Was Bill Cosby right?

When looking at the so called Black/White achievement gap in America's public schools we have heard the debate go back and forth about what is the problem. Bill Cosby & Obama basically charge Black men with stepping up and doing better. They stop short of calling Black parents lazy and ignorant but that is the gist. Many others point to institutional, social and societal factors: Racist schools, degraded media culture, continues social and economic oppression, etc. etc.

In the end something needs to be done beyond blaming the victim (Black students) or the plantiff (parents & society). What will actually inspire, motivate, support and facilitate Black academic achievement in America? How can this gap, more appropriately termed the opportunity gap be bridged. Asa Hilliard said it's not about bridging the gap between Black student achievement and White student achievement but bridging the gap between Black student achievement and excellence.

Example: For the last year now, the most successful public high school in America is an all Black male school in Chicago that for the 2nd year has 100% of it's students getting accepted to a 4 year university. This charter school had 96% of its students reading below grade level when they entered the school in the 9th grade. 92% of them came from single parent households. They have an operating budget of $5.3 million for 550 students.

No gap there. That's excellence. Sure, there are concerns: What about taking this effort to scale on an institutional level? What about Black girls? How sustainable is it? What are the hidden variables and factors to their success that made this possible?

I don't think they prevented them from watching BET, recruited only highly motivated parents, or eliminated the effects of racism on these boys or their families. They didn't eliminate the violence in the neighborhoods they live in. So although I still don't have the answer for closing the opportunity gap, I don't think Bill knows either.

Where is that city?

Can you tell me where Bay City is? No you can't it doesn't exist. There is no such place. I've heard of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, Emeryville, San Leandro, etc. but haven't hear of Bay City. But why did the Chevy dealership in OAKLAND seems to think that by naming their dealership Bay City Chevrolet that they are somehow more "hip". Really? Why? Is this a marketing ploy for out of towners who are scared to go to Oakland to be fooled and come buy a car? Really??

Someone didn't think this one through: Did it occur to you that this potential customer will soon find out when they enter the address in their GPS that it will indicate they are headed to Oakland? What are you going to do blindfold them? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe someone else has the name "Oakland Chevrolet" and you had to come up with something else...(wait) just checked google, that's not it either.

So it appears to me that this is merely an indicator of a larger trend. (think Piedmont) I imagine that someone is crafting a proposal right now to the City Council to seceede some North Oakland neighborhood and rename it Hipsterville or Oaksterdam or Bay City.

Get a job Slangin' for the Government!

Now you can get a job slangin' for the DEA! No not selling drugs, but as a translator of black english, also know as ebonics. They are hiring interpreters for 114 different dialects, and decided to throw in slang as well.

One of the many ironies of this is that several years ago, the Oakland school board attempted to acknowledge ebonics formally in an effort to make english classes better able to translate ebonics to "proper english". To put it simply, how can you translate a language (ebonics to english) if you don't recognize the language you are translating?? (ebonics) Anyway, the entire country, including Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson, totally dismissed the effort, completely misunderstanding the proposals intention. (no thanks to the media mischaracterization: can you say Shirley Sherrod?)

Now, the federal government in their supreme wisdom figure out that they need to formally translate ebonics to english in sting operations so they can make even more drug arrests of black men (as if the disproportinate number of blacks being sent to prison is not quite where it should and could be).

The irony of all ironies:

Translating ebonics for black kids in Oakland so they can learn proper english = very bad idea.

Trnaslating ebonics for DEA agents so they can incarcerate larger numbers of black men = great idea!

WTF???

Besides the issue of not working for the "Man" to further target and oppress black males for a drug policy that is racist and misguided (alcohol related deaths outnumber ALL illicit drugs combined as well as drug realted killings! Research that for yourself!), primarily targeting and criminalizing users instead of offering prevention and treatment....

...this is actually hella funny. (translation: very funny)

Try to imagine what the interview process would look like:

interviewer: "so tell me some slang?"

applicant: "Mutha#*&, you best hook me up with this gig b'foe I bust you in yo grill"

interviewer: "ohhh, that's good. What did you say?"

applicant: "I said that I'm very qualified and confident that I am a perfect fit for the job..."

and what would the resume say:

"Attended dozens of sideshows in 2010, participating in numerous dice games."

"Can text message 90 abbreviated words per minute"

"Currently have over 2500 myspace friends, 1900 facebook friends, and 1200 followers on twitter."

"Unemployed for 2 years, hanging on the block most days."

