The mission of New leadership Charter School is to develop young people in the sixth through twelfth grades morally, mentally and physically, and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty.
Graduates will be academically prepared to attend a college or university of their choice. They will embody three cardinal principles of leadership: vision, integrity, and compassion. NLCS
Field Negro asked “Why Isn’t Anyone Out Protesting for Him.”Oh yes, the why isn’t anyone marching question-I’ve asked it so many times here, I’ve just stopped asking completely. I know the answer.
Field is asking in regards to Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover and in case you haven’t heard his story, he was an 11 year-old boy who hung himself after being teased for engaging in outrageous things such as being a Cub Scout, volunteering and going to church.
“He suffered taunts and threats from other students who made fun of him, insulted the way he dressed and called him gay since he began attending in September, she said.
Walker said though she contacted the school repeatedly, the bullying persisted.
“SOURCE
His school mates at the New Leadership Charter School, and likely a few of the culprits, did hold a vigil for him:
| Vigil for Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover |
Middle school students dressed in T-shirts and jeans, solemn community members and tearful relatives of 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker, found hanging by an extension cord in his mother’s home on the night of April 6, turned out to mourn the Massachusetts child’s death Monday, masslive.com reports.SOURCE
Is it just me or do they NOT look solemn enough?The additional irony is that the “leadership” school is run by the National Urban League.
Character development is an important element of life at New Leadership Charter School. Our mission involves educating youth morally as well as mentally and physically, and imbuing them with the ideals of duty, honor and loyalty. As such, all students participate in a comprehensive Leadership and Character development program.
Students participate in two weeks of Leadership Training each year. Leadership Training weeks are designed to challenge students, to encourage them out of their comfort zones, and to help them enjoy new and different experiences.
In addition to Leadership Training weeks, character development is fostered through a specialized curriculum encompassing the six pillars of leadership: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.NLCS
But to Field’s question regarding why nobody marched, the answer is:The reason nobody marched for Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover is because nobody marched for Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover. There will be a march when two or three people get together to organize one.
We don’t tend to march about the loss of potential. We don’t tend to march when we’re cruel or unkind to each other. We don’t tend to march when there isn’t some external force for us to point the finger at or rail against.
There was an article this week about 1,500 farmers in India that have committed suicide because their crops failed and they now have a onerous debt that can’t be repaid. The headline made me this it was a mass ritual suicide, but it wasn’t a mass killing, but one by one. This isn’t a new phenomenon in India, someone wrote and article about it 4 years ago.(The Suicide Economy of Corporate Globalization) We don’t tend to march to change a culture that is devouring us one by one.
For those who feel frustrated this Friday and want to feel as if you DID something, I read an article and watch a video that said that the school was taking up a collection, but when I went to their site, I didn’t find any information. Feel free to leave the info in the comments.
I don’t know thT contacting the school right now will be as effective as I suspect they are currently under siege and may send you into voice mail hell, but it might be useful to contact the national headquarters of the National Urban League to ask them if they plan to take any action going forward to review the culture within this school and make changes, including using that 10 MILLION dollar grant from the Department of Labor for an “Urban Youth Empowerment Program.” Sounds like some children in this school may need empowerment.
National Urban League
120 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005
(212) 558-5300
41 comments ↓
I wondered if the “gay angle” had anything to do with the lack of mass outrage over this. Whether or not the child was gay, I think that schools are still way behind the times when it comes to handling bullies. Also, I hate to say, it appears that the black collective is still in denial about mental health issues especially suicide. I still hear blacks saying that it’s something white people do. Lot’s of children are bullied but don’t commit suicide. There had to be signs of the inability to cope before this.
I agree with LorMarie. I’ve had black people tell me even that going to 12 step programs like AA and NA are “for white people.” We black people are very much in denial when it comes to mental health; or we think that going to church and praying will solve everything.
