The following is a letter to the editor from Sunday’s Washington Post:
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An F for Effort
Prince George’s County is a symbol of black success, so why are its children failing?
Six years ago I taught in the Prince George’s County public school system. I lasted about six weeks, then quit rather than be a well-paid babysitter. The problem: a lack of serious students and school officials who feared parents.
When I entered the Prince George’s system, I was a 25-year veteran of the New York City schools. I also had taught for five years in the District and had spent three years as a teacher and an administrator in Virginia’s Isle of Wight County Public School District. I was a product of the New York City public schools, Howard University, Harvard University and Nova Southeastern University. I knew why excellent students succeeded: They studied.
Unfortunately, too many children in my Prince George’s classes did not study. They were allowed to complain their way out of working hard, and the system lacked the courage to tell parents that their children were lazy and that is why they weren’t succeeding. We expect student athletes to practice every day as a means to excellence, but that same expectation of practice and commitment to academics was lacking in Prince George’s.
Prince George’s is a wealthy county with beautiful homes. Its hard-working citizens are mainly high achievers, and its politicians are astute and powerful. Yet the county has the second-worst school test scores in Maryland. Why is no one asking why the children are not working as hard as their parents did to succeed?
As a child growing up in Harlem, from 1937 to 1955, the year I completed high school, I never knew a child who could not read, write and do arithmetic. I knew children who got into trouble regularly, but they could read, write and do arithmetic. It was a matter of pride.
At that time our athletic heroes included Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Bill Russell, Frank Thomas and Wilma Rudolph. But they were high achievers in academics, too.
In those days I knew more than 50 basketball players who earned college degrees, even though blacks generally were discouraged from getting even high school diplomas. Stanley Hill went on to head the largest municipal union in the state; Al Vann became one of the most respected politicians in New York. Tom Sanders, who played for the Boston Celtics, later coached Harvard University’s basketball team. Many other athletes I knew became teachers, school administrators, lawyers, physicians and business leaders.
Today black children have infinite opportunities to succeed. Maryland has a black lieutenant governor, and he and two other black politicians are running for statewide positions. That was just a dream for blacks in 1957, when I entered Howard University.
Unfortunately, our children have lost the ability to dream and the aptitude for struggle. And until they gain this spirit for success, they will fail.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave, but he built a university that continues to operate today. Washington believed that blacks could only do well via hard work. Times have not changed this fact of life. In America, those who work the hardest are the most successful.
Success for the Prince George’s County public school system will not come from outside the system. It can only come from the most important people in the system — the students, our children.
– Louis A. DeFreitas
Louquesr@aol.com
***
(Hat tip: Michael Lopez-Calderon)
1) Why does Prince George’s County, touted as the country’s “richest” black suburb, fail its students?
2) I didn’t watch/listen to the State of the Black Union this year.
Did anyone (on stage, in the audience) discuss black students’ academic performance? If so, did any of the parents accept responsibility? (I can’t tell from this article.)
Or were people complaining about George Bush and racist America, as usual?
Update: Commenter D.C. Russell, who blogs about politics in Prince George’s County, writes:
The item LaShawn quotes needs to be understood in the context of the county’s political and economic environment.
It is the richest Black county in the country, but the older parts are moving toward becoming urban slums with high crime and lousy schools, while the newly developing parts are home to upwardly mobile doctors, lawyers, government employees, etc.
EVERY state and county elected official is a Democrat!
The majority are Black! Half of the remainder are Hispanic. The county should be a paradise if you accept the rhetoric of the Democratic Party and of self-styled Black “leaders.”
The last three school chiefs, all failures including one who quite while being investigated by the FBI, were Black.
The schools got bad press a few weeks ago because they turned a one-year algebra class into a two year course in order to avoid having everyone fail state tests.
One of the algebra students switched was recently arrested for shooting at his school bus. He was described in the press as a 19-year old freshman. Nobody seemed to think that was in any way remarkable.
Read the entire comment.
Currently on C-SPAN, the Black State of the Union 2006 is on and I flipped the channel in a disgusted rage that shocked me. My wife looked at me with some surprise. Not that I wasn’t watching it but at how angry I got. I got so angry because these “talk fests” are utterly USELESS! They are sessions of theorizing, pontification, and story-telling.
