nothing like a little liberal condescension. Speak for yourself when you refer to ‘the least among us’.
What was racist about the statement you quoted?
#30 – The implication that an organization which is factually misrepresented as part of the MSM would not be honest in discussing matters of race because it ‘has a primary goal of attracting and retaining a 25-54 year old white audience’.
What Oddybobo said.
Jack,
As the first person to question the motives of the author, I have to interject.
The Manhattan Inst. has a ‘fan base’ to which it plays. “Inner City problems” feed that fan-base. Makes them rabid, in fact. The reason why the conservative message doesn’t cross over more forcefully into our community is because of ’studies’ like this. There was little scientific about the ’study.’ The research ’stuck in my craw.’ To be honest, the research was an attempt to revive the ‘welfar queen.’
I have news for everyone. If she exists, the odds are she’s white and lives in a trailer in Arkansas, not in the projects in Chicago.
But when you say the words “welfare queen” you envision Tanishia rather than Tammy Sue. And yes, Jesse Jackson and the Black Brigade have as much to do with that image as ‘whitey’, but we all know the esteem in which the good rev. is held.
Put simply, this WAS a hatchet job. It served no valuable purpose. Bill Cosby told black people–”Dr. heal thyself”, this author simply told white people, “negroes are poor.”
There is a difference.
#33 -
Like #27 you’re able to project your racist inclinations on others. Obviously you have no idea what I envision because I’ve made no reference to it. #27 implies that the MI article cannot be honest because she perceives it as intended for a white audience. If that’s not racist, what is?
One more point on how off-base Hymowitz’s comments on Head Start are. La Shawn’s post includes this: “Some of the anecdotes Hymowitz presents are sad. For instance, we all know that talking to children, even babies, helps their cognitive development. When told to talk to her baby, one mother said, ‘Why would I talk to him? He can’t answer me.’”
You are correct, La Shawn, talking to children, especially babies is essential to their cognitive development. And if Hymowitz knew anything about Head Start, she would know that Head Start is not just for kids. Head Start also works with parents, teaching parents things like talking and reading
I don’t waste my time implying that the article wasn’t honest. I state, plainly, that the motives, antecdotes and methods used in the article are slanted to an outcome that supports a mind state that exists within the conservative (and libral) movements, that being that black people are poor. period.
Address my point that generational poverty is NOT a black thing. Address my point that the author uses pointed examples of black families when discussing poverty in the ‘inner city.’
Address my point that in a color blind society, race baiting should be called out, no matter who the perpetrator is. I found the article to be a little on the race-baiting side, however racisim never rolled from my fingers.
Yet, the only one who is being called a racist is me?
For.questioning.motives.and.methods?
The irony is astounding.
Great post with #33 Stephen.
The implication that an organization which is factually misrepresented as part of the MSM would not be honest in discussing matters of race because it ‘has a primary goal of attracting and retaining a 25-54 year old white audience’.
The MSM has a target demographic that it goes after. The MSM states that is the case.
When news programs put together news reader teams, they do so with demographics in mind. When they go after stories, they do so with sensationalism in mind, age, race, and other factors.
So, I can’t see what’s racist about the statement.
Man, I haven’t seen the word racist thrown out this much since the last time I visited Odub’s site.
Jack Tanner writes:
>>>The Manhattan Institute is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. As Sponsor, you will receive selected publications and invitations to Manhattan Institute’s special events.”
The article comes from the City Journal, described here as:
“City Journal is the nation’s premier urban-policy magazine, “the Bible of the new urbanism,†as London’s Daily Telegraph puts it. During the Giuliani Administration, the magazine served as an idea factory as the then-mayor revivified New York City, quickly becoming, in the words of the New York Post, “the place where Rudy gets his ideas.†The Public Interest goes further, calling City Journal “the magazine that saved the city.â€
But City Journal is a national, not just a local, force, with a readership that spans the U.S.—and an especially enthusiastic audience in the nation’s capital. The country’s most thoughtful journalists are among the quarterly magazine’s subscribers, as are top businessmen and financiers. City officials from coast to coast are loyal fans, and mayors from Milwaukee’s John Norquist to Oakland’s Jerry Brown happily acknowledge City Journal’s influence on their own thinking and policy. Newspapers across the land, from the Wall Street Journal to the San Diego Union-Tribune, regularly print adaptations of City Journal articles, disseminating the magazine’s influence to millions of readers.”