No one is marching for this kid b/c it was black on black harassment. The civil rights establishment would have only marched if some white kid left a noose or something. Black on black harassment as well as the gender based taunts are a big no no for the activists.
Black children have been getting beat up and robbed in many of these urban schools for years but school safety has never been on the radar of civil rights organizations, but they were sure out to protest when the school board put cops in the school.
And I notice that many charter schools are basically public schools dressed up in uniforms. No one wants to point the finger at the elephant in the room, horrible parents.
This really hit home for me. When I was in 8th grade, I seriously considered taking my own life. I was in Bullis, a college prep high school with three Black folk, myself included. I was lower middle-class amongst a school full of middle and upper middle class families. I’m still, at 38, dealing with some of the issues I developed while I was in that environment (I’m still mad at the ringleader of the group that used to bully and tease me – I know I should be able to let it go but I *still* can’t).
The way I pulled myself out of the funk was a concious decision to use my sense of humor – I began looking at the world like a comedian, finding the humor in almost any situation (I only wish I could express myself as eloquently as most comedians do). I can only guess that he couldn’t “find his funny” – his motivation to continue.
The problem has so many factors that have created it.
I think that too often these children have no one in their own family that they can confide in; that believes them; that wants to be involved in their lives or who even cares. The parents must parent!
Of course on some level the schools have to take a more active role in what happens at school and what is discussed and resolved.
As a community, or society some people seem too ‘busy’…caught up in drama that doesn’t matter; or in rims…or the business of ‘drugs’ or economic concerns…or in any other frivolus thing that doesn’t involve sacrificing and parenting the children we populate this earth with. And there’s a few that just don’t give a damn about anyone or anything other than themselves.
“We black people are very much in denial when it comes to mental health; or we think that going to church and praying will solve everything.”
I’m not gonna knock going to church and praying, but there is this message that comes to mind: “faith without works is dead.”
Meanwhile, there’s this leftover bit of institutional memory stemming from slavery that dictates how we handle our emotions, or better yet, how we hold it all in. Over at field negro, I mentioned “perpetual emotional stoicism” as a leftover trait from those days. Back when there was no one to vent to, Blacks ended up holding in all of the distress and tension and “kept on keeping on” until “things got better”. If you didn’t do this, you were considered “weak”. In other words “strong Blacks” kept their emotions inside, no matter what. Going to therapy = weakness.
Bullying in the predominantly black school I went to (that had an excellent curriculum, by the way) was really bad. Someone actually set me hair on fire. The teacher did nothing and then the next year he set another girls hair aflame. Looks like things haven’t improved much in the schools since the 1990’s.
“The civil rights establishment would have only marched if some white kid left a noose or something.”
Naima, I fear you are correct. We have seen this kind of thing again and again…
The schools have yet to find a way to deal with or even acknowledge bullying. As someone who was bullied and has had 2 adult male relatives commit suicide this hits too close to home for me.
The commenter are also correct in that the civil rights established is only interested in threats that come from outside the black community. Things like bullying, violence, low expectations, low school funding, and bad parenting are not their interests.
I’m not excusing behavior of those kids, but it’s to be expected. They are kids after all and kids can be vicious regardless of the circumstances.
I was also bullied from the 4th grade until around the 11th grade. I was an outsider in a small Southern village (not town, not community but village). I realized that running away from my less than ideal environment wasn’t a viable option, so I buried myself in books and my studies. I did this not because I was committed to excellence. I did it because I knew that was the only way out. By reading and studying, I avoided the traps that caught so many of my schoolmates: pre-marital sex because there’s really nothing else to do and drugs and alcohol, again because there was nothing else to do.
Looking back now, I wish I had known the power of simply being gracious. I knew I wanted something else in life, but did I have to be smug about it? Did I have to be such a smart-aleck?
