Being black in this country can be uniquely different from the average American experience. When we speak of unique experiences as an African-American, it is not always something very positive. For instance racial discrimination and prejudice against minorities is pervasive in nearly all institutions even though we aren’t living in the same atmosphere as it was in the 1950’s. However it is the progress through these trials and tribulations that shape us into who we are today. And part of this progress in striving for upward mobility involves discussing what we can do for ourselves, rather than what others can do for us.
My mother has a very peculiar view of racial issues so I have learned how complex these kind of relationships can be. Before I could drive I used to ride around in the car with her to the grocery store, to the mall, etc. One thing I’ll always remember though is what she would say as I turned the radio from one station to the next. Whenever I’d settle with a rock radio station she would very bluntly ask, “Why do you listen to ‘white people’ music?” Similarly, if I ever told her about a girl I was talking to, she would immediately ask if she was black or white, and express disapproval if she wasn’t black.
While working as a substitute teacher in Dallas schools she experienced a diverse demographic of students which varied from one school to another. Whenever she would talk about the high school I went to or some other school in the area she would sometimes say “I don’t like that school, it has too many blacks and Mexicans. You need to go to a school with more white people.” So comparing what she said there to her attitude towards certain music or girls I date, it may be confusing trying to understand how she feels about racial issues in this country.
We have pride in our heritage and pride in our people, but we understand there’s a lot of room for improvement in the black community. Due to high poverty rates, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and numerous other factors, blacks have lower life chances than non-blacks. Across nearly every metric of societal standards blacks rank at the bottom of the barrel. Whether it’s high school or college drop out rates, STD rates, out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates, violent crime rates, unemployment rates, we obviously have a lot of problems within our community. And these problems need to be fixed as soon as possible for the sake of everyone in the world.
The good though thing is that every single one of these issues can be reversed. It will almost certainly take a revolution however because part of the problem lies in the attitudes and behaviors we foster from the degenerate culture we live in. Black men killing other black men faster than the KKK could ever dream of is a national disgrace. Of course, that’s only a minority of blacks, but that minority accounts for a grossly overrepresentation of murder victims in this country. It also does not help that settling personal disputes with violence is applauded within our community, as evidenced by the images produced from mainstream hip-hop, the number of us that support these images, and the number of us that refuse to denounce it.
Now the adults engaging in this kind of buffoonery on a day-to-day base are, for the most part, unreachable. There is definitely value in attempting to gear them towards more positive tracks in life, but a lot more value lies in reaching the children. The main reason why this culture of degeneracy continues to persist is because so many of our children are raised in socially toxic environments, which leads to dysfunctional behavior in adulthood. It will take a lot of time, perhaps a full generation or two, but it can be done.
One way I can see the beginning of this cultural realignment is by pushing some of our most influential athletes and entertainers in the black community to speak out on the importance of education. Communities that value education are nearly always successful in terms of their economy and overall wellbeing.
A big reason why many of us have a hard time trusting the path to success by the way of college is because it’s often associated with something white people do, as opposed to what we do. For example, all throughout growing up and even to this day, people will tell me I talk like a white person. Both blacks and whites have told me this all my life but only recently have I really thought about it. Whenever someone says I talk white it only reinforces what should be age-old stereotypes about black people. There is just something obviously wrong with telling proper speaking black people that they're not black. It's as if, if you're a true black person you can't sound too educated. Once you sound educated you have transcended what it means to be black. I'm putting an end to that.
In terms of what we need to focus on education-wise, I think the two most important subjects are history and mathematics. Right now there is not enough black history taught in schools besides the usual discourse on slavery and Martin Luther King Jr. I believe this leads many of us to feel like we don’t have many positive aspects in history in which we contributed to the world, so it is easy to lose interest. At either rate, the main point is we need to understand the history of this country and the world if we want to predict the future, since it will be on the basis of what has happened in the past.
We also need more entrepreneurs in our community but that can only happen if we understand how things work. When I look around myself in this room, or in any room I’ve ever been in, it’s hard for me to spot something that doesn’t involve some inkling of math. I’d venture to say 99% of everything mankind has built in the world could not be possible without an understanding of mathematics. Even the seemingly simplest of objects, like the shape of a jar of peanut butter, is based on calculus. It is therefore self-evident that if we want to build anything of our own in this world, we have to teach our children higher forms of math at an early age.