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If we are to survive as a nation, we need the best from everybody. Even if I did not like blacks I could not support a system that told them they need not pull on the rope. Successful blacks pull us all up just as black failures pull us all down.
I’m a 40-year resident of Price George’s County and blog on crime and education issues.
The item LaShawn quotes needs to be understood in the context of the county’s political and economic environment.
It is the richest Black county in the country, but the older parts are moving toward becoming urban slums with high crime and lousy schools, while the newly developing parts are home to upwardly mobile doctors, lawyers, government employees, etc.
EVERY state and county elected official is a Democrat!
The majority are Black! Half of the remainder are Hispanic. The county should be a paradise if you accept the rhetoric of the Democratic Party and of self-styled Black “leaders.”
The last three school chiefs, all failures including one who quite while being investigated by the FBI, were Black.
The schools got bad press a few weeks ago because they turned a one-year algebra class into a two year course in order to avoid having everyone fail state tests.
One of the algebra students switched was recently arrested for shooting at his school bus. He was described in the press as a 19-year old freshman. Nobody seemed to think that was in any way remarkable.
School bus drivers have been demonstrating at school board meetings because of violence on the buses and the system policy of supporting the violent students rather than bus drivers. That seems to be the policy that most parents prefer.
Truancy is quite high; nobody cares.
Many, possibly even most, schools have average scores well below 50% on state standardized tests. Whose fault is that? If you believe the politicians (remember thay are ALL Democrats), it is the failure of Republicans to throw more money at the schools.
Black Rep. Al Wynn, who controls musch of the local Democratic machine, certainly takes no resposibility for the failure. It’s not his fault, nor that of his hand-picked politicians. He spent two decades blaming the luosy schools on Ronald Reagan. Once Bill Clinton left office, they became George Bush’s fault.
The schools are getting worse, not better. The county set a record for murders last year.
But while there is some whining and hand-wringing, the people of the county must really be satisfied with the situation. They will likely reelect the same failing politicians with 90% or higher majorities.
There will be no serious Republican challengers to the failing politicians (a Republican failing that will probably hurt Michael Steele), and few challengers in the Democratic primaries.
I flipped over to the State of Black America address and watched for awhile. It was awful and about what you might expect from a Tavis Smiley event. Victimization ruled the day and there was not much (if any) serious discussion about solutions for black America. (Full disclosure here… I am a Christian semi-Libertarian White Male).
I had to turn it off though when one speaker leaned over to Sheila Jackson Lee and turning his eyes to the camera said that we could be looking at the first black President of the United States. BWAAA HAAAA I still bust a gut thinking about it.
AL – No mention of the state of “black education?”
I have to weigh in on the statement that “we expect student athletes to practice every day as a means to excellence, but that same expectation of practice and commitment to academics was lacking…”
In addition to this, let’s remember that any time an athlete leaves school early to go pro, he is demonized. If any athlete concludes his eligibility without graduating, he and his coach are demonized.
Why is that? Well, if kids are passed on to the next grade without acquiring any academic skill (wouldn’t want to hurt the poor kids’ self-esteem, would we?), we should not be surprised when they don’t graduate college or leave early to turn pro. If they don’t know how to study when they get to college, they certainly aren’t going to be able to learn how to there.
When the NBA put in a new rule last year that required all potential draftees to be at least 1 year removed from high school, I thought it was a good thing. But the more I read and hear about how truly awful most school systems are, I wonder if the NBA wasn’t actually doing the kids a favor letting them turn pro right out of high school.
La Shawn, you are right. This won’t get better until parents en masse call for change.
Or better yet, until parents en masse stop sending their kids to the government schools.
It’s obvious that there is bad leadership there. And as long as politicians keep playing the victimization game, other school districts throughout the country will continue to educate students to succeed without whining. Good thing corporate and business America functions on profit, otherwise there would be a lot of room for these idiots to sit around and blame whitey for everything instead of doing their work.
None that I saw. Though I tuned in and out. There was a great deal of group think. At one point someone accused Bishop Long (I think he was the church host) of selling out by going to see G. W. Bush. Long replied that he was not sleeping with the President just because he went to the White House. Or words to that effect.