…I just keep wondering when WE and our leadership are going to grow up and talk about our responibility to ourselves and each other? When are WE going to realize that all of the hurt and injustice in the world does not make it acceptable to be cruel and sadistic to others??? The unexamined misyogny and homophobia, in combination with an inability to acknowledge that being strong and being in denial about our emotional needs are not one in the same??? Sick, hurting, and damaged people prey upon others. And children who’s own emotional needs go neglected are more likely to create and feed upon the pain of the vunerable….what are we teaching our children about appropriate ways to treat other people?? I’m getting really tired of being sad and disgusted.
@ Karen….
I agree.
Gem2001,
How don’t cut me off at the knees, first thing here; this will all connect and is not inappropriate, lol (I was laughing in honest understanding about trying to make ‘adults behave themselves’, lol!)
First, I want to apologize to “Fed Up Observer”. I’m sorry I didn’t state my points well enough, so that they were clearer. And that is in sincerity (no mocking allowed!). I can understand misinterpretations in this type of situation. It is a very bad, emotional subject that can cause all kinds of feelings. A person almost has to take the “standing start” position of adversary, because it often is true (right gem2001?). That makes it hard to sometimes differentiate friend from foe. I’m in the “friend” category. What this site is all about is – appropriate, real, necessary, factual and horrific.
What I was trying to point out is how very convoluted this situation has become. The continued degradation of black women in America today is plain wrong. There are NO excuses for it, for anybody. The problem lays in mentally/emotionally accepting Where the problem is, and then How to effectively combat it. There is no denying that these situations have their roots completely in the awful historical background of racial dehumanizing, oppression and segregation that is America’s past. Stated as true. Because of this, it has been legitimate for a-once relevant black community to fight this, because it was the single greatest ‘enemy’ and all shared in its concerns. Times change. Situations change. While racism isn’t totally dead (and realistically never will be; some people always find a way to hate and be idiots), it isn’t what it was. This isn’t 1954 anymore. The landscape has changed. What hasn’t seemed to change is the standard monolithic approach to all problems dealing with Americans of color; the fallback to about everything is still “fight the main enemy –Racism”. It is now fighting the wrong battle. It’s like going to the doctor when being real sick and being misdiagnosed. You waste your time, resources and health fighting the wrong thing and only get sicker. The same thing will happen with the very purpose of this site if the standard response is “it’s all racisms fault”.
My point about Jay Leno applies to all white people. We can see what’s happening to you girls, but we CANNOT touch this subject without your “expressed written consent”. The why on that I’ve already asked about. What WOULD the response be out of the now-dysfunctional black community? Please, someone take that question on – white people just start trying to ‘out the brothers’ on their mistreatment of you. How is that going to play? Someone? Same with the crime rates, children-with-no-families, etc. Because of the incessant calls of “Racism” we ain’t about to touch what are NOW (not the history, but the NOW) internal problems. Doing that would burn not only the fingers, but the whole hand, arm and part of the shoulder clean off.
That connects to this particular post, because it’s the same thing! Outsiders cannot ‘step in and solve the problem’. The continuance of this monolithic, one-dimensional only thinking in the (now about dead) black community will kill any prospect of improvement. At this point, either someone directly asks for outside help, or you exert vigourous efforts internally to stem the tide (and it’s probably too late for that now). It is why I’d always ask you about your Allies, whether personal or as a collective of black women who will fight this disease. You definitely need allies!
