Check out the latest on the Duke lacrosse mess:

http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2007/02/26/nifong-hits-the-circuit/

Thanks for participating, everyone!

I am not preaching here, just trying to be helpful.

Each of us has our own version of “reality” which is made up of our experiences and how we have internalized them. (I had an enormously loving and productive upbringing in an orphanage. I tend to think orphanages can be a good thing; Oliver Twist would disagree.)

Often we confuse our view of “reality” with “truth” and the anecdotes that underlie our “reality” become confused with “facts.”

We should all be cautious of people who “know” the truth when in fact they are expressing their “view of reality.”

I bring this up, because of this one sentence you wrote: “I choose to write about people like my family and others like my family because I have an obligation to show the world the whole truth about my people, not a small piece of it.”

The Color Purple, Porgy and Bess, Soul on Ice, Why Does the Caged Bird Sing, etc. may all speak “truth” to someone’s view of reality, but they are hardly universal “truths.”

You write for the screen. You have the power to construct and manipulate experiences to reach the outcome you desire to portray. That is the writer’s craft. But it is not “reality”, even when it is autobiographical.

Psychiatry is the art of opening someone’s mental scrapbook and finding the parts and pieces that under-gird his belief system and his view of reality.

From reading your statements, I detect someone who is proud, accomplished and fiercely independent. I am not certain what sets you off, but you do seem to have a strong belief system that sometimes puts you on the attack. It might be better if you concentrated more on expressing your belief system and backing it up.

I do not keep company with all conservatives. Some of them are blooming idiots and some are dumber than mud. Nor do I shut out all liberals. Some are quite able to make substantial points backed by solid example and research.

Hopefully, you, too, can accept varying points of view with the understanding that formal arguments can only exist with the understanding that each side has agreed to disagree. Everything else is a cat fight.

(Formal argument being the agreement to disagree comes from Aristotle.)

Angel – Don’t give up so easily, dear. I’ve been around for 2 years and they haven’t run me off yet. Stop trying to get Jan to understand your point of view. She isn’t. I figured that out a long time ago. She’s just going to have something to say to your comments but consensus. Now that’s just too much like right.

Angel says “Thanks” for your comment, Tiffany. – Admin

Are you saying that you wouldn’t be here if not for the negative stuff?

Have you noticed the links I’ve given pointing to positive demographic data about Blacks from time to time with no comments from anyone? Well, there was ONE commment.”

What does the number of comments you get on your comments or your own blog have to do with what La Shawn posts on her blog? Yes, I’ve noticed, but I’m not the one who asked for them and then brushed them off.

And yes, I think that putting on a “ghetto patois” to make a sarcastic comment is snarky. If that means I misunderstand the word ’snarky,’ I’m sorry for mislabeling and will try to find a more appropriate adjective next time.

About the main article linked in the main post, I have this to say: I’m happy that parents are positively involved in their kids’ lives and with other parents to set a high standard for their kids. (The following is also directed at the question JohnD raised in #132 and seddy’s observation in #137.) The parents, not us, are the ones who know how their kids talk on a daily basis (not just the one quote that made it into the article), what they watch on tv, what magazines they pass around, and the parents are the ones who considered all these elements before coming to the conclusions and making the statements that they did. If they detected a racial element as one of the factors, they thought it was important to address that in a holistic approach to improving school and life performance. Every parent should be this caring & involved regardless of whether they’re black, white, olive, or purple with green spots. I’m happy that the article was featured in a prominent, national newspaper and not just in a local paper or an obscure academic pamphlet or even just a blog.

p.s. to Jan: It still doesn’t seem like you’ve fulfilled Angel’s request in #106 about citing where Angel and/or DarkStar were condoning lowered expectations for blacks. I don’t remember them ever doing that. They usually give examples of current events, but I don’t get the impression that they want any bad things to stay the same or degrade.

That’s up to you, Angel. – Admin

I love the fact that you are so open about being “Queen” of your own blog, as you should be. If others want something different for dessert, let them bake their own!

Actually,I live in a largely minority neighborhood with a half-way house next door and public housing on the corner….and have been the victim of a number of crimes.

Darkstar, you cite a comment by Ollie North and we could just as easily cite shocking comments by bellhooks and a host of others. The exception does not prove the rule.

I’ve found that when people are good at finding a problem, they should also be good at presenting solutions to the problem.-Dark Star

For heaven’s sake…this is a BLOG and frankly, I don’t understand this constant presumption that it is acceptable to define what should be the purpose of someone else’s blog. Furthermore, LaShawn and others DO present solutions all day long. Perhaps you just don’t like them.

Angel;

Once again..I think that perhaps you give yourself the “privilege” of admitting that there is behavior in the black commmunity that saddens you while finding it annoying/unacceptable when others say the very same thing (but perhaps they do not elucidate in quite so delicate a fashion as you). Perhaps it is because you think that you tout the good behavior more. Whatever…

In your efforts to point out the good in the black community (and kudos to anyone that focuses on the positive) you often seem to minimize the problems that the black community is facing.

And really, how far would a blog post go if it was about functional middle class black or white America. What’s to write about that? They got up, went to work, came home, read to their kids and helped them with their homework, and went to bed…

Lastly, you still have not addressed my theory that dysfunctionality is disproportionately addressed because taxpayers are expected to fork over trillions in redistribution. I find that if folks are forced to pay for things, they are far more likely to scrutinize and complain. You can’t hardly make a case to the taxpayers about why there is a pressing need for their money while simultaneously telling them that all is well.

If the kid in this Washington Post story actually called the achieving kids ‘nerds’ or ‘geeks’, then, regardless of the fact that the majority of other kids where ‘white’, why are people making this a racial issue?

For example, if 12 year old Eric Carter was ‘white’ and he was still worried about appearing nerdy or geeky, then would this story be focusing on skin-colour?

Did this boy say that he didn’t want to appear ‘white’? If so, where is the money-quote?

I went to school in a working-class town, and the ‘anti-intellectual’ attitude was rife. All the kids were white, except for two asians. Anyone that worked hard was called a ’swot’, or ‘poofter’.

Were those too, racial ‘code words’?

I doubt it.

Regards,

John