I think that meeting was an effort by the President to engage black leaders in developing a grass roots strategy for helping improve the quality of life in black America. It made me sad that those who know there are serious problems with the liberal/victim agenda wont stand up for their convictions in the face of Cornell West, Lee, Farrakhan et al.
D.C.
Do you think that just electing Republicans of any race will fix this problem?
Where is the outrage from the parents on an algebra course being changed to two years?
I am so sick of partisans. Every problem would be better if the party out of power was just in power.
Just like the growth of government was going to be reversed if a Republican was elected President in 2000. What was the outcome? The largest growth in government over the shortest amount of time in this country’s history.
Looking from without for an answer to a problem that lies within leaves you without a solution.
The problem is that the parents in PG County are so proud of themselves, so content, so complacent, they may have just forgotten how hard they had to work to get to where they are. Maybe they think everything will take care of itself, maybe their success renders them unable to be fully engaged in their children’s development. Maybe they attended the Rick and Kathy Hilton school of child rearing.
The Democrats are not the problem here, hubris is. The Republicans are not the answer, parental responsibility is.
I attended the State of the Black Union 2006 symposium on Saturday, and I’m one of the few whites who were in attendance. There definitely WAS discussion of black education. “Tuning in and out” is not a very good way to fully understand a multifaceted issue. Full attention must be given in order for full understanding to even begin to occur. This was an event that was completely non-partisan – several Black Republicans were invited, but only one, Oregon State Senator Jackie Winters, actually showed up. Tavis made it clear that invitations had been sent out to many, but there were last minute cancellations and no-shows, including Alphonso Jackson, who Tavis didn’t name, but said that he saw him in the same hotel in which he was staying in Houston, so he knew Jackson was in town. The point is that the Black Republican voice was sought by the organizers of the symposium, but the Black GOP appears to have essentially dropped the ball. That is most unfortunate.
In addition to a variety of issues discussed, the core of the symposium centered around the recent publication of The Covenant with Black America, a public document in which the words “Democrat” and “Republican” do not even appear, but which both major political parties have pledged their commitment to. http://www.covenantwithblackamerica.com/RNCDNC.html Those of us who attended the symposium received a free copy of the Covenant, but the book is available at bookstores nationwide, as well as on Amazon.com. I encourage everyone who reads this blog to obtain a copy of the Covenant and read it cover to cover.
Anyway, LaShawn, to answer your question about black academic performance, the Covenant does, in fact, address that. It’s Covenant II: Establishing a system of Public Education in which All Children Achieve at High Levels and Reach Their Full Potential. Jim Shelton, Program Director of the Education Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discussed it, as did Victor Marsh, a graduate student at Princeton.
The symposium will be rebroadcast tonight on CSPAN. If you can, by all means watch it, tape it, TIVO it, or order the DVDs from CSPAN. And get yourself a copy of the Covenant with Black America. You can’t weigh in on issues relating to this with any validity if you’re not familiar with the positions taken by those involved, which is basically anyone who gives a damn about African Americans.
Well, I’m a “nobody” when compared to high-profile politicians, but had the organizers extended an invitation to me (as a BC blogger/speaker), I would have attended.
I’m not weighing in on any issues re: the event, so I doubt I’ll listen/watch it. However, the education symposium you mention sounds good in theory. I may listen to that portion; however, if race preferences are part of the discussion, I’m turning it off.
I watched the whole program on c-span and frankly was shocked. No mention of responsibility, ala Bill Cosby. However, lots of finger pointing (Bush).
When Louis Farrakhan spoke, I was shocked at what he said and expected Smiley to confront him on what he was suggesting. Nothing.
What’s more, there has yet to be a mention of this in the MSM from what I see, and I see a great deal.
Notice, also, the article you link to doesn’t mention Farrakhan, either. That is ridiculous, considering what he had to say; he was the keynote speaker and was saved for last.
Joe – So, if I don’t read up on an avowed racist like Farrakhan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/racism/Story/0,2763,530302,00.html) or digest what Rep. Jackson-Lee has in her salad bowl of policy proposals I cannot weigh in on this issue? I was asked if I heard anyone discuss education and I did not (with disclaimer). What I did hear was disappointing to say the least.
Did you mean to say that only those who showed up at the SotBU give “a damn about African Americans?” Just curious. As to why conservatives did not show up to the event… Did you see the funeral of Coretta Scott King? If Bishop Long was attacked for speaking to Bush what would have happened to those who actually support the Presidents ideas?