In a hundred years from now, everyone on this planet will be dead; and thus the next generation will inherit the earth. I sincerely hope that the next generation of African-Americans will have a more equitable piece of the pie than what we share right now. Fortunately, this path to success starts with me working as an engineer and speaking directly to the community, in which I have the potential to inspire others to be all they can be.
My mother has a very peculiar view of racial issues so I have learned how complex these kind of relationships can be. Before I could drive I used to ride around in the car with her to the grocery store, to the mall, etc. One thing I’ll always remember though is what she would say as I turned the radio from one station to the next. Whenever I’d settle with a rock radio station she would very bluntly ask, “Why do you listen to ‘white people’ music?” Similarly, if I ever told her about a girl I was talking to, she would immediately ask if she was black or white, and express disapproval if she wasn’t black.
While working as a substitute teacher in Dallas schools she experienced a diverse demographic of students which varied from one school to another. Whenever she would talk about the high school I went to or some other school in the area she would sometimes say “I don’t like that school, it has too many blacks and Mexicans. You need to go to a school with more white people.” So comparing what she said there to her attitude towards certain music or girls I date, it may be confusing trying to understand how she feels about racial issues in this country.
We have pride in our heritage and pride in our people, but we understand there’s a lot of room for improvement in the black community. Due to high poverty rates, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and numerous other factors, blacks have lower life chances than non-blacks. Across nearly every metric of societal standards blacks rank at the bottom of the barrel. Whether it’s high school or college drop out rates, STD rates, out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates, violent crime rates, unemployment rates, we obviously have a lot of problems within our community. And these problems need to be fixed as soon as possible for the sake of everyone in the world.
The good though thing is that every single one of these issues can be reversed. It will almost certainly take a revolution however because part of the problem lies in the attitudes and behaviors we foster from the degenerate culture we live in. Black men killing other black men faster than the KKK could ever dream of is a national disgrace. Of course, that’s only a minority of blacks, but that minority accounts for a grossly overrepresentation of murder victims in this country. It also does not help that settling personal disputes with violence is applauded within our community, as evidenced by the images produced from mainstream hip-hop, the number of us that support these images, and the number of us that refuse to denounce it.
Now the adults engaging in this kind of buffoonery on a day-to-day base are, for the most part, unreachable. There is definitely value in attempting to gear them towards more positive tracks in life, but a lot more value lies in reaching the children. The main reason why this culture of degeneracy continues to persist is because so many of our children are raised in socially toxic environments, which leads to dysfunctional behavior in adulthood. It will take a lot of time, perhaps a full generation or two, but it can be done.
One way I can see the beginning of this cultural realignment is by pushing some of our most influential athletes and entertainers in the black community to speak out on the importance of education. Communities that value education are nearly always successful in terms of their economy and overall wellbeing.
A big reason why many of us have a hard time trusting the path to success by the way of college is because it’s often associated with something white people do, as opposed to what we do. For example, all throughout growing up and even to this day, people will tell me I talk like a white person. Both blacks and whites have told me this all my life but only recently have I really thought about it. Whenever someone says I talk white it only reinforces what should be age-old stereotypes about black people. There is just something obviously wrong with telling proper speaking black people that they're not black. It's as if, if you're a true black person you can't sound too educated. Once you sound educated you have transcended what it means to be black. I'm putting an end to that.
In terms of what we need to focus on education-wise, I think the two most important subjects are history and mathematics. Right now there is not enough black history taught in schools besides the usual discourse on slavery and Martin Luther King Jr. I believe this leads many of us to feel like we don’t have many positive aspects in history in which we contributed to the world, so it is easy to lose interest. At either rate, the main point is we need to understand the history of this country and the world if we want to predict the future, since it will be on the basis of what has happened in the past.
We also need more entrepreneurs in our community but that can only happen if we understand how things work. When I look around myself in this room, or in any room I’ve ever been in, it’s hard for me to spot something that doesn’t involve some inkling of math. I’d venture to say 99% of everything mankind has built in the world could not be possible without an understanding of mathematics. Even the seemingly simplest of objects, like the shape of a jar of peanut butter, is based on calculus. It is therefore self-evident that if we want to build anything of our own in this world, we have to teach our children higher forms of math at an early age.
In a hundred years from now, everyone on this planet will be dead; and thus the next generation will inherit the earth. I sincerely hope that the next generation of African-Americans will have a more equitable piece of the pie than what we share right now. Fortunately, this path to success starts with me working as an engineer and speaking directly to the community, in which I have the potential to inspire others to be all they can be.