And then let's visualize this "translators" first day at work:

"Sooo, T Money, did I say that correct?"

"No it's C CASH."

"Right right, C cash... this is your cubicle...here's your headset... and let me introduce you to the team... Bill and Laura, I want you to welcome C cash. He's our new interpreter for the drug survellance unit...

Hi C cash! (looking at their ebonics cheat sheet). "What's the dilley yo?" (chuckle) Did I get it right?!

This is all a hot mess.

Nights Over Egypt

I ran across these journal notes from a trip I took to Egypt in 2002. All true stories.

Driving

The lanes in Egypt are merely suggested paths of travel. Egyptians don't use headlights at night. "They use up the battery" one cab driver told me. They are flashed only to avoid oncoming traffic or striking pedestrians. Stoplights and stop signs are very rare and again are merely suggestions. Blinkers are a rare courtesy. I saw the first car use a blinker on my 5th day there. The horn is used more than the brakes. There wasn't 1 stoplight on a 15 mile stretch along the downtown shoreline in Alexandria. Crossing the street is exactly like the game Frogger on difficulty level 10.

Cigarettes are customarily offered to you by cab drivers before they ceremoniously light up every single time- no exceptions. One cab ride, the cab driver stopped at the gas station and asked me to pay for gas.

All cabs are equipped with an old meter that has not worked in decades. There are only a few places smoking is not allowed, the library and convention hall.

Sightseeing

When I was in the temple of Karnak, a soilder called me over and pointed to a monument, indicating that it was a good spot for a picture... then he asked for a tip. Because I am not familiar with weapons, I could not tell if his rifle was semi or fully automatic but it didn't matter, I tipped him automatically.

Travelling

When I caught a domestic flight on Egypt Air the announcer said "In case of change in cabin pressure, put out your cigarette first then secure your oxygen mask..."

It's a Man's World? No, it's MY world.

My son asked me, "Why does mommy make all the decisions?" I replied defensively, "Mommy doesn't make all the decisions. We make decisions together by agreeing on them." "No, mommy makes all the decisions. She decided we were going to move, and were moving.." There was no sense in arguing. The boy couldn't possibly understand how I am just as much of a decision maker as mommy, if not more. For instance, he is completely unaware of the fact that mommy lets me pick out the movie 9 out of 10 times.

All jokes aside, when I mentioned the exchange to my wife, we wondered if he saw a problem with mommy making decisions because of sexist gender role expectations or what. When we asked the 6 year old who should be making the decisions, he pointed to himself, clearing up THAT confusion.

Bragging rights

I found out from my wife recently that my 5 year old son was bragging in the back seat to a playmate that "My daddy got arrested. He went to jail".

Okay, first of all, that was when I was 17. I had a little too much to drink and got out of the juvenile facility in less than a day. But nevermind that. My son recalled that tidbit of information that I think I revealed to him when he asked me if I had ever been arrested, at least a year ago.

Why not mention that his dad is in graduate school and getting a 3.9 GPA? Why not mention that his dad has traveled to Africa several times and is taking him to Africa next year? why not point out that his dad is a Director and works at a school named after the first African-American president? Or that his dad reads to him every night and makes robots with him? These are the things that I think are having an impact on him but no, he is much more enamored with telling his friends that his dad has been to jail and is good at making guns! (I made a cork pop gun out of a pen when he wanted me to BUY him one.)

Just call a thief a thief

We're leaving the house when my 5 year old saw the neighbors window busted. He said, "Wow, it rained so hard that it broke that car's window!", "No son, someone broke into their car." You know what came next "Daddy, why did someone break their window?" (You would think that at 5 years old he would know these things already, especially living in Oakland) I don't want to simply say, "Because they are broke" or worse "some people just steal. We call them thieves!" or even assume "They are probably looking for something to sell to buy drugs." So instead, I start explaining human behavior theories, highlighting environmental factors as primary determinants, and finally summarizing humanity and our concepts of good and bad as not being core attributes to peoples' nature, but subjective value judgements on behavior patterns.

He let me finish completely before saying: "Oh. So Daddy, what will we do if someone breaks into our car and steals something?" In a split second, I realize, in my head, 2 things: 1. calling the cops is moot except to have the city add me as a casualty to their stats, especially since the deductible is $500 and they are not going to dust for prints and interview the neighbors... 2. In 5 years my son has learned to do what it has taken me 36 years to do: Get to the point. "Well son, I guess we would just fix the window."