Also, “dk”, I don’t think we even need to go all the way back to slavery to find the roots of the present day “Only white people do that” predominate attitude among people of color in the USA. You could successfully argue it still existed as part of our racist past into the 1960’s, because, by the use of segregation, lack of opportunity and sometimes by force, it WAS TRUE! Black people were purposely forced out of full participation in life. Many things truly were “for white people only”. Fortunately this reality has changed greatly (finally). If a black person wanted to surf, go ahead! Be a ‘skater kid’? Fine (I know some, lol!). Be a great Brain Surgeon? He is one of the best today! Be President of the US of A? You can believe it now. But, ah, the big BUT, how in the world can we change the internal acceptance of this by younger people for whom the possibilities really are open now? And it’s not just the ‘acceptance’ of it now; it has become what somehow identifies you as an ‘authentic black’! You can’t be ‘hood an street and all that if you don’t believe you “can’t” do lots of stuff (usually good, productive stuff) and be “really black”. Even to personal issues, many black people seem unable to grasp life’s full potential. Caring for your health through regular exercise? “Only white women do that shit”. Running a local 5K/10K? “Only whitey does that”. Join a Cycling club? “That’s white shit”. ETC! My question for EVERYBODY – WHY and WHAT DO YOU DO NOW (not in 1958, ok?)?
I’m gonna ruffle a few feathers here but oh well.
The American school system (public, charter, private) is becoming a very unsafe place for children. Even in schools where there is lots of funding and lots of parental involvement, students are harassed, bullied and assaulted on the regular. It’s a reflection of our culture at large. No one values anything and they certainly don’t value the well-being of others.
In black areas it is ten times worse because many of the students do not have a decent family structure to help them navigate school administration to get real results.
I know a lot of black folks feel that homeschooling is not something that we can choose, but it is a very real alternative to the chaos in the American education system. Kids can get plenty of “socialization” through sports and other activities but they can spend the bulk of their time in a safe, supportive environment. There are even community home schools where one family has about six to eight students. There are a lot of options out there for parents who really want to protect their children.
I do not trust school administrators, civil rights groups or other parents these days.
Boys are especially vulnerable in schools, especially little black boys.
Homeschooling works when you have at least one educated parent and that educated parent is able to stay home to school the child or children. IMO lots of black children/parents aren’t in that situation. They have either one or the other characteristic – seldom both.
I only had to deal with bullies when I went to public school (once in 3rd grade and once in 11th) and they were always other black girls who were part of the acting black crew. When I went to catholic school everyone was pretty much focused on academic achievement. Yes bullying needs to be addressed but this sounds like it was complicated kids taught to be hateful.
Isn’t this the boy who killed himself for the “gay bashing” he was receiving at school?
That answers your question right there. Black folk don’t do “gay” well.
Whether or not the boy was gay is irrelevant. The hint that he might be is enough to make folk not march for him.
Although I wasn’t able to homeschool, I am a big supporter of it because I agree with Hollywood Blackout that most schools (regardless of who attends) are filled with bullying, drugs, sexual harassment, and lowered expectations. These problems are ten times worse in majority Black schools.
I have friends who have found a way to make homeschooling work for them (they are Black, btw) and the differences seen in their children (confidence, academic accomplishment, communication skills, etc.) are clear and consistent. No, it’s not for everyone, but if you can do it, you may be offering your child the best of what’s available.
@ Sandra
I know most black children don’t have two parents in the home- one of whom is able to stay home and educate but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t something to strive towards. But there are people coming of age every day and maybe some of them can make the choice to have the type of family situation which will allow them to homeschool. The black race is not ending in 2009, so I think younger women and men will be able to choose this as an option IF they want to.
And like I said, there are homeschools that accept other people’s kids (sometimes for a small fee like the cost of books and supplies and sometimes for no money at all). The point is there are options that black parents need to begin exercising instead of leaving their children in some of these hell holes.
I have two black female friends (one married, one single) with sons who they removed from school for these exact reasons. Both found local families homeschooling their kids and reached out for help. It’s not impossible to find alternatives for education, you just have to be willing to do the work.
Most people have bullying stories from childhood. Most of us can survive with minimal damage but in my estimation the bullying is a whole different game now and kids aren’t making it out alive.