Subscription Rates
US $23.00 (1 yr) $42.00 (2 yrs) $60.00 (3 yrs)
Canada $27.00 (1 yr)
Foreign $31.00 (1 yr)
Copyright The Manhattan Institute.
http://city-journal.org/html/about_cj.html
There is no debate here. The City Journal is a product of the Manhattan Institute that is for sale via subscription, or reprint rights in various publications.
It also has NOTHING to do with my point, which was…
” Look at who the media is controlled by. You can NEVER rely on accuracy and truth from an institution which has a primary goal of attracting and retaining a 25-54 year old white audience demographic.”
My commentary on the Manhattan Institute stands alone in this context, since “media” is the “institution” referenced in the preceding sentence. It is certainly not an implication that the Manhattan Institute conrols all media.
Stephen writes:
>>>Put simply, this WAS a hatchet job. It served no valuable purpose. Bill Cosby told black people–â€Dr. heal thyselfâ€, this author simply told white people, “negroes are poor.â€
There is a difference”
Amen, brother. The TRUTH is, according to a study of the Media at Yale:
>>>POOR PEOPLE
Shown in News Magazines 62% Black
Shown in Television News 65% Black
In Reality 29% Black
In a land where poverty is often taken as a sign of personal failure, the media’s exaggerated association of blacks and the poor cannot help but reinforce old stereotypes of African Americans as inadequate, unmotivated, and mired in poverty. The news media offers the public a portrait of poverty where blacks far outnumber nonblacks, while in reality fewer than three out of ten poor Americans are black.”
http://www.yale.edu/isps/journal/volume2/gilens.html
I highly doubt new subscriptions for the City Journal would rise significantly among the desired 25-54 white demographic if they wrote articles that reflected REALITY, and not stereotyping, scapegoating, minority-bashing propaganda.
–Cobra
Cobra-
You point this out, but let us ask which side of the aisle the MSM claims itself to be. They say objective, but their self professed voting habits say otherwise.
It is my contention that most of the intellectual elite (who vote Dem/Lib) in our nation has your described stereotype about minorities. Therefore, they believe that they are the only ones capable of enlightening the masses and saving minorities from their plight.
Chris Roberts writes:
>>>You point this out, but let us ask which side of the aisle the MSM claims itself to be. They say objective, but their self professed voting habits say otherwise.”
COSBY SHOW
http://www.thecobraslair.com/National%20Issues21.html
I believe that corporate media is concerned about PROFIT. If the formula for making the most profit reads “playing on the fears, stereotypes and anxieties of the largest population segment,” then that’s what the end result is going to be. When news is NOT considered a profit making entity, then all sides and facets of a particular story can be examined with no fear of losing attention spans. As long as the bottom line is increasing ratings/revenues/viewership/subscriptions, etc. the product will reflect an interest in such, not neccessarily an interest in truth or clarity.
Voting records of individual journalists wouldn’t be applicable to making money for the journal.
–Cobra
This is where God, Jesus, the church (a good one), and the Holy Spirit can make a difference. My husband grew up poor, his father left, an undereducated latino mother who was working all the time to make ends meet, and they even lived in public housing at one point. Despite all that, my husband and his brothers have their act together, and they’re all productive citizens with stable lives. That’s a miracle.
Being white, and having grown up in the South, yes — this is just redneck culture, plain and simple. I’ve read excerpts from Thomas Sowell’s book, and this is pretty much his point. City Journal might not talk about them, as white rednecks tend not to live in New York City and those who work at City Journal may not have grown up in “white trash” surroundings.
By the way, it’s not just a matter of being poor (as one can see from poor immigrants who have worked their way up to success). It’s just that many of these attitudes are going to be more devastating to your life if you’re poor. Paris Hilton is white trash, but very very rich white trash. She can afford, in a material sense, poor morals. She doesn’t have to work, she doesn’t have to take care of kids. But if you’re poor, being an ignorant, coked-up whore is going to keep you poor.
Meep writes:
>>>I’ve read excerpts from Thomas Sowell’s book, and this is pretty much his point. City Journal might not talk about them, as white rednecks tend not to live in New York City and those who work at City Journal may not have grown up in “white trash†surroundings.”
It took me about 15 seconds to pull up statistics about the racial demographics of poor people in America from the internet. The information is readily available. The City Journal doesn’t “talk about” poor whites because it’s not in their agenda to.
