<p>I think the CNN program was very biased and trivial. Most black people know that they will not be rappers, dancers or b-ball players. Only a tiny percentage ever reach that dream.</p>
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<p>And I know of one extended black family that does not have any college graduates that value education. It’s my family.</p>
<p>No, my mom or either one of her 5 sisters went to college (various financial and other issues involved), but that doesnt mean they can’t instill the importance of education and doing what you believe in.</p>
<p>With that said, no one in my family is aspiring to be the stereotypical rapper or basketball player(well, besides one – bball player ).</p>
<p>[excuse me if this post isnt very clear, i have a hard time writing down what im thinking]</p>
<p>ksanders, I think you expressed yourself very well. Writing in this kind of setting can be hard at first – so many thoughts and so little space! Practice definitely improves writing of all types, and this is a good place to hone your short response skills!</p>
<p>I think sometimes people miss the boat with this one. In my experience race has very little to do with these issues. It has more to do with role modeling and income level. I can say this because I taught for three years in Mississippi in a very low income school. I am white, but for the first three years of my teaching career I was the only white face in the room. However, my students weren’t just African American. They were also poor. In three years, I taught only two children whose parents had a college degree and I taught only two kids who were not on free or reduced lunch. (These of course would be the same two kids.) I had more kids who had at least one parent in prison than who had at least one parent who was college educated. Many of my parents didn’t even have a GED or were currently studying for one. This had nothing to do with the fact that they all happened to be black. We had about nine white students in the school and there was absolutely nothing to distinguish those children from the others. </p>
<p>It all had to do with role modeling. I did happen to have a lot of kids who wanted to grow up to be professional athletes or rappers, etc. (of course at that age I personally wanted to be a ballerina) However, they really didn’t know a lot of other careers to be interested in at that time. Many of their parents worked at fast food restaurants. They had no idea what an engineer or an accountant did. They didn’t know anybody with these jobs. These were elementary kids and I would hope that this changed some with age, but it might not have for all of them. I tried to talk to them about it all the time. I lectured 2nd graders about how to never level anyone tell them they couldn’t go to college. I felt silly, but SOME ONE had to tell them. </p>
<p>I relocated to Alabama soon after those three years and now teach in a suburban district and so I can compare the two environments. I now have a little more diversity in the students I teach. I teach both black and white children, as well as kids from other countries and everything in between. However, all of my kids now are middle class kids. The black children I teach now would NEVER be able to identify with the ones I taught at the start of my career because their fathers and mothers are college professors and engineers and attorneys, etc. To them, it’s unfathomable to envision growing up to work at a fast food restaurant or to be a rapper. The environment of these two groups of kids has been SO influential in their aspirations. I’ve taught really smart black children in both locations, but the ones in my current district talk about college and higher goals. I was worried about the first group actually graduating from high school. </p>
<p>Of course, at that first school I can also still remember the day that my kids connected that the president of the United States only made $200,000 (which he did at the time) while many professional athletes make far more. Based on that, maybe they thought they were aiming higher.</p>
<p>“When someone says “Asian”, what does that mean? Chinese, Japanese, Vietnames, Indian, Pakistani or what? What about “Black”? Does that mean people whose ancestors were slaves or those who have recently immigrated from Jamaica or another non-African country? I really don’t think it’s helpful to speak of people as if there is no individuality.”</p>
<p>This is true, and the upland Hmong and Mien people in the U.S., who occupied lower caste positions in their own home settings are doing no better (actually, statistically worse) than descendants of African slaves in America. </p>
<p>But the flipside is true as well. The plural of anecdote is not evidence.</p>