Michelle Obama criticizes black youth for worship of Rappers & Sport Stars

[Username]

There's a lot of that going on in here.

 

[Guy Incognito]

This thread just illustrates that american blacks are habitual excuse makers

Michelle spoke 100% truth... but as usual blacks point the finger and say "but... but... white people this... white people that..."

Pathetic! It's no wonder why we continue to fall behind... Look at your local college class... the proportion of successful professionals on linkedin... Every other race (particularly Asians) are killing us.

 

[Chris.B]

This thread just illustrates that american blacks are habitual excuse makers

Michelle spoke 100% truth... but as usual blacks point the finger and say "but... but... white people this... white people that..."

Pathetic! It's no wonder why we continue to fall behind... Look at your local college class... the proportion of successful professionals on linkedin... Every other race (particularly Asians) are killing us.

 

[Yakno1]

???

How many times has Obama directly addressed white resentment culture in America? How many times has he actually called out the people who actually voted against him for their cultural and societal ills?

Has Obama even uttered the phrase "Stop & Frisk" once?

Like I said, I actually agree with her statement...on it's most basic level. It's not like she gave some amazing insight, we've been hearing "get off the couch" for decades. The problem is that they aren't saying this stuff because they think it's going to actually help, or that they think the message is new or that it's going to resonate with people. They talk this talk because they are trying to appeal to white sensibilities. "Oh yeah, even the Obama's agree, ******s are laaaaaaazy". They are throwing us under the bus so that Obama can continue his ever-failing quest of trying to be viewed as "bipartisan". I voted for the guy twice, but I'm sick of hearing him adding to this narrative to build his own fukking (terrible) "legacy".

This dude won't even have a luncheon with the Congressional Black Caucus. So fukk him and Michelle if they think they are just gonna put us on blast to appeal to Billy-Bob and Beccy.

You want to know what an actual progressive politician might think about race in America right now? They might think that we need to legislate against supreme court cases like Terry v. Ohio and Whren v. US. They might think that we need another fukking civil rights bill. They might actually open their fukking mouth on the upcoming supreme court cases that may end Affirmative action. Obama is giving us "bootstrap" bullshyt.

Lastly....c'mon breh! The least you can do is rehost and actually post the image. You gave me a third part lank, that shyt is bad etiquette my man....



Not the point, at all. It's not about some quantitative comparison. What are you saying? "Some blacks are criminals, so I can and do throw all of them under the bus whenever I please while simultaneously relying on them as my most passionate voting block and it's cool"? Or are you saying that these things are cool as long as your group has better stats?

If you take what they are saying at face value. Sure, cool, thanks Michelle, I'll tell my children to lay off the CoD a bit and I'm sure that will change everything. Look deeper and you might actually be able to spot how foul this is.



One minute president Obama is "not the president of Black America, but the president of America" and the next he feels entitled to shyt on the entire community to score some political points with resentful cacs who have never been able to look themselves in the mirror and see their own faults.



This is slightly besides the point (And to be fair, I acknowledge that I was the one that brought it up)....but I think that the "these kids and their danfangled ipods" shyt is bogus. You yourself admitted that this stuff can "limit" a childs time in a bad environment (I never said it was going to stop it).

My complaint was more to do with the narrative aspect. This message didn't have fukk all to do with the black community. We have generational poverty, a culture that doesn't have enough respect for academia, and we still (as always) live in a western country that would rather be rid of us then attempt to actually bring us into the fold.

Also, the old bytch nagging shyt is just as tired, racial aspect of not :

The recent Time Magazine cover really irked me. Yes, the youth of this country is just sooo narcissistic. The problems in America almost exclusively stem from the Baby Boomers....particularly the white ones. They are the people holding this nation back. They have squeezed out the middle class and have created a culture where people think 15 bucks an hour is some sort of god-send. Obama has consistently tried to tap into this old-fashioned "the media is the devil" shyt and I'm tired of it. Black inner city youth have issues beyond Keeping Up With The Kardashians and CoD.

TLDR : The Obama's are full of shyt, as usual. Don't be duped by this narrative driven horseshyt brehs.