This little boy died as a result of perceptions based on ignorance and prejudice. He was smart, intelligent, well-mannered, doing positive things. For many Black males in urban schools, such behavior is considered unmasculine. So, ignorance led to harrassment because Carl’s way of being was perceived as threatening. Let’s not miss the point. When Black boys, and girls, for that matter, perceive good manners and accomplishment as “gay”, and being a gang banger and toting a gun, and calling Black women bitches as positive masculinity, something is very wrong.
Public schools aren’t all bad; even those that are full of minorities. I have mixed feelings about homeschooling. I know 3 black families that have done this since preschool the oldest child is now in highschool. These 2 parent, professional, small families that live in the suburbs in their own homes are not the norm. It takes a lot to homeschool, and following the outlined regulations is difficult as well. In some environments homeschooling may create a new ‘reason’ for some cruel peer/relative/neighbor to start teasing.
No school can replace parental involvement/awareness in their child’s life.
One place to start as adults, parents and role models is to reject Sarcasm as an acceptable form of “humour.”
Sarcasm is the weapon that people use to tear you down, or as Maya Angelou explained to Oprah when describing her own experiences with people who “want to pick you to death.”
It is not enough to treat people in power with respect, but we must treat each other with respect. For our children to treat others with respect, we must also treat them with respect– not just preach at them to do so.
How does a child even knows about suicide? How did he formulate it in his mind to kill himself? That, to me, is the scariest part of this whole situation. Maybe he wished himself dead, but actually finding the rope, putting it around his neck, and jumping from a beam is something else entirely. Where did he get this idea?
So sad.
@Mari-Djata:
Its not too hard for a child to get the idea to kill him/herself. I was an 8th grader in the dark days before Google and Youtube when my only sources for information were TV, newspapers and the library. I vividly remember being a rather young child and making the seemingly obvious mental leap to the idea of suicide in Sunday School, i.e. “If being with Jesus is so great, why should I wait until I’m an old man, why not kill myself right now and get to heaven”
BTW, Its that very reason that suicide is considered a sin in Christianity – after all, wouldn’t YOU want to live in paradise where all your needs are met, especially if you are a slave, or weak or poor or et. many many al.
Mental exercises aside, when I considered suicide, I began researching methods (guess I had learned *something* from school!) and decided against most of them as either too painful (i.e. swallowing bleach or other chemicals) or too impractical (i.e. I had no idea how to get a hold of a gun). I was too heavy and tall to use the rod in the closet or in the bathroom to hang myself. Hindsight being 20/20, I guess I wasn’t *that* determined as I could have used the railings in the building’s stairwell had I decided to try and hang myself, but I digress.
One of the other reasons I decided against it was I was scared of being one of those unfortunates who was not succesful and then spends the rest of their life as a burdonsome vegetable. That and I wanted to lose my virgininty first. Like I said before, shallow as they may have been, I found reasons to live and continue and I can only guess that Carl wasn’t able to.
My heart just went out for him cuz he’s so much like I was/am. I’m an emotional man. I can accept that about myself now, but it was hell for me growing up. I was/am emotional in a way that’s considered weak by immature people. Like him, I hadn’t developed a sense of self, of where I fit into the world and of who I was/am. Like him, I didn’t feel I fit anywhere and like him, I considerd suicide when the bullying and teasing seemed unbearable.
@ Nehesi,
(((HUGS)))
I watched the clip that featured the interview with the boy’s mother. The loss of her son must be an unbearable burden, I know it would have been for me (thank God I’ve never had to deal with this…).
From the clip, I get the impression that she was raising her child as a single mother. My question is: where was this boy’s father?
Now, I don’t know why the father seems to be missing here, or what the reasoning is. But I do know that I saw a radical shift from my youth when fathers were as important as mothers to our families, to most of our families not having fathers in the home.
I wonder whether this boy had any meaningful males in his life, who could assist his mother in helping him navigate difficulties that boys specifically face (I understand this is “WAOD,” but I’m addressing the issues raised in the clip…)?
I also wonder about the girl who threatened to kill him? What kind of environment raises girls who level death threats to boys, or other girls?
