 Happy #BlackHistoryMonth ! I'm still not talking about Black history. I'm still talking about white US history. Q: Why do Black kids not do well in school? Is it because their dads are uninvolved and uncaring parents? Bill Cosby and Herschel Walker told me that, and they are good and wise men that we should listen to! It's Black dads' fault! Boo Black men! A: No. Black kids only do poorly in school *in extremely racist countries.* 14 comments
But is poor school attainment because so many Black kids are born out of wedlock? The Nick Cannon effect? No. The anecdotes are Nick Cannon, not Elon Musk, or Larry Bird. How many kids does Larry Bird have? That we know of? How many kids does Elon have? That we know of? But ignore these ovulation addicts. The data shows that co-parenting is the trend for everyone. And it's fine. "OK, when Black dads are present, they're involved. But too many Black dads are just not there! Why aren't they there?" In the US, a Black man has a 1 in 4 chance of going to jail. Most likely for "drug use," even though white folk do more drugs. 🤷🏿♂️ Most Black dads incarcerated have not even been convicted of any crime. They're "awaiting trial," and are too poor to afford bail. You can be waiting for trial for *years*. Just being falsely arrested will likely cause you to lose your job, and can prevent you from applying for a new one. The mother of your child will likely need to apply for public assistance while you are locked up. The state will give her financial assistance... and then bill you.😮 You will rack up debt to the state *while you are in jail!*. You will be in "child support arrears." Most of the time, this is not what the mother wants. Her partner has just been falsely arrested and so can't help with bills. She needs to make rent or she'll be evicted. She applies for assistance not to punish her partner, but to not be homeless with the children. Even if you are innocent, you've just gone from being an employed, present Black dad... To a dead beat dad, with warrants for his arrest for failure to pay child support, who can't even apply for many jobs due to the first arrest. Another comparison is white Europeans, who don't face this racism minefield. 4 out of 10 EU kids are born to unmarried parents. In France, closer to 6 / 10. Lower the marriage rate, the more men participate in childcare!👍🏿♥️ We call them "progressive." https://www.statista.com/statistics/276802/births-out-of-wedlock-in-the-eu/ People looking to minimize the impacts of racism, believe that Black teachers help through the "role model effect." That's part of it but not the whole story. There are few enough Black teachers in this country, that we can literally ask a good portion of them what's really happening. It's not just the role model effect. Teachers are shielding Black kids from racism. Until they can't anymore... The typical education experience for a Black boy in the United States, is to have almost all white teachers, mostly women, more than half of whom vote for the most racist candidate on any ballot, and no Black teachers. The teachers have low expectations of you, punish you more than your classmates, and threaten to call the cop who works in the hallway on you at any moment. I don't know how to explain more clearly, that this is never going to work. I'm not surprised that Black US kids don't perform as well as white US kids, or as well as Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan, or Caribbean kids. I'm surprised that any Black kids make it through this hellish gauntlet at all. When you look at how much the US pays to educate each student, and how poorly it does at Black educational achievement, it's clear that the US is the worst country in the world at educating Black students, by far. Because racism. No one spends more to achieve less. Once you understand white US history instead of Black history, you'll understand why the following interventions will do much more to improve US Black educational achievement than most of the nonsense we're trying today: • Bail reform |
Gregory's Server
Black dads are *more* involved in both early childhood activities like bathing and diapering, and school aged activities. From the CDC:
A larger percentage of Black dads
(41%) had helped their coresidential children with homework every day in
the last 4 weeks compared with
white (28%) dads.
Only 30% of white dads take their own kids to activities every day, vs 42% of Black dads.
71% of white dads talk with their kids about their day, vs 79% of Black dads.
Etc, etc.
Black dads are *more* involved in both early childhood activities like bathing and diapering, and school aged activities. From the CDC:
A larger percentage of Black dads
(41%) had helped their coresidential children with homework every day in
the last 4 weeks compared with
white (28%) dads.
Only 30% of white dads take their own kids to activities every day, vs 42% of Black dads.