La Shawn,
I really respect your willingness to speak frankly and your work to bring local race issues to the forefront.
We need more people like you exposing these issues. My father worked as a fireman in an inner city for 20 years, and let me tell you…conservatives are up against a very well-oiled machine politics in such areas.
It disgusts me that the real losers are the young children of PG County’s government schools. They deserve better.
I listened on the radio. Harry Belafonte called George Bush a terrorist (again, just like he did in Cuba) and discredited “facts” about Hurricane Katrina were trotted out to prove that the government was racist. This was not a bipartisan event.
I’d bet that black republicans would have come until they found out that Harry Belafonte and Louis Farrakan were speaking. I wish there had been some Republicans there, to rebut some of the arguments that were being made.
La Shawn:
What you are observing in Prince George’s county is the product of parents of the generation that was “freed at last”.
They like their freedom so much that they re-elect their same Democratic politicians that let them down. And Bolivians vote for a coke grower, and Palestinians vote for Hamas.
This is one of the prices of freedom – making bad choices.
And guilty Whites have been so intimidated that they are afraid of saying “you students are lazy”. Prof John Ogbu said just that in Shaker Heights, Ohio – I don’t know if it had any impact.
These parents are also suffering from one of “mental disorders” of leftism – denial and name calling.
They deny that their children are lazy, and they call Republicans and Bush names for destroying their children.
In summary, these parents are not very good at looking in the mirror.
I am a former teacher myself and there is a horrible problem with our black students. With all of the talk about resources, all one really needs to do is teach in an inner city school for some time and it becomes apparent that these kids are failing because they resist being educated with every inch of their being. Money doesn’t educate anyone and as long as money is cited as the main reason for school failures, then the real solutions will never be addressed.
As far as the State of The Black Union, what irks me the most is that a group of black Republicans were apparently invited and either turned it down or didn’t show. Now folks are saying that Black Republicans “punked out”. How are we to get respect if we can’t be brave enough to stand toe to toe against mainstream black “leadership” in front of a national audience of black people? True warriors must come out of their comfort zones. The 60s civil rights activists faced danger constantly. The badly needed black conservative movement can’t seem to face a crowd that may be no more than a little verbally hostile if that. The one black Republican on the panel was actually treated quite well.
They didn’t invite me.
Then again, I’m not a “black Republican.”
I am a former teacher myself and there is a horrible problem with our black students. With all of the talk about resources, all one really needs to do is teach in an inner city school for some time and it becomes apparent that these kids are failing because they resist being educated with every inch of their being.
That brings tears to my eyes.
Maybe I should say “black conservatives”. I certainly hope you become notable enough to be one who would be invited, though a few of those panelists were unknowns (like the graduate student). You actually have a significant audience on your blog. Maybe next year LaShawn.
And yes, the school situation is sad.
I second what Shade said about teaching. That’s why I only teach immigrants now.
>>kids are failing because they resist being educated with every inch of their being.
Hmmm. Why is this? Is this applicable to suburban PG County or Montgomery County (which although more affluent than PG also has unremarkable test scores)? If there is this resistance, why aren’t teachers and administrators, who should know what their getting into before they head to “fair Eastide”, devising successful ways of countering it?
La Shawn is a notable in many communities. I suspect she wasn’t invited because they were afraid she would show up!
I’ve lived in PG County for close to ten years now. I bought my first home in PG County, in part because it was the only metro-DC county where I could afford to own a single family residence.
I’m also a new father, but because of the educational picture here in this county, I’ll likely look to move once my children (twins) get to school-age.
I want my children to receive a first-rate education, or at least the best our current public education system can give them. But when neighboring counties offer some of the best education in the world, there’s little to keep me in the county. Sure, home in neighboring counties may be more expensive, but if I cannot afford a more expensive home in a better educational district, then I’ll scrape together money for private school.
Being a white male non-educator might make my observations invalid but here they are anyway.
The causes of the education breakdown not just in predominately black schools but most public schools are many. Lack of parental responsibility, lack of self discipline on the part of the students, facility that is just trying to stay out of conflict with parents and politicians, Lack of real role models (most teens look up to atheletes like T.O. and Ron Artest rather the people like Bill Cosby and Condi Rice) and one I think we all miss seeing is the effect of the “hip hop/rap” culture on todays teens.
