So yall wont blame teachers for the state of black children?Then why blame politicians for the state of black adults

[MuzzyP]

I just looked at your location and now I get it.

Most of my maternal side is still in SC. They have what I call in my head a 'clean' Southern accent: very light, more genteel southern than bamma. From my limited inquiry, it appears to be an important class marker. (I have a funny SC story about 'integrating' a midnight b ball tournament simply by allowing my voice to be heard. And a not so funny SC story about deterring a potential rapist, just bc he heard my voice. The South is a strange place, SC may be singular but I don't know enough to say.)

In my city, your stock goes up the more people you can 'fluently' speak to. If you can't signify in group status with son who be outside the bodega, you might stumble upon a bad situation. Meanwhile, I've had Dominicans actually put up an arm to keep me out the store when shyt was going down, like, 'This not for you, mami.'

I realized this around 10-11 and responded by learning languages, LOTS of languages, ALL the languages. I even tried to teach myself Italian (but had nobody to talk to). I once got a free cab ride from an old school yellow cab bc he was an old Greek man, we chatted, and I told him I know classical Greek. He looked like Archie Bunker, but damn sure shot his shot.

(Tip to my coli brehs: if this old Greek, reformed racist, future trick felt so bold, shoot your fukking shot. )

On that bumpkin time down here. Definitely not a very diverse area. Closest is Savannah, but of course nothing like you'd see in a major city.

Lol @ Greek Archie Bunker tryin' to make you his Edith.

 

[Matt504]

The "blame Black parents" argument is especially precious given the poor performance of Black children across the entire country, the only real conclusion we can reach is that Black people aren't good parents.

 

[HarlemHottie]

On that bumpkin time down here. Definitely not a very diverse area. Closest is Savannah, but of course nothing like you'd see in a major city.

I have/ had very close elders from Savannah. Everybody who raised me but my mother was born and raised in the South.

I want to thank you for teaching me something today. As of now, English is considered a 'prestige language.' Anybody on the planet who speaks English has a better economic outlook than those who don't. This is most stark in non- 1st world countries. It didn't occur to me that SC, damn near a 3rd world country unto itself (and I mean no disrespect, crackers gon cracker), would reflect those same 'market pressures'.

NYC, otoh, has a different set of market pressures. Here, we skew toward the multilingual bc so many different ppl are in such close proximity- politically, economically, physically.