Best post in the thread hands down....good to see some real brothers post quality....I see the upper/middle class folks on here thumbing they nose at the inner city struggle

If I dapped u up, good post

 

[jwinfield]

the speech is a cop out. she could have told the graduates that she is proud of them, and that they serve as an inspiration for the next generation of black youth. she could have told them that it is important that they have role models they can look up to when they want to become lawyers and doctors and teachers, things that not too long ago seemed impossible to reach for them. she could have told them that they prove to the world that black people are not only rappers or athletes. that would have been inspirational. what she did instead was insult those in attendence by reinforcing white peoples stereotypes.

But most of all, to the Bowie State University class of 2013, congratulations. [Applause] Oh, congratulations. You don’t know how proud we all are of you. Just look at you. We’re so proud of how hard you worked, all those long hours in the classroom, in the library. Oh, yeah. Amen. (Laughter.) All those jobs you worked to help pay your tuition. Many of you are the first in your families to get a college degree. [Applause] Some of you are balancing school with raising families of your own. [Applause] So I know this journey hasn’t been easy. I know you’ve had plenty of moments of doubt and frustration and just plain exhaustion.

It was in many ways an act of defiance, an eloquent rebuttal to the idea that black people couldn’t or shouldn’t be educated. And since then, generations of students from all backgrounds have come to this school to be challenged, inspired and empowered. And they have gone on to become leaders here in Maryland and across this country, running businesses, educating young people, leading the high-tech industries that will power our economy for decades to come.

That is the story of Bowie State University, the commitment to educating our next generation and building ladders of opportunity for anyone willing to work for it. All of you are now part of that story. And with that tremendous privilege comes an important set of responsibilities — responsibilities that you inherit the moment you leave this stadium with that diploma in your hand.

And that’s what I want to talk with you about today. I want to talk about the obligations that come with a Bowie State education, and how you can fulfill those obligations by how you live your lives.

It meant economic independence, a chance to provide for their families. It meant political empowerment, the chance to read the newspaper and articulate an informed opinion, and take their rightful place as full citizens of this nation.

So back then, people were hungry to learn. Do you hear me? Hungry to get what they needed to succeed in this country. And that hunger did not fade over time. If anything, it only grew stronger.

But let’s be very clear. Today, getting an education is as important if not more important than it was back when this university was founded.

So I think we can agree, and we need to start feeling that hunger again, you know what I mean? We need to once again fight to educate ourselves and our children like our lives depend on it, because they do.

We need to dig deep and find the same kind of grit and determination that drove those first students at this school and generations of students who came after them. I am talking about the kind of grit and determination displayed by folks right here at Bowie State.

It is that kind of unwavering determination — that relentless focus on getting an education in the face of obstacles — that’s what we need to reclaim, as a community and as a nation.

It’s even in the words of your school song: “Oh Bowie State, dear Bowie State, may you forever be the flame of faith, the torch of truth to guide the steps of youth.” And that’s not just a lyric — it is a call to action. Many of you will answer that call by carrying on the proud Bowie State tradition of serving as teachers, devoting your careers to guiding the steps of the next generation.

But for those of you who aren’t going into education, you’re not off the hook. Oh, no. Oh, no. No matter what career you pursue, every single one of you has a role to play as educators for our young people. So if you have friends or cousins or siblings who are not taking their education seriously, shake them up. Go talk some sense into them. Get them back on track.

If the school in your neighborhood isn’t any good, don’t just accept it. Get in there, fix it. Talk to the parents. Talk to the teachers. Get business and community leaders involved as well, because we all have a stake in building schools worthy of our children’s promise.

And as my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white. Reject that.

In short, be an example of excellence for the next generation and do everything you can to help them understand the power and purpose of a good education. See, that’s what my own parents did for me and my brother.

And there is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about the sacrifices that my mom and dad made for me. There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about living up to the example they set, and how I must do everything in my power to make them proud of the daughter they raised.

The folks who, as the poet Alice Walker once wrote, “Knew what we must know without knowing a page of it themselves.” Their sacrifice is your legacy. Do you hear me? And now it is up to all of you to carry that legacy forward, to be that flame of fate, that torch of truth to guide our young people toward a better future for themselves and for this country.

And if you do that, and I know that you will, if you uphold that obligation, then I am confident we will build an even better future for the next generation of graduates from this fine school and for all of the children in this country because our lives depend on it.

What the fukk are you talking about???

That's what she did.

 

[Monoblock]

That Willie Lynch letter still in effect I see...

 

[Wildin]

This was good...then you fucced it up with the rest of your post.