What has happened to our families? I guess I’m too old to understand this whole “I’m gonna have a baby by him” mentality, with the father not being necessary.
I think that too many of us have been too dismissive of the role a father plays in the self-esteem and self-worth of our boys ( and our daughters!!!!). I know that with my own boys, my husband was crucial in instilling an “inner strength” within them that I was unable to do. Just as I have a special way with my daughter that my husband doesn’t.
My boys were teased and bullied. My oldest was a little chubby, and up until high school, he was teased. My husband put him on a weight-lifting program in our basement, and he became a star athlete. Plus, our boys were taught self-defense, which gave them a personal perception of security.
If we’re looking for solutions to minimize these tragedies, why won’t we consider what’s happening with our families at home?
There won’t be any protest memorializing this child’s suicide because ass JJ said, Blacks don’t do gay well.
Homophobia is the last form of accepted and tolerated bigotry. It’s particularly terrible in the black community in the US and abroad.
This boy committed suicide for being teased for being gay. Several years ago, a student at Morehouse College was severely beaten within an inch of his life for the appearance of being gay. The student who viciously attacked him was sentenced to 10 years for the crime, but received more media coverage and community sympathy than the victim who WASN’T even gay.
Again, since homophobia is accepted and often veiled behind people’s religious extremism, things like this are only going to become more prevalent. In fact, hate crimes against all protected groups DECREASED accept in the case of Gays and Lesbians.
@wanda one of the articles I read indicates that the mother was a victim of domestic violence. I don’t know if that was the father or not, but that might explain the absence and also that this little boy did not have an easy life to begin with
“@wanda one of the articles I read indicates that the mother was a victim of domestic violence. I don’t know if that was the father or not, but that might explain the absence and also that this little boy did not have an easy life to begin with”
Thank you, Gina for the additional background.
My question is: where was this boy’s father?
His father lives in Maryland. He and the boys paternal grandfather were at the memorial service.
Now the boy was gay?
I thought the kid was teased for “acting gay”.
What gives?
Are we jumping to conclusions?
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=7328091&page=1
“There was no reason for the mother to believe he was gay,” said Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network spokesman Daryl Presgraves. “It just happens he was someone his peers targeted, calling him, ‘girlie,’ ‘gay’ and ‘fag.’ According to the mother, it was a daily occurrence.”
It doesn’t matter if he was gay or ‘acted gay’. Whatever/whomever pushed this kid to take his own life at 11 is sad and responsible.
There are too many people in this world that choose to have a baby and at the same time choose not to parent effectively and lovingly. Parenting is no joke. It requires sacrificing always; forgiveness; and the willingness to break any dysfunctional cycle that your own parents/family may have had.
I was Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover at about the same point in my life. I had it worse. At least he had a good home, good mother, and was involved in productive activities. I didn’t have that when I was with my biological mother. If my father hadn’t rescued me at age 11… I would have ended up in a gang, dead or in prison… NO QUESTION about that one. The culture was pushing me in that direction…. because learning wasn’t cool. I was considered a nerd.
This story is a reflection of how polluted Black culture has become. It is why I divorced myself from The “Black Community” and Black culture (in its modern form) almost 20 years ago… when I was in High School. I still had this problem after I got out of the “ghetto”…and started going to predominantly white schools when I was 12 and 13… because the Black cliches (the Black minority within the schools I attended) still gave me grief. But things DID get better once I got into those White schools…. I wonder why.
Gina:
it might be useful to contact the national headquarters of the National Urban League to ask them if they plan to take any action going forward to review the culture within this school
The culture within the school? This problem stems from the wider Black culture…. it’s way beyond the school level… most of these schools don’t stand a chance. You could round up the greatest educators in the World, provide the best facility in the World, provide every student with laptops, provide top of the line breakfast and lunch…provide the best textbooks and library….and you would still have the same madness. Why? Because the culture is sick.
