This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 24 Mar 2008, by Wisely.
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24 Mar 08
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Several years ago, one of my students went back to her high school to find out why it was that almost all the black girls graduated and went to college whereas nearly all the black boys either failed to graduate or did not go on to college. Distressingly, she found that all the black boys knew the consequences of not graduating and going on to college ("We're not stupid!" they told her indignantly).
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SO why were they flunking out? Their candid answer was that what sociologists call the "cool-pose culture" of young black men was simply too gratifying to give up. For these young men, it was almost like a drug, hanging out on the street after school, shopping and dressing sharply, sexual conquests, party drugs, hip-hop music and culture, the fact that almost all the superstar athletes and a great many of the nation's best entertainers were black.
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Not only was living this subculture immensely fulfilling, the boys said, it also brought them a great deal of respect from white youths. This also explains the otherwise puzzling finding by social psychologists that young black men and women tend to have the highest levels of self-esteem of all ethnic groups, and that their self-image is independent of how badly they were doing in school.
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- Jake said...
The author calls it the cool-pose culture. The proper name is the culture of failure.
A principal in a private elementary school in the inner city of Minneapolis told me that it is a terrible problem among public inner city schools.
The black youth culture believes that both education and success are a white thing and should be avoided.
Black boys achieve the same success in school as white boys until the third grade when they buy into the victim hood culture. Black girls last until the 5th grade. The principal said that if he can convince the black child (and his parents) the value of education and success he can the get the child learning again.- 11:17 AM
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- Ann Althouse said...
Jake: "The black youth culture believes that both education and success are a white thing and should be avoided."
Patterson's piece says that studies have shown this to be a myth.- 11:31 AM
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