What kinda bullchit is this? You just know a nicca don't "want to be the best nicca they can be", huh? What's wrong with trying to be a "decent" or "good nicca"?

being good or decent is the equivalent to getting by. Like getting a c to pass a class. You showed up, you turned in homework, you didn't ace the assignments but you completed them and turned them in E for effort, you passed. We are so much better than that there's so much more potential and initiative. Using that same formula you have a seed, you feed him and clothe him, make sure there's a shelter over his head, make sure he graduates. Biologically you are a father but as far as the role of being a father naw, you just completed the minimum basic requirements. You see the difference? A real father is invested in his seed, inspired to be the best he can be so he can be the best for his seed, the motivation he gets from his seeds wakes him up on those early mornings when he has to go to a job that he hates and also gives him the drive to know that it's going to be better than this one day.

Many times, these "decent" or "good niccas" aren't chasing waterfalls. If that's what you're trying to say, it's all good. But to just presume off top that a dude workin' at H&R Block isn't trying to be his best is what's wrong with other "niccas".

one lost nikka doesn't mean every nikka is lost. Like I said there's a gross over generalization about blacks that we don't care about the future, about education, traditional family values and such. It's terrible but until we can really set tons of examples then it's something that will always hang over our head.

Little black kids do want to be doctors, firemen, astronauts, and all of that too...but they don't know how to be that. This is why - as you said earlier - we need to figure out what motivates them and cultivate that.

i agree whole heartedly.

A young man doesn't know what in the blue hell sports science is unless someone shows him what it is. And he doesn't know how to be a coach - hell some of us grown dudes would like somebody to show us how to do that (lol).
Many of them can't be in band because their schools don't have music programs...even if they do, they can't afford the instrument. And how are they gonna get lessons from someone in the biz?

where are all these broke ass schools that don't have instruments for band and balls for PE? I know there some but that has to be far and few between. To be in band you don't have to own your own equipment you borrow it from the school, depending what it is. I played sax, never owned one, bought my own reeds. Had a Lil doo doo stain keyboard and a book that taught piano, played piano in music class at school where I learned more and practiced at home on the casio. shyts really not hard like I said there aren't dogs and cops blocking doors anymore. Parents don't want to invest in a casio keyboard for there kid and a book of notes but will buy Jordans and LeBron's for their 6th grader.

"Engagement" in what?
"Motivated" to do what?

engagement in their life and motivated to live it to the fullest. That doesn't mean burning yourself out everyday, but if you aspire to have a beamer don't be the nikka that wants it and never gets it. There's always a nikka that want want wants. Be that nikka that sets a goal and achieves it. You want a better crib, make moves and be motivated to get a better crib, you wanna take a nice vacation be motivated to go to work, save up and enjoy your time off. Motivation is a driving force. It's like nikkas can get geeked up to go to the club to look at some hoes. It's very short term but you can't get 4 nikkas geeked up to go to Brazil in one year. As a culture we miss out on a lot of positive affirmation from peers and family. That in itself is motivating. You hear white people or Asians all the time say "If I dropped out of school my parents would kill Me". They aren't saying their parents would kill them because they paid the money but that their parents would be hurt by the decision to not live up to their potential. We often don't realize that the world is bigger than our individual selves. I didn't want to attend college graduation for me, I did that for the family.

I see a lot of parents putting their kids in soccer...what if the kid doesn't want to do that?

I see a lot of parents putting their kids in piano lessons...what if the kid doesn't want to do that? these are hobbies and they last a couple of months tops. They aren't life altering decisions. I did shyt I didn't want to do as a kid, it just made me more knowledgeable about the shyt I liked and I didn't. There's a different between the little black kid who has played tennis or golf and doesn't find it fun vs the black kid who has never played or had the opportunity to play

A lot of kids, young kids, already are interested in doing something, work with that. Personally, if I knew back then what I knew now, I might be some kind of city planner/civil engineer. But I had no idea that was the "grown-up" title for what I wanted to do - I figured it out too late. Instead of telling youth what they should do, we need to see what we can do to help them figure it out for themselves.

some of the things i mentioned like positive affirmation, builds self esteem and self actuality. A lot of kids dont know what they want to be because they don't know WHO THEY ARE!!! they dont know what they like or dislike, there are so many experiences they havent experienced that at age 21 its easier to be the turtle in his shell and come out when its comforting, like when the homies or the hoes are around.