As soon as you mentioned that this was run by the “Urban League” I knew it was a joke. There’s not much of a difference between many of these urban charter schools and the troubled standard public schools….not in terms of culture anyway. Calling it another name doesn’t change much… Many of these schools are like correctional institutions…dangerous for students like Carl and teachers alike.
These kids are under the almost complete control and influence of the Black Rap culture…and all it stands for.
Put suburban White kids in the same school environment that I described….and more often than not…. they thrive. Why is that? Looking at the culture, the household, the parents seems to be taboo. No one really wants to ask that question… especially Blacks. Because they may be afraid of the answer.
Cosby was trying to get folks to come to grips with this sickness a couple of years ago… but like all those who came before him bearing the message… he was laughed at, ridiculed, and he almost lost his “Black Card”.
Blacks will be dancing around these questions for the next 20, 30…50 years, dodging the core of the matter because they don’t really want to deal with it. Until there is a serious movement… a tectonic shift towards a new value system and a remaking of what “Black” or “Blackness” is (if those terms are necessary at all)….a collective move towards a different identity….just as some like myself have already done individually… then nothing will change.
As long as Blacks continue to allow their children to be raised by Beyonce, Jay Z, 50 Cent, R. Kelly, TI, Chris Brown, BET and the rest of the sewer sludge…. this will continue to be the result.
Monica,
Does it really matter whether the boy was gay or wasn’t? In either case he killed himself to escape the torment of being ridiculed and teased because he wasn’t “down” with those other hoodlums.
His mother took her concerns to the school and the school failed in its responsibility to protect her son.
“Blacks will be dancing around these questions for the next 20, 30…50 years, dodging the core of the matter because they don’t really want to deal with it. Until there is a serious movement… a tectonic shift towards a new value system and a remaking of what “Black” or “Blackness” is (if those terms are necessary at all)….a collective move towards a different identity….just as some like myself have already done individually… then nothing will change.”
I’m still waiting for that “moment of clarity” to come about. I fear it’s gonna take another couple of generations, and I hope by then that whites don’t decide to reestablish their “stewardship” over “unruly blacks”. However ridiculous that sounds, stranger things have happened.
@angry independent;
Your perspective is accurate I’m afraid. There are too many of us that just refuse to own up to the causes or to do anything about it either.
It’s always easier to ‘blame’ someone or something else. Too often too many of us are content with the way we are.
*sigh*
Oh goodness. I fear for my baby. She is one year old. I think about what it will be like in five years and I hate to say this but I have no interest in her attending a predominately black school, too much improper influence.
I worked as an elementary school teacher assistant for a number of years and it saddens me to see so many kids crying and hiding in the restrooms from their bullies. It’s amazing how the bullies came from gang infested, proverty stricken, multiple-sister brother having, low-class hot mess single mothers with a no good sometimes a boyfriend(not the kids father) family. The minute the kid would be suspended or receive a call home, here comes the mother hell raising at the principal about her child being wrongly accused and the principal would buckle at the knees allow the child back in the school; then it would be the same old act again. Eventually, it would take the mother moving from out the district due to loosing section 8, being evicted or unable to afford rent, before the child would be pulled from the school. I always wondered, 1) How come this mother hasn’t said to herself I’m tired of coming here and discipline the child(ren)? and 2) Why don’t the principal get the proper authorities(school police, social services) involve to aleviate the problem?
These are the same exact incidents that lead up the suicide death of Jaheem Herrera here in the Atlanta Metro area.
http://www.blackvoices.com/boards/entertainment/entertainmnt/entertainment/another-11-yr-old-commits-suicide/265111/1?utc=true
What really matters is a child is dead at the hands of other children. There seems to be quite a dysfunction with the Black collective overall and there is no one solution. Both of these cases occured approximately at the same time, but thousands of miles away and just like in Springfield, MA there is no march in Dekalb County GA.