Dumb As a DOOR Knob: Academic Performance of African Americans Continues to Decline

It appears that over the past decades, since the times of slavery and Jim Crow and up until the civil rights and black power movements, the value in which education is perceived in the African American community has reduced significantly. It was Malcolm X who said “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” In general terms, academic prowess and proficiency is on the decline for America regardless of ethnic persuasion, with the exception of Asian Americans. In fact we may be producing the stupidest generation in American history and present statistics suggest that U.S. high school students are basically incompetent in the areas of math, science, history, economics and geography.

According to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can find Iraq on a map of the world and that 50 percent of Americans cannot locate the state of New York on a map. Moreover, only 43 percent of all U.S. high school students knew that the Civil War was fought sometime between 1850 and 1900. Today, American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy based on report published by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Although the aforementioned is for all Americans, statistics for African Americans is even worse. A new study released by Seattle Public Schools revealed that African-American students whose primary language is English perform significantly worse in math and reading than black-African immigrant students who speak another language at home. Findings of the Seattle study indicate that only 36 percent of black students who speak English at home passed their grade's math test, while 47 percent of Somali-speaking students passed. Other black ethnic groups did even better. In reading, 56 percent of black students who speak English passed, while 67 percent of Somali-speaking students passed with other black ethnic groups scoring higher again. However, still in concert black students scored lower than the district average of 78 percent for reading.

As it stands presently, the African American community is moving farther and further away from the traditions and values that maintained our collective integrity – specifically the value and importance we attributed to reading and education. Today about 41% of African American males graduate from high school in the United States according to the Schott Foundation for Public Education and just 22 % of African American males who began at a four-year college graduated within six years (National Student Clearinghouse/Study by Consortium on Chicago School Research at U of Chicago).

Maybe this is why 69% of African American children in America cannot read at grade level in the 4th grade, compared with 29% among White children. Up until Brown V. Board of Education, it was discriminatory practices like segregation that kept Africa Americans poorly educated, now it is ourselves. Until we realize that more education is part of the answer, we will always be confronted with social and economic inequity.

Yes, the school systems are not servicing the needs of African American males as effectively as other ethnic groups. Many years ago, a black man who knew how to read was a threat to mainstream America, and during slavery such a skill was punishable by death. Now, education is no longer considered as a valuable, revolutionary act and we eventually victimize ourselves, just as much as the school systems our students attend.

Tale of 2 America’s: Separate and Unequal

America is falling apart and is reverting to what it always was: two nations inside of one. A frightening prospective but not unexpected given the lack of leadership in Washington; both party’s included as well as each branch of government. Maybe unbeknownst to the President also, given that he is asking people to fight on his behalf yet forgetting that it is hard for people to fight when they are hungry or homeless.

Once the call of this nation was separate but equal, a statement that cannot be validated even by simple algebra. Unfortunately in today’s parlance, all indicators reveal the overt reality that as a nation, we are separate and unequal – a lucid fact visible in black and white. If this divide is not mended, there will be hell on the avenues across this great nation.

Although we excel in some things, as a people, African Americans comprise 13% of Americans but only 4% of U.S. physicians, 3.2% of Lawyers, and less than 1% of architects but 69% of NFL, 80% of NBA and 98% of all rappers. The infant mortality rate of African Americans is 13.4 deaths per 1,000 live births compared to 5.5 and 5.7 for Hispanics and whites accordingly. Just 12 % of AA fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 % of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

What is real is that we are our worse enemy and that the American oligarchical powers have used this to their advantage. A new report has just been released confirming that as Africa Americans we watch more TV than any other racial/ethnic group in the U.S. according to figures released on March 30, 2011. Moreover, Based on data collected in November 2010, African Americans used their TVs an average of 7 hours, 12 minutes each day — above the U.S. average of 5 hours, 11 minutes. Yet still, the disparities across the board are due to systemic practices of racism that elected leaders, regardless of race and political affiliation ignore as well.

Between 2003 and 2007, African American mothers had infant mortality rates at least twice as high as white mothers and AA children ages 17 and under were nearly 50 percent more likely to be without private or government health insurance than white children and that AA children ages 18 and under were three times more likely to live in single-parent households than white children. Nearly two-thirds of all AA children lived in a single–parent household and were twice as likely as white children to live in a household where no parent had full-time or year-round employment. Just one-third of AA children had a parent with a high school diploma, 24 % had a parent with at least some college experience, and less than 15 % had a parent who held a bachelor’s degree. These figures are not from the Ante-bellum south or during Jim Crow, but from the past few years and are just some of the reasons why one out of every three AA children lives in poverty compared with one out of every ten white children.

We are poor, jobless and in pain yet the nation’s first African American President and his political party ignore our desperate pleas as equally as the Republicans. Although Obama has proposed a job plan, it is difficult to see, unless targeted in urban areas and toward African American businesses, how this will aid in reducing the massive rate of unemployment we face.

For example, the dramatic difference with respect to access to capital. According to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau data, the median level of net worth among blacks is $6,200, eleven times lower than whites. Evidence shows that at startup, black entrepreneurs experience higher loan denial and tend to pay higher interest rates than white-owned businesses. Moreover, white-owned businesses have more than $80,000 of initial capital on average compared to black-owned businesses have less than $30,000 startup capital.