As for the Black State Of The Union…no offense but until they have a serious dialogue with serious people and not self appointed race baters the who iodea is a sham.
Sorry if any are offend but that is what I see from the outside looking in
I did a post on a Thomas Sowell column on a similiar issue.
Oooooooooh!!!!!! This really scratches a scab!!!! It doesn’t matter if the teacher is black or white when a student decides to launch the “racist” bomb. Administrators and school boards run for the tall grass when a kid and the parent(s) come storming in with charges of discrimination based on skin tone or the Oreo persuasion of the the “bigoted” teacher.
High expectations are equated with a malevolent plot to trip up the student and cause failure.
Liberal white women in administrative posts are the greatest allies of the “poor, misunderstood underclass.” Next to these enablers are insecure black male administrators who are not really sure whether they have their posts because of ability or skin color or default.
Political correctness and affirmative action have so corrupted the system that it is little more than an Alice in Wonderland world of illogical juxtapositions.
As bad as things are, as multi-faceted as the symptoms of the problem may be, the solution always points to the same place. Home.
Until parents change things, it will only get worse. Second best? Solid mentoring of young people to show them that they can do better and that they will be glad that they did.
Reach the kids en masse and turn things around in a generation or two. Leave the kids to the current state of Hip Hop, MTV, degenerate television as babysitter, and the teaching that no matter what they do they will be held down, nothing will change.
There is a remarkable silence in these posts that scream out in a high volume: the liberals who are stuck on “more money” and the “inequity” excuses have not weighted in. Do they know in their heart of hearts that “wishing it away” can not replace honest effort?
Look: short of mental inequities due to inbreeding, malnutrition or substance abuse damage, all of our kids are all capable of achievement.
I listened to Belafonte and Farrahkan do their demagogue best to blame black “failure” on white supremacy. The irony is that Belafonte’s mega-millions resulted from his popularity with white record and concert ticket buyers 50 years ago. Farrahkan has never strayed far from the “get whitie” diatribe.
There is NO general black failure in this country in 2006 that is due to entrenched racism or legal (de jure or de facto) discrimination.
When Jessie Jackson was going on his rampage a few years ago about “black” hamburger flippers at McDonalds being held in some sort of indentured servitude, I could only think of my friend Richard. Richard was a hamburger flipper who could not wait to get high school behind him and join the McDonald’s management team. He understood the benefits of 14 hour days and using the system. By the time he was thirty-five, he owned three franchises and is today a millionaire of such means that he sponsors major (redneck?) NASCAR drivers. Not bad for a black kid from the projects with a single mom.
Richard’s mom, however, was ever anxious to get advice. She was deficient in reading and writing skills, but she was dedicated to having her son succeed.
Sometimes success is measured in odd teaspoons. Richard sponsors his church as well as kids who demonstrate an honest desire to succeed and the free clinic in his old neighborhood. Sure, he has been “taken” a few times, but for the most part his instincts are dead on.
I wish I could say the same for the lame-brained government experts.
Proverbs 29:18 Â Where there is no vision, the people perish.
It is really as simple as that.
I would like to see you Lashawn, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and Robert Woodson on a panel at a
State of the Black Union. I know as you read this you are saying “yeah, sure, right”, but it would be nice. I think at least half of the panel should be made up of conservatives. Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake (a former democratic congressman) would be also be included on my supposed panel.
I watched most of the first panel which dealt with economics. I did not watch much of the second or third panel. I liked the Rev Flake’s response to a question about the success of another ethnic minority. In part of his response,
Rev Flake talked about knowing the proper spelling of ludicrous as oppose to spelling it the way the rapper spells it.
In reading the related post on the state of the black union I must say that some posters might consider doing a little research on indentity politics…this conference fits very well with in that theory
If there is this resistance, why aren’t teachers and administrators, who should know what their getting into before they head to “fair Eastideâ€, devising successful ways of countering it?
Because the only real way of countering it is to do what was done at “fair Eastside” and that was to throw the troublemakers out. This was Joe Clark’s style and his style of school administration brought such a wrath upon him, that he eventually left public education. Few educators are willing to endure the attacks so they just endure the bad apples and put on a dog and pony show.