 

[Wildin]

Key excerpts

Psychosocial Conflict: Initiative versus Guilt
Major Question: “Am I good or bad?”
Basic Virtue: Purpose
Important Event(s): Exploration, Play
During the initiative versus guilt stage, children begin to assert their power and control over the world through directing play and other social interaction.

Children need to begin asserting control and power over the environment by taking initiative by planning activities, accomplishing tasks and facing challenges. During this stage, it is important for caregivers to encourage exploration and to help children make appropriate choices. Caregivers who are discouraging or dismissive may cause children to feel ashamed of themselves and to become overly dependent upon the help of others.Children have their sense of initiative reinforced by being given the freedom and encouragement to play. When efforts to engage in physical and imaginative play are stifled by caregivers, children begin to feel that their self-initiated efforts are a source of embarrassment. Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose, while failure results in a sense of guilt.

Psychosocial Conflict: Industry versus Inferiority
Major Question: "How can I be good?"
Basic Virtue: Competence
Important Event(s): School

School and social interaction play an important role during this time of a child’s life. Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities. Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a feeling of competence and belief in their skills. Those who receive little or no encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers will doubt their ability to be successful. During school and other social activities, children receive praise and attention for performing various tasks such as reading, writing, drawing and solving problems. Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.

Psychosocial Conflict: Identity Versus Confusion
Major Question: "Who am I?"
Basic Virtue: Fidelity

Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of independence and control. Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will insecure and confused about themselves and the future.

 

[Big Boss]

obama at morehouse

 

[El Bombi]

Aaron McGruder was 100% correct about Obama.

 

[Wildin]

[/URL][/IMG]

For anyone not familiar we all start at the from the bottom. But where we end up....thats the interesting part

 

[Box Cutta]

http://www.the-coli.com/higher-learning/115090-obama-theres-no-longer-time-excuses-black-men.html

This c00nin' ass nicca.

Can't wait for his daughters to grow up, date white, and disassociate from the community. We'll be done with these cats for good after that. Usually I'd be but this is an occasion where I just want them gone.

 

[El Bombi]

http://www.the-coli.com/higher-learning/115090-obama-theres-no-longer-time-excuses-black-men.html

This c00nin' ass nicca.

Can't wait for his daughters to grow up, date white, and disassociate from the community. We'll be done with these cats for good after that. Usually I'd be but this is an occasion where I just want them gone.

I remember watching Season 3 of the Boondocks, thinking Aaron McGruder was out of line with his views of Obama.

Now, I look back and think like damn Aaron McGruder was 100% right on in his views of Obama.

 

[jwinfield]

Prepared text for President Obama

That’s the unique sense of purpose that has always infused this place – the conviction that this is a training ground not only for individual success, but for leadership that can change the world.

So the history we share should give you hope. And the future we share should give you hope. You’re graduating into a job market that’s improving. You live in a time when advances in technology and communications puts the world at your fingertips. Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any before it.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have more work to do together. Because if we’re being honest with ourselves, too few of our brothers and sisters have the opportunities you’ve had here at Morehouse. In troubled neighborhoods all across the country – many of them heavily African-American – too few of our citizens have role models to guide them. Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago. Communities just a couple miles from here. They’re places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind bars.

My job, as President, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody – policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class. Policies that create more good jobs and alleviate poverty, that educate more children, that give more families the security of health care, and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence. These are matters of public policy, and it is important for all of us, black, white and brown, to advocate for an America where everybody has a fair shot in life.

But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities. There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves. There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind. As graduates – as Morehouse Men – you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you are about to collect. And that’s the power of your example.

So what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address: use that power for something larger than yourself.
Live up to President Mays’ challenge. Be “sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society.” And be “willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.”

I know some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself. Maybe you feel like you escaped, and you can take your degree, get a fancy job and never look back. And don’t get me wrong – with the heavy weight of student loans, with doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could scarcely imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty. But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do. So yes, go get that law degree. But ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless. Yes, go get your MBA, or start that business. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood. The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent on making money – rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed.

Some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors. But make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too. For generations, certain groups in our country – especially African-Americans – have been in desperate need of access to quality, affordable health care. And as a society, we are finally beginning to change that. Those of you who are under the age of 26 already have the option to stay on your parents’ health care plan.

And that brings me to my second request of you: Just as Morehouse has taught you to expect more of yourself, inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves.