–Cobra
Cobra, good comments.
If corporate media is so concerned about profit, they sure aren’t doing a very good job of it. Most media outlets (and I’m talking news sources here) are showing to be less and less profitable as we get our information elsewhere (internet).
I wasn’t disagreeing with your portrayal of minorities by the media, but I don’t believe it is as profit motivated as you suggest. Many members of the media and the corporate culture they live in truly believe that they know what is best for all of us…that they are so smart that only they can save minorities and everyone else from themselves. Therefore, they reject good ideas that come from other sources.
I think it is a shame that many media outlets only portray black and hispanic communities as being the only poor people in this country.
My wife has devoted 30 years to teaching in inner cities. This post made her cry. She has seen this every day for thirty years. It transcends race and color… it is a cultural chasm. Kids who had disinterested parents have children they are not interested in. The quote about not talking with the baby… she has heard it hundreds – HUNDREDS – of times. From kids of all color. She is now getting the children of the kids she knew then and they are even worse (as expected).
I wish i could watch A&E sometimes, but we do not have cable and we limit (hey – there’s a concept) TV and Radio and many other cultural cesspools. We encourage activities (ice skating, photography, writing and sports) and limit mind-numbing video games and such. We are not overbearing, just careful. What my wife and I have sacrificed for our kids is huge compared to some of our acquaintances, but the payoff is even greater. Kind, compassionate and smart kids who have strong critical thinking skills.
Keep it up, LaShawn.
I stringly suspect the single parent thing is another effect rather than the cause – I am acquainted with a couple of families where the father still lives with the mother, yet both are devoted students of the “I don’t need to teach my kid stuff” school.
My suspicion is that the kind of people who don’t understand that you have to work at teaching your kids things, rather than just giving the cookies and the TV are also the kind of people who don’t realise that you need to work at relationships – they don’t just happen.
It’s all part of the same mindset.
Don-
I’ve been teaching for 5 years now, and I see the same thing. Tell your wife to hang in there, it IS worth the fight.
I read this and it made me think of my friend Steve up in New Hampshire. Steve quit school in the 10th grade. His wife quit in the 11th grade. They have 9 kids and he is raising them on his job as a journeyman carpenter/laborer. The last time I saw him he had 5 kids in grades 7-12 and all 5 were on the honor roll with 2 of them in the running for valedictorian. They were all active in sports and all helped support the family by working odd jobs. When he came to visit me he always had a couple on the way home from school. They would sit without being told at my kitchen table and do their home work and then ask if they could take my dogs out to play. They were all polite and respectful and were also all very hard workers.
What was his secret? He took them to church every week and it became a part of their life. They came to visit me after I moved back to New York and the first thing Sunday the kids asked where the Catholic church was so they could go to mass. They all had some space for themselves to be themselves. They all knew that they did their homework first before they went out to play. They all had chores to do and did them without asking. It was a real pleasure to visit them because the whole family made you welcome. The kids all wanted to show you their latest papers or the things they had made. The part that really sold me on them was that they were a family and they wanted to share what they had as a family. Even with all the kids Steve still found time to mentor a couple of druggies in the neighborhood and taught them how to use tools and how to fix things and how to track in the woods and how to fish. No drugs. It worked.
When I see the people who talk about how they were pushed down because of their race or something else, I always think it had to have been the way they were raised. If you demand respect and deserve respect from your kids, you will get it. If you don’t bother with them you will get that too. Your choice.
LaShawn,
While out of town for a conference last week, I had the TV on to a morning program, I believe that it was “Today”. Anyway, they had the authors of a book about a study done concerning outside influences and their effect on test scores of children. The outside influences included financial background, cultural events, TV watching, video game playing, you get the picture. The single largest outside influence on a child test scores was, no surprise here, parental involvement. Close second was financial background. Children of parents who got involve with the childs education got higher test scores, regardless of financial background, although the study said that children from that higher income bracket tended to have better educated parents who then paid for a better education for the child. But I think that many people know of some “rich kid” who has, or is, truely wasting themselves. These two studies truely go hand in hand.
# 42 -
Your post is self parody.
Fill in the blanks.
Your (article\show\book\magazine\other) is intended for (list ethnicity) so therefore it is (select perjorative).
# 37 – Not only can you read others minds to know their intentions you like # 42 can project racism into other peoples thoughts and actions. What an incredible gift.
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