Actually Louis Farrakhan was the least “racist” (if you want to call it that) that I’ve seen him. Farrakhan is correct in saying the “house is on fire” in America and it needs to burned down so a new and better one can be built. In the context of black America, I agree with those sentiments. Tavis Smiley and others of his ilk represent an old and tired way of viewing things. We black people can’t afford to be “black only” economically or socially in America. It makes NO SENSE. Especially when classism trumps racism these days (in my opinion).
“…As bad as things are, as multi-faceted as the symptoms of the problem may be, the solution always points to the same place. Home…”
Well, yeah, and that’s where the “experts” point in defense. They’ll always be able to use that out. But I think we would not have disintegrated like this were it not for the progressivist “whole math” and “whole language” curricula, watered-down “social studies” and feel-good science.
Blacks of Sowell’s generation used to do well and there was only a minor achievement gap. But they benefitted from good solid curriculum with traditional teaching methods.
I watched The 7TH Annual ‘State-Of_The Black-Union’, but could only take about 20-40 minutes of it at a time before wanting to rip my face off!
I’m a 64 year old black Liberal man from Cleveland, Ohio living in Nevada, (thank God).
What p*sses me off about these confabs are:
(1) Tavis using ‘poor ghetto” English it’s condescending.
i.e. “…You cain’t keep a room fulla black folks here all day widdout feedin’em…”
(2) The self-aggrandizing parade of ” so-called black intelligentsia” on the stage.
(3) The constant “bash whitey” rhetoric.
(4) Allowing Farrakhan’s hateful rhetoric to proceed unchallenged.
Yet I continue to watch these affairs, year in and year out, with the hope that something positive will come from them….but, alas….
Amen and amen, Cassandra. I remember looking at my son’s math book when he was learning proportions, and getting totally confused myself. We finally just shut the book and worked through it together.
Like the Kumon ads imply, you don’t teach kids music by throwing a Beethoven sonata up on the music stand and asking them to play it. You start at the beginning and teach precept on precept, and require PRACTICE until they get it right. It works in music, it works in baseball, it works in reading and math.
From what I’m seeing, society as a whole is not requiring enough out of our children. There is this attitude that a moment’s unhappiness and discomfort is torture and will turn the kid into a serial killer or something.
Actually Louis Farrakhan was the least “racist†(if you want to call it that) that I’ve seen him.
I sort of noticed that. He even made reference to the many whites who want to see blacks do well (which caused a mild reaction of suprise from the audience).
“…We finally just shut the book and worked through it together…”
And to that extent, the “experts” are right: kids need their parents to counteract the damage done by the curriculum. Shouldn’t have to be that way because not every child has dependable parents…duh.
I am a graduate of PGCPS-1993. You are completely correct, black students are not doing what they should be doing-getting an education. They are going to school and that seems to be the extent of their participation.
When parents take an active role in their child’s education, perhaps this won’t be an issue. Until then, PG County will be the most affluent black county in the country with a sub-standard educational system.
La Shawn,
I got a lot of my education in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County Maryland and almost cry about the state of their public schools. I have long thought that the parents would hold their kids’ feet to the fire to ensure good quality education. Prince George’s County contains the University of Maryland, College Park, MD and should have a lot of the faculty and staff live there. I am roughly the age of Louis A. DeFreitas so my opinions may be dated to most of your readers. Middle Class parents were moving to the suburbs even in the 1950’s because the schools were better than DC’s. If the schools have poor test results in PG then it is the parents’ fault. I cannot think it is for lack of money for buildings, books, or anything money can purchase! Maryland had schools determined by local rather then state standards to a high degree. What is the school system with the lowest scores in MD? What has happened in MD which is the Old Line State?
James M. Barber
As more and more people are recognized for their abilities regardless of what they look like, more people may choose that path. I liked what Lindsay Graham, our senior US Senator said this week about our US Attorney recently installed. …he is the first…. who happens to be black. Soon, we will not even need to say that.
Surely you’re more intelligent than this. Calling someone racist because they don’t agree with you is an ignorant trigger reaction that too many black people in this country resort to. I can’t stand it and won’t allow it on this blog. Try again. Make an argument, support it, or move along. – Admin
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