We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made a few myself. And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. But one of the things you’ve learned over the last four years is that there’s no longer any room for excuses. I understand that there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: “excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.” We’ve got no time for excuses – not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they haven’t. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; that’s still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with a billion young people from China and India and Brazil entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything you haven’t earned. And whatever hardships you may experience because of your race, they pale in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured – and overcame.

You now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men – men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk. You wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes, George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy, Thurgood Marshall and yes, Dr. King. These men were many things to many people. They knew full well the role that racism played in their lives. But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses.

I’m sure every one of you has a grandma, an uncle, or a parent who’s told you at some point in life that, as an African-American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by. I think President Mays put it even better: “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better.” I promise you, what was needed in Dr. Mays’ time, that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, is needed now more than ever. If you think you can get over in this economy, just because you have a Morehouse degree, you are in for a rude awakening. But if you stay hungry, keep hustling, keep on your grind and get other folks to do the same – nobody can stop you.

keep setting an example for what it means to be a man. Be the best husband to your wife, or boyfriend to your partner, or father to your children that you can be. Because nothing is more important.

I was raised by a heroic single mother and wonderful grandparents who made incredible sacrifices for me. And I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you. But I still wish I had a father who was not only present, but involved. And so my whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn’t for my mother and me. I’ve tried to be a better husband, a better father, and a better man.

Because success in everything else is unfulfilling if we fail at family.

Be a good role model and set a good example for that young brother coming up. If you know someone who isn’t on point, go back and bring that brother along. The brothers who have been left behind – who haven’t had the same opportunities we have – they need to hear from us. We’ve got to be in the barbershops with them, at church with them, spending time and energy and presence helping pull them up, exposing them to new opportunities, and supporting their dreams. We have to teach them what it means to be a man – to serve your city like Maynard Jackson; to shape the culture like Spike Lee.

If you’ve had role models, fathers, brothers like that – thank them today. If you haven’t, commit yourself to being that man for someone else.
Finally, as you do these things, do them not just for yourself or for the African-American community. I want you to set your sights higher. At the turn of the last century, W.E.B. DuBois spoke about the “talented tenth” – a class of highly-educated, socially-conscious leaders in the black community.

But it is not just the African-American community that needs you. The country needs you. The world needs you. See, as Morehouse Men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; to be marginalized; to feel the sting of discrimination. That’s an experience that so many other Americans share. Hispanic Americans know that feeling when someone asks where they come from or tells them to go back. Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love they share. Muslim Americans feel it when they’re stared at with suspicion because of their faith. Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work – she sure feels it.

So your experiences give you special insight that today’s leaders need. If you tap into that experience, it should endow you with empathy – the understanding of what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes. It should give you an ability to connect. It should give you a sense of what it means to overcome barriers.
Whatever success I achieved, whatever positions of leadership I’ve held, have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of empathy and connection – the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who needed it most; people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had, because but for the grace of God, I might be in their shoes. So it’s up to you to widen your circle of your concern – to create greater justice both in your own community, but also across our country. To make sure everyone has a voice; everyone gets a seat at the table; to make sure that everyone – no matter what they look like or where they come from, or who they love – gets a chance to walk through those doors of opportunity if they want it bad enough.

That’s what we’ve come to expect from you, Morehouse. A legacy of leaders – not just in our black community, but in our broader American community. To recognize the burdens you carry with you, but resist the temptation to use them as excuses. To transform the way we think about manhood, and set higher standards for yourselves and others. To be successful, but also to understand that each of us has responsibilities not only to ourselves, but to one another, and to future generations.

Men who refuse to be afraid. Members of the class of 2013, you are the heirs to a great legacy. You have within you the same courage; the same strength; the same resolve as the men who came before you.

 

[karim]

What the fukk are you talking about???

That's what she did.

no, she did not. these speeches are designed around soundbites. all the other shyt was just leading up to the soundbite. and the soundbite was that she criticized black youth for playing video games all day and looking up to rappers and athletes. with that soundbite she invalidated all she said before and turned the whole speech into an insult. and if she didn't know that this would be the soundbite, than she is extremely bad at her job and should fire all her advisors.

where is the scientific evidence for her claims? can she prove that black youth has lost its hunger for education? is it true that all they do is play videogames. do they really all want to become either a rapper or an athlete? are there numbers that support the claim that there are more young blacks that look up to jay-z or lil' wayne or whoever their favorite rapper is than there were young blacks looking up to whoever the popular entertainers were in the decades before? i never read a single study that supported these claims, so if there is none, why did she put this bullshyt into her speech?