Regardless of the systemic constraints, we also must face the truth of aiding in our own demise and allowing these two nations within one to exist. From education to the correctional system this is observable. More than two-thirds of African American male dropouts are expected to serve time in state or federal prison. It would be idiotic to overlook the impact that arrests and incarceration have on African American families and communities. Since the 1990s, nearly one in three African-American men aged 20-29 were under criminal justice supervision, while more than two out of five had been incarcerated. Making African American males being incarcerated (4,618 per 100,000) 6 times more likely to be held in custody than white males: resulting in an estimated 1,559,200 children had a father in prison at midyear 2007; almost half (46%) were children of black fathers.Something is wrong with this America, the segment that has basically forgotten the sacrifices others made decades before them in order for them to be complacent, for they believe that they have theirs and that is all that matters.

But this is not reality. Today’s African American youth watch TV around 6 hours a day compared to 3 hours to whites and are exposed 6 hours more in total to all media when compared to white youth Even worse is that reading newspapers or books is basically none existence for African American youth, with whites and Asians reading way more each day, especially books, which if data is accurate, African American read on average 11 minutes a day and 33 minutes in total in terms of all print media.

If they do reach the point of completing High school and attending college, the nationwide graduation rate for African Americans is 42 %, most of which are females. As of five years ago, fewer than 8 % of young African American males graduated from college compared to 17% of white males in the same age group. What does this mean? It means that "The 4.5 million African American men ages 15 to 29 represent 14% of the U.S. male population of that age and
12% of all African Americans in the U.S. Their high rates of death, incarceration, and unemployment, and relatively low levels of college graduation rates raise concerns for African American families and the nation’s economy."

Yes America used to be a tale of two nations, black and white and separate but equal. Now this has returned however this time these two places are substantially unequal. Yes Obama wants us to get to marching, but he is missing the big social picture. People cannot march when sick and hungry. And they will not if the president is not open equally to hearing their pain. Instead they will be stealing copper from air conditioners and telephone poles, forming flash mobs and robbing stores and driving truck through beauty supply stores and stealing natural Indian hair.This is the new America and once people really get hungry, there will be hell to pay.

helmet to helmet - humbug

America has been increasingly falling down the global ladder of intellectual sophistication and astuteness. From our schools to our politics, this is a self evident truth. No more real is this observation than the aforementioned is what is observed in the world of Professional sports.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love sports, but I must admit, it is more than apparent that from the new proposed rule changes in professional basketball to the attempt to change the contact ethos in football, that these organizations are run by imbeciles who do not have any knowledge or understanding of science math, physics or physiology, or worse, that they themselves ma have skipped a few too many classes while in school or had the old noggin cracked one too many times.

I state this for two reasons albeit the latter will be my main focus. In summary, you cannot legislate obviate natural occurrences via technical fouls (as in the case of emotions and fouls in the NBA) or the mechanics of physics or physiology (as in the case of the NFL with respect to helmet to helmet contact).

It appears unbeknownst to those in professional football any knowledge of the Potassium Argon Theory of Bilateral symmetry. This defines why the human body of Homo sapiens sapiens is the way it is, or in other words why what we have on one side is on the other as well as why we walk up right, lead with our head and walk on our feet. Yes, Homo sapiens sapiens, which translated means “man wise wise”. But you cannot tell these from idiots who think they can make rules that are contra to human anatomy, physiology or the natural laws of physics.

As a creature with bilateral symmetry, the fact is that man, when using his complete body as a projectile, will always leads from his head, for force originates from acceleration from our feet in relation to the ground and gravity. This is proven factual from the entire known math in the world as postulated from Euclid, to Pythagoras to Einstein. Since perpendicularity originates with the understanding of right triangles, when mass and force are added, we end up with corresponding positions with motion – these are called vectors. Vectors are mathematical objects best explained by physics; however I will attempt to simplify it for the commoner.

A vector is characterized by a direction in space like a Safety on a football field hey are They begin at an Origin “O” which is a starting point like the feet of a Safety on the field. It leads from that initial origin “O” to another point “P” in space. “P” is the end point. This is why vectors are symbolized by an arrow, because al force from an origin is targeted to the end point f the head just as an arrow from the string of a bow. All vectors eventually intersect the target plane (Ball Carrier) and are called projections. Projections end up translating all of the force obtained by the mass of the particles push from the ground to an end point (Ball carrier).

This is why we have the concepts of momentum, energy and elasticity – since the velocity of a particle in motion has direction and magnitude. Plainly stated, the momentum of a particle with velocity and mass is a vector. The elasticity of these resulting forces acting between colliding particles (ball players) is reinforced in Newton’s laws of mechanics. Otherwise we would have inelastic impact, or where the two particles hit each other and stick together.

The point is if men play football in our gravity and they start on the ground, and project with mass and acceleration, it is both physically and mathematically impossible for the human body not to lead with the opposite end where the energy transfer started (the head). No matter what we do, humans by anatomy and symmetry will always lead from the head whether it is walking forward or standing up. The only way to change this I football is if you allow folks to drop kick each other because all the rules in the world they come up will never refute the